Over the last decade or so the profession of selling has gone through significant changes.  Whether you’re selling software, financial services, or BMWs the art and science that is sales has shifted from being a purely product or commodities driven industry to much more of a value based consultative industry.  The sales reps that have adapted with these changes have continued to be highly successful.  Those that have not are now doing something else with their lives.

Having said that, it’s vital to remember the importance of the mental aspect of selling.  You see it’s not just about having the best offerings or the best relationships.  That won’t insure you of success.  The great sales rep needs to go above and beyond with their effort.  But how do we do that?  How do we keep our drive?  Our motivation?

One of my first mentors in sales taught me something I have never forgot.  He said being a success in sales takes a “distinct winning mentality.”  It’s not just about preparation and hard work.  It’s also about having the proper mindset.  You need to be selling yourself every day on making the extra effort.  He taught me that if you look at your opportunity in sales like “a job “, you will be paid like an employee.  But if you look at your opportunity in sales like “a business “you can be paid like a business owner.  And if you look at your opportunity in sales like a “sport or a game “, you can be paid like a professional athlete.  And we all want to be paid like Lebron James!

The proper mindset will enable you to make an extra follow up call, send one more follow up email, and knock on one more door.  I have always said “ 5:30pm on a Friday afternoon are when heroes are made! “   Many years later and many deals later, I still believe that.  To turn that belief into activity and that activity into production requires the proper winning mindset.  Remember the movie Stripes the next time you need a professional pick me up.

“Selling…………it’s not just a job……it’s an adventure! “

When you were a kid and you did something bad, what happened? Did your parents sit you down and tell you what you really should have done? Maybe they explained patiently that they were just trying to help you avoid the mistakes that they had made. They didn’t want to see you get hurt after all so stop riding your bike down the hill with no helmet and hands in the air!

As kids our parents would sit us down and tell us what to do. They would tell us everything from doing the laundry, mowing the lawn, to cleaning up our rooms. Thinking back to those moments, how does that make you feel? More importantly if your parents came over to your house now and told you to “pick up the house!” how would you feel then?

Even the most patient of us doesn’t react well when people TELL us what to do. It brings back those memories of not being control of our destiny. Now, envision your last few sales calls, what did you tell your prospects?

• Did you tell them about the great features of your product/service?
• Did you tell them about how it could save them money?
• Did you tell them how much better your offering is compared to your competitors?

Telling your prospects what is good for them will just get them to head for the hills! They will retreat like an 8 year old to their room and leave you with a dial tone. It doesn’t matter how great your product or service is when your customer won’t listen. Your prospect really does want to hear what you have to say; they just don’t want to be TOLD to listen.Instead of telling your prospects how great your offering is, how much money it will save, etc., get them to come to the conclusion on their own. Getting them to feel like they are in control and making the right choice will have you ringing up the sales daily.

Transforming from telling into a mode of asking questions can seem challenging at first; however the differences will be astonishing. Consider digging deeper with your prospects with the following:

1. What question can you ask them that will get them to tell you what will allow them to make a decision? (maybe it’s price, a certain time period, etc)
2. Can you ask a question that will let them tell you what the most important feature they truly desire?
3. What question can you ask that will have them seeing you as the perceived expert in your field?

When you can craft questions that meet the above criteria you will have prospects begging to meet with you. The more interest piquing your questions the more sales you will make daily.Discover 67 interest peaking questions in my power packed free 5 day course on Questions That Sell.

There are certain topics that we all know to stay away from because history has shown us that people go from zero to nasty right quick. It’s the fun topics like religion or politics and now amongst the sales brethren its cold calling.

I thought it might be interesting to “go there” today and present what I feel are misunderstandings regarding the beloved cold call.

1) How We Define “Cold Call”:There are lots of people out there who define any form of phone call to a prospect as a cold call. Its used in a generic context like if you were to “Xerox” something or “Google” someone. There are others who feel that a cold call is calling any business “cold” as in working straight off a list, no pre call planning etc. And there are still more who believe that all calls are cold calls because whether you pre call plan or not, you are calling someone who isn’t expecting your call using an interruption strategy. All I can say is that you know its going to be a fun discussion when no one can even agree on what the heck a cold call is in the first place.

