Special Quote #10

"Stop selling what you have and start selling what your prospect need."

Your Sales Performance Starts With These 6 Things

1. The Right Mind-Set - 66% or more of a salesperson's success is actually due to how they approach their work day. If you think the bad economy or anything else will affect your sales, well guess what, it will. You cannot be successful in sales if you wake-up each day complaining about how difficult it is to make a sale.
2. Understand What Makes Your Professional Training Company Different And Then Telling It To Every Prospect - Ask each salesperson who works for you to answer this one question as if you were a prospect: "Tell me, what makes our business any better or any different than the competition?" Why should you ask this question? The answer to that is simple; it will give you an understanding of how well-prepared that salesperson is about your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). And if they spout out things like "how great your classes/trainers are" or "how long you have been in business," you can be sure that they will be competing on price more than ever before.
3. Get Your Prospecting Database Aligned and Organized - One of the biggest challenges you will face is the organization of your salespeople's prospecting database(s). If you cannot direct your salespeople to your most fertile prospects, guess what? They won't find them either.
4. Become Better At The Art of Selling - Practice, practice and practice even more. Make sure your salespeople know you are tracking their "sales metrics" and help those who are having a tough time. The key metrics for the most organizations are: # of "oh by the way" calls, # of appointments set each week, # of proposals sent, # of referrals they received, # of proposals closed and how much money they brought in. Remember, a good sales leader grows salespeople not sales.
5. Make More "Oh By The Way" Calls - As I mentioned above, the number of "oh by the way" calls is a critical metric to track. Why? Because magic starts to happen when a sales person picks up the phone to follow-up on a marketing campaign.
6. Automate Your Marketing Campaigns - If you are a business owner or the person responsible for sales, do not let your salespeople do their own "street marketing." Why? Because it will not be done well or consistently. Our research has determined that salespeople tend to be poor writers and lack the skills necessary to create compelling marketing campaigns.

Assess what People are Really Thinking

If the recession has you rethinking your marketing strategy or plan, or if you are concerned about how your crew is handling the uncertainty with each other and with customers, it may be time to assess what people are really thinking within the four walls of your organization.

Removing dysfunction in your company's execution of marketing is always important, but it is never more important than when times are tough. You must have a team approach to your fight on the recession's impact. But to have a team approach, you must have buy-in from employees to the marketing strategy. And, to truly have buy-in, you must must engage your employees from the very beginning of your planning (or re-planning) process!

Engage in Social Media - Do not Fear

If you read blogs about marketing small companies, you're inundated with "social media" advice about why you need a blog and a Twitter account and everything else. Still, most people and most businesses don't think they need a blog.

Did you know that Back in the late 1990s, there was a day when suddenly every company in the western world decided they needed a website. Not that anyone knew what a website was for. Was it a brochure? A storefront? A billboard? What pushed everyone over the edge was that they soon realized that if you didn't have a website you were invisible.

Sure you had advertisement and PR; you could get a message in front of people. But then what? It's not just a new media, it's a completely different world. Business models are changed forever. Flash-forward to today, and the same pattern is emerging, just in a different guise.

Tips for Tech-Enabled Prospecting

With so many new options to communicate, why does it seem harder to connect with and secure appointments with prospects? Even when you use modern technology to reach prospects and schedule appointments, be sure you apply some fundamentals that have proven successful in the past. Here are a few reminders for contacting prospects in order to schedule time:

• DO address potential business challenges they may be facing in opening statements so you have their attention from the beginning.

• DON’T just say "hi."’ Communicate something of value – demonstrate that you understand their business or industry, how you have helped organizations like theirs solve problems or increase in areas like profitability or efficiency.

• DO offer research information or an article or whitepaper that pertains to some of the issues companies in that industry may be dealing with to pique their interest and position yourself as a credible resource.

• DO cut through the clutter. Keep your messages concise and relevant to show that you value their time and attention.

Most importantly, ask your prospects how they prefer to be communicated with: emails, texts, voicemails, instant messages, Linkedin, Twitter? Reaching out to them in the manner they prefer shows you will make them a priority as you advance your business relationship.

Excerpt from Miller Heiman