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Want your clients to trust you? Build competence.
We have heard sales managers and coaches say, "It’s up to you. If you want it, you have to go out there and make it happen!" We have the power to control our own destiny. That is what most sales people love about selling. Most of the time we associate "making it happen" with activity, but what about accumen? Building competence is a key process that includes multiple layers. It involves knowing your industry, the product, and your prospects.
Last week, I asked our readers to share opinions about Quality vs. Volume. Here's a view of the the results...
I am in the minority on this one. Here are the reasons why:
When Marketing and Sales work together to dial up the formula for success, my guess is most of us have been in the Quality vs. Volume conversation. In an age of inbound marketing, social media, and big data, are we looking at this issue the right way?
Can Sales and Marketing develop an "unoffendable" attitude? Sales and marketing people have to be thick-skinned. "There's no crying in baseball," and there's no crying in sales. I recently told a few people that I have been working on developing an unoffendable attitude. Needless to say, the most common response I'm getting is a funny look.
I'm pretty good at reading people, but in this case, I'm not quite sure what the funny look means...
I've spent most of my career in sales, and think back to several conversations that made a big impact on the way I think. As a salesperson, I used to cringe when I heard a teammate complain about not having enough leads. I'd think to myself, "You don't need leads, just pick up the phone and hammer!"
When I moved into management, I expected everyone on my team to have the same mentality. "Stop complaining and crank the phones!" I remember my boss intercepting me in the hallway to ask, "Are we going to hit quota this month?"
"We're behind, and it doesn't look like it, but I'll get everyone to bust out more calls. We'll find a way," I assured him.
Sales leaders are always looking for ways to make their team better. There is a great book I have been reading, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. In his book, Duhigg relays interesting findings on habit formation and the psychology and neuroscience that drives changes in behavior. This is not a self-help book with anecdotal remedies, but a focused look at the science behind habit formation and change.
As salespeople and business professionals, we all allow bad habits to creep into our daily routines. These habits have a way of diminishing our effectiveness and performance and sometimes lead to catastrophic failures. To perform at the highest level in business and sales, we need to understand the habits in our lives that deter us from accomplishing our dreams and goals and understand how to change or replace them with winning behaviors that accelerate growth and achievement.
I was listening to a group of salespeople discuss best practices for telephone prospecting. One of them suggested, when prospects answer the phone, callers should ask, “Is this a good time to talk?” He said this technique differentiates him from other salespeople, positioning him as someone who is respectful of the prospect’s time.
Of course there were a number of opinions, both for and against the technique.
A couple of weeks ago, Jill Konrath sent me a copy of her newest book AGILE SELLING. Everybody talks about how much sales has changed, but Jill is the best I've ever seen at connecting the dots and finding solutions to the challenges salespeople face.
Everything about AGILE SELLING speaks to speed and agility. Even the way Jill sets up the chapters, two-to-three pages each, with quick hit ideas and tactics that you can immediately apply and improve your selling skills.
"Being an agile seller in today's business environment virtually guarantees a prosperous career. You can ramp up quickly in new positions, becoming competent in record time. You can jump-start sales of new products or services. You can instantly adjust to new market dynamics. In short, agility becomes your competitive edge." -Jill Konrath
When you read AGILE SELLING, you’ll discover over 63 new ideas and strategies for developing an agile selling mind-set, learn new information quickly, pick up new skills fast, and learn the success habits of agile sellers.
In some of my favorite chapters, Jill talks about how...
Losing a sale can be a painful experience. You identified your potential customer. Then you spent hours, days or weeks engaging the client. Finally, you proposed a solution. All these efforts consumed time and energy you could have spent with another potential customer who would have purchased from you. It just hurts (and costs!) to lose a sale. The best way to win your next deal, is to understand why you lost the last one. Here are three of the top reasons customers don't buy...
Last week I asked our readers to share best practices for creating urgency, getting prospects off the fence, and closing the sale. We had so many responses on LinkedIn and Google Plus, it was impossible to choose only one best answer. I've narrowed it down to my 11 favorite responses. Congratulations to all the winners! I've made it easy to connect with them by sharing their social profiles and company web site.
