Many companies have seen significant increases in revenues as a direct result of changing their sales thought process from selling to a prospect, to allowing prospects to buy. This means that salespeople must now align themselves with prospects and together create a compelling desire to buy. This shift alone will make an important difference in the way that salespeople interface with prospects rather than the traditional attempt of selling features of the product or solution that is wanting to be sold! However this might not be enough because, as we all know, closing business is hard and takes both time and sales skill – so what can be done to improve the probability of sales success?
Initially we should go back to basics and ensure that we are covering all of the bases.
Firstly we should look at Efficiency.
Ask yourself, are we developing the right type of relationships with our prospects? Are they typically the level that we know we can influence and win? Are we making the right type of initial cold call and then nurturing the follow-up? Are we making the right kind of visits? Given that visits can often remove a whole day from the sales calendar we should consider the value and if possible have more than one prospect visit in a day. Are we completely updated as to how to answer today’s’ objections? Basic objection handling skill is good but every service and product has a ‘sell by date’ so different objections will develop and need clarification over a period of time – ensure that you can easily objection handle even the most complex objection. Ask yourself about your negotiation and closing skills – if you haven’t worked on them in today’s economy you could lose the sale even at this late stage of the sales cycle simply because your skill was not good enough.
Secondly Effectiveness.
This is where you have the skill level and understanding to do the right sales things at the right time. Think about the companies that you engage with. Are they the right size, the right location and are they likely to have the right budget? Are they the right people that you are spending time chasing or talking to – how do you know? Do you have all of the right arguments that you can skilfully present to help prospects understand where the value is and the differences they would enjoy once they start adopting your solution/service/product? Have you considered the objectives and priorities? You should also consider that not every prospect is a good prospect and you may find that a disproportionate amount of time is being invested in something that will never happen.
Lastly Productivity Understanding your sales metrics is important and will provide you with valuable feedback as to what you are actually achieving. Here we can increase revenues easily by being more effective. You may already understand that targeting the right companies and making more of the right phone calls is going to get you more of the right results. Start to measure visits and conversion rates. Start to measure and monitor your phone calls. Start to look at the time when you first pick up the phone in the morning and when you make the last prospecting call at night. Remember that most sales people think that sales is a 9 to 5 job. If you are in this category you probably do not speak to enough decision makers as they are usually around and take calls early or late.
One last point look at increasing the revenues at the point of purchase. Use your up selling sales techniques and simply ASK for more – you may get it!
If you start to do this you will also start to magically enjoy more sales success – it’s easy but not simple.
Mike Palman works with The Sales Academy www.thesalesacademy.com and is a master sales coach.
To learn more about this author, visit Mike Palman's Website.
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Mike Palman
(Visit Mike's Website)
Bio Info: Mike Palman, is a global Master
Sales Coach, Sales Mentor, Author and
Sales Trainer and CEO of The Sales
Academy. Mike helps people and businesses
do more, do it better and get the results
that they really want. In 2005 Mike
started an e-mail marketing company
believing that e-mail marketing is an
essential part of today’s marketing that
can help leverage new business www.cando
mail.com Mike had a successful career
in sales for over 25 years and now helps
salespeople, sales management & business
owners get the sales edge. Mike lives in
both the UK and South Africa. For more
articles by Mike Palman, visit www
.thesalesacademy.com
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