Sales training ideas – How consistant are you in selling?
What are your goals? What does your schedule look like? How often are you calling on customers and prospects and how are you touching them? Do you have a specific plan that leads to follow up?
An important key to your sales success is consistency. If you are hot and cold on important tasks and actions, your success will be hot and cold. If you cold call a prospect, but then don’t follow that up with anything, you might have some spotty success, but not much.
The bottom line: It’s important to be consistent in sales. Consistency starts with goals and a plan to follow to get to those goals. It then requires that you do what must be done when it must be done. You must have a plan for follow up with prospects and customers and you must follow it.
John Chapin co-author Sales Encyclopedia www.completeselling.com
Sales training ideas – Be direct to get to the sale faster.
You cold called, you got the lead, you sent out some background information on your company, you called three times before you finally got the prospect on the phone, you did a 15 minute presentation, over came some objections, closed several times, and in the end you heard, “Ya know what? I really not that interested.”
Does this sound familiar? Let’s face it, most of us have had this happen at least several times in our selling career, and for some of us, we run into this several times a week.
In a tough economy it’s more important than ever to NOT waste time chasing pipe dream leads. Many of us are so anxious to get a lead that we don’t qualify the lead quite as well as we should. In other words, having a lead, or a lot of them, gives us hope for a lot of future sales.
We must fight the urge to simply fill our pipelines with lots leads and focus instead on the quality of leads in our pipeline. The way to do this is to be more direct with prospects and ask direct questions, thus finding out up front if we have a true lead versus a pipe dream lead. At the end of the day, using this method may generate fewer leads, but they will be better leads and thus, we will waste less time and be much more efficient.
The bottom line: Cut lots time, effort, energy, and cost by being direct with prospects thus getting more solid leads. Spending time only on quality leads will ensure much more efficiency.
John Chapin – co-author of Sales Encyclopedia www.completeselling.com
Sales training ideas – Are you calling high enough when cold calling.
When you cold call, who do you ask to speak with? Are you asking for the purchasing agent, or the president of the company? It’s entirely possible that the president isn’t your ideal prospect, but most of the time it’s better to have the president, or someone close to president rank, tell you he or she is not the person you need, and refer you to the person you do need.
There are many advantages to calling high. First, the people at the top recognize and care about value more than the lower levels. Second, deals get done more quickly. Third, these people are more likely to be around over the long haul. There are other reasons, but these are the primary ones.
Eventually you want to have some kind of relationship with the people at the top no matter what you sell. This way, if the person you usually deal with leaves, you still have a solid relationship with that account. Also, if there is some sort of roadblock to the sales process at some point, the people at the top can resolve it.
The bottom line: The higher levels are where things get done and real decisions are made. When you first begin calling on an organization, you want to be calling as high as possible. Even if you get bounced down a level or two, it is always better to say: “(The president’s name or name of president’s assistant) said that you’re the one I should talk to regarding this.” As opposed to a straight cold call to that person. This also opens the lines for future communication to the higher levels.
John Chapin – co-author of Sales Encyclopedia www.completeselling.com
Sales training ideas – How much face-to-face time are you getting?
If you are strictly in telephone selling, today’s blog post really won’t relate much to you. If you are in face-to-face sales, how much face time are you getting these days?
They say that in a tough economy, the average salesperson cuts face-to-face calls by 37%. This can be due to several factors, one: trying to cut costs, two: hiding behind the phone and e-mail because of all the bad industry news, and three: less work is easier than going out and making those calls.
In a tough economy, or during other difficult times in your industry, you want to be making more calls not less, working harder, not pulling back. You need to get to your prospects and customers and let them know you are still out there, but you also need to get to the competition’s prospects and customers because chances are, the competition is getting to them less.
The bottom line: Try to INCREASE the amount of face-to-face time you spend with prospects and customers. Now, more than ever, it is very important to stay in touch with prospects and customers but it is also a great time to get out and expand your business.
John Chapin – co-author of Sales Encyclopedia www.completeselling.com
Sales training ideas – Ways to get your name out there.
