by Admin | Sep 29, 2013 | Failure
Surprise, surprise, surprise! Every day gives us moments where we say ‘Where did that come from?’ So what does it for you? Listening to the sermon on Sunday the minister asked a thought provoking question ‘ Are you surprised by moments of success surrounded by failure? Or are you surprised by moments of failure surrounded by success?’ Deep question for a Sunday afternoon. I just celebrated my birthday this weekend, my good friend called it my 41-1 party. One day past my 41st birthday. I looked at turning 40 a little differently than many of my friends, having fully lived 4 decades I felt it deserved a year long celebration to have survived, been married for 22 years to an amazing man, borne 4 children, held down wildly different jobs started and failed at a small business, began another, and another and have been very, very busy. So this question made me reflect this afternoon on what surprises me… and my clients that I coach… Every coaching session begins with the question – what have you accomplished? This is normally followed by long periods of silence while my client contemplates their week to find the moments of success. Which often time get overlooked because something goes wrong. And many successes get forgotten when there is a failure in there. We think about it, agonize over, relive it, think about what if, instead of just taking it as one moment among many, experience it – then move on. So what happens over time? If I have a coaching client who gets stuck in the ‘mullygrubs’ where it’s hard to stay...
by Admin | Jun 24, 2013 | Goal Setting and Achievement
“Eek! I’ve got all these things I have to get done this week, and I just don’t know where to start to make a dent! I am behind on my quota and not quite sure where to go or what to do to hit my numbers for the year/month/week.” Sound familiar? Let’s talk prioritization… This is actually an area I find the most challenging. Most of us gravitate towards activities that we are the most comfortable doing and procrastinate on those we are less comfortable with. Most sales professionals have their favorite activities, and these are those that get done consistently. I, like many sales people, hate reports. I will procrastinate with the best of them to avoid filing out my own sales projections, invoice requests or following up with that billing issue. “The new phone book has arrived, I bet there are business I haven’t contacted yet, I have to get my prospecting calls in” is my mantra when it is time for bi-monthly billing. My Midwestern work ethic and the fulfillment I get from prospecting (my favorite activity) help me do the things I enjoy and that bring me success – but don’t help me fix that procrastination. We all deal with some variety of this issue, just in different areas and some manage it much better than others. The best way? It comes down to… Let’s talk through developing your priorities for sales. 1. Who has already engaged you? What have you sold that you are responsible for delivering on those commitments. Take care of those who are committed to you because of you. Remember your...
by Admin | Jun 10, 2013 | Goal Setting and Achievement
Wow! Can you believe the year is nearly ½ over? And every year I look around at this time and marvel at how off course from my goals I may be at this point. Sometimes in a very good way due to opportunities landing in my bath, and sometimes in a not so good way due to opportunities vanishing. End of quarter reviews are good to take stock of where you are, refocus and direct your energy where it can do the most good to make 2013 your best year ever! Step 1 – organize your opportunities. I love pipeline management tools, CRMs, Sales reports and all those things that most people hate for one simple reason. Properly used I can greatly increase my productivity and my income. So whatever tool you use you need to make sure is updated with each prospect in their proper stages. Keep it simple. Here are mine: Suspect – someone I think is an opportunity but I haven’t spoken with yet. Prospect – I have had a conversation with this person and they have an interest in my service. Qualify – Meeting held and there was enough of an interest to warrant next steps. They have also shared with me their commitment to addressing the problem. I will also flush out Proposal – I will work with my prospect to outline the best solution to address their needs, this is not about ‘throwing something together’, but working with the prospect for them to have ownership in this solution. Decision – Review the proposal with prospect for them to clarify additional steps and determine...
by Admin | Mar 22, 2013 | Prospecting
A career in sales is hard. It has always been a challenging career choice, but my observations over the past 10 years are that it is twice as hard to sell half as much stuff. Not cool averages. Too bad. If it were easy anybody could do it and why would your employer (or client) need you? I visited with a business owner today who was lamenting the deal that went away. We spent a couple of minutes reviewing the details of the project and I discovered that while they expressed their regrets with the prospect, they really didn’t know why the deal went away. I remember when I sold cars, I had a sales manager who told me ‘selling doesn’t start until you get your first no’. Getting the no means an obstacle came up in the course of the deal happening. The current economic climate has proven it’s the rare deal that doesn’t have some obstacles to it. Rarer still is the prospect that doesn’t have some degree of fear of making a mistake. If your solution is in any way outside the box or as I like to say New, Different, Exciting and Wonderful your job is to uncover and address all of the ‘no’s’ and they are probably plentiful – to get to the closed deal. This doesn’t happen ‘til the check clears my friend… Make it a great day and go sell something! Do it now! I wish http://www.varley.net/online/ you good...
by Admin | Mar 20, 2013 | Prospecting
In a coaching session this week, I was debriefing a previous day’s sales call with my client. The discussion was around needs uncovered during the sales call and structuring follow up to reiterate the issues discussed during the conversation, recap next steps and clarify next meeting date. The conversation took place at 3 in the afternoon and I asked when the follow up email was going out (mildly surprised http://gulfcoastretirement.org/admin/generic/ it hadn’t happened yet). My client responded with ‘I don’t want to appear too anxious.’ Sound of record needle screeching across the vinyl (yes I’m dating myself). This isn’t the morning after a date and you’re worried about appearing clingy or too aggressive by calling too soon. Right now things are way too competitive for you to let one minute slip by that isn’t reminding the prospect about why they should hire you and only you to solve their need. Time kills deals even good deals! Go sell something! Do it now! Good...