2) The Anti Cold Calling Theory of Working Smarter Not Harder:One way this is misunderstood is by the people who embrace the theory in too much of a literal sense. I’m all about working smarter. In fact, I’m one of those idiots who believed that all you had to do was make a kazillion calls and statistically speaking you had to win. My issue with this statement is that too many times “working smarter” becomes an excuse for not getting our uniforms dirty. In many cases we are preparing to prepare instead of working. For example: I’ve interviewed sales professionals who do more along the lines of 15 targeted calls per week and that’s it. I’m here to tell you that if that’s all you do, you aren’t working smarter. You simply don’t have enough activity to make it. My feeling is that I can research the heck out of 15 companies but if between caller id, assistants, voice mails etc I only connect with 3, even with a perfect score, I only have 3 appointments.

3) The Researching A Prospect Is An Excuse Crowd: These are the ones who feel that all you should do is “smile and dial” More specifically, they are the ones who believe that you are slacking if you are researching clients and its basically an avoidance strategy. Depending on the rep, they could be right or wrong. Here’s an easy solution; when its “game time” we play the game, not research the game. Therefore, it makes better sense to do the research during off hours instead of money hours. Problem solved. I’m here to tell you that if you don’t take the time to research there are tons of prospects who are going to call you out on it. I’m also here to tell you that you gamble when you don’t take the time to research. You gamble in thinking that your competitor hasn’t prepared better than you. That my friends is a suckers bet every time!

4) You Suck If You Don’t Cold Call:These are the people who believe that there is no other way and if you don’t want to cold call, you have a poor work ethic. To that I would respond with a simple question “Why would you care how I get my sale as long as its between ethical and legal?” If I’m making my numbers or I have a solid plan on how I will generate the revenue, why is that not valid? Furthermore, when I bring home the bacon (and I will) does it count less because it didn’t originate from cold calling? Also, what if I truly suck on the phone but I’m a brilliant public speaker or master blogger or social networker? Why would you discourage me from using those venues if I get the results? Note to Sales Managers: Sometimes we are so busy trying to convert a rep into something they aren’t that we fail to help them shine in the areas where they are in fact, quite strong. I want to make sure that I’m crystal clear on something. As a trainer, I wholeheartedly believe that we have to face our fears and step outside our comfort zone. I also believe that we have to really look at ourselves in the mirror (the unforgiving full length one) assess ourselves and work on the areas that need some fixing up. The challenge with that is when we spend so much time on weaknesses that we don’t enhance or work with our strengths.

5) It’s a Numbers Game: Let’s say this is 100% true and in this context the phone is a stand alone new account acquisition strategy. Utilizing a well thought out “sales mix” will improve those numbers. When I say “sales mix” I’m talking about email, snail mail, creative things, networking, social networking, blogging, E-Books, lunch and learns, speaking engagements, referrals, webinars etc. Saying that the phone is a numbers game, a “contact sport” if you will, can also force us to be so focused on the number of calls that we fail to communicate a compelling message.

6) Here’s A Huge Area We Are Misunderstanding: The fact that everyone has a preferred communication venue. For some it’s the phone, for many it’s email, others its through social networking etc. The plot thickens folks because we need to really look at the Gen Y’s that are moving into influencing/decision making positions. What do you think their preferred communication venue is? They love to email, text, communicate through social media and the phone is usually ranked last. When we embrace the phone as a stand alone strategy, we limit ourselves to say the least.

7) Cold Calling vs Social Media: I have a simple answer to this. Why? As in why does it have to be one vs the other? Why can’t they both exist together as part of that well balanced “sales mix” we discussed earlier?

“When I started Out, All I Had Was The Yellow Pages & A Phone” From now on, if anyone says that to you, I want you to pat them on the head and give them a “bless your heart” for good measure. That used and abused line is nothing more than a justification for being too cheap and/or lazy to invest in Sales 2.0 Technology or in training you to be more lethal in your craft.

9) The Sales 2.0 Enthusiast: This is the person who relies so much on the shiny new object or is so busy talking about Sales 2.0 that they fail to realize that sooner or later, this will most probably come down to a phone call, in real time (as in not virtual or more specifically one where you aren’t communicating on a computer screen) For some, they have a bad habit of clinging to the virtual world where they feel safer, for others they understand that all of these virtual relationships have to transition. When we do transition or to that end of transitioning, we’re going to need those tried and true skills that some feel are now antiquated.

