What's sales have to do with operations? Everything if you want to sell more. Think about who you could invite to your next sales meeting. Are you thinking you should invite people from operations? That department might not be the one that comes to mind. You may be thinking, what would operations people have to contribute to a sales meeting? That’s not the point. Salespeople … [Read more...]
Prospecting and Are you afraid of Sales?- October 2014
-Monthly Selling Newsletter with Ideas to Sell More Now- October-2014 Selling Quote for the Month “Give ‘em what they never knew they wanted.” - Diana Vreeland, Former Vogue editor For Salespeople... Have you noticed that sometimes your prospects don’t know what they don’t know? You'll especially see that time when they don’t … [Read more...]
Value Selling Beats Price Every Day
If you sell on price you will lose business on price. Selling price is a bad way to sell. Instead, you should be selling on value. But, how do you do that? Here are the words to use when you sell based on value. And remember, one of the mistakes too many salespeople make is when they quote price early in their sales process. If that's you, you'll find that you're not very … [Read more...]
So what are you thankful for?
I'm getting ready to celebrate National Salesperson's Day on December 6. (You will be, too. Right?) More on that in December. Meanwhile, which of your customers are you saying thanks to? I'll bet that when you say thank you to a client you get back even more. I see too little appreciation being given in business. Maybe it's because some people don't know how to say thank … [Read more...]
Can Jack Welch help you sell?
Did you see the column in the Wall Street Journal that Jack Welch wrote to defend his famous GE forced ranking program? It’s also known as rank and yank. Welch makes a compelling argument for rank and yank. When executed successfully, employees know well in advance of a review how they are perceived in the organization. Welch consistently asks his audiences, “How many of … [Read more...]
What’s your pricing strategy when you sell?
It's always important to consider your pricing strategy when you sell. Recent research shows that in negotiations, higher first offers from sellers drive up sale prices—reversely, buyers benefit from lower first offers. You can increase that advantage by stating your offer as a precise, rather than a round number. Here's what they found. In an experiment involving customers … [Read more...]
Sales is common sense, but common sense sometimes isn’t common.
What would you think about standing too close to a customer to make him uncomfortable? You would never do that, right? It's just common sense that you don't make a customer uncomfortable if you have any hope of him buying again. Well, sometimes salespeople don't realize that what they're doing is wrong. Just imagine you worked with a salesman for several months. You arrive … [Read more...]
Are you selling or manipulating?
This is why salespeople get a bad name. In a recent study it turns out that when you make a superfluous apology (knowing you didn't cause the problem or it was beyond your control) it has the result of making others trust you. Here's where motives come into play. I have a problem if you are apologizing for inconveniences you know you didn't cause only because you want to get … [Read more...]
Want to be more persuasive?
One of the basic principles of persuasion and influence is that we tend to comply with people we like. Why? We trust people we like. You need trust to influence others. How does this apply to you? The next time you meet someone new at a business function, a Chamber of Commerce meeting, or other business function, do something that gets you to be liked. What would that be? Stop … [Read more...]
Did you forget about your most important customer?
I often marvel how salespeople spend so much time managing their customers. They will prioritize them by size, revenue, profits and all types of criteria to see where they should be spending their time and effort. Of course that's a good idea. What they're forgetting is that they have another very important customer. It's their manager. Even if you're on commission, your … [Read more...]