"Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.”
Albert Einstein
For Salespeople…
I remember a guy I worked with who prided himself on his 20 calls a day. I did a simple calculation and figured out his “calls” could only be meaningless, brief “How are you doing?” activities. I couldn’t even call them sales calls because he wasn’t really selling anything during his time with a prospect. What about your sales calls? Are they moving your sales process forward? That’s something that’s worth measuring. Do you set objectives (both minimum and maximum) for each sales call? How many of those do you achieve? That’s worth noting. The most important number to check is to see if you’re on track to reach your sales objectives. You’ve got time to refocus if you’re off track now. Unless you figure out what counts in your business and work with that data, you will find yourself at the end of the year counting things that don’t count.
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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
Little Things Mean a Lot
It’s often said that the little things mean so much. They sure do in selling. Here are some of the little things that I think of that have certainly helped me close more business.
Come in and sit down. Where do you choose to sit? There are all kinds of implications for your selling based on your choice of where you sit. If you do have an option, the worst choice is opposite your customer when he’s sitting at his desk. That’s his power position and you are automatically in a subordinate role. The desk is a barrier between you and him. That decreases communication. If you want to be perceived on an equal level, being in a subordinate role is a disadvantage.
A round table, if it’s available, is a good choice as it removes the power position and avoids putting you in a subordinate role. Try to sidle. Sidling is when people sit or stand side-by-side. When you sit on the same side of a conference table, you are sidling. That results in increased agreement, people will like you more and they will remember their conversations more. That’s all good for selling.
Make it clear. When I’m talking with customers, I’m always conscious of speaking in the positive. I avoid using negatives. You may have noticed that I could have said, “Don’t speak in negatives.” That would have been a negative if I had! Negatives are harder for the listener to understand. When you use negatives you make the listener work harder and you increase misunderstanding. The words “selling is not hard” means the same as “selling is easy.” Yet to process “selling is not hard” the listener would first have to understand what “selling is hard” means and then take a second processing step to say “it’s not that.” You’ve made the listener work and that’s a bad idea for selling. Keep your communication simple and clear and you make it easier for the buyer to buy. Why? He understands what you say.
Continue the conversation. This should be a no-brainer, but since many people don’t do it I have to mention it. The next time you need to return a customer’s phone call, do a little preparation. What is the reason for you calling? Why is that reason important to your customer? When you have to follow up with a customer, have those reasons ready to start the conversation. Especially, if the customer is not answering his phone, you’ll give him a compelling reason to return your phone call. He certainly isn’t standing by his phone remembering all the previous conversations he’s had with you. By refreshing his memory, there’s a great likelihood that he’ll return your call. Also let him know when you can be reached so you avoid playing phone tag. That way you increase the prospects of actually talking with your customer and getting the information you need to sell and move your process forward.
Picking your seat and leaving a message may seem like little things, too. When they both contribute to more successful selling, those little things in sales really do mean a lot.
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ACTION ITEMS
1. Review your seating options at your next sales call.
2. Focus on speaking in the positive instead of the negative.
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DID YOU KNOW?
A small business is defined broadly — as a company with 500 or fewer employees, but it varies by industry. There are 28 million small businesses in the U.S. — which outnumber corporations 1162 to 1. 70% of small businesses are owned and operated by a single person.Small businesses pay 44% of U.S. payroll. 60 to 80% of all new jobs come from small businesses.
Source: Business Insider
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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.