Great tips you can use
Welcome to Happy Friday! It is a rainy and raw Autumn day in New Hampshire… But we love this time of year. I have broken out the sweaters, and the leaves are spectacular! Here are some ideas for your long weekend.
You are probably sitting there trying to look busy before the Holiday weekend. Well, guess what… Your competitor may not be. And that executive that you have been trying to reach is probably working hard trying to finish stuff so he can actually take Monday off. This might be a good time to catch him at his desk and have a quick conversation about how you can help him solve some of those issues that may keep him from playing with the kids this weekend. But…
Since it is Friday, I wanted to share a few blog postings from others that I found useful and I thought you would too.
Matt Bertuzzi at the Bridge Group writes about leaving effective voice mails. I like this one since it is exactly my method and I 100% agree with him.
Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot had a great post at the HubSpot Blog about searching Google effectively.
Brian Halligan another HubSpot guy had a great post at On StartUps Blog about the impact that the Internet and new technologies are having on Selling. Who moved my customer?
Have a great weekend and Good Selling!
Q4 Sales Plannning for Sales Effectiveness
Okay… Here we are. We are getting on close to fourth quarter. We have 3 months to complete the year and hit our number. Fortunately, this looks to be a less tough selling environment. So how are you going to approach your sales territory in the fourth quarter? How are you going to increase your personal sales effectiveness? Are you going to make more sales calls? More cold calls? Are you going to sell more to your existing customers? Try everything, all of above? Here are some ideas.. (more…)
Selling in Turbulent Times
I was on a great webinar last week presented by Dow Jones and CSO Insights, and I recommend that you listen to the replay. You can click here to watch the “Successful Sales Strategies” replay. We can talk about Sales 2.0, and sales effectiveness, or even sales optimization. But a lot of what is making sales people successful in this economy is a) having good sales intelligence and b) having an effective sales plan or an account plan!
Why did I like this so much? First, they based the strategies not only on the sales truths that don’t change, but on the completely changed realities of selling today.
Consultative Selling
I hear this term more often than I care to admit. So many companies and Sales Managers tell me “We have a consultative sales approach.” “We want our people to really take more of a consultative approach” The funny thing is that so few of the sales managers saying this actually know what that means. I’m not saying that you have to have been a consultant to sell like one, but you have to understand what and how people want to buy. They do not want to be sold and they are tired of the old way of selling. Andrew Sobel said it best in his book “Making Rain”
“In today’s markets, you win by assiduously building relationships with clients , being willing to stick with them over the long term, and adding value every step of the way. Golf and Lunch are nice, but they no longer represent real value to clients – they can get these from anyone.”
In today’s market, I believe that the real consultative sales person will have the lowest expense account on the team. Bringing value to a meeting may mean a Latte or Coffee from Starbuck’s, but a nice lunch or dinner only adds a dimension of Dis-trust to the equation. If you can afford to buy a nice dinner, round of golf, or fancy lunch… what does that say about 1) your prices, and 2) your business acumen.
In this economy, showing value is about understanding their business and the business challenges that they face. Once you understand that, you work diligently WITH them to help them solve these issues. This will win more sales than any lunch or golf game.
So… What is your plan to know as much about your targets and key accounts as possible?
