Prospecting for More Sales - A Ten-Part Series
Prospecting for More Sales - A Ten-Part Series
Each and every one of us, whether we work for ourselves or work for someone else, should now really be thinking in terms of going to work as if you were running your own business. This is never more so important than it is today, when we have so many pressures on us to retain business, and our customers are being entertained by the competition to move…
Your business is a bit like a garden. It can either blossom or become overrun by weeds, or just wither away and die - it all depends upon your attitude to nurturing growth. To attract customers to your business you have to establish it properly.
It takes a lot of careful planning and hard work to nurture your business, as it does your garden, but it can be very rewarding - just as a beautiful garden is a pleasure to behold. When you have it where you want it to be you can justifiably stand back and feel proud of your achievements. However, when does your business ever stand still long enough for that to happen?
You cannot stop there - just like a garden you have to weed and water it. If you do not, growth will be stifled, and once it stops growing it starts to die, and your business will never flourish.
Your established customers are the basis on which to build your business – you probably already know that. However growth is a sign of health and vigour and if your business is not growing then there's a good chance that we are in the early stages of decay.
To stop the rot setting in, you need to develop a well-organised “attack” and seek out new business opportunities so that you will prosper and grow. What this means is, you have to think about developing an effective approach to prospecting.
Regrettably, many people just sat back in their offices waiting for the business to come in. Don’t laugh, I have seen it! Do you?
Let’s assume your product range is very good, and your service is excellent, but how different is that to what your competitors offer? Somewhere, someone is selling to somebody, something that is just as good as what you have. So where does that leave you then?
Well, the first thing you can do is make sure that the customers actually know that you are in business. (See Lesson One: Get Noticed!)
Why are you in business; what are your business goals? I believe the number one reason for any of us to be in business is to help our customers achieve their goals. By assisting your customers to do that, then we in turn will achieve our goals. However, that’s not the reason I asked the question.
The reason I asked that particular question – what are your business goals? – was to demonstrate the question that is very often neglected in a sales call - finding out exactly what the company's goals are, and where they expect to be in 12 months, five years and ten years. Often this information can be gleaned from an Annual report if available, or other company material. For smaller businesses however, you are going to have to ask.
Continued in Part Two.
Prospecting for More Sales A TenPart Series - To learn more about this author, visit Lawrence Atkinson's Website.
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Part One
Each and every one of us, whether we work for ourselves or work for someone else, should now really be thinking in terms of going to work as if you were running your own business. This is never more so important than it is today, when we have so many pressures on us to retain business, and our customers are being entertained by the competition to move…
Your business is a bit like a garden. It can either blossom or become overrun by weeds, or just wither away and die - it all depends upon your attitude to nurturing growth. To attract customers to your business you have to establish it properly.
It takes a lot of careful planning and hard work to nurture your business, as it does your garden, but it can be very rewarding - just as a beautiful garden is a pleasure to behold. When you have it where you want it to be you can justifiably stand back and feel proud of your achievements. However, when does your business ever stand still long enough for that to happen?
You cannot stop there - just like a garden you have to weed and water it. If you do not, growth will be stifled, and once it stops growing it starts to die, and your business will never flourish.
Your established customers are the basis on which to build your business – you probably already know that. However growth is a sign of health and vigour and if your business is not growing then there's a good chance that we are in the early stages of decay.
To stop the rot setting in, you need to develop a well-organised “attack” and seek out new business opportunities so that you will prosper and grow. What this means is, you have to think about developing an effective approach to prospecting.
Regrettably, many people just sat back in their offices waiting for the business to come in. Don’t laugh, I have seen it! Do you?
Let’s assume your product range is very good, and your service is excellent, but how different is that to what your competitors offer? Somewhere, someone is selling to somebody, something that is just as good as what you have. So where does that leave you then?
Well, the first thing you can do is make sure that the customers actually know that you are in business. (See Lesson One: Get Noticed!)
Why are you in business; what are your business goals? I believe the number one reason for any of us to be in business is to help our customers achieve their goals. By assisting your customers to do that, then we in turn will achieve our goals. However, that’s not the reason I asked the question.
The reason I asked that particular question – what are your business goals? – was to demonstrate the question that is very often neglected in a sales call - finding out exactly what the company's goals are, and where they expect to be in 12 months, five years and ten years. Often this information can be gleaned from an Annual report if available, or other company material. For smaller businesses however, you are going to have to ask.
Continued in Part Two.
Prospecting for More Sales A TenPart Series - To learn more about this author, visit Lawrence Atkinson's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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