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Invest In Yourself! To Turn Your Prospects Into Customers
| Guest post by: Meridith Elliott Powell |
Article Overview: If you want this year to bring significant Return On Investment that the largest investment you need to make is in yourself!
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Free Download - The Power of Responsibility! By Meridith Elliott Powell |
Invest In Yourself! To Turn Your Prospects Into Customers
When is the last time your name appeared at the top of your
to do list? When is the last time you blocked off an hour even fifteen minutes
just to work on personal growth and development? My guess is it has been a
while. If you want to turn your prospects into customers, the first investment
you need to make as a sales person is in yourself.
Your prospects are relying on you to be confident, to be the expert, to have
ideas and to provide solutions. That is a tough bill to fill in any economy,
but in an economy that is rapidly changing and increasingly competitive, you
have got to be at the top of your game if you are going to deliver.
Personal development is always important, but in this day and age it is
more critical that it has ever been. We are in tough economic times, and
economic times that are changing rapidly. New technology is leading to new ways
for people to communicate and do business. Growing competition is increasing
the need to be better skilled at building relationships, conveying value and
delivering service. And product and service innovation is changing the
customer's expectation of value. How can you keep up if you are not
consistently devoting time to improving your skills, motivating yourself, and
gaining new perspective.
Now I realize, we are all pressed for time. Certainly, I am not advocating you
spend days per month reading books, watching videos or attending seminars. What
I am advocating is you dedicate time every single day to doing something to
improve your skills and talents as a sales person. Yes, I said every single
day! Scheduling small amounts of time everyday to personal growth and
development is not only manageable, it is powerful in its impact and result.
The magic is in the short time frame and the consistency.
I am an early riser, I love to get up in the morning, make a pot of coffee and
enjoy the peace, quiet and alone time of the morning. It is also the time I
invest in myself. If you walked in my house long before dawn you would find me,
jammies
and slippers, big cup of coffee, hair pinned on top of my head, with either my
head in a book or watching a video online. Learning something pertaining to
business development, business trends, strategic planning or any other topic I
feel I need to research in order to be at the top of my game. The first
30-minutes of every morning, I devote to learning. I read books a chapter at a
time, I read articles no more than two or three per session, and I can usually
watch three or four videos and still have time to take notes and develop plans
on how to implement what I have learned.
This practice I feel puts me in pretty good company, among them is David Nour, one
of my favorite experts to follow. I read his blog, belong to his social network
and soak up everything I can in terms of his knowledge and expertise. One
of the first things I heard him say in a lecture he was giving, was that he
devotes an hour every day to learning. An hour every day! This is a man who is
already recognized as someone who is at the top of his game. He is known as an
expert in the field of social networking and relationship technology. He works
with Fortune 500 companies around the world helping them design and implement
their social networks. With all that he has accomplished, he still respects the
importance of investing time in yourself on a consistent basis. I suspect, he
knows it is what keeps him valuable to his clients and ahead of his
competition.
Your prospects are paying you for your knowledge, whether you realize it or
not. The more value you can add in addition to that of your product or service,
the more likely you are to not only close the deal, but keep the relationship
for the long term. Prospects need you to be experts not only of your product or
service, but of the market, your competition, the latest trends. Now more than
ever, prospects need confident sales people who can help them on so many
levels.
This takes dedication and commitment to personal growth and development. If you
want to turn your prospects into customers, then invest in yourself. It will be
the highest ROI you will ever make!
YES! You Have To Ask For the Business
Stress-Free Selling® - Do Your Proposals Sell?
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Sales Prospecting for Sales Results
Article Tags: invest in yourself, prospects, return on investment, sales, sales strategies
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About the Author: Meridith Elliott Powell RSS for Meridith's articles - Visit Meridith's website Click here to visit Meridith's website   Listening Key To Closing Sales Hey Where Did My Favorite Employee Go Stop Cold Calling Turn Your Prospects Into Clients Position Market Sell To Turn Your Prospects Into Clients Customer Service One Critical Step to Get Employees on Board |
Related Forum Posts
Simple way to avoid Cold Calling
- Gary,
A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple!
In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people:
1. Strangers
2. Prospects
3. Returning Customers
You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question.
My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative).
My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him.
So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc.
The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation.
You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him.
At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation.
Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool.
Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!
Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT
- Hi David,
To add to your thread, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Tisch's "Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience".
Tisch's book includes content on "Welcoming Customers", "The New Art of Customization", "The Challenges of Customer Diversity" and "Offering Something Extra to Your Customers" to name a few.
Go for both!
- That's life Julie as a business owner. You never have enough resources. Invest the money in your patent if you really have something worth protecting and bootstrap your marketing efforts so that you get some clients and continue to grow.
Re: Ways to Boost Productivity
- 1. Give Employees More Than a Paycheck
2. Provide Better eSupport Channels to Promote Self-Service
3. Complete your most dreaded tasks first thing in the morning.
4. Outsource as much as possible
5. . Turn off the TV.
Re: Email Etiquette
- [quote="jvprosperity":24jznj58]
The P.S. suggestion is good but it depends on the type of communication (e.g. Autoresponder series verses one off emails to Clients or Prospects)[/quote:24jznj58]
Andy,
You are right. I was mainly referring to Auto Responder emails. To end a normal email, I attach signatures.
Takuya
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