The Selling Newsletter
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The Selling Quote for the Month
“If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I just got a call from the Dallas Mavericks. No, I’m not their next superstar draft pick. Perhaps I could be their next biggest fan. There’s only one problem. I’m not interested in sports. I would pay someone NOT to go to a basket ball game. Here’s how the sales call started. “Do you want to buy some tickets for the Dallas Mavericks?” the caller said. I responded, “I’m probably the last person in Dallas who would consider buying tickets to a game.”The caller forgot that he’s not selling basketball tickets. He’s selling fun, customer entertainment, bonding with customers, or any other experience that a business professional wants. Saint-Exupery got it right. You need to tap into people’s emotions to get them motivated to do something. In sales, you better not be selling the tangible. Instead, how do your products and services make your customers feel? That’s what you’re selling.
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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
Here’s a recent column:
You Can Bring Joy To Others At Work
It’s been a rough couple of weeks. My father is very ill and my mother is suffering from caregiver’s syndrome. It’s hard for me to see my mom, the original "Florida Hurricane," starting to slow down because she can’t move like she used to. My work has become a welcome distraction for my feelings. Work can be a great place to make you feel better. I remembered some of the great bosses I’ve worked for and worked with. You want to bring joy to other people at work? Here’s what you can do.
I’m also a Sales Coach for Allbusiness.com
Here’s a recent column:
"To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first. And, whatever you hit, call it the target."
-Ashleigh Brilliant
If only this would work for selling! What usually happens when you go to a sales call without doing much planning?
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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
Decisions Decisions
Who are the easiest customers to target? Should you raise prices? Is your proposal ready to present? You make many decisions as you move through the sales process. Sometimes making decisions is difficult. It doesn’t have to be. You can make it easier.
Get Ready Who says that decision making has to be a solitary effort with no input from others? From price increases to a down economy, your situation has probably been experienced by someone else in sales and business. Now is the time to question other professionals on what they did when they found themselves in your situation. The objective as you listen to the opinions of others is to hear as many different points of view as possible. That’s because it’s important for you to have many options. Then you can select and apply the best option for your situation. The philosopher Emile Chartier once said, “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have.” Just as you don’t want to be immobilized by having no options for your problem, you don’t want to have just one option either when you are making your business decisions.
To gather many answers, you’ll have to contact many people. That is why it’s so important to keep in contact with key people throughout your career. You don’t want to show up only when you need help. Make sure your sales process includes maintaining regular contact with those people who at some point you would like to ask for their input.What you are doing is tapping into the expertise of others you respect. Their experience will help you make your decisions. If you’ve kept in touch, when you need their input, people will remember you and be happy to offer their help.
Go!Making the decision is the difficult part for some people. They don’t know when to stop gathering information. Part of their hesitancy in making the decision is that they are risk averse and want more data. Others just don’t know when they have enough information to act. How do you know when you have enough data?
Colin Powell says you have enough information to make a decision when you have 80% of it. How do you know when you have 80%?There’s a simple process that will help you gather the right amount of data. Before you have to make a decision, ask yourself what 10 things you need to know. Write them down. Once you have 8 of them, you are ready to do something.If you are risk averse, it should give you some comfort that Colin Powell makes decisions with 80% of what he needs to know.
Go with your gut. You’ve gathered the information yourself or from others. You’ve made the decision. Now do a gut check. How do you feel about your decision? If it “feels” right then you’re ready. You may find that your luck improves, too. There’s research that says that lucky people listen to their gut. Professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire in England has been conducting research since 1994 on what makes people lucky.After conducting thousands of interviews and hundreds of experiments, he has identified four principles that you can follow to be luckier. The first principle is to listen to your gut.
Decision making will always be part of selling.You have to get comfortable making decisions regularly. Your next decision is to decide how you want to make your decisions for selling.
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Action Items
1. Make 5 calls this week to catch up with contacts you have made in the past.
2. Pay attention to your gut reactions. How often are you right?
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Programs
When: September 18, and 25
11.30 AM- 1:30 PM
Where: Small Business Development Center
4800 West Park Blvd.
Plano, TX
What: Master Selling Series
Skills and strategies to close more business. Includes:
-Persuasion skills to shorten your sales cycle
-Consultative Questioning strategies to guide your customers to understand why they should buy now
-Hearing what your customers mean so you can be sure they understand your selling message
-Selling strategies to find your best customers and those easiest to sell to
For more information: 972-985-3749 or
972-985-3758
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Follow Me on Twitter
My id is BestatSelling
See you there!
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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:Do you need ideas for sales meeting? Are you looking for weekly motivation to sell more?
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.
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, Best@Selling (https://www.bestatselling.com/). 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 »
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
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