Sales Training Tip #156: Email and Your Phone Number

Make it easy for people to contact you. Be sure to conclude all emails with your name, phone number, and cell number.

Professional Selling Skills Training: The Curse of Distractions

This past week, I encountered a sales person with a great track record of being able to get the job done. However, because of their willingness to get sucked into the mire of issues they can't control, they are now struggling. They are allowing their energy to be consumed by discussing and thinking about things that are occurring within their company and it’s taking away the energy they previously used to sell. Top performing sales people stay top performing sales people because they don’t allow distractions to get in their way. Take a look at what you’re worrying about and what you’re working on. Determine if it’s really something you can change or if it’s something that really impacts your ability to sell. Chances are there is at least another 15% of potential time and effort available to you by not allowing yourself to be distracted by the things you can’t control. How much more would you be able to sell if you had 3 more selling days each month?

Professional Selling Skills Training: Holiday Gifts

It’s the time of year for me to rant and rave about excessive holiday gifts! There’s nothing wrong with giving somebody a gift of appreciation for their business. However, what upsets me is when a sales person gives a gift that is excessive in value or taste to what the customer is used to receiving or may expect. There’s no need to feed the frenzy of trying to "out-do" everyone else in terms of the monetary value. Remember, the real value of your gift is in the meaning behind it - a true appreciation for their business.

Professional Selling Skills Training: Customer Service is Sales Service

Providing great customer service is something we all talk about, yet I am shocked at the number of times I encounter sales people who fail to demonstrate it during the sales process. I often see them only giving great service as long as the sales process is moving along. Then, as soon as they encounter a roadblock from the customer, they shut down. Many sales are made, and more importantly, many great long-term relationships emerge when the customer has the chance to really see what the sales person is made out of. There’s no better way to demonstrate this than by continuing to exhibit a high-level of service, even when the sales call has stalled. Yes, it takes time, but nobody ever said sales would be easy or quick.

Sales Training Tip #155: Allocate Your Time By Size

Make sure you’re allocating your day based on the size of the sales opportunity, not on the individual demands of a customer or prospect. It’s too easy to get caught up doing activities that might be very important but, ultimately, bring you little, if any, sales.

Professional Selling Skills Training: Respecting the Current Customer

What is the right balance between giving the customer what they want and what you believe they will want? This is a question that has hit the ever-popular website “Facebook” (a MySpace website geared towards college students). Facebook added a new feature called “news feed” which tracks the movements of users. Needless to say, their user base was not broadly consulted on this before it was implemented and now they’re upset. So, here’s the question: what is the right way to implement a product improvement to your existing customer base?

Professional Selling Skills Training: Customer Service..To Tell The Truth

Customer service is as much about integrity as it is about doing things right and it's time to vent about people who love to twist the truth. Today, I received an e-mail announcement from a major HR trade group about an upcoming event. Needless to say, it didn't look right and, sure enough, a couple of hours later, a new announcement came out saying that "due to technical difficulties, the previous announcement should be disregarded." Bunk! Don't lie to us HR people! Tell us the truth...you blew it! Is it so hard to say, "Oops, we made a mistake. We're sorry, but please disregard the previous message." I'm not perfect. I've made more than my share of mistakes. But, one thing I've learned is that it's OK to tell it the way it is. And, it's even better to poke a little fun at yourself for the mistake you made. If you want to create a stellar customer experience, then you'd better treat them with respect. Selling is all about building integrity and, as a sales person, keep in mind that people are watching your every move.

Sales Training Tip #154: Confirm Appointments Via Voicemail

If you need to confirm an upcoming sales call, do so by leaving a voicemail rather than email. When you use e-mail, it’s easy for the prospect to hit “reply” and cancel the meeting. Voicemail requires more time and will result in fewer cancelled meetings.

Sales Training Tip #153: Holiday Planning

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it’s time to think about how you intend to service your clients during the busy period from Thanksgiving through Christmas and the New Year. Plan now to determine how you and your counterparts will provide the best service possible everyday.

Professional Selling Skills Training: Tracking Your Sales Time

Fortune Magazine (Oct. 16 edition) has a great interview with Jim Donald, CEO of Starbucks. In the article, Jim talks about how he charts his time by month to determine how he is spending it. I've been talking about this for years...for sales people to truly perform at the highest level, it's important to measure how your time is spent. Now I feel vindicated! When a CEO of a high-profile company advocates doing it, you know it makes sense. If you haven't read the article or read some of my material, here's what you need to do: Track your time by key activity for an entire month. The objective is not to determine the total hours, but the % of time you spend on an activity. In the case of sales, the activities need to be sales-focused, not administration, meetings, or anything that isn't truly helping you either keep a sale or make a new one.

Sales Training Tip #152: Mail As A Sales Tool

Mailing your customer or prospect a letter is still a viable means of sharing information and often it will get more “eyeball” time than an email will. The downside to sending stuff this way is that it may take the reader a week to see it because of the infrequency with which many people actually read their mail.