10) The Cold Call Is Dead: We could debate this one all week. Some of the misunderstanding goes back to how we define a cold call to just calling it like we see it because we know what works for us.

And maybe that’s what sales is all about. You and I having lots of cool choices, the willingness to try different approaches and the wisdom to know what works best with our particular style.

If relationship selling is the blood flow of your business, then repeat sales is the heartbeat. It doesn’t matter if the blood is flowing freely; with a weak heartbeat it will take more and more energy to keep going and eventually it will stop.

Your business is very much the same. Every decision you make, every little thing you do will be a direct result of your bottom line. So why is it so many small business owners ignore this most crucial customer base? Maybe they take them for granted, assuming they will just always be there; maybe they are so hungry for new business, they overlook the customers that they have already retained.

Recurring sales do not happen without work, so ignoring a customer once you have retained them will surely turn out to the be the downfall of your small business. It does not need to be a huge customer base; a small base of clients with repeat sales will do amazing things for your bottom line. It will enable you to forecast sales with more confidence and have a better insight into your future success. Repeat sales requires having a good “customer for life” mentality, good relationship building skills and excellent follow up skills.

So how do you acquire repeat sales and begin the “customer for life” mentality?

1. Excellent customer service. Don’t have a get and forget mentality. Customers stay with a company because they offer them specialized service. Maybe you always squeeze them in, offer them special discounts, don’t make them wait forever in the waiting room; you are respectful of their time. E-mail or snail mail an appointment reminder. These are just a few ways to offer excellent customer service. There are dozens of others. Be creative but be present.

2. Extended value. You hear a lot about value on the internet. Offer value, extend value. People throw the word around but not many have a good idea of what value really represents. Every customer has their own perception of what is valuable to them. If you are good at maintaining a great customer relationship, then you will know what makes each customer tick. Some like discounts; others prefer extended hours. Reschedule appointments as required without fuss. Different strokes for different folks. Be aware of this and offer something of value to each individual clientele.

3. Continuous single sales objectives. Focus on one thing first. You offer haircutting. Your salon has tons of other offerings such as manicures, pedicures, facials, hair products; do NOT focus in on those in the beginning. Be attentive, focusing in on the one product/service they have come into your salon for in the beginning – their hair. The rest will follow as your clientele builds that relationship with you.

4. Calls to action. Focusing in on one thing in the beginning is what you do to start building that relationship with your customer base. If you have approached the process without the “what’s in it for me” mindset, your customer will feel your sincerity. Once this relationship has taken hold, then it is fine to start offering other products/services your company may offer. A call to action can be in person, through telephone, direct mail or e-mail. Just be sure to follow-up and in each follow-up have your call to action.

By following some common sense tips to ensure you retain an existing customer base, repeat sales will be a no-brainer. Remember, the heartbeat of your company is your current customer base. You have worked long and hard to get them as customers. Now is not the time to blow it and assume they will remain customers for life. Keep the blood flowing and the heart beating. The end results will be repeat sales and a growing and flourishing business.

Social Media is a vehicle by which people talk with each other. The business value of Social Media is to leverage the genuine comments of real people to build the credibility of your offering. Social Media interactions accelerate the process by which prospective buyers become happy customers based on the remarks of those who already are. It is a set of technologies that bring a personal touch into the buying/selling process, which is becoming increasingly impersonal. Further, it enables you to tap into the “voice of the customer” to gather valuable feedback and improve your offering.

As part of Social Media, I am including customer references, testimonials, case studies, user forums and other ways interested parties communicate.

How can effective use of Social Media accelerate your sales efforts?

• Social media cannot provide a key feature missing from your offering. Yet, it can help people see the importance of capabilities you do deliver.
• Social Media does not change your pricing. However, customer testimonials and case studies can significantly increase the perceived worth of your solution.

How does it help across the sales process?

