The Singular Goal
More Sales Articles
Extra-Ordinary Prospecting - Get Referrals
If you have been in sales for a little while, you would agree with me with saying, "There must be a better way to gain prospects long term". Well there is a way, by gaining referrals. After a while everyone gets tired of the constant calling on strangers. Getting referrals is the only way forward because word of mouth is always the best form of advertising.
Extra-Ordinary Prospecting - Keep Your Eye on the Ball
Prospecting is like a game of tennis, it is full of strategy if you know what you are looking out for. A good tennis player knows exactly the next possible moves his opponent will take. So is the same with prospecting. A professional sales person when calling over the phone, Never Assumes. It could be the CEO or his or her spouse or partner.
Extra-Ordinary Prospecting - Make the Gate Keeper your Ally.
There has been a misconception with a lot of business and salespeople about the importance of the receptionist, secretary, and administrator. A lot of the time they are your 1st contact at a company. Even if it is a workshop, and it is the apprentice, they may be the bosses son or daughter. This person (although a lot of the time is the junior of the company) holds the keys to the important contacts in the company.
Extra-Ordinary Prospecting - Qualify First
The worst thing you can ever do as a Sales Person is try and sell your product or service over the phone or face to face without qualifying the decision maker first. If your not a telemarketer don't go into a sales pitch over the phone. The best presentation you can do is when you have done your homework and prepared thoroughly for the call.
Extra-Ordinary Prospecting - Talk Positive
Are you really, really, frustrated by calling on companies, over the phone, door to door, even calling on other people's old leads and sales and continually get stuck at the 1st gate and not getting through to the right person? Well I know how frustrating and rejecting it feels to continue to get knock back after knock back, day after day with little result.
Extra-Ordinary Prospecting - The Enemy of your success
The worst thing you can loose in prospecting is time, sometimes it seems like it has been stolen right before your eyes. I remember when I was starting out. I heard a great recording by Earl Nightingale called "the Strangest Secret". Within it, Earl challenged us to document our time from when you get up in the morning to when you go to sleep.
Extra-Ordinary Prospecting - The Pursuit of Happyness
The Greek philosopher, Aristotle (384 BC -- 322 BC) said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit". Is it your pursuit to be successful in Sales? Do you want to be an excellent at making sales calls? Why? Everyone needs a reason to achieve. Firstly you must have a reason why your pursuiing your career in sales.
The popular best seller Think and Grow Rich has spread a message of achievement and accomplishment for many years. One of the strongest messages that I got from reading this book was the concept of a "definiteness of purpose." There is no doubt that this message can be applied to magnify purpose, efforts and, therefore, results in life in general, but it can also be applied to improve performance in sales. The ability to focus your purpose, your efforts and your results on one singular goal is a powerful tool in your efforts to persuade others. When you approach a selling situation be sure to clearly define your goal to yourself, it may not always be to sell.
I recently received marketing materials in the mail from a local contractor wanting to offer me services related to my home. The leaflet rambled on about the nature of his company, a family business, the years he had spent working in the area, over twenty, and the reputation his company had in his community, apparently excellent. He never touched on one subject I actually cared about. Like many people in sales, this professional entered a selling situation without a clear goal. This lack of focus resulted in leaflets that lacked a specific purpose and were unlikely to inspire action. As obvious as it may seem, before you enter any presentation you must ask yourself what it is you hope to accomplish.
Take the following example: Kathy works for a large software company and spends 15% of her day cold calling for new business. When she looks at her sales board and sees her position, far behind that of her colleague, each phone call she makes builds in its importance. She must make a sale soon and approaches every cold call prospect with that objective, to make a sale. However, she is unlikely to succeed in this endeavor because she sells a high ticket item that usually requires several decision makers as well as an onsite visit.
When trying to sell, it is natural to talk about the product/service's attributes, its benefits to the customer and reasons why they need to buy. In the few minutes she gets to pitch in her cold calls, Kathy tries to convince her prospects that they should buy based on her description alone. She wonders why this never seems to work. But how could it? Her prospects are already familiar with the product she is selling, know its features and benefits and need an onsite evaluation to determine compatibility. Also, they usually have to make the decision with others. Typically, they are unable to do all of this based on a short phone call.
Kathy's efforts will be vastly improved if she sets a goal for her cold calls, her first initial contact with prospects that is more attainable and relevant to her situation. Should Kathy focus her efforts on obtaining an appointment for that necessary onsite visit, her script will change and become more effective. Her pitch, description of benefits, even her proposal, should all be focused on getting an appointment, not selling the product. She is asking for less of a commitment, she is extending their communication and relationship and she is giving him a chance to involve the necessary decision makers.
