“The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.”
~ Richard Bach ( Author )

There are only 8 more Selling Days in remaining in September and in the Quarter!!!

And ultimately people are gonna serve their own best interest no matter what anyhow, so that’s the nature of politics or the word we live in for that matter. Strangely enough it’s almost when things get too polarized nothing happens. It’s only when there’s kind of a middle of the road and people can negotiate that things actually start to move forward, but somebody’s got to hold a vision of what forward looks like and that’s where you and I come in and somebody has to be willing to listen to that and follow along with that.

So, focusing on outcomes, what are we trying to accomplish? What’s the purpose of this division or department? So, if we could just build outcome thinking into our day to day lives or our sales process or our next action thinking. Look, what are the purposes? How do we allocate resources to fulfill that purpose?

So, thinking about outcomes like “Why are we doing what we’re doing?” I think that’s actually started to take place a good bit to getting more done, being more efficient and more effective. But I’d approach it like anything. Soon as I had the job it was like great out of all the things I need to be considering, where’s this whole ship going, you know, and how do we allocate resources to get there. It’s just the common sense way to think about how do you manage things. But I would just bring that common sense to whatever I was dealing with.

There can be no assumptions. This “for what purpose” stuff is not trying to get anybody to believe anything.  Look, if you want to get from here to there and with the least amount of effort you must stay focused. So each of us can be irrational and have fun about it. The problem is if you’re irrational and not managing the rest of your life, pretty soon you won’t have the freedom to be irrational anymore, they’ll put you away or you won’t be able to afford anything. So at some point you want to be able to have enough structure to give you the freedom you want to do.

Do you see yourself as a salesperson? Well, I wind up selling people on the idea or our services simply because I’m enthused about it, have a passion for what I do and they can, you know, pretty much they kind of believe it because I talk from a very real experiential base about what we do in transportation. In a way, I suppose those are the best salespeople, who actually believe, really aren’t trying to sell you but telling you a story – what about you do you have a story to tell? 

Go out and have a Great Selling Day and make a difference in at least on person’s life today.

“Improve sales win-rates through better deal management and paying attention to those that you know.”
~ Miller Heiman

There are only 9 more Selling Days remaining in September and in the Quarter!!!

It is in a salesperson’s nature to get excited about closing new business. Winning a new client is a reason to celebrate. But, when looking for revenue opportunities, sticking close to home can have its advantages. Your current accounts would be a good place to start. You know their business issues, you know why they decided to do business with you in the first place, and you have established relationships. When new leads – and resources – are scarce, the ability to drive new revenue from existing clients can be a great way to help ensure success. Are you confident that you’ve already uncovered the full potential from your existing client base? There are likely current needs your client has that you could be pursuing. You should approach helping an existing client with the same enthusiasm as you approach new clients.

Maintaining strong relationships with current accounts provides two key benefits:

• You retain the existing business
• You uncover new opportunities

This is not accomplished through just periodic check-ins or great customer service after the sale; it requires an ongoing commitment from you, me all of us and as my Pappy use to say, “don’t you forget it.” As opportunities become scarce, competition increases, so are you doing enough to protect that account? In this marketplace you can’t differentiate by product offering, you must differentiate yourself by the way you sell and the unique value you can provide. A salesperson who can understand a client’s business issues and help craft solutions that help the client succeed are valued and rewarded. Differentiate yourself through your ability to be a well-informed, trusted business resource. When you help your clients achieve their objective you both will win and I will never forget that.

 Go out and have a Great Selling Day and make a difference in at least one person’s life today.

“Causes of sales slumps and doing the blocking and tackling that is necessary – the fundamentals.”
~ Bryan Flanagan

There are 10 more Selling Days in August and 31 remaining in the Quarter!!!

Sales slumps: I hate them, don’t you? What causes sales slumps, and what can you do about them?

There are two things that cause slumps, and two ways to get out of those slumps. First: sales slumps are caused because you’ve lost the basics. You stopped doing what you did that made you successful. The second thing that happened is that you’ve lost your passion. That’s right ?- you’ve forgotten why you got into sales to begin with. You’ve developed “stinkin’ thinkin” -? and it’s catching up with you.

How do you get out of a slump? First of all, return to basics. Second, remind yourself why you like selling. That may mean you just recline, read a book, or play a CD. Remember, the sales profession is a top-shelf profession. You put people in a position to win. Now that’s exciting which is why I love it – don’t you?

Go out and have a Great Selling Day and make a difference in at least one person’s life today.

“Get back to real selling for that is what we do.”
~ Miller Heiman

There are only 12 more Selling Days in August and 33 remaining in the Quarter!!!

Getting leads should always feel like a luxury rather than an entitlement. Marketing’s job is to accelerate the sales cycle. Developing highly qualified leads is absolutely the best way to deliver on this commitment. But business development success ultimately rests on the salesperson and delivering real results should be the number one focus instead of figuring out who to blame. Professional salespeople need to take control of their own destiny and be proactive.

Sure it is a lot easier when you simply respond to a lead and try to build on the momentum that marketing has already created. But often times, clients have done some of their own diagnosis and you may find yourself pigeonholed into answering product-specific questions rather than having a discussion about their business issues. Beginning this dialogue is not a situation where you just wing it. Take the time to develop a Valid Business Reason that will resonate with the client. And no, saying something like, “Mr. Customer, would you like to talk to us about how you can increase productivity and reduce expenses?” will not work. It needs to be specific to the client and it needs to feel a little risky for you to bring up. After all, you are taking a chance that your ideas may not be compelling to the client. If you are not able to get them interested in a discussion then maybe you really don’t have a fit at this time. Getting a dialogue going with the client is not something that happens with a catchy phrase or a smooth answer. It happens when you can quickly demonstrate that you are an expert who understands some of their key issues and you have some ideas to help. This is the risky part. You may not bat a thousand but the conversations that do get traction will certainly be ones where there is some clear common ground.

As salespeople, we are ultimately responsible for our own success. Pointing fingers and worrying about things outside of our control are not strategies that will enable us to hit the objectives we agreed to. So let’s get back to real selling, stay passionate about what we do each and every day and never cheat the company for our customers are counting us. 

Go out and have a Great Selling Day and make a difference in at least one person’s life today.

“Relationships drive your business just in case you had forgotten.”
~ Patricia Fripp

There are 18 more Selling Days in August and 39 remaining in the Quarter!!!

You don’t close a sale. You open a relationship.

And remember, the real sale comes AFTER the sale! Technology does not run an enterprise. Relationships do. Staying in touch is a very important part and just as important as getting in touch with customers in the first place.

Years ago, the first president of the National Speakers Association, Bill Gove, was sales manager of the 3M Company. He wrote his customers thank-you notes a trait I still do to this very day. One day a friend was teasing him: “Hey, Bill, all you do is write notes all day long.” He said , “No, seven minutes a day, and everyone who does business with me hears from me at least once every three months while my competition is calling on them, asking for their business.”

Now that we have technology it’s must easier to maximize your client relationships. Keep in touch and as I said just recently make that touch call.

Go out and have a Great Selling Day and make a difference in at least one person’s life today.