In the past we’ve spoken about the importance of getting your name out to as many people as possible in order to create as many potential leads as possible. We talked about putting your URL on your car, writing articles and posting them on article banks, and also putting out press releases. One other idea you should be taking advantage of are the social networks.
Join Linked In, Twitter, Face Book and others and put information up there that lets people know what you do. Also, join some of the sites such as Classmates.com so you can connect with people you went to school with.
The bottom line: The more places you post your name and what you do, the more people you will potentially reach and the more prospects and customers you will potentially get. Get your name out on all the social networking sites and join other groups that will allow you to connect with new people and also people from your past.
John Chapin – co-author of Sales Encyclopedia www.completeselling.com
Sales training ideas – What personal beliefs hold you back?
Today we will look at personal beliefs that may be holding you back.
Do you believe you need 8 hours of sleep a night? Do you believe you’re good with numbers but not with names? Do you believe that it takes you a while to learn new things?
Remember: whatever you believe to be true, for the most part, will be. Whatever your beliefs are, I challenge you to look at them if see if any may be holding you back.
For example, I have a friend that used to believe she needed about 9 hours of sleep. She also believed that she was not good with names. What she discovered after questioning her beliefs was that she only needs about 7 hours of sleep and, after learning a strategy to remember names, she is now great with names. The benefits? 14 hours more a week and no more embarrassing moments where she forgets someone’s name. Those are just 2 benefits, I’m sure we could come up with others.
So what should you do with your limiting beliefs? Question them, put them to the test, and get educated about them.
Again, she learned some strategies for remembering names such as name association and saying the name to herself a few times. With regard to sleeping, she took the clock out of her bedroom and got up when she woke up and felt pretty good. Obviously she wouldn’t get up if it was still dark out. :I
Also, where did this belief come from? Do you know it is absolutely true? Is it true in ALL cases? Does everyone have this belief?
One other strategy is to adopt a new, empowering belief and decide to believe it, while refusing to believe the old belief.
The bottom line: You are what you believe you are. We all have beliefs which hold us back. Question yours, challenge them, get rid of them and replace them with new empowering beliefs.
John Chapin www.completeselling.com
Sales training ideas – Who do you hang out with?
This will be short because the idea is simple and yet, a lot of people miss it. You need to surround yourself with positive, upbeat people who are going places in their lives.
If you hang out with negative people, this can destroy any positive progress you would have otherwise made. Negative people will pull you down, tell you why it can’t be done, and do everything to smash your hopes and dreams.
Do you have to replace everyone immediately? No. Let people know the path you are on. Ask them if they would like to come along on the journey and become better or at least hold you accountable and support you. If they laugh and tell you you’re crazy, you may want to look for someone else to hang out with.
If the negative people are your family, make more of an effort at letting them know where you’re going and encouraging them to come along. If they continue to tell you “it can’t be done”, just accept them the way they are and try not to spend too much time with them. Be social on holidays and the like, but don’t surround yourself with these people often.
Also, if you don’t have a lot of positive people around you now, go find some. Join business groups, join groups such as Toastmasters. Volunteer. Look for good, positive, upbeat people and become friends with them.
Bottom line: The level of success of the people around you usually matches your own level of success. If you aren’t already, get around positive people who have goals and a direction in life. It will be one of the most important things you ever do.
John Chapin www.completeselling.com
Sales training ideas – Be a contrarian.
Okay, right now the stock market is crazy, the economy is up in the air, and a lot of people are freaking out. It’s time for you to be different.
Yes it’s true that more millionaires were made per capita during the Great Depression, but guess what? They weren’t standing in soup lines and they weren’t panicking. There is an opportunity right now, perhaps a big one.
It’s time for you to remain calm, cool, and collected, and to look for the opportunities here. Low real estate prices, low stock prices, commodities cheap. Question: when do you want to buy things? At the highest price possible when things look great, or would you like to get them on sale? Well, if you answered “on sale” guess what? It’s time to get some bargains. Also, look to alternative energy and green companies. These are the ones that will be huge payoffs in 10 or 20 years.
