The Selling Newsletter
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The Selling Quote for the Month
“Ask yourself what isn’t, then ask yourself why not?”
Sam Wyly, billionaire Entrepreneur and Creator of University Computing, Sterling Software, Maverick Capital, Bonanza Steakhouse, Michaels Stores, and Green Mountain Energy
What a great attitude to have when you’re selling! Sometimes a customers shuts you down and doesn’t’ see a need for your product or service. You might hear, “I’m happy where I am.” You’ve got to think why not? What can you do to show him why he needs your products? Unless you find a reason, you have got nothing to sell. So ask yourself a few questions. What could be better at my customer when he uses my product? How can I help him avoid a cost, reduce a cost or increase his revenues when he buys my product? You are looking for a reason for your customer to buy. It’s your job to help your customers understand why not—Why aren’t you buying my product? When you get the reason, you will have what it takes to show your customer why he should buy.
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THE BLOG S AND OTHER COLUMNS
I’m now writing The Real Deal, a column on women’s successin business for Allbusiness.com
This is a recent column:
Wake Up and Do the Laundry
Where would you most likely be at 5.30 AM? Hopefully sleeping. Not United States scientist Carol Greider. She’s an early riser. So when the Nobel committee called her at 5.30 AM to tell her she won the Nobel Medicine Prize, she was in the middle of doing laundry. That’s what she told Swedish public radio when they interviewed her. She was in the middle of fixing her children’s breakfast when they called. Wow, I thought. Working women are still doing it all. Then I realized, maybe not.
I’m also a Sales Coach for Allbusiness.com
Here’s a recent column:
Are You Part of the Sales Prevention Department?
I often refer to the legal department as the sales prevention department. No offense to my legal friends! They might even agree with me. Attorneys are looking for all kinds of ways to reduce risk and make sure nothing unexpected happens during the purchase of a product or service. This takes time. As a result, I think they slow down sales and earn the title Sales Prevention department. Even if there were no attorneys, salespeople sometimes join the sales prevention department. What do they do? They forget one important point.
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Leave your comments and I would love to respond to you.
I’m now a guest columnist for the Dallas Business Journal. My column is called “Customer Connections.” I’ll be answering readers’ questions about selling. Do you have any selling questions? Send them to info@bestatselling.com
What’s sales tip has helped you be even more successful in sales?
Send your helpful tip to tip@bestatselling.com
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The Selling Ideas for this Month
Do More With Less
Your sales manager might have told you recently that you have to sell more. If your manager hasn’t said the words, you probably know that your manager is thinking them. Considering the job of the sales professional, unless there’s a product shortage, you’ll never be required to go out and sell less. Yet for some successful sales professionals selling less is a way to reach their goals. Are you thinking that this is something you want to do? You can.
Be picky for your customers. I was recently talking to a top industrial supplies sales professional about his business. Even in this economy, his business was doing well. He’s got hundreds of products that he can sell. That’s not why he’s doing well. Even with the extensive numbers of products that he could sell, he doesn’t sell them all. This salesman probably sells only 20 percent of the products in his catalogue. I asked him why. He said, “I don’t believe in all o f them. I know some are better than others and that’s what I recommend to my customers.”
He knows enough about his product line so that he can recommend the best performing products for his customers. Some products were more expensive than others. Some products could do more for his customers than other products. His knowledge and expertise was part of his selling process. That’s how he educated his customers so they would want to pay more for the products he recommends. He can’t afford to sell under performing products so he doesn’t choose them to sell.
Listen to how you sound. If you sell a product that you don’t believe in, how do you think you would sound? Think about those salespeople that push products on customers. It takes a lot of energy to be untrue to yourself as you suggest something to someone when you don’t believe the words you say. There’s even more reason to avoid pushing products that you don’t believe in. Think about how you would sound when you strongly believe in what you have to say and are excited about it. When we spoke about the products this sales professional sells, he said, “I get excited knowing that I’m making a great recommendation for my customer.” His excitement is good for sales.
