The Selling Newsletter
The Selling Newsletter
from Best@Selling
A free monthly newsletter of ideas to help make your selling easier.
Selling is the easiest job in the world…Just ask anyone who is NOT in sales! Best wishes for YOUR successful selling—Maura
This issue contains:
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The Selling Quote for the Month
Neil: “The meek may inherit the earth, but they don’t get in to Harvard.”
Neil, in Dead Poets Society
Neil was on to something. Being meek won’t work for Harvard and it won’t work as a sales strategy. What’s the alternative? Forget pushy and aggressive. That won’t work either. You might be surprised. I’m suggestingthat you can be more strategic. During the course of your selling, you’ll find that you do add value to your customers’ business. You may have reduced a cost, added revenue or saved them money through your sales work. Remember to ask for referrals when you do. You might also find your customers thanking you and asking if they can help you. Saying thanks and leaving it at that is more meekness. When you are offered help, always take it. How can you do that? Be clear about the prospects you want to meet and ask the customer offering help for introductions into the business you want. It’s faster and easier to get referred business. If you want to inherit the earth, be meek. If you want sales, be strategic.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Does your trade association or company have a meeting planned?
Have Maura speak on selling and business skills and strategies at your conference so you can sell more this year.
Recent programs were at:
Thomas Lighting
Washington Mutual
Lubricants Technologies
Meeting Professionals International
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The Selling Ideas for this Month
Choosing Customers or Money
When an entrepreneur makes a sales call to a potential investor, what results can be either the beginning of a company or sometimes the end of one. The goal for the meeting is to persuade the investor that an investment in the entrepreneur’s company is worth the risk. With the amount of money at stake and the meeting’s intended purpose, a successful entrepreneur has to sell with a focus and vision that gets results. Salespeople can learn to apply the entrepreneur’s methods to their sales strategies.
What’s your point? I’ve heard investors say that entrepreneurs should be able to write their concept on the back of a business card. That’s how clear they have to make the idea and how concisely they have to be able to communicate it. When asked about their business, successful entrepreneurs can say in 30 seconds, 2 minutes, or 5 minutes the essence of their business idea. Depending on how much time they have, they’re ready to pitch their idea. They have thoroughly thought through their product, process and business in advance. They are prepared for any presentation format. They can present their idea simply and clearly in various time frames and adapt to all of them.
When you present a new product, a complex idea or a technical product to a customer, have you clearly thought through how you are going to explain your concept to your customer? Would your customer quickly and clearly understand what you are presenting? You may talk to prospects on the telephone. You are doing well if your customers ask specific questions that relate to your product or idea after you have presented the concept. If they are asking for you to explain before they become engaged in the conversation, your message is unclear. You have more preparation to do.
Have you prepared a presentation that could be delivered in 1 minute, 5 minutes or 15 minutes? With busy and unexpected schedules your planned hour meeting can get cut short. If your selling message is part of the last 30 minutes, you’ve just lost your selling opportunity.
Are you using your customers? Entrepreneurs will tell you that customers are the best thing to happen for your business and money is the worst. This is because money doesn’t add value to your business. When customers use your products, they provide feedback on whether your product is as good as you think it is. As daily users of your products and services, they see things that you haven’t. They will also see your product or service from a perspective that is different than yours. They can recognize the need for new and different applications. Those applications could lead you to new and different customers.
Too often when salespeople find new customers, they are quickly off to look for the next new customer. Your customers are a source of value to you when they provide feedback about how they have used your product or service; how and whether it meets their needs; and what new products they are looking for. If you are moving on to the next new customer before you learn from your existing customer, you are missing the opportunity to extract value from your existing customers.
Entrepreneurs and other sales professionals face many of the same selling challenges. Entrepreneurs’ strategies help them achieve their business objectives. Selling like an entrepreneur could be the beginning of many new sources of business for you.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Action Items
1. Look at your sales process. What technical or complex idea do you need to communicate to customers? Decide on using a metaphor (compare two dissimilar things to each other. Ie Microsoft is the engine that drives business technology. )
2. Talk to a customer. Ask them how they’re using your product. Ask them what they think and what was unexpected. That information may help you sell to a new customer.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Selling Tip
From Maura’s ebook: 97 Ways to Sell More Now E-Book
https://www.bestatselling.com/selling_tools.htm#5
Selling Tips
From Maura’s ebook: 97 Ways to Sell More Now E-Book
https://www.bestatselling.com/selling_tools.htm#5
Tip 18. Before your next sales call, determine that the customer is a true prospect. They have to have a budget and be the decision maker.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Looking for new strategies to improve your persuasion skills? This easy to apply Audio CD will give you many new ideas to easily improve your persuasion skills so you can sell more and close business faster.
https://www.bestatselling.com/Audio_CD.htm
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
I’m always looking for success stories and other tips from sales professionals. Please feel free to email me at info@bestatselling.com with ideas that have worked for you.
If you want to build customer relationships for long-term business, you can easily do it using Exacttarget (www.exacttarget.com) and their CANSPAM compliant broadcast services.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
To Subscribe to the Selling Newsletter
Help us spread the word. Please forward this free newsletter to co-workers, friends and associates.
Subscriptions are free.
Click here to subscribe to the Selling Newsletter
or send an email with NEWSLETTER in the subject to:
info@bestatselling.com
To unsubscribe, scroll down to the bottom of the newsletter and you can click on the “Go here to leave this list– (and why would you want to do that!!! 🙂 )
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Need an Article for Your Newsletter?
Articles from this newsletter may be used in your free publications or posted on your web when given the following credit:
Written by Maura Schreier-Fleming, Best@Selling (www.BestatSelling.com). Maura works with business and sales professionals who want to sell more and be more productive at work. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results.
For free articles, selling ideas and morale boosters
visit https://www.BestatSelling.com
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
About Maura Schreier-Fleming
Invite Maura to speak at your next conference or sales meeting! Contact: info@bestatselling.com
Maura Schreier-Fleming works with business and sales professionals to make it easier to sell more and be more productive at work. Her Best@Selling clients want to create long-term client relationships. They include Fujitsu, Fannie Mae and Dr Pepper/7UP. She has an M.S. in Textile Engineering from Georgia Tech and was Mobil Oil’s first female lubrication engineer in the U.S. With over 20 years of sales experience, she teaches the art and science of selling with a unique hands-on perspective and a great deal of real-life insight. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results (a book filled with ideas to make selling easier and more productive. Her business column ‘Selling Strategies’ appears in the Insurance Record magazine and her column ‘Street Talk’ appears in Jobbers World. You can contact her for seminars at company or trade association meetings at 972 380 0200 or info@BestatSelling.com
Privacy: At Best@Selling we take privacy issues very seriously. Your information remains with us and will never be sold, shared, or distributed in any manner, for any reason.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Contact Information
1. Our Web site: https://www.BestatSelling.com
2. E-mail: info@bestatselling.com
3. Call: In Dallas 972 380 0200
4. Write us:
6757 Arapaho Rd., Suite 711-183
Dallas, TX 752448
————————————————————–
(c) Copyright 2006 Maura Schreier-Fleming. All rights reserved
[Back to top]