• Presence on the right sites dramatically improves awareness and generates leads.
• Comments from customers, industry influencers and peers help buyers believe your claims that you will solve specific problems, deliver the best solution and offer superior value.
• Customer testimonials and references jump-start stalled purchase processes by responding to the concerns or missing information causing the delay.
• Forums and user communities enable users to resolve implementation and usage issues; decreasing customer churn.
• Learning how other users get the most out your offering creates happier customers and provides impetus for renewals, upgrades and buying other products from you.

You can collect critical input about what’s working and not working regarding your offering, your reputation and the way you interact with your customers and prospects so you can make important adjustments.

Beware of blanket statements, for example, that you must have a Facebook fan page or a Twitter account. In order to determine the most effective Social Media strategy and platform (Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, twitter, blogs, forums, groups, etc.), you must understand the usage habits of your target audience.

It is difficult to assess the return on investment (ROI) of Social Media efforts at this time. There are sales force automation products that track marketing activities and conversion to the next stage in the sales process- and ultimately if a sale was made. Admittedly, there are many activities that contribute to making a sale, yet knowing which Social Media activities impact buying provides guidance and confidence in the allocation of resources. Given the dramatic increase in the use of Social Media in the buying process and how helpful each boost along the sales process is, it is something that needs to be considered in everyone’s sales and marketing strategy.

Yes, paying sales commissions is the standard. Almost every sales department has such an incentive. But, is it really the best way to go?

If you have trained your sales force well and given them the tools they need to succeed, it may be more effective to remove sales commissions and pay quarterly bonuses based on personal success, team success and company success. This way the star is not performing for himself only, and is not the glory-hound we all know. The average producer who works hard, does his best and performs well (but not at the all-star level) will not be left behind in a bonus system.

Bonuses produce teamwork and greater cooperation which means better service for the clients and more respect for the company’s goals and objectives. They also allow you to reward individual successes and to create a real team effort where people learn to work together for a better result— a result in everyone’s best interest. Thus, if we reward salespeople for their individual efforts, their team success and the company’s success, we get a much better result than by simply paying commissions for sales made individually.

This approach still allows you to reward individual success but it de-emphasizes the specific sales volume while emphasizing overall success… that’s good. Think about it. I have long said that I would rather have a sales team of hard-working average sales people working as a team than a sales group with a few hotshots and the remainder feeling left behind, unimportant and earning a lot less. The overall results are never as good.

This is not to say that I want to reward mediocrity. I do believe, however, that team work and company commitment as well as individual success are collectively better benchmarks for measuring and rewarding success than commissions that only reward sales.

Think about it. Try it, it works.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Don_Todrin

Where does an experienced sales professional find a new sales tip or find a fresh technique for improving some area of their sales? Where does someone who has had loads of sales training and years of first hand sales success go for something really valuable to help them continue to improve their sales skills and results?

Expensive Sources of Sales Techniques
Some sales professionals go to sales conferences, attend training, read books, watch DVDs or have recordings of successful sales people on their MP3s or car stereo. Many find that they have paid a large amount of money for a resource that contained little they could really use, or that offered only ONE tip that they could apply to their daily sales work.

Having one tip that will take you through the next week, and will help you achieve your sales targets, is GOOD. The problem is that this one tip was either buried in a mire of irrelevant padding or was surrounded by very basic sales skills that you could have written much better yourself!

Where can you find a good tip for opening the sales conversation, for handling objections or for closing down a sale? Where can you find that one thought that will motivate you this week? The answer is YouTube!

YouTube – A Superb Free Source of Tips and Techniques
The best Gurus or sales trainers often have those one or two tips or techniques that are fabulous, that will really help the sales professional achieve more and develop their skills. These experts will often take their very best tip, and use it to advertise their training, their book or their DVD. They will make a clip of this to hook in the real sales professionals like yourself.

Then they put this clip of these best-of-the-best tips up on YouTube! Here you will find the best sales tips, from the expert sales people, without the padding! Type in the words ’sales tips’ or ’sales training’ and you will see a wide selection of presenters and techniques.