Dr. Alex Pentland, is a professor at the MIT Media Lab. He researches how people use nonverbal communication and wrote Honest Signals. He conducted an experiment where he studied people who were pitching business plans in a competition. These were midcareer, successful business executives.
It didn’t matter who they were. You could estimate their success in scoring in the competition just by listening to their tone of voice. The ones who were more excited about their business plans got higher scores. The plan or the people were not important for the result. Do you see why shady salespeople are enthusiastic about what they have to sell?
Too much of a good thing. Could you imagine if you were a customer of this top industrial supplies salesman and had to listen to a list of possible products that included ten or more possible choices? That’s too much time and too hard to do. Research on choice says that too many choices make it harder, not easier for someone to make a selection. By limiting his customers’ choices, this sales professional was making it easier for his customers to buy.
Sure you want to sell more products or services. The architect, Ludwig Mies van der Roh, emphasized clarity and simplicity in architecture when he said, “Less is more.” It also can apply to sales.
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Action Items
1. Determine the products you truly believe in. Focus on finding more prospects for those products.
2. Which products do you not believe in? Avoid promoting them.
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My id is BestatSelling
See you there!
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Are You a Sales Star? Or Do You Know One?
Do you want to be recognized for your success in Sales?
AllBusiness and Top Sales Experts want to honor the top-performing salespeople who deliver results in today’s competitive market. You can help make that happen.
We need your nomination. A panel of top sales coaches and experts will select one salesperson each month from among the nominees. I’m one of the judges.)
Monthly winners will:
– Be recognized by their peers for their outstanding contributions
– Be profiled in a feature article for AllBusiness and its sister site, Hoover’s
– Receive free twelve month VIP membership at Top Sales Experts
– Receive a signed copy of a panelist’s book
– Be offered the opportunity to receive a free sales profile (Value $195)
One annual winner will receive a package of sales training and coaching programs (Value $3000), life VIP membership in Top Sales Experts, a selection of signed books from the panel, plus of course the AllBusiness Sales Star trophy.
Top salespeople inspire those around them and help drive company success.
Take this opportunity to recognize them for their leadership and contributions to the selling profession. Nominate a true sales star!
Every nominee will receive a FREE six month VIP Membership over at Top Sales Experts
PS: There is no deadline for entries each month; all nominations received are carried forward.
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Upcoming Programs
What: Power Persuasion: Unleash Your Influence Skills
When: November 19
8.30 AM- 11:30 AM
Where: TEXO-The Construction Association
11111 Stemmons Freeway, Dallas
For More Information: $249 non TEXO members
972-647-0697
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What: Master Selling Series
When: February 12, 19, 26 and March 5
11.30 AM- 1:30 PM
Where: Small Business Development Center
4800 West Park Blvd.
Plano, TX
For more information: 972-985-3749 or 972-985-3758
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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, [email protected] (https://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=19023096&msgid=
351897&act=2WU6&c=260909&admin=0&destination=http%3A%2F%2
Fwww.bestatselling.com%2F). Maura Works with business and sales professionals
who want to 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.commore »
Privacy: At [email protected] 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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Selling Tips
Get more selling tips from Maura’s ebook: 97 Ways to Sell
More Now E-Book
https://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=19023096&msgid=
351897&act=2WU6&c=260909&admin=0&destination=http%
3A%2F%2Fwww.bestatselling.com%2Fe-books.html%2520>
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Looking for new strategies to improve your persuasion skills?
This easy to apply Audio CD will give you many new ideas to
easily improve your persuasion skills so you can sell more
and close business faster.
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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.
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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:
PO Bob 795633
Dallas, TX 75379
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(c) Copyright 2009
Maura Schreier-Fleming. All rights reserved
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 clients include Fujitsu, Fannie Mae and Dr Pepper/7UP.
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. Her column Customer Connections appears in the Dallas, Houston and Austin Business Journals. Maura has an M.S. in Textile Engineering from Georgia Tech and was Mobil Oil’s first female lubrication engineer in the U.S.
You can contact her for seminars at company or trade association meetings at 972 380 0200 or info@BestatSelling.com
Privacy:
At [email protected] 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.