The bottom line: Stay calm and help your clients stay calm. Look for the opportunities for both you and your customers and take advantage of them.
John Chapin www.completeselling.com
Sales training ideas – Why prospects focus on price.
How many times have you found yourself in a price war when competing for business? How many times has a salesperson found him or herself in a price war when you were the purchaser?
When one does not understand the real differences in two or more products being considered, 99 times out of 100 price will be the deciding factor. Why? It’s the one clear difference.
It’s simple, if Box A is assumed to be the same as Box B, and Box A is 1 dollar, whereas Box B is 2 dollars, obviously you’ll buy Box A because it’s half the price of Box B.
Now intuitively we all know that there has to be a reason why Box B is twice the price, but if we talk to the salesperson for Box B and she does not differentiate the two, or show why Box B is twice, or more than twice, as good as Box A, we’ll assume the person selling Box B simply priced the same product as Box A at a higher price and thus buy Box A.
Most prospects and customers don’t know our products and services as well as we do. They also do not want to put a ton of work into the process of getting educated or finding out all the differences for themselves, they rely on the salesperson for that. Many will test us by simply saying, “Hey, this one is half the price of yours, I’m buying this one.” If we don’t then do a good job of educating why we are twice the price and instead get into a price war, they will assume that price IS then the only difference and buy on price.
The bottom line: Assuming you price your product with integrity, the only way your product costs more money than a competitive product is if it is more valuable than the competitive product. When a prospect pits you against the competition based upon price, they are really saying, “Okay, the only difference I see is price and your higher priced, so I’m not going with you. If price IS the only difference you will cut your price to or below your competitor. If price is not the only issue, you will now educate me as to why your product is more valuable.”
Again, people assume the higher priced product is more valuable and they are waiting for you to educate them as to why. Many salespeople go straight to price assuming that is the quickest way to the sale, and through their actions tell the prospect, “My product is NOT more valuable, price is the only difference, and now I’ll do what I can to cut my price.”
Educate as to why your product costs more and build as much value as possible, cut price as an absolute last resort.
by: John Chapin – Complete Selling – Author of Sales Encyclopedia
Sales training ideas – What do you let stop you?
This morning I woke up, looked in the mirror, and gasped. I looked like I had gotten the bad end of a fight. You see, a while back I got laser eye surgery and I ran into a few issues with my tear ducts. The doctor told me what to do, and as soon as my eyes were better, I stopped doing what I was supposed to. Thus, when I woke up, my eyes were swollen quite a bit. The additional problem? I was speaking to a group of real estate agents that I had never met in 2 hours.
What would you do? For a split second, I thought about cancelling. Sure they’d understand, right? I then started getting ready and just figured I’d tell them about the situation when I got there. Well, by the time I got there to speak, my eyes weren’t too bad, but I still explained what happened.
So what stops you in your everyday life? What do you do when you get a flat tire, a fire (either literal or figurative) interrupts your day, or something else happens? Do you let it stop you or do you look for solutions?
I remember a situation in which a Service Manager for the last company I worked at, missed a customer meeting because he spilled coffee on his shirt. Not only that, but when he called the customer, he actually gave that reason for not being able to attend. I don’t know about you, but if I had been that customer, I would seriously considered whether or not I wanted to continue to do business with us.
On the flip side, I went out on customer calls in the afternoon on a day in which I had basil cell skin cancer removed from my nose in the morning. And no, this wasn’t something they simply had to burn off, they had cut into me and I ended up with 9 stitches, 5 on the outside of my nose and 4 on the inside. But there I was, ugly bandages and all. Another friend of mine got into a car accident on the way to an appointment. His clothes got torn a bit, he was a bit bloody, nothing too serious, and his car had to be towed, but he called to say he was running a little late and would be there shortly. He took a cab.
The bottom line: Again, what stops you day-to-day? To get to the top in sales you have to be creative and you have to go above and beyond, you have to go over, under, around, and through obstacles.
John Chapin – co-author of Sales Encyclopedia www.completeselling.com
