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
JUNE 05 Selling Newsletter from https://cl.exct.net/?ffcc17-fe5a1673776c06787d13-fe26157070620c78711d73
This issue contains:
>The Selling Quote for the Month
>Upcoming Programs
>The Selling Ideas for the Month
>Action Items
>Selling Tips
>Something to Report/What would you recommend?
>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
“I never worry about what I will do if I win a battle, but I always know exactly what I will do if I lose one.” Napoleon
So many new sales professionals and experienced sales professionals think selling is easy. The great ones make it look easy, but they’ll never say selling is easy. Why? Because to be successful in sales they have to do a lot of planning. That anticipation of what could go wrong in a sales call is part of their planning. What could go wrong? What if you think you’ve identified the perfect customer need and then you find out you’re wrong? What then? If you’ve planned for another question, you’re ready and you can move on. What if you have a 30 minute appointment and your customer has to rush off to an unexpected meeting in 15 minutes? If you’ve planned a shorter presentation, you’re OK. What if you sent information for your customer to review and there wasn’t the time to do it? If you’re ready with a quick summary, no problem. Most salespeople prepare for a sales call thinking that everything will go right. Instead, next sales call, why not plan for ! it going well-and it going quite differently than you expect. Napoleon would have.
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Upcoming Programs
When: June 16
Where: Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center, Grapevine (Dallas)
What: Oracle Applications Users Group National Meeting: Connection Point 2005
Program: Serious Creativity: New Ideas for Project Management Success
For more information: https://cl.exct.net/?ffcc17-fe601673776c06787c14-fe26157070620c78711d73
When: June 30
5:30 PM- 8:00PM
Where: Brookhaven Country Club
Dallas, Texas
What: Association of Career Professionals International
Program: The Secrets of Persuasion
For More Information: https://cl.exct.net/?ffcc17-fe5f1673776c06787c15-fe26157070620c78711d73
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The Selling Ideas for this Month
Carry Your Keys On Your Pinkie
Did you know that UPS drivers carry their vehicle keys on their pinkie fingers when making deliveries? Their industrial engineers determined it is more efficient that way. It saves the driver from having to search his pockets for keys when returning to his vehicle. They also determined on average how many steps it should take a driver to get from the truck to the front door. (And you thought selling was complex…) This level of detail helps UPS be more productive. We can apply the same principle to selling.
Your office. What do you save and how do you save it? I once took over a territory and the files were older than I was. There was no sense in my predecessor saving invoices that were 25 years old. You need to clean out your files at least annually. Don’t just say you’ll do it. Schedule it on your calendar. It is part of the sales process. When you clean the files out, even consider a paperless office if you have a scanner and a good back up system.
When you are working, the files that you use most often should be located closest to you. You shouldn’t have to get up and down to do your work. If you find yourself searching through many files for information, your system needs improvement. Either you are filing the information in the wrong file, or your file headings need some changes. If you find information quickly, your headings are working for you. If your files are growing to unwieldy proportions, the headings are not. Consider computer files part of this area, too. For those whose offices don’t work for them, do something about it now.
The process. Maybe you don’t know how many steps it is on average to your customer’s door, but do you know how many unnecessary steps you take in your selling process? Act or Goldmine or a similar database manager helps you save time. Your information is easily retrievable when you are looking for it. A database manager also helps you generate customer letters or other routine documents more easily than doing them manually. What are the documents you generate consistently? Do you have templates for them? If not, take the time to create them. Then identify what tasks you are repeating. Consider what you type over and over. If you’re using Microsoft Word, use the auto correct function to generate many words of text with just a few key strokes. This simplifies your process.
The sales call. Do you bring your lap top with you to make sales calls? If so, you can take notes and avoid entering them later into your computer. You also have access to your critical data. If a customer asks a question, you can produce the answer immediately instead of later. Besides, if you carry your computer, you might find that you actually do use it. The quality of your customer information will improve and your organization will impress your customer.
There’s already too much to do and too little time to do it when we’re talking about successful selling. You are the only one who can take responsibility for simplifying the sales process. If you keep tripping over the same obstacle in the sales process, you are only wasting your own time. When UPS looks at the details it allows them to deliver 12 million packages a day. When you look at the details, you’ll also be able to deliver more. It may be handling more sales, not boxes.
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Action Items
1. When was the last time you cleaned out your desk files? Put the task on your calendar so you make the time to do it.
2. Think of the customer correspondence you write.What is repeated again and again? Make the template in Word, or a database progr! am. Think about introduction letters, proposals, invoices and other repeated items.
3. Instead of mailing information to a customer, what can you bring to the sales call? If you don’t want to carry, what paper, what can be loaded on your laptop to make your selling more efficient? Think how many additional steps it is to mail or email information to a customer. Whatever you can do at the sales call saves you time in your office after the sales call.
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Selling Tip
From Maura’s ebook: 97 Ways to Sell More Now E-Book
Tip #96. Get paid.
Identify the customers you don’t want. Buy and use a CD by INFO USA called Power Business. The CD lists every business in the United States that is in the Yellow Pages. The CD contains customer information like phone, fax, sales range and how long they’ve been in business. 95% of all business failures occur in less than 5 years. Longevity is a good predictor that a company will pay their bills. Also, if the company is larger it is more likely that you’ll get paid. This month ask your best customers if they’re buying everything they can from you. How?
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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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