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Back to School!

Guest post by: Brian Sullivan

Article Overview: Five Homework Tips to Make You a Best-in-Class Salesperson

Back to School!

A few weeks ago my 8-year old daughter came running into the kitchen and yelled, “I am so excited! I just found out I got the best teacher. I can’t wait to start.” My first reaction was, “That sounds great!” And my second thought was, “Are you REALLY excited to get back to school?” Well I wasn’t about to question her enthusiasm but it made me think a bit more about it. What is it about September and the beginning of the school year that makes kids reenergized? Well, perhaps it’s the same thing that makes us “old people” pumped up to get back in the sales groove.

But like students, it’s important to realize that much of the success that will come from our own “school” year will be determined by how much homework we do. So while it’s important to show up for class and pay attention, we must realize that it is equally important to show up fully prepared to succeed come test time. Test time for us is that huge customer presentation, that lunch meeting with the high-level executive, that first cold call we make when the bell rings in the morning.

The following steps will make your HOMEWORK time more valuable than at any point in your career. And your study guide should include

1. Internet Research-Before calling on any client, even ones you are familiar with, go to their website and see what is new. There might be new products they are featuring, news that has affected the company, or initiatives they are focusing on. Then do a Google search on the business and the prospects you may be meeting with. If you have not made this a part of your regular research, you may be floored by the knowledge you will get that will directly affect your upcoming sales call. Another great internet research tool is a site called Pipl.com. Put in your prospects name and you will find everything from who their favorite college team is to what neighborhood they live it. A bit scary, isn’t it! But as long as that information is available, we might as well use it to better understand the customer.

2. Social Networking- Sick of hearing about the likes of Linked, Facebook, etc. Well face it. It’s not going away so why not use it better understand your prospect. To do so, use your LinkedIn account to find out what that prospect may have to say about themselves and their industry. You can also reach out to people in your network who may be calling on similar prospects and get their advice. I can go on forever on this topic but regardless of your LinkedIn knowledge, promise yourself you will dedicate an hour or two to better understand WHY you have to keep clicking ACCEPT when you those three invites each day.

3. Vendors- Whether you are in distribution or manufacturing, your homework assignment starting this school season is to suck as much knowledge as possible out of the brains of industry vendors. Company A rep who calls on the same client base as Company B rep (non-competing products) can tell you a ton about how to best approach a prospect. But guess what, YOU have to be the one to initiate the contact. Your homework assignment is to write down five vendor reps who are high performers. Then schedule a specific time to meet. But remember, you need to be specific in WHY you are meeting. Lunch meetings for the sake of “networking” can be construed as a big waste of time. Tell them what you hope to accomplish and how you might be of service to them.

4. Competition- Face it, sometimes the competition just can’t help themselves. With humility as your greatest weapon, you can get often get them to tell you exactly what you need to know. You will also get a better idea about how they communicate with YOUR customers.

5. Customers-Want to get an A in class? Offer to work a day at your most valued customers office…for FREE. They will give you a confused look when you ask but you can bet the competition has never gone this far to better understand them. You can be sure that you will look back on that day as one of the most valuable workdays in your life. And the credibility you will gain will stay with you forever.

There is a great quote from an author named Zora Neale Hurston who said, “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” So your school plan this semester is to let your curiosity result in more research. Which means you need to schedule homework time each week to do nothing but research the companies and prospects you will meet that week. And by poking and prying with purpose, you will find that come class time, you will have done what is necessary to become your teachers (or CEOs) pet.

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Article Tags: communication skills, competition, curiosity, customers, insurance sales training, medical sales training, precise selling, research, sales tactics, sales training, social networking, vendors



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secure my connection - I agree with Link's second post. Security is a personal sticky issue and possibly not the first service you should introduce yourself at the door. I'd suggest also the Back to School "In-Home" Computer tuneup (it's such a pain to take your computer in for servicing) and promise that they would see a smoother and faster computer. You can hand them a 2 page report on the benefits of having a computer tuneup -> this is critical. After you are gone this is the only piece of information that they will have to begin trusting you and want to have you in their home. You can sneak at the bottom of the report the benefits of having a wireless connection and the importance of Securing it. finish off the report with two dotted rounded rectangle boxes beside each other. One has a free Computer tune up assessment and the other a free wireless network security test. If they take you up on either you can test for the other. You now have two sources of possible income.
Re: Can someone explain Search engine optimization to me? - Search Engine Optimization (SEO) could be compared to a big popularity contest: A High School Computer Geek and a High School Football Captain who are trying to promote a party. The computer geek tells everyone in school & even hands out 100's of flyers about his party Friday night...what happens? his friends end up showing up and a few new people...even the new people leave right away because it is not what they are looking for. The High School Football Captain ends up just telling a few good buddies, and within hours the entire school not only knows about it, but everyone wants to come, and everyone does come & stay. One defenition of "optimize is "To make as perfect or effective as possibe." How effective are your article marketing campaigns? Could you be distributing content (that is what search engines index) more effectively? In a perfect world, who would you want promoting your website, web pages, and web content? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is determining this perfect & effective way to do this. Jeff
Re: I'm Back - Welcome Back! Hope you are doing great and looking forward to hearing from you.. Jude
Re: Moderators on vacation - Hi Everyone, Well I am not taking a vacation, but I wanted to let you know I will be visiting this forum less than I used too in the near future. School year started yesterday, and I don't know how my new schedule will affect my days, right now there is a big chaos, I guess they will solve it in the next 2 weeks.
Funnies - Hi There, Here are some bad headlines: Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge Eye Drops Off Shelf Hospitals Are Sued By 7 Foot Doctors Inclued Your Children When Baking Cookies Safety Experts Say School Bus Passengers Should Be Belted Kindest regards Beat


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