Category — Sales Strategies

Success means different things to different people. But let’s look at sales professionals. What would you say are the top 10 characteristics of successful sales professionals?

To a salesperson, it could be a major client acquisition, qualifying for an incentive, making a predetermined annual income or commission, being recognized at the annual sales conference as salesperson or team player of the year, or simply meeting quota and maintaining a job.

Each of us has different desires. The key is to determine what your desires are in sales and make it a goal to accomplish them. Success is the realization of a worthy goal or desire.  Read more...

I came across an interesting quote the other day from Mark Twain. At first, it seemed just humorous. As I began to ponder it though, I realized it was filled with depths of perspective for the world of selling. Mr. Twain said, “I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn’t know.”  Read more...

Let’s start with a little quiz. When it comes to rejection, are you the type of seller that…

A. Suffers through it, though unhappily
B. Deals with it well enough
C. Hates it, you’ve about had it
D. Never lets it “get” to you  Read more...

It’s well known that engineers are conservative, risk-averse, overly cautious and extremely rational. So what’s wrong with that? Unless you both don’t have the patience to communicate with each other. Yes, communicate.

If you are in a position of selling to engineering-intensive companies, or working with a sales engineer to close a sale, it’s imperative that you take the time to understand how to communicate with technical professionals. And it’s more than rattling off a bunch of techie-sounding sales spiel.  Read more...

There are only two ways to beat the competition; lower your price or increase the quality and quantity of service you provide to your customers. Customers who buy from you because of a low price are not loyal and will jump ship when your competition offers them a lower price.

One of the biggest reasons most salespeople fail to succeed is because they view customer service requests as unpaid, administrative burdens rather than golden opportunities. By going the extra mile, you will stand out from the crowd because most salespeople are unwilling to even go the first mile let alone the extra mile.  Read more...

I’m sure that many of you who speak, lead or teach don’t view yourself as being in sales. The truth is, however, we are all in sales. Whether its a product, a service, a vision, an idea, a strategy or ourselves that we are trying to promote, it is all sales. I think we would do better to embrace that principle and learn to sell effectively.
With that in mind – what are you selling?  Read more...

If you ask an extremely successful salesperson, “What makes you different from the average sales rep?” you will most likely get a less-than-accurate answer—if any answer at all. Frankly, the person may not even know the real answer because most successful salespeople are simply doing what comes naturally.

Over the past decade, I’ve worked to determine just what those differences are. I have interviewed thousands of top business-to-business salespeople who sell for some of the world’s leading companies. I’ve also administered personality tests to 1,000 of them. My goal was to measure their five main personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and negative emotionality) to better understand the characteristics that separate them their peers.  Read more...

How many sales dollars have you left on the table, chasing around decision makers and aligning their availability with that of a sales engineer from your organization? While this may be something you avoid like the plague, or only engage in when all else fails, don’t short change yourself of a great opportunity.

Be Proactive

Regardless of the corporate culture of your organization, if you sell solutions involving any type of technical interface, you are going to have to work with a sales engineer sometime during the sales process. My advice to you is to engage these resources early on in the sales cycle.  Read more...

I refuse to go down the path that you have heard a million times before: “Sales is a numbers game.” Okay I have to go down the path – but just a little!

Because it’s true that the more you get out and tell your story, the greater your chances to sell more. However, there is a deeper more psychological issue under lying all of this.

We all have been taught and trained over the years to do everything within our power to avoid failure, rejection, and having people say ‘no’ to us. We have been trained to operate in a world where ‘yes’ is the only acceptable answer and ‘no’ is well… not yes, that is for sure.  Read more...

Whether you are a selling professional or the head of a team of sales reps, if you want to consistently meet and exceed sales targets in your organization, there are fundamental business habits that you need to emulate every day. As a seasoned sales trainer and coach, I would like to share with you today one of those key habits, and show you how you can implement it right away in your work.

Get inside the head of your buyer…  Read more...