When you approach a prospect with the wrong objective you hurt your chances of getting the sale. Break your sales process down into essential steps that move you closer and closer to the sale each time. Even a small ticket item that can lead to an instant sale can be presented in a series of steps each with their own objective. You will become more effective in your sales efforts when you know how to tailor your pitch, your language and your presentation around a single powerful goal.
About the Author
Alvin Day is a Sales Training and Personal Empowerment coach who has helped many sales professionals reach and exceed their goals. For more on Alvin Day's Sales Training tools and resources visit www.theultimatesalesmanual.com.
Source: Sales Articles on ArticlesTree.com
Recent Sales Articles
The ABC's of Selling: The Art of the Close
Do you know how to close a sale? When we think of sales, it usually conjures up images of a used cars salesman and being pressured to buy. If you have ever seen the movie Glen Gary, Glen Ross you get to take a peek into a sales world of the stereotypical sales person.
How To Be A Secret Shopper In Canada...
How to be a mystery shopper in Canada. There are a lot of companies out there that need your help to become bigger. So its up to you to help them out. Some companies need your help to reach and larger audience.
Aquamarine - Safety at Sea
The Aquamarine Gemstone is a variety of the mineral Beryl and is a beautiful pastel blue in colour. Aquamarine is the Birthstone for the month of March and is mined in Brazil, Madagascar, Mozambique Myanmar and Afghanistan; it is also available within the United States of America and is the official state Gemstone of Colorado.
Amethyst - Tears of Beauty
The Amethyst Gemstone is a semi-precious jewel of violet or purple colour that is available in many different shapes and sizes and is a common form of transparent crystallized Quartz. Amethyst is the Birthstone for the month of February and is mined in Brazil, Uruguay, Russia, Bolivia and Argentina, as well as Namibia, Zambia and a few other African countries, within the United States of America, Arizona is a good source of Amethyst.
What's Wrong with your Value Statement?
To create a value statement that blows your competition away, you need to turn your thinking upside down. Here is a common scenario during a sales engagement; You are on the verge of the perfect value proposition for your client.
Want The Latest Apparel? Its All Here @ Reverse Auction X5!
It is human nature to dress up in the latest fashion. Say what you want, but we constantly find ways to spruce up our wardrobes in order to look good, either for the opposite sex or for your same-gender peers.
Handbags: Different bags for different occasions!
Handbags are important accessories; we always grab our handbags wherever we are going. In fact there are very less places we visit without the trusty handbag. So if the handbag is so important obviously, the same one cannot be used in all events and all places.
UK discount codes can help you to save
The last 12 months has seen a rise in the popularity of discount codes in the UK. Has this rise been because of increasing awareness, or because more and more retailers are issuing these discounts? If you've never used discount codes then the reality is that you may have been missing out.
Selling With Stories - A Powerful Tool for Building Trust and Credibility
The Power of Storytelling The art of storytelling is dying. We live in an age of soundbites, special effects, snappy comebacks and the 30-second attention span. It seems that no one is interested in taking the time to listen to, or tell a good story.
How to Get Cheap Jewelry
Jewelry is a personal adornment, which includes a necklace, ring, earring, or bracelet, made up from precious & semi precious stones, metals and other substance. Jewelry is a fashion trend for many. If you are choosing a gift for someone special, buying jewelry can be real confusing.
Challenging the 80:20 rule
It’s probably the best-known and most-repeated rule in sales: 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. The implication is that you should focus the majority of your sales efforts on those 20% to maximise your returns.
Stock Pick >> Best Daily Stock Picks .. Top Stocks .. Good Stock Market Picks
BY.- http://www.PracticalDayTrading.com In the stock market its always possible to watch certain stocks go up between 10% and 60% within a few hours or days.
SALES PROMOTION (How it should be done)
Sales promotion is one of the ways companies/corporations/business owners rewards their customers and in turn project their business to attract more customers. But most companies deviate from this, they erroneously use sales promotion to exploit and hurt their customers.
Sales Management: How to Manage Independent, Tech-Savvy New Millennial & Hel...
Are you a sales manager who's having problems managing your new sales force? Now, you can discover a top Sales Psychologist's simple 4-step process to managing your new millennial sales team. BODY: Independent, tech-savvy, social, and optimistic - why are these "kids" so hard to manage? Seasoned sales managers are facing challenges managing new Millennial's, also known as people born after 1980.
Whole sale Products
Buy at wholesale prices. Thousands of products at the lowest prices. If you need products to sell on Ebay or you are just looking for a great gift, check us out first "shopfirsthome.net". Jewlery, electronics, cell phones, sports equipment, you name it we have it.