Eleven Tips for Million Dollar Selling – Continued

Tip #11  

Have fun and be happy because if it isn’t life threatening don’t let it bother you. One thing I learned after ten years in the business changed my life. I used to become very upset at every problem that arose. I would yell at vendors, truck lines, installers trying to get problems resolved my way. What I eventually learned was that most people want to do a good job and that if you are nice to them and treat them professionally you will get them to help you faster than by threatening them. The other thing I learned is that no problem is so important that you should loose your cool and get yourself all upset. You need to keep things in prospective and if it isn’t a life-threatening event then don’t worry about it. It is usually only a money issue and if you have a result that goes against you and you make a little less that is ok. Remember that most of us leave something behind when we leave this life anyway so just leave a note for your heirs as to why your estate may be a little light and move on. You will be happier for it and get back to being happy faster than brooding about it.     

Eleven Tips for Million Dollar Selling – Continued

Tip #10

Have a good life’s balance makes for a better sales professional. I suggest you spend some time on this with your family and determine what works best for you. Everyone is different and has different family circumstances but you need balance in your life to be at your best. There are many experts in this area and one that I might recommend besides those in my book list is Stephen R. Covey, “The 8^th Habit”.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Covey

 

Eleven Tips for Million Dollar Selling – Continued

Tip #9

Problems don’t take care of themselves. Hiding from problems is not the solution. In a past http://www.harvard.edu Study it was discovered that you could turn a problem to your advantage by taking quick and decisive action in helping solve the problem. In fact the study showed that the likelihood of a second order increased from customers whose problem was satisfactorily handled than from those whose first order went with out a hitch. By delaying action you only increase the customers aggravation and the longer you delay the less likely they will pay or ever do business with you again. Problems are not fun but they can become profitable by building long term customer satisfaction.

Eleven Tips for Million Dollar Selling – Continued

Tip #8

You can turn slow times into busy times. It is interesting that when the economy GDP drops a couple of points many people think that there is no business to be had. This is not true. Businesses go through cycles of expansion and contraction just as the economy. When some sectors are contracting you need to find the ones in your area that are expanding. To quote a great stock picker “There is always a bull market somewhere” and it is your job to find it and sell to those companies. Read your business journal, join a lead club, join the local Chamber of Commerce, and network with the other Partners in the other divisions in your area.

One technique that I used when things got slow overall was to sit down and call everyone of my customers and tell them that I would be in their area next week and asked if they wanted to see me. What I found was that usually 4-8 of my old accounts were doing something and wanted me to come by. After visiting them and working on their projects I suddenly found myself busy again. It also reminded all of my customers that I was still out there and interested in them. 

There are great tools today that we did not have in our day and one is the Gold Mine Software. You need to load all of your customers and prospects into this database and develop and launch selling tracks for each one of them. This will keep yourself in front of your customers for free and will produce business.

Remember that it is important to know that you should give your customers information to help them improve and don’t just try to sell them something.

Eleven Tips for Million Dollar Selling – Continued

Tip #7  

Making sales calls is critical to your success. Staying on the street during selling hours and doing your paperwork before and after this time block is what the top 20% of sales professionals do to be the best. Selling requires that we go out and meet with your clients for any number of reasons. It does not mean sitting in the office and taking orders and thinking you are having a good time. You need to prospect to find accounts to replace those you will naturally loose and to sell more and more into your existing accounts. Studies have shown that you will have an easier time selling into every department in your existing account and your complete product line into these same accounts than trying to crack a new account. Remember it takes an average of five sales calls on the same person to make a sale but to an existing account selling additional items takes many times fewer calls.       

Eleven Tips for Million Dollar Selling – Continued

Tip #6  

Beware of the huge sale. Many times during your career you will receive an order for a huge job. This is good but it could also be bad. I have seen more than one good salesperson spend weeks on a huge job, neglect their every day customers and then after loosing the project find they have also lost most of their base business. Likewise I have seen the same thing happen when the sales person receives a huge order but at the end of the year they find they did not make that much more as their base business suffered and the large commission only resulted in making up for this loss and was not plus business. You need to be aware of this rule and work the job with spare time and not neglect your base business so that if you loose it you are fine and if you get the order you can bank it as extra money.

Eleven Tips for Million Dollar Selling – Continued

Tip # 5 

Selling is more than quoting. Studies show that it takes an average of five contacts on the same customer to make a sale but most salespeople stop at 2-3 calls. Most do a reasonable job of quoting the customer but only 20% of them take the next steps and close the sale. The finest example, the best of the best, in closing by following up I learned years ago. He taught me the importance of follow up in getting the sale. He not only had a file full of outstanding quotes but made a list of them on a sheet of paper which he carried with him at all times. He called and followed up daily or every couple of days until the customer gave him the order. I copied this technique and learned that often sales were gotten that might have been lost because I had built a relationship with my customer during the follow up process so that they finally gave me the order.

Eleven Tips for Million Dollar Selling – Continued

Tip # 4

You need to think both global and local to keep from being blind-sided. Global thinking has to do with the industry and your competition and what they might do to thwart your plans. Local thinking includes what tactics you will use within your specific accounts or to close specific quotes. You need to understand that your account base of customers will degrade about 20% per year, do to a number of events beyond your control, and needs to be factored into your plan. Companies and the people you work with within these companies are always moving and changing and at a rate of around 20% per year. If you have 60 active accounts that buy each year 12 of them will likely change, move, go about of business, be bought out, be lost to a competitor, etc. Therefore, you need to have as part of your plan a hunting component that will replace these 12 accounts so that the next year will be at least as good as the current one. Without prospecting your income will eventually degrade to the point where you will either quit the company or the business. The best of the best understand this and won’t let it happen to them.

Eleven Tips for Million Dollar Selling – Continued

Tip #3 -

Plan your work and work your plan. This is obvious but done only by less than 20% of sales people. You not only need a one-year plan but a monthly, weekly, and daily plan of action. The plan consists of the specific things you will do to reach your goals.  Remember that your plan or goal must be measurable, a stretch to reach, and reviewed and reassessed frequently during the year.  Probably, the biggest mistake that sales people or anyone makes when setting their goals or plans is that after setting them they don’t follow up on their plan until close to the end and then it is too late to accomplish them.

Eleven Tips for Million Dollar Selling – Continued

Tip #2 

  Set goals that you need to stretch to reach. Goals need to be clear, specific, quantifiable, and referred too regularly. Most people set goals like they set New Year’s Resolutions. They set them and forget them. You will never be successful unless you set goals and then refer to them regularly and make the adjustments necessary to reach them. They also need to be quantifiable so you can monitor your progress. As example of a poorly designed goal is “I want to loose weight this year”. A better goal would be I want to loose 40 pounds this year and each day I will do the following things, such as specific calorie intake and specific amounts of exercise to make it happen. As the days and weeks roll by you should compare your results with your goal and make any adjustments to make them happen, as you want.