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Ron La Vine Articles

Written by: Ron La Vine

STEPPING OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT AREA - Click To Read Article
The challenge is to reduce the gap between your actual performance (inside the comfort area) vs. your potential performance (outside the comfort area). Want to learn more...read on.

WHAT MAKES A QUALIFIED PROSPECT, QUALIFIED? - Click To Read Article
Have you ever asked yourself, what are the specific characteristics of a qualified prospect? What are the minimum pieces of information I need to know to determine if the potential for a sale exists? What pieces of information are required before you consider a prospect qualified? Am I using a consistent sales system or process to successfully obtain the information needed? Here are 17 areas with questions you may want to ask yourself so you can create a qualified prospect profile also known as an Account Sales Profile™.

Cold Calling Tips - Click To Read Article
TIPs (techniques, ideas and process) for successful cold calling.

CHARACTERISTICS OF TOP SALES EXECUTIVES - Click To Read Article
What qualities make a top sales executive. Excerpt: Top sales executives recognize their time is precious and finite. These sales representatives know their primary job is to identify and call on the most profitable accounts first. Examining their current customer base and finding the common characteristics or demographics (gross sales, number of employees, industries, etc.) top salespeople know in advance what types of accounts where they make the most money. They separate their accounts by time zone enabling them to make the best use of their phone time throughout the day.

WHAT IS YOUR TIME WORTH TO YOU? - Click To Read Article
Excerpt: The following is a true story. For starters, I like to answer my own phone for the purpose of studying the phone and sales skills of the person who is calling me. About three weeks ago, I received two calls from the same, large financial newspaper and both people were trying to sell me subscriptions over the phone. We'll call this paper the DUM Daily Paper.

What is their problem? - Click To Read Article
Sales professionals depend on knowing how to ask the right questions to discover the real needs of our clients. Often our clients tell us what they would like us to do, such as, "I need a solution on change management," but without telling us the ultimate result they want to achieve.

WANT TO SELL MORE? - Click To Read Article
Excerpt: Sometimes sales reps lose track of the basics. What do the coaches say when you're in a sports slump? Go back to the basics. You can be a greater presenter or a fantastic closer, however if you lack good solid prospecting skills, who will you be presenting too or what sales willing you be closing?

TURNING DATA TO DOLLARS FROM THE INFORMATION OPERATOR - Click To Read Article
Excerpt: When calling 1-(Area Code)- 555-1212 for long distance or 411 for local information assistance, before you are transferred into the "here's your number" recording, ask the operator to stop and please help you. Since you are entitled to two phone numbers and at least one address, you can best maximize the value of this simple call by politely asking for as much free information as possible.

TEN TIPS FOR TELEPHONE QUALIFYING SUCCESS - Click To Read Article
Using the phone successfully to market your products and services to potential new clients often requires you to navigate through a labyrinth of people to find the correct individual(s) who can provide the information you seek. Whether for pre-sales research or to determine who has the ability to acquire your products and services, here is a quick summary of proven techniques for achieving these objectives from Ron S. La Vine – CEO of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc. a Live Cold Calling Sales Training and Telesales Training Company.

LET PEOPLE BUY THE WAY THEY WANT TO BUY - Click To Read Article
Excerpt: I was on the phone today in front of class and had a great call. Again it was a 20+ minute call and here are the key details I remember. As an aside, I am a big believer in quality calls measured upon the results produced from the amount of talk time rather than a sheer number of dials. I was cold calling on a very well known and large publisher in Chicago. I called into the headquarters and nailed down the CEO, CIO and VP of IT Infrastructure and none of them were in.

How to Take Good Notes - Click To Read Article
When a conversation is moving fast over the phone it becomes critical that you are able to take good notes. This means the name, title (get it exact), extension, email, fax, assistant, backups, peers and subordinates for anyone that has an influence on your sales cycle.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR LISTENING SKILLS - Click To Read Article
Excerpt: Clear your desk and prepare yourself for each call by having everything you need within reach or eyesight. To maximize each call, use a headset, lean slightly forward while sitting in your chair and minimize or remove all distractions around you. Think of yourself as a sponge. Give your full attention to what is being said by the contact. Listen closely to not only what is being said, and how it is being said.

HOW TO SELL IN ANY TYPE OF MARKET - Click To Read Article
Excerpt: I came across an article in the Investor's Business Daily about "Selling in a Down Market" and I think it applies to selling in any type of market. My summary of the main points is below. Below is an adaptation of an article "Selling in a Down Market" by Cord Cooper in the December 5, 2002 edition of Investor's Business Daily.

HOW TO DEVELOP A VOICE THAT SELLS - Click To Read Article
Excerpt: When speaking with someone over the phone for the first time, we do not have the luxury of visual cues therefore it becomes even more important to make a good impression suing our voice. Yes, your voice is a sales tool and how it is used over the phone can often make the difference between getting the sale or losing it to a competitor. In their book "Put Your Best Foot Forward, Make a Great Impression By Taking Control of How Others see You" Jo-Ellan Dimitirus, Ph.D. and Mark Mazzarella devote a whole chapter to voice alone.

HOW TO AVOID SOUNDING LIKE JUST ANOTHER SALES REP - Click To Read Article
Excerpt: If you want to avoid sounding like another company trying to sell something, DON'T SELL. You're thinking right now, "Ron you're off your rocker." What do you mean, don't sell? That's what I'm hired to do. To which I reply, I understand that making a sale is the overall goal of your position. However, before any sale (i.e. not a retail sale over the counter) of significance can take place, many questions need to be asked and answered and their answers agreed upon.

HOW MUCH PRE-CALL RESEARCH IS TOO MUCH - Click To Read Article
Excerpt: There has been a great deal of questions in my workshops lately about how to use email in conjunction with leads coming off the Internet. How do you know if you have research before following up? How can you use email as an effective tool to create specific follow-up action steps? With that in mind, here is an example of an email I received from a company we'll call " WeKnowItAll Company".

FREE RESOURCES TO TURN DATA INTO DOLLARS - Click To Read Article
Excerpt: Finding new business can be a snap, if you know where to look and what to do with the information you find. Using the telephone along with publicly available information, you can turn data into dollars.

Five Steps to Cold Calling Success - Click To Read Article
Are you having a hard time reaching decision-makers, setting up well-qualified appointments, getting past gatekeepers, gathering information or finding if you are calling on an appropriate prospect in the first place? Maybe it seems impossible to get your cold calls returned or you are getting stuck into an endless loop of voice mail. Read on...

BUSINESS "LESSONS" LEARNED - Click To Read Article
Lessons to improve your business.

ARE YOU WATCHING OUT FOR THE SOLUTION TRAP? - Click To Read Article
Excerpt: It is a common trap. A solution trap that many sales reps fall victim too. Let's look at how the trap works by examining two situations. In the first scenario, Typical Sales Rep has done some homework on the Internet by stopping by the prospect's web page and reading about the prospect’s solutions.

ANSWER BASED QUESTIONING - Click To Read Article
Have you ever begun to think to yourself while you are on the phone speaking with a prospect, “What am I going to say next?”

BE INTERESTED, NOT INTERESTING - Click To Read Article
How to overcome the competition.

A FEW SELLING DOS AND DON'TS - Click To Read Article
DO match and mirror the speed, tone and volume of the other person's voice. DON'T speak in a monotone. DO call for a specific reason such as to provide some information of value. DON'T call just to check in. DO go the prospect's web site first to see if they fit your ideal prospect profile. DON'T randomly send out expensive (your time, material costs and postage) literature. DO tell the truth even if you do not have the answer to a question at that moment. DON'T try to fake like you know the answer to a question you don't.





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