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
Upcoming Programs
The Selling Ideas for the Month
Action Items
Selling Tips
To Subscribe to the Selling Newsletter
Need an article for your newsletter?
About Maura Schreier-Fleming
Contact Information
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The Selling Quote for the Month
“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.” – Voltaire
I see it more and more. Sales professionals are reluctant to make sales calls-especially cold calls. Why? They are afraid of looking foolish or failing. The reality is that they will probably fail because they don’t plan their sales call. The irony is that the same planning that will ensure their success will eliminate the reluctance they’re feeling about sales calls. If you’re concerned about your call reluctance, here’s the planning you can do to ensure your success:
Before the sales call, determine what open ended (cannot be answered by yes or no or just a few words) question can I ask my customer to start the sales call?
What is my call objective? (The objective is what you will leave this phone call or sales call with that you don’t have now.) Maybe it’s to get a referral if you don’t find a match with this particular customer’s needs.
What qualifying questions will I ask to make sure I am talking to a decision maker , moving the sales process forward and not wasting my time? A great question is “Who along with you makes the decision to buy?” The assumption that the person works with
others prevents them from being embarrassed that they are not the lone decision maker.
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Upcoming Programs
When : July 22 11.30 AM- 1:30 PM
Where: Small Business Development Center
4800 West Park Blvd.
Plano, TX
What: Mentoring and Coaching
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When : July 29
11.30 AM- 1:30 PM
Where: Small Business Development Center
4800 West Park Blvd.
Plano, TX
What: Negotiating: Getting Others to Want What you Want
For more information: 972-985-3749
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The Selling Ideas for this Month
Sleeping Better At Night
Wouldn’t it be great if we could be sending positive selling messages even when we weren’t in front of our customers? If only we could make our customers feel that we are the only salespeople to meet their requirements… If you do what every one else does, you can expect what they get, too. Here’s how you can do things differently to get the results you want.
Look who’s talking. If others counteract everything we do, we have made little progress. Ever wonder who in your company is talking to your customer? Are they all sending the same message? Is it the message you want your customer to hear? If there are other departments who have reason to communicate with your customer, how is their message perceived? I’ve found out that some departments bring an “attitude” with them and my customer is offended by it. Because I asked who is talking with my customer, I learned about the negative perception. Find out who is talking with your customer. You may be surprised.
Think about your selling. Selling takes a lot of physical energy. We need to be thinking more. If you are planning to keep your business for a considerable length of time (and who isn’t?), do you ask yourself the “what if” questions? Some of these questions are:
1) What if the decision maker left the company or changed positions? How secure would my business be?
2) What if something did go wrong with this order? What could I do for backup? What are the things that could go wrong so I can anticipate and prevent them?
3) What if my competition comes in with a great proposal? What can I do to counteract its effects? If I’ve earned my business, what more can I do to continue keeping competition out?
Why did they pick you to begin with? Never forget your roots. All of our customers buy for a reason. When we remember what got us the business, we can continue to focus on doing what keeps our customers satisfied. This means we need to understand the product of our product. The product of our product is what our product does for our customer. What our product does for our customer is what our customer is buying. Even though we are selling the same products as our competitors, our customers are buying for different, specific reasons. Customers could be buying increased productivity when they buy oil from one supplier. They could be buying faster service from another oil supplier. They could be buying less hassle with reduced paperwork from still another oil supplier.
Some salespeople never learn why their customers picked them to be their supplier. These salespeople think they know the reason. Their assumption is a dangerous, false sense of security. The only valid information is what comes directly from the customer in the position of authority. Second hand information doesn’t count. If the person telling you isn’t the decision maker, his bias becomes a factor. You need the exact perspective of the decision maker, not an interpretation.
It’s always a good idea to look at your business differently. Do something about your business during the day and you’ll sleep better at night.
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Action Items
1. Call or meet with someone in another department who is critical to your business. Ask them how you can help them with their job. Hopefully, they will ask you about yours. If they don’t ask you, suggest ways that they can work more effectively with you.
2. Look at your most important accounts. Do you have many points of contact there? If not, make a point of asking for introductions to key people and discussing with them the work you are doing for them.
3. Ask your customer how you’re doing and if there’s anything else you can be doing to make their work easier. You may be surprised at what you hear and also how easy it is to oblige.
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Selling Tip
From Maura’s ebook: 97 Ways to Sell More Now E-Book
https://www.bestatselling.com/selling_tools.htm#5
Tip 5. Clearly define your ideal prospect. This is the customer by location, size, revenue, age, job title, growth stage or whatever characteristic you’ve identified. The more you know about who you are looking for, the less time you will waste on clients that do not match who you want to sell to.
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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.
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Something to Report /What would you recommend?
What do you do that makes you successful? What advice would you give another salesperson? Send me your tip and I’ll share it with everyone who responds.
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. To thank you, you’ll receive a free subscription to The Selling E-Letter™, a bi-monthly selling newsletter. ($50 value).
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.
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To Subscribe to the Selling Newsletter
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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, president of Best@Selling . ( www.BestatSelling.com ). Maura works with business and sales professionals so they can 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
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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.
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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
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(c) Copyright 2005 Maura Schreier-Fleming. All rights reserved
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