Professional Selling Skills Training: Reaching C-Level People

A recent question was posed of "The Sales Hunter":

"I call almost exclusively on C-level people. Getting their attention, response and return calls is really an issue. Any thoughts on the virtue of e-mail vs snail mail vs telelphone?"

The best way to reach C-level people is to use every technique: voice mail, e-mail, regular mail, fax, etc. It is very important that you not allow yourself to become dependent on any single method since what you might think is the best means may not be one they pay any attention to. Email, for instance, might be the easiest, but with the level of spam filters in place, it's amazing what doesn't go through. Keep in mind that one of the main reasons to communicate with c-level people through multiple methods is to allow the gatekeeper to get used to seeing you. This is another reason not to be sending a ton of sales materials to them no matter how good you think they are. The key is to send the c-level person information they will find helpful in their job. I like to send industry articles, information regarding changes in government regulations, and other things they will find beneficial. By sending this type of information, they will begin to think of you in a different light.

Professional Selling Skills Training: Sales Prospecting Perils

Closing a sale with a prospect does not mean it's time to cut your margin. As we get close to the end of the year, there are a large number of sales people scrambling to make their numbers and it's tempting to start cutting margins. Don't do it, no matter how desperate you are. It's amazing how as soon as you cut your margin once, you'll come back and do it again, and again, and again. I know I've said this before, but it's an issue worth repeating. To avoid cutting your margin, first, sell to the customer's needs and benefits and, second, sell while you have time on your side. We don't have the space here to elaborate on this but I'll make sure I add more to this in the weeks ahead.

Sales Training Tip: Why Tips Don’t Work

Last week, a salesperson contacted me to say that their sales were not growing despite having read a number of sales tips that they believed really fit their sales needs. After spending a couple of minutes talking to the person, I helped them realize that they had been merely thinking about the sales training tips, not really putting them into use. Unfortunately, I’ve heard this issue many times before. Often salespeople like what they hear and know what they need to do, but, in the end, fail to do anything about it. It's imperative that you don’t just read or think about something. Get out there and do it! (Gee, isn’t that what a certain shoe company says to do?)

Sales Training Tip #151: Low "Trial" Closes

When you’re about to "trial" close a customer, be careful not to mention anything that may come across as an amount or quantity less than what you want the buyer ultimately to buy.

Prefessional Selling Skills Training: How’s Your Sales Development Coming?

What are you doing to help your sales development? Or, do you even have a personal sales development program to help you grow your business? We just kicked off "The Sales Hunter" Sales Development Program and I'd like to encourage you to check it out and sign up right away. What makes this program so good is that it is delivered online so you can benefit from it whenever and wherever you like. The price is even better: $17.00 a month! It's a steal, but I wanted to make sure the cost would not be an excuse for not taking advantage of it. When you visit our website (www.TheSalesHunter.com), follow the link at the top and you’ll be on your way to improving your sales!

Sales Training Tip #150: Strength of Your Voice

Listen carefully to your voice, especially when you are talking about price or any issue you’ve been struggling with. Your voice will often reveal nervousness in those situations. Sharp buyers listen for this and will leverage this weakness against you.

Professional Selling Skills Training: 3-Step Shuffle

Recently, the following question was posed by a conference attendee:

"The discussion for the 3 step shuffle was good to learn. Could tell me again the time lag I should have between the steps? I got the first step, 72 hours after exchanging business cards."

The 3-Step Shuffle is awesome! I use it regularly. I was at an event today and picked up 3 cards and by tomorrow each of the 3 people will have received their first contact. In this case, I'm doing just a "thanks and great to meet you". The second one I'll send out in about 4 more days and it will be an article I found on the web that I'll send out via e-mail. Then, I'll wait a full week to give them a call. Now, I normally like to end with an e-mail, but in this case I'm choosing to end with a phone call because by that time, I want to either get the appointment to meet or be done with them. These 3 have the potential size where I need to move now or not at all.

Professional Selling Skills Training: How is Yours?

Do you spend time on your professional selling skills training? I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to highlight an interesting figure in a recent Business Week Magazine. The article was talking about competition and how in a survey they conducted, the majority of people believe the most competitive employees in a company are in the sales department. (In particular, 38% of the companies surveyed said sales was the most competitive.) That begs the question: If companies, in general, view sales people this way, how competitive are you when you’re out selling against other sales people? Are you allocating enough resources to developing your professional selling skills?

Prospecting for Clients: Getting Referrals

What does it take to get a customer to give you referrals? You have to ask! Many salespeople don’t ask for referrals because they’re afraid of the customer's response, especially if they suspect the service they’ve been providing them is less than par. You have to ask yourself if this is really the case. The vast majority of times, it is merely a perception that is lingering in the mind of the salesperson. I like to recommend that sales managers create a sale referral period during which they require each salesperson to contact all of their customers to ask for referrals. For the majority of salespeople, asking for referrals is as difficult as cold-calling. Unless it’s mandated, it won’t happen.