by Admin | Feb 4, 2015 | Business Relationships, Prospecting
In an introductory meeting this morning I had a potential referral partner make a profound statement. He said ‘my number for my clients needs to be 1-800- HELP – ME’. This was shared as he related the position he consistently worked to achieve with his clients. He wanted to be the first call they made when they had an issue and his role was to serve as a gateway to whatever solution his clients needed. He just happened to be a financial advisor. Note he didn’t say he wanted to be the gateway to whatever financial solution his clients had, but any issue they had. What this highly successful professional recognized is that to earn a position of trust with your relationships, you need to invest effort in building emotional capital through serving their needs, beyond his self-interest. What advice do you provide? Are you strictly a subject matter expert about your field? Or are you smart about business and an avenue to resources needed? One of the first areas of self discovery to explore with your clients is how do they view you. This is one of the most important discussions you can have with them. You notice the conversation needs to take place with your clients – this is not an exercise in contemplation of your navel. I don’t care about what youthink your clients think about you, I care about what they actually think. Their perception is your reality. Like it or not. By interviewing your clients you gain insight into your true value proposition and also this gives you the chance to explore all of the issues on the periphery of you...
by Admin | Sep 29, 2014 | Goal Setting and Achievement, Prospecting, Sales
Eeek! 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. Typically we gravitate towards those activities 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 businesses I haven’t contacted yet, I have to get my prospecting calls in” is my mantra when it is time for bi-monthly billing. And then I have that Midwestern work ethic fulfillment from prospecting (my favorite activity). We all deal with this issue, just in different areas and some better than others. Let’s talk through developing your priorities for sales. 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 prospects bought because of your ability to prove to them you were the solution to their issues. Deliver. What have you committed to? Many sales people fail to follow through on their commitments. This is...
by Admin | Feb 3, 2014 | Influence, Prospecting
One of my favorite Sunday School stories was of the poor woman who only had enough oil in her bottle to prepare one last meal for her and her son. As the story goes she was gathering wood for a fire to make their last meal and were visited by the prophet Elisha who requested she prepare a meal for him. She explained her circumstances and he commanded her to prepare the meal and also told her that her bottle of oil would not run dry until the famine was eased in the land. This story reminds me a lot of how influence works. Times have been pretty tough the past few years in a lot of industries. We have become a part of the statistics in our household with the closing of plants, losing jobs and contracts evaporating. But much like the widow woman we have something left – and that something is influence. Influence is one of those tricky words in the English language that pulls an extra heavy load, it is a noun and a verb. Meaning it is and it does. And the interesting thing about it is that the more it’s exercised, the greater it gets. And the less it’s used, the more it diminishes. You can ‘Be all you can be’ but if you don’t ‘Do what you can do’ it’s pointless. So how is influence used? It’s pretty simple. You help people. By demonstrating genuine interest and caring about other people, you find opportunities. I teach people how to prospect. One of their first assignments is to go meet with someone that they hold...
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...
