SALES QUOTE
“Procrastination isn’t the problem. It’s the solution. It’s the universe’s way of saying stop, slow down, you move too fast.”
………………………- Ellen DeGeneres
For Salespeople…
You do know that she’s kidding, right? She’s a comedian after all. As the year begins, why not get serious about avoiding procrastination? For many salespeople the idea of cold calling is difficult. For others, writing proposals shuts them down. Whatever your challenge is, you just might find that you procrastinate. That only makes things worse. The work hangs over your head and makes you distracted and upset. It takes a lot of energy to procrastinate. That energy could be better spent working on your task. Don’t you find that when you finally get moving that it wasn’t as bad as you thought? I do. But, it’s not so easy to get going when you fear something. If you need better skills to get the job done, why not get the skills you need this year? If you’re delaying and making the task worse, why not pick one small step and do it. Often that’s just enough to get moving. Procrastination isn’t the solution. It’s a signal that something’s not right and you need to recognize what that is. Once you identify it you can address it. That’s the only way you can get what you need done this year so you can have a great selling year.
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THE BLOG S AND OTHER COLUMNS
I’m now writing The Real Deal, a column on women in business for Allbusiness.com Hope you’ll read more ideas so you can achieve your success in business.
You can get RSS feed for the blog.
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THE SELLING IDEAS FOR THE MONTH
Let Einstein’s Theory Of Selling Make This Year Your Best
Did you know that Albert Einstein had a theory on selling? He said, “Doing things the same way you always have and expecting the results to be different is insanity.” He may not have realized it at the time, but what better theory to apply to selling? Selling is complex and challenging. You may think that doing what you’ve always done is a strategy for success. As your new year unfolds, what are you planning to do? Is it more insanity or getting different results?
Doing it. What do you want to do differently? Sometimes when you’re busy doing your job you lose sight of where your challenges are. What has stressed you? Think about all the times you thought last year “if only I could do X,” “if only I knew more about Y,” or “there’s got to be a better way to do this.” Maybe it was putting a bid proposal together, addressing the time inefficiencies of business travel, or improving your use of technology. Remember those thoughts and make a plan to incorporate them as goals for this year. Write your goals down, set a due date and quantify how you will achieve them.
For some people, it’s hard to be creative and come up with new ideas for change. Get others to help you achieve your goals. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are enough salespeople, books and internet sites that can be ready sources of guidance. Expect that it may take time to see results. Just remember, if you’re going to be complaining to yourself this year about something you faced last year, you’re contradicting Einstein’s Theory of Selling.
Showing it. You can plan to do things differently for your customers as well. How do you show your customers you appreciate them? Lunches are fine, but everyone does them. What else could you do that sets you apart that also builds rapport with your customers? When you read the newspaper and other journals, are you looking for articles that are of particular interest to select clients? What business book (or other book) could you recommend and send to your customer to enhance his job performance? Each time you send information that helps your customers, you are also saying you care about them and their business.
What about your customers’ expectations? Your past actions certainly set your customers’ expectations for your performance. You also know the results you have gotten from your actions. If these results are what you want, keep doing more of the same. If they’re not, Albert would say to do something different.
You can make this year a better one. You can choose what you do in your selling. You can set your own expectations for results. Then later this year when you examine your results, remember that selling is all relative. It’s relative to your choices and your expectations. Even Einstein would agree.
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ACTION ITEMS
1. What’s not working for you? Be honest and make a list.
2. Select just one item to begin working on. If you take on too many things at once you run the risk of accomplishing nothing.
3. Identify a few small steps you can take to slowly make changes in behavior.
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Programs
You can check for current programs.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: DID YOU KNOW?
Spokeo.com can be a great prospecting tool. But, it also shows a lot of personal information about you. If your sales are to residential prospects, see what you can learn about them before your sales call. See what it says about you,too. Put your name in and see what information is out in cyberspace for anyone to see. You can have your name removed by clicking on the privacy tab on the bottom.
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A GREAT SELLLING TIP
A great website to help sales professionals especially so they can travel light is:
https://www.onebag.com/
You’ll learn new strategies to pack light so you can focus on your business and not be distracted from a poorly planned trip.
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Here are some selling tools to help you sell more now. Click on the photo to find out more!
Monday Morning Sales Tips : A book that has quick ideas for you to be more successful in sales. Real-World Selling: A book with selling skills and strategies that work in the real world of sales. Secrets of Persuasion: Audio CD for the clues to use to speed-read people and close more business.