SALES QUOTE
“Do I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.”When Aeschines spoke,they said, ‘How well he speaks.’ But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, ‘Let us march against Philip.’”
–David Ogilvy
For Salespeople…
Are you having a good time selling? I hope you are because you love what you do. Too many salespeople think they’re doing a great job selling when they execute a sales strategy of “schmooze the customer.” That’s it. It’s idle chatter. The idle conversation that starts some sales calls isn’t selling. If your sales calls are long conversations about sports, hunting and fishing and then asking for the order, I wonder how many orders you could be getting. Unless people are acting on your selling, you are not selling. The gift of gab isn’t a gift in selling. That is unless your carefully thought out and executed sales strategies for your sales conversations are producing sales.
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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
What If?
Have you ever had a sale after which you wondered, “What if I had done something different?” Many salespeople do their thinking about “What if?” only after a sale. That’s too late. If you want to shorten your sales cycle and close more business, the time to ask yourself “What if?” is before the sale, not after. Here are some “what ifs” to consider.
What if a customer can’t make the meeting? Recently a client had a very important sales meeting planned with the three key decision makers for a large project. A few days before the meeting his client called to say that one of the decision makers would be unable to attend the meeting. He had been waiting for this meeting for months. Should he go ahead without one of the key players? Would postponing the meeting be better? I advised him to postpone the meeting.
If he had gone ahead with the meeting, he would have run the risk of having the two attendees do his selling to the third absent manager. It’s a rare customer who can do as good a job as you can selling your products and services. You risk being unable to uncover all the concerns of the group at one time, too. It takes more time to sell in two different meetings instead of one. Even with the delay, it’s a better choice to go with everyone in the room at once. They hear the same message. You get to see the dynamics of everyone together to uncover any hidden agendas or power plays. You sell for yourself.
What if I can’t answer the question? I had one client whose sales numbers were slumping. We discussed the number of sales calls he was making. During the discussion it surfaced that he was uncomfortable meeting with senior decision makers. Why? He was afraid of a CEO or other senior leader asking him a question that he was unable to answer. The idea paralyzed him and he stopped making sales calls on new prospects. I was astounded. Didn’t he know that business people today realize that there is so much information that it’s almost impossible for someone to know everything? Apparently not.
Senior leaders don’t expect you to know everything. What they do expect is a fast response to get the answer to their questions. That’s why today, who you know is as important as what you know. You will need to know a range of people to answer the questions you will get. So forget about becoming Mr. Spock. Instead, get to know others who know more than you.
What if I get a different response than I planned? Your next call is to a customer and you have to deliver a difficult message. It could be a price increase, a problem or other concern. You plan what you are going to say. How many customer responses could you get? What if your customer becomes angry? What if your customer leaves the room? There are several possible customer reactions. Are you prepared with a suitable response to all possibilities? I’ve seen customers launch into angry tirades and catch salespeople unprepared. The difficult situations are made more difficult when they are unexpected. If you have a strategy ready to implement, you will find that the tough situation is easier to resolve and you prevent it from getting worse.
You are probably developing your questioning strategy as you plan your sales calls. You’ve got questions for your customers. Why not prepare questions for you? You might want to ask yourself “What if?” before your next sales call.
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ACTION ITEMS
1. Review a recent sales call. What would you like to have occurred? Prepare for the next time.
2. What other “what if” situations should you consider now before they occur?
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Programs
You can check for current programs.
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If Facebook were a nation, it would be the third largest in the world. (500 million users after China 1.35 billion, India 1.21 billion, US 310 million)
Source United Nations, US Census Bureau, Facebook
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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.