You will see -
1. The sales experts giving their best tips
2. Tips on how to open sales conversations
3. Techniques for probing your prospect
4. Many techniques on how to close a sale
5. How to deal with specific objections like ‘you are too expensive’
6. How to handle different personality styles

The Benefits of YouTube Clips
There are huge benefits of using YouTube Sales clips to improve skills and motivation.
1. They are free and very easy to access
2. There are really good people making these clips
3. There are surprisingly few clips that are totally bad – and even these will boost your self-belief!
4. The clips are short – you will find a good tip that is less than 5 minutes long
5. They are current – new ideas and sales tips all the time
6. You can sample a sales trainer or Sales writer before you buy
7. You can find a tip on very specific sales topics

With the wide range of sales clips and presenters, you can find a new thought every week. You can trawl through the sales clips for some inspiration, or go in for a targeted search on a specific area you want to improve.

If the worst comes to the worst, and you find there really are no valuable tips left – then you can record your own clip and begin a new career!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kate_Tammemagi

Technology enables companies to implement new business strategies so they can capture opportunities created by changes in the market. This is the essence of every technology value proposition. To build value around your solution you need to understand how market change is impacting a customer’s business and how your technology solution can help them manage the change to their advantage.

Step 1: Define the Impact of Change

To define the impact of changing market dynamics on a customer’s business, you need to start with an understanding of the market drivers causing the change – rising transaction costs. Then you refine this general information into specific descriptions of how the market change is creating both new opportunities and new problems for your customer. Rising transaction costs are eroding the customer’s profit margins. The more specifically you explain about how market drivers are changing the customer’s business environment and the potential impact of ignoring them, the better. Rising transaction costs caused by the increasing complexity of Internet-enabled global competition is increasing the cost of raw materials by 7% per year, which translates to a 2.5% decrease in your gross profits each year.

Step 2: Identify Emerging Business Strategies

A strategy is what an organization does so they can benefit from the changes caused by market evolution. Smart companies use technology to help them respond productively to change. An economic market trend of rising transaction costs coupled with improved eTrading technology might cause a company to initiate a business strategy to lower costs through strategic sourcing, which is an automated approach to managing the purchasing process. The results of a business strategy – increased revenues, lower costs, improved productivity, increased efficiency, etc. – are the customer’s compelling reasons to buy the new technology-enabled solution.

If you use emerging business strategies to guide your early conversations with customers, you will develop a clear understanding of what they want to do and why. Ask the questions like…

• How is the current market trend “X” impacting your market sector?

• Are these changes threatening your ability to reach your strategic business goals? Revenue targets? Profit predictions? Market share? Stock price?

• What new business strategies are you considering in response to the changes in the market?

• What is your vision of the successful implementation of this strategy?

• What are your concerns about implementing this strategy?

When you understand your customers’ business strategies, you can figure out how your technology can help them achieve the strategy’s results faster, better or cheaper, which will be why they want to buy your technology.

Step 3: Clarify Your Prospect’s Compelling Reason to Buy?

Once you understand a customer’s business strategy, you will be able to identify their compelling reason to buy – lower costs through improved sourcing of raw materials and components. This is important because if they don’t have a compelling reason to buy, they won’t.

Compelling reasons to buy evolve as the market develops. Early adopters buy new technologies to increase revenues and gain market share. According to Geoffrey Moore they are looking for discontinuous innovations that “enable new strategic capability that enable dramatic competitive advantage.” Their business strategy is to leapfrog the competition by being first to market, so they are looking for fast results. They value being first to market. So you build their perception of value by showing them how your solution will enable them to speed their time to market, improve their responsiveness to market change, and create innovative products and services. You need to show them how your solution will produce strategic results, such as accelerating their growth, increasing sales and opening up new markets.

Geoffrey Moore also claims that the early majority customer’s compelling reason to buy is to “radically improve productivity on a well-established critical success factor.” Early majority buyers are more pragmatic. They have experience implementing change and they know how hard it is to do. They are interested in ‘evolution, not revolution.’ The ability to prove that your solution reliably delivers what you are promising becomes very important. So your ability to build value around the features and functionality of your solution become more important to your success.

In each account the customer’s compelling reason to buy is going to be different. To win the account you need to prove to the customer that your solution is the only way they will be able to achieve the results that want. When your solution is unique, you create value.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Janice_Lawrence

At a recent networking function we had everyone talk about those little things that have annoyed them or even upset them in dealings with other companies. Whilst this was a lot of fun and we had a good laugh there was some strong underlying annoyances that could have the end result of costing companies business. This is a timely reminder to have a look at the habits and behaviors that go in your organizations.

