Posts Tagged ‘selling skills’
Quote of the Week
Branding is no longer for Fortune 500 companies and Madison Avenue agencies with excessive budgets and inadequate tracking.
Personal branding is about managing your name — even if you don’t own a business — in a world of misinformation, disinformation, and semi-permanent Google records.
Going on a date? Chances are that your “blind” date has Googled your name.
Going to a job interview? Ditto.
Tim Ferriss
Read more: http://www.gaia.com/quotes/topics/branding#ixzz0V3J2fGRe
Thought of the Week
Even in selling brand is vital for business success. If customers and prospective customers are not speaking about you then you do not have a brand. In the age where consumers see over 10,000 messages per day, clutter is the norm. It is then vital for the seller/marketer to create differentiation and be heard above the din. What are you doing to create brand and be heard.
Best Practice of the Week
It is necessary to create strategies that engage your brand. To proliferate your brand engage in numerous activities around your consumers. Speak, write, network, teach, and volunteer are activities helpful to having people see you and discuss your differentiation. Invest in ideas and issues that allow customers to be attracted to you. Which is easier awaiting a phone call or creating the activities that make it ring? Do not be a spectator create those activities that keep you in the field of play!
©2009. Drew J. Stevens Ph.D. All rights reserved.
About Dr. Drew
Drew Stevens PhD works with individuals and organizations to dramatically accelerate revenue growth. Dr. Drew is the author of six books including Split Second Selling and the soon to be released Ultimate Business Bible. He is also the creator of the Sales Leadership Certificate one of only 14 programs in the United States offering an accredited degree in the profession of selling and has a top ranked podcast called Sales Fitness with Dr. Drew. To book Dr. Drew for a workshop or keynote Contact Dr. Drew or to obtain is Marketing Acceleration Worksheet to help you create brand recognition.
I come across a variety of business professionals in my coaching and workshops. Some do very well for themselves while others struggle. There is one consistent condition separating the two- fear.
People vacillate for many reasons, comfort zone, lack of risk and fear of the unknown. It is this fear that retards most businesses and professionals from propelling forward. What then is fear? Simply, fear is a condition that manifests based on beliefs and attitudes. These erroneous conditions are built from previous experiences or perhaps reading or watching the experiences of others.
Fear is a deadly disease. Fear retards growth. And one of the conditions of fear is the inability or desire to remain in the comfort zone.
However, facing fear and removal from the comfort zone enables education. When one takes risks one learns. Refraining from fear freezes business professionals from experiences and ideas that might allow them to break from the pack. Exemplars include Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King. While only a few of thousands of examples, all faced fear, took prudent risks and became better for it.
Fear is not a negative condition but a teacher. When we face fear we learn. We reach new markets, develop new products and provide better service. Fear takes what we do not know and enables us to experiment and learn new best practices. Most importantly fear stops us from doing hundreds of things poorly and using a microcosm of things well.
To face fear, you need to let go. You need to step away from those things that make you comfortable and you need to take some prudent risk. You also need to look in the mirror and answer the following: What holds you back?
©2009 Drew J. Stevens PhD All rights reserved.
I am in my office the other day when a Vice President of Sales calls and states he needs assistance. The dilemma: the sales staff closing efficiency is off. In addition, the VP continually learns the staff does not meet with the economic buyer and hears the same rote excuse of “no money in the budget”.
For a few moments we speak and since they are not located in my city we agree to discuss how I might help. After 20 minutes of provocative questions and gaining some insight into the objectives of the organization, metrics for accountability and to understand how well we meet those objectives and finally the value to the organization, we agree to my sending a proposal. However, the vice president continually asks me for a foundational fee to better understand the investment. Unwillingly I provide him a very conservative estimate based on similar work. He states, “We do not have money in the budget”.
Naturally I was flabbergasted. The Vice President calls me, desires my input for better closing efficiency and then gives the same excuse as his representatives.
Here are some unprecedented facts from a recent CSO Insight:
• 92% of most sales professionals lack a foundational selling method which continually impacts closing efficiency.
• The percentage of salespeople failing to hit their sales quota rose from 38.8% to 41.2%
• Overall revenue plan attainment dropped from 88.2% to 85.9%
• The top 20% of sales reps are generating 61.5% of revenue
If sales are vital to every organization including the Federal Government, then why not invest in the most imperative asset? Think about that nothing, and I mean nothing happens unless something is sold.
The essence of the issue revolves around two heartfelt realities; 1) failure to invest and 2) taking a good look in the mirror. If the manager desires more sales and better efficiency then he might want to take a good look at his philosophy. Student emulate those that they learn from.
What is the image you see in the mirror?
Copyright 2009. Drew Stevens PhD. All rights reserved.
The constant bombardment of negative press can be overwhelming to selling professionals and their managers. The negative information manifests and creates negative energy and focus for all. One way to reverse the negative attitudes surrounding you is to avoid them.
The best level of avoidance begins with your job, your product and the interaction between you and your manager. We all have one life and it is not a lengthy one. We must make our time on earth abundant. This begins with passion. It is imperative that you love what you do and the individuals and customers you service. If boredom, apathy and negativity exist, then switch. There is no reason awake every morning to work you hate.
You must sell yourself on the product or service. Your work centers around providing solutions to client needs. If you are not convinced of the benefits how might your customers? Selling begins with you, after all your clients do not invest in products and services but rather a future relationship with you.
As recent as 2006 the Gallup Organization estimated there were 32 million actively disengaged employees costing the American economy up to $350 billion per year in lost productivity. Such loss includes absenteeism, tardiness, and poor work. Research supports that productivity stems from the interaction between manager and employee. In fact, 70% of productivity is based on the interactive relationships of client and manager. If your manager and you cannot reach consensus, if goals and circumstances too demanding then it is time to leave. Work relationships emulate family relations; dysfunctional families separate or divorce. Similar is offered with work relations. If your manager and you are not on the same page and if values differ then it is time for departure.
Selling requires positive energy and focus. Pollyanna is never possible however life is too short to worry about trivialities. Life is too short to live with negativity. Moreover, selling cycles and relationships are too important to work in disgust.
© 2009. Drew J. Stevens PhD. All rights reserved.
*****The Sales Corner*****
Drew Steven’s is just one of many people that takes advantage of The Sales Corner. From time to time, we get some exclusive material from him to post here for you and our members. This time however, I found an article I couldn’t resist bringing here for you. It’s an interesting concept of doing business, but maybe you can become better after you read this like I did! – Matt G – The Sales Corner
Written by: Drew J. Stevens
Yes, the title is correct. I am receiving too many about new methods to close business. There are too many selling representatives clamoring for business. These difficult economic times are scaring selling professionals. Sales representatives are reviewing every sales book and article to determine how to sell more in less time. Professionals are concerned with two issues; leads and closing. However, contrary, to belief, too many representatives spend time trying to close sales; and not building relationships.
There is a famous quote by the management guru Peter Drucker that states, “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer”. Such merit begins with the relationship. Individuals desire to conduct business with those they know and those they trust. Sales professionals cannot expect to close business if they do not have a relationship. People do not buy products and services from customers they buy from articulate individuals.
******
This Sales and Marketing Article has been brought to you by The Sales Corner.
This is reprinted in part with proper credit and permission from Drew Steven’s.
******
