If you don’t measure it, it won’t happen. If you don’t measure sales performance, it won’t happen. And if you don’t measure process, measuring results instead, good luck! Measuring process is King, measuring results is vanity. Believe it or not there are institutions that don’t measure sales processes. They measure results. Even I didn’t believe
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Salespeople take risks. Scratch that. Successful sales people take risks. Mediocre ones colour within the lines. And their (mediocre) results show it. If you are recruiting for a sales person, capacity to take risks should be high on your checklist. If you are recruiting compliance officers, then acting in accordance with set rules it is.
“But we’ve never heard of you, customers keep saying. We could sell more if only Marketing did their job.” Not an uncommon accusation from sales people. Today, I’d like us to look at some sales problems marketing gets blamed for-unfairly. In fact, some problems are simply objections that need handling. They don’t know about us
To what extent does the product service mix, or service product, mix affect your selling? You see, your product attracts your prospect, but your service retains your customer. A majority of products carry with them an element of service but in varied degrees. The hospitality industry, for instance, has a heavy dose of both. Take
Ask for sales referrals. Prospects don’t volunteer them unsolicited. A sales referral is perhaps the most powerful weapon in a sales person’s arsenal. A sales referral happens when an existing customer or prospect gives the name (that is, refers) of another potential buyer, to the sales person. This means that asking for referrals is a
Ask. Just ask for the sale. Ask for the meeting. Ask for the cheque. Even ask for the referral. Ask. Just ask. And be specific when asking. It is tragic that many sales fail simply because the sales person did not ask. He did not ask the right questions, or worse, did not ask for
How do you determine what the customer wants, if he himself doesn’t? Or, doesn’t want to divulge it? Explore. To begin with, if only there was a list of customer wants. (Sigh!). Alas! contrary to popular belief, customers don’t know what they want. So that list would be constantly evolving. A seller who takes this
Accept sales rejections. Being shouted at like that has happened to many experienced salespeople. And many reasons abound for this. “You! When I see you here disturbing my people I will kick you out!” So, thundered the Senior Human Resources Manager at a firm with 4,000 employees. All of them, potential prospects for this bank
The prospect feels heard, listened to, assured. These are the qualities that exercising patience when selling yields. And they dramatically increase customer retention. Patience. (Pause and digest that first). Patience isn’t just a virtue. Patience is a sales virtue. Exercise patience when selling. Many sales are lost because the potential buyer (prospect) felt rushed and
He’s the CEO. Don’t fight this if you want the sale; align to it. He is used to giving direction and making decisions. Let him. It’s not for him to adapt to you. He won’t. It’s you that should adapt to him. And no, this is not about becoming a yes man. It’s about selling