Posts from — March 2008

Sales professionals are very similar to athletes; they love the thrill of victory and abhor the agony of defeat. Sales professionals try their best to thwart competitive threats so that they service their customers well and meet revenue expectations.

However, there are numerous sales professionals representing hundreds of thousands of companies. And there are millions of home based businesses-they too sell products to clients. Many of theseprofessionals and just as many are not. What is it then that separates the successful representative or business owner from the rest of the field?  Read more...

A recent report from CSO Insights denotes that sales quotas are off by a bewildering 60%. Further, sales closing accuracy is down and more importantly closing times are increasing.

I was recently asked if a return to cold calling and perhaps direct mail might reverse these trends, emphatically I stated no. The rationale is simple, clients and even potential clients desire to conduct business with those that they know and those they trust.  Read more...

How to Win Agreement and Influence Decisions without losing friendships!

Everything in life is a compromise; everything in life is a negotiation. We all seem stifled by the word and implications that surround negotiating. Yet what most of us do not realize is that we have been negotiating since we were born.

From the time we wanted a bottle or refused napping our education in negotiation began. In fact, research for this article illustrates that 43% of the American workforce changed jobs since 2006. And, the divorce rate in the United States hovers at over 53%.  Read more...

There are well-defined moments in the sales process when you absolutely must ask for the order. You can’t afford to have these precious moments slip through your fingers but unfortunately, that’s exactly what happens to too many salespeople.

I have some advice that will protect you from becoming one of those salespeople. The key is to make closing automatic and you do that by knowing exactly when you must ask for an order.

“Always Be Closing”  Read more...

When people think about making a purchase, they aren’t likely to compare talking with you to going to the doctor, but you should make that comparison when preparing to talk with clients. People trust doctors. They usually accept the diagnosis and prescription for wellness with few questions asked. That’s because they recognize doctors as experts in their fields.

Your goal is to have your clients see you the same way. When they have an ache or pain related to your type of product, they should immediately think of calling you. That’s because they’ll be confident you have the right prescription for their ills.  Read more...

One of the fastest ways to build rapport and trust is to prove, in concrete terms, that you are looking out for the client’s best interest. Zig Ziglar said that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care about them.

One tried and true strategy that I use to prove to a client that I care is something I call “Reversing Field”. In football, when a player carrying the football reverses field, he goes the opposite way to avoid getting tackled by the defense.  Read more...