Are any bad habits undoing the hard work of your sales team?

Who are people modeling their behavior on in the business?

Is that resulting in a behavior that you are happy with?

Do these habits reflect your values in the business?

What habits and behaviors are going on when you are not around?

Sometimes it is not what is said it could be how it is said!

I am sure you have many examples of poor service, bad attitude and even an inappropriate remark or gesture that has stuck in your mind. How easy is it to be offended by a style of approach by a sales person? Think back to the 1990 movie Pretty Woman. In the movie, a snobby saleslady refuses to sell clothes to Julia Roberts, because she is dressed like a prostitute. Later Julia Roberts dressed head to toe in designer clothes returns to the store.

Scene goes like this: “I was in here yesterday,” says Vivian to the snobby sales lady. “You wouldn’t wait on me. You people work on commission, right?” The clerk mumbles yeah. “Big mistake. Big. Huge. I have to go shopping now,” says Vivian. With that Vivian, leaves the store with loads of shopping bags in hand.

Added bonus: Good habits are FREE

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Tippett

Here we are, just days away from the start of March Madness 2010. The NCAA Tournament begins just after our local youth league ends. I’ve been a coach and/or a cheering parent at more of these youth games than I can remember. I love the game of basketball and never pass up an opportunity to watch a game; be it youth, NCAA, or NBA. Even as a fan caught up in the emotion of the moment, I can’t help but analyze every aspect of the game as it is played out. Basketball isn’t just a game of physical skill to me, it’s a mental game. I find it interesting to watch players and teams as they move through the ranks and mature in their physical and mental game.

For example, take understanding how to use the clock to advantage. Many of the younger teams I have seen play do not alter their play based on the time remaining. To them, it’s as if the first minute were no different from the last. If “run-and-gun” offense worked for us in the first quarter, why not in the last minute when we have 4-point lead? As adults, we understand. We adjust how we play according to the situation. Time factors in as part of the situation.

It’s easy to see how time remaining in a basketball game should change the players’ actions. This concept, however, sometimes eludes us in our professional lives. While we are running around, much like the players on the court, we don’t have the big score board or buzzer to serve as our constant reminder. It’s too easy to fall into the trap of thinking the way we sold yesterday is the best way to sell today. Just as a basketball team’s strategy evolves from the first quarter to the forth, so too must our sales process.

As the season began, I went to register my son for the local youth basketball league. Because I arrived only a day or two before registration ended, I was met with a, “I’m sorry sir, but all of the teams are full. Unless…you want to coach a team. We do have a few boys who are not on a team yet. We just need a coach.” I agreed to coach and was given a list of names. At the first practice, I asked how many of the team members had played on a basketball team before. Less than half of the hands went up. My team was made up of the players no one else selected. I am not a good loser, so what was the team going to do?

As you might imagine, we worked on basics. We spent a lot of time dribbling, passing, shooting, and working on defensive skills. This would help us, but it wasn’t going to win games. We needed something more. It dawned on me that we had to control the game. The answer was in defense. At 12 years old, even the best ball players can’t read a defense well. I also learned that most teams in our league only had offense plays for man-to-man defense. We started the season coming out in a zone defense. When teams started running a zone offense, we would switch it back to a man-to-man defense. As it turns out, a team who is frustrated on the offensive side of the court isn’t going to be at their best on defense either.

Our strategy was simple. Do the basics well and use change to our advantage. When I talk to sales teams, the same two principles hold true. Do the basics well (listen, qualify, identify all of the buying influences, determine individual win results, etc.) and create or anticipate change. The team with a plan for change has a competitive advantage over other teams. Leveraging change doesn’t just happen; it has to be built into the sales team’s way of doing business. It exists in what is called a Tier 4 Sales Organization. Tier 4 sales teams understand why their system works and under what conditions. They have implemented a plan to identify and adapt to change. In doing so, they gain a competitive advantage. Rapid change is the paradigm we live in today. Teams who capitalize on it, whether in basketball or in sales, will win.

That team of boys I coached. They learned to execute the plan well and we finished our season at 8-2.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charles_Overbeck