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Guest post by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith Become an Author

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Would you like more sales now than last year? Then you may need to revisit a marketing and sales skill set that was developed during your high school days even if you never took a business course.

Before I share that sales skill set with you, I have a question for you.

What do you do with all the sales journals, magazine and newspapers that you read?

Do you clip the articles and file them in some endless hole? Maybe you just glance through them and think I’ll jot that bit of information down later?

These actions are part of that previous learned high school skill set. Yet, what separates successful sales professionals and business owners from not so successful ones is that they actively use this skill set and not just once in a while.

The necessary skill set I am referring to is research. Many sales people are quite honestly– rotten at research. I realized this when glancing through the 2008 November/December issue of Building Indiana a locally published business journal in Northwest Indiana.

For example, this journal shared the following data about Northwest Indiana:

• Lake County has 222 banks compared to Porter County that has 86 banks
• Lake County has 3 times the businesses than Porter Counter has and generates almost 3 times the total sales
• Arts, Entertainment & Recreation in NWI was projected to experience the greatest employment growth between 2007 and 2017

The information goes on, and on, and on. Depending upon your targeted market within Northwest Indiana identified in your marketing action plan, you can use this information to:

• Build compelling marketing stories
• Discover the pains and gains of your qualified potential customers
• Demonstrate that you have a thorough knowledge of the marketplace

Taking the time to research is critical if you want to set yourself apart from all those other gray suits in the marketplace. Recently, I united with several other business owners and we gave a joint presentation in Ocala, FL. My part of the presentation was the ending and to truly “earn the sale.” During those short 6 minutes, I shared my knowledge of the market place specific to:

• Gap in educational attainment
• Decline in construction and manufacturing
• Local initiatives created by economic development councils

For 20 plus hours on the Internet, I scoured specific websites to archived Internet articles using specific key words. The bottom line result was our team received the contract because we demonstrated expertise far beyond all the other presenters. Had we not taken the time to do the research, I do not believe we would have been as successful in showcasing why this organization should hire us.



Take Action Sales Coaching Tip: Increase sales by researching your target market. Integrate that information into your own marketing material. Know your market better than your competitors and you will not only improve your sales skills, but realize better business results.

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