Posts from — October 2005

“Learn to love, respect and enjoy other people.” — Dale Carnegie

In 1936, Dale Carnegie published “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” Since then, his book has sold more than 15 million copies and is widely credited as being the first book in the modern self-help genre.

The core of Carnegie’s simple philosophy is that one of the greatest human needs is to feel important. If you want to win people over to your way of thinking, they need to like you. And the way to get them to do that is to take an interest in them.  Read more...

There’s an interview with Jill Konrath over at Softwareceo.com where she shares some good advice on “How to leave compelling voice mails” — this is important if you need to reach the key decision makers in big companies. Remember, if you can’t reach the decision maker in the first place, you can’t get the sale.

I’ve included a few of the sales tips she provides in her interview below…

Voice mail tip #1: Don’t leave a standard, self-serving voice mail.

Voice mail tip #2: Make your first sentence short and sweet.  Read more...

Telephone canvassing, or cold calling, is the practice of sitting down with a long list of potential prospects you’ve never met and telephoning them, one at a time, to learn which of them needs what you sell and then arranging to sell it to them.

Believe me, nobody likes telephone cold calling. Salesmen don’t like it because they perceive that cold calls are to unfriendly, unkind strangers who would rather see you in a California kickboxing ring, going one-on-one with Governor Arnold, than see you in their offices. It’s true. They are. They would.  Read more...

The main reason for buyer resistance and selling stalls boils down to one simple fact: the reasons for not buying are bigger to the prospect than the reason to buy.

If you sell an intangible product or service, it may be even tougher to close down a sale because your product or service is not something people can see, touch, or feel. So the reasons for your prospects to buy have to be vivid, logical, and emotional. There has to be a reason for them to buy NOW, or they’ll put off making the decision until later.  Read more...

There are thousands of books and seminars on how to succeed. What many don’t make explicit is the requirement to be a great salesperson – even if you’re selling an idea!

Here are the ten simple but powerful rules that will guide you in all your selling decisions.

* Helping. Get into the mindset of respecting and helping the customer. The hard sell today does not work.

* Knowledge. Know your product/service, customer and industry inside out – be able to answer almost any question.  Read more...

Most sales training programs that teach salespeople how to sell specific products or services do not mention business problems. This is an unfortunate oversight, as qualifying and quantifying business problems is the secret to closing more sales!

What is a Business Problem?

A business problem is any activity or outcome that negatively impacts a business. Examples of negative impacts include reductions in revenue, profits, customer satisfaction, employee productivity, job satisfaction, etc.

Here is an example of a business problem description:  Read more...

When I ask salespeople to define what a gatekeeper is, I generally hear: “Someone who keeps out people who will waste the boss’s time.”

But gates are two-sided – they open as well as close: a gatekeeper’s job is actually to make sure the boss gets to spend his/her time efficiently.

I’ve probably gotten approximately $500,000 in business as a result of the word or deed of gatekeepers.

How have I done this? By remembering a few simple rules:

1. whoever answers the phone is my client;  Read more...

Former General Electric CEO and legendary manager, Jack Welch, nailed the problem recently when he said there’s just too much beating around the bush and indirectness in corporate communications. People are more interested in not hurting each others’ feelings than in improving productivity, and we simply need more frankness, says Welch.

In my own small way I’m trying to remedy this situation, especially when I deal with salespeople. For example, I put out a request for a proposal and about ten companies responded. Quickly, I boiled the list down to five, called the references of the three in which I had genuine interest, and then I selected the contract winner.  Read more...

Prospecting is the engine that propels anyone in sales. Without consistently initiating contact with prospective customers to talk with, your sales will plummet and everybody loses.

Studies confirm that 80% of all salespeople fail in their first year because of the fears associated with prospecting. 40% of veteran producers with more than five years — experience severe sales slumps due to fears associated with prospecting.  Read more...

Doing business over meals is a ritual that has existed for centuries. Taking clients to breakfast, lunch or dinner has long been an effective way to build relationships, make the sale or seal the deal. These business meals are essentially business meetings.

Knowledge of your product or your service is crucial to the success of the meeting, but so are your manners. Too many people jeopardize an opportunity because they fail to use good dining etiquette. Here are a few basic rules to make the experience pleasurable and profitable.  Read more...