Blog articles designed to strengthen your sales attitude to maintain high levels of production.
Are you protecting your sales team from failure or disappointment so they won't get discouraged or quit? If so, you are not doing them any favors. Listen in to understand how failure can be the perfect success strategy your team needs. In other…
Between setting goals and attaining them lives a mindset that will increase or decrease your chances of meeting and exceeding goals. If you learn how to manage this one thing your winning percentage on set goals will increase. It's time to…
As a sales leader we make decisions on how to respond, act and behave based on what we see or perceive in our team. We use logic and emotions to drive our behavior. If we are not aware of which…
Change is Inevitable, Simple, But Not Easy. For salespeople, to change is no different for us than anyone else. It’s hard. Really hard. And it is especially hard when you don’t want to change. You’ve heard the phrase “change agent”. …
Sales Meetings can rock with the right rhythm and when you know the beat, melody, and lyrics to a song, it's fun and enjoyable to participate and sing along. The same goes for sales meetings. Salespeople will provide productive input,…
Motivating others comes easy for some and can be more challenging for others. But there are moments we can provide an Eternal Motivator, but only if we act on......watch the video for the rest of the story. https://youtu.be/RTFBDAu_uuY What can…
In this Sales Leadership Quick Tip video, I want to share the difference of being 'responsible to' your sales team and being 'responsible for' your sales team. Both scenarios have a distinct impact on how we manage our teams. https://youtu.be/Uqaqi1j2Mpk…
In this Sales Leadership Quick Tip Video I share with you the 5 coaching tips I use to coach and strengthen a sales team. For me, coaching is about developing lasting change within the person I am coaching. Consequently we…
Guessing about others' attitudes, motivations, or mindset is a waste of time. Listen how to remove guessing, false confidence, or doubts about your sales team. https://youtu.be/3xPdN7IWLrc It's the same thing you should be telling your salespeople in a sales conversation…
I want to share with you 3 keys to improve and increase the trust level you have with your sales team by focusing on and understanding when to use each of these areas and how they have the greatest impact…
I recently read a blog post, The Peculiar Idol of Personal Opinion. Why do I bring this up on this blog that focuses on sales and business? Fair question. Since I read that post, a lot has crossed my mind…
When a sales team is failing or results are inconsistent it’s easy for a sales leader’s responsibilities to be neglected and for the leader to fall into a trap of becoming responsible for the sales team. Another way to look at this situation is to become…
How often do we hear the words “take action”? We read it in motivational books and we hear it in seminars. The reality is, we too often don’t “take action” or at least not seriously and purposefully and especially not…
Increasing sales is what most of our clients want when they call us, but what goes unsaid is they hope we can change disliked sales behaviors that are difficult to manage. As a matter of fact, most owners usually have…
Just about everyone is familiar with this simple fire safety technique. Most of us learned it in elementary school, but they never told us back then it might help us win or keep a customer one day. Fires create panic…
Having the trust of people in our lives (work or personal) lays the foundation for those relationships to have and accomplish mutually beneficial things. That’s why you’ll find a myriad of blogs and articles written on this topic. But do…
Have you ever asked that question of yourself as a salesperson or as a sales manager? Have you heard that negative voice inside and felt a little self-doubt when you were with a customer (or client)? I’m sure all of…
While recently leading a webinar I mentioned how creativity, which I consider one of many selling strengths, can work against me. Being creative helps me solve client problems and present ideas in ways that help others understand. Creating is also something that…
The competitive nature of selling can be a double-edged sword. On one side competition can turn up ones motivation and on the other side it can distract you from being your best. The chase becomes more important than what needs…
Do potential client/customers trust you? Of course they do, right? How do you really know? Most of us base this answer on a gut feeling more than on factual information derived through meaningful selling conversations. The best indicator of trust according to Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig, authors of Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play is the “flow of meaningful information” between a buyer and a seller. This of course begs the question, “What is flow of meaningful information?” Let’s take a look at that question as well as eleven behaviors you can practice to build trust.
I’m thoroughly enjoying the book, Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play by Mahan Kalso and Randy Illig. The authors not only provide an easy to implement methodology but they address what we as sales people need to do to get and keep things real. So what is getting real? At the core of “getting real,” is honesty. This includes honest communication between a seller and a buyer during selling conversations as well as being honest with our self. Honest communication is not only about what we say, it also includes what we’re not saying. When our intentions are in service of our buyers and we are transparent and honest in our communication, we make room for the buyer to be completely honest with us. The four-letter word that prevents us from reaching this honest place during selling conversations or managing people is FEAR.
In my personal selling experience as well as watching others sell, I’ve come to appreciate selling conversations that are enjoyable. They’re not a struggle or stressful. There’s no guessing or worrying involved. They’re simply a series of conversations that are enjoyable. We keep the conversations enjoyable by staying in the present. When you focus on the end (the order) during a sales conversation you can easily remove yourself from being present. Of course “the order” is a point of reference and a job priority, but it’s important to keep it in the proper perspective. The order will take place at the proper time if your buyer chooses to purchase with you. Before that happens staying present in your selling conversations will keep the process enjoyable and profitable.
When you are at the check out at most big box stores you can expect to be asked, “Are you a rewards member?” The rewards are designed to encourage us to buy at the store more frequently. Loyalty is being developed toward the reward but not to the company or people working there. I wonder if this was intentional or simply an evolution? What about you? What type of loyalties are you building around you?
How patient should you be in a sales process? I’d say as patient as you need to be as long as the process is continuing. Am I saying you should just let the buyer lead the sales process? No. At the same time that you’re being patient, you also need to be urgent. It’s what I call the delicate balance of patience and urgency.
If you have managed to maintain your sales volume and customer base during the past 14 months, I say well done! If business has been down or you feel like you have taken a beating during a weak economy, make sure you have not weakened your approach to opportunities. Continue selling strong by sticking to your fundamentals.
Have you walked into a selling situation where the prospects seem completely sold on another vendor or approach and shows little interest in hearing about your solution? Sometimes it might feel as if they are defending their preference as a protection from hearing something new. Let’s say they like apples and you are selling mangos. Apples might be a good solution for them, but the mangos you represent are better. How can you help your prospect disconnect from their love of apples and be open and begin to focus on mangos?
Business relationships are no different than personal relationships. Things can go awry when we take things for granted, become less appreciative or neglect the details that first built the strong relationship. The relationship can begin to effect your upselling technique. When a competitive large sales opportunity presents itself with an existing client or customer an easy trap to fall into is, trusting your key contact (the one with the strong relationship) to do your selling for you.
Are you building a sales career or living or dying by your next deal? Tiger Woods is working toward a career objective, and as we saw Sunday at the PGA Tournament, things don’t always go as planned. Closing business at every opportunity would be great, but the reality is we don’t close every deal, but we do have a response to every outcome.
