Habit 33: Know Every Customer/Prospect’s Fiscal and Budget Constraints
December 21, 2016
Selling
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To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 33: Know Every Customer/Prospect's Fiscal and Budget Constraints. What does this really mean? The answer is: it's very simple. Fiscal constraints are: The time of year that the customer/prospect's fiscal year begins and ends and the methodologies used to approve budgets. Budget constraints are simply: The timing of capital budget submittals The timing of capital budget approvals The timing of capital fund releases Obtaining this information is simple. Simply ask and the prospective customer or customer will answer. The more important question is why do you want to know this information? This information is ...
Habit 32: Develop an “Account Plan”, at the Beginning of an Account Relationship
November 29, 2016
Selling
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To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 32: Develop an “Account Plan”, at the beginning of an account relationship. When I talk about the “Account Plan”, many people think I am talking about an “Opportunity Plan.” An account plan is simply a description of where you believe a new account will grow. So, in the very beginning of an account relationship, you should evaluate the account’s grow power and determine if, in fact, you should focus a lot of time on the new account or not. I can’t tell you how many sales people simply forge ahead with ...
Habit 31 – The Sales Cycle, Account and Opportunity Plan
Habit 31 – Write out the “Sales Cycle”, “Account Plan” and “Opportunity Plan” for every “C” and “D” opportunity and maintain them religiously. To kick off the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 31: Write out the “Sales Cycle”, “Account Plan” and “Opportunity Plan” for every “C” and “D” opportunity and maintain them religiously. Before you can write out a “Sales Cycle” you must know the definition of the term. For the purposes herein the “Sales Cycle” is the string of events that will happen from the beginning of the opportunity until the end of the opportunity. A typical sales cycle could ...
50 Habits of Top Performing Sales People Habits 28, 29 and 30
August 30, 2016
Selling
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Continuing with the Six Interpersonal Skills let's look at Habits 28, 29 and 30. Habit 28: Be at ease with people. Habit 29: Make people feel at ease with you. Habit 30: Determine and accommodate a prospect’s/customer’s country quickly and modify your communication style to accommodate theirs. Last month's newsletter talked about being “on time” for appointments. This month let’s focus on being at ease with your customers, making people feel at ease with you and accommodating how people deal with others. How can you make people feel at ease? The number one issue is to be at ease yourself. If you are ...
50 Habits of Top Performing Sales People Habit 27 – Fifteen Minutes Early
July 28, 2016
Selling
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Continuing with the Six Interpersonal Skills let's look at Habit 27, being "on time". Habit 27: Fifteen Minutes Early. Last month's newsletter talked about Appearance and Demeanor. This month, let's focus on being "on time" for appointments. Arrive at appointments 15 minutes early. Many people refer to this as Lombardi time and it's a great idea developed by a great man and we've adopted this practice in our professional life. We can't tell you the number of times that being 15 minutes early has been a big advantage to us. The driving force behind this habit is courtesy. As I observe business ...
50 Habits of Top Performing Sales People Habits 25 and 26 – Appearance and Demeanor
June 29, 2016
Selling
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The May newsletter completed “Part Two”, the twelve “Sales Skills”, and it is time to move to “Part Three”, “Interpersonal Skills”. “Interpersonal Habits” are about how sales people relate to customers and prospects. Most sales seminars and sales skills books, pay very little attention to this area. Although most of this is common sense, there is a good deal of skill involved, and these skill sets must be learned. Let's look at Habits 26 and 27 - Appearance and Demeanor. Habit 25: Your appearance is professional Habit 26: Your demeanor is professional My partner Lou spent a good deal of his career ...
50 Habits of Top Performing Sales People Habit 24 – You are a Professional!
May 18, 2016
Selling
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Continuing with the twelve Sales Skills let's look at Habit 24: You are a Professional! Last month's newsletter talked about the importance of hand delivering quotes when possible. This month, let's focus on why it is important to be a professional. This HABIT really separates the top performers from everybody else. It's not just the HABIT, but it's the performance that the habit demands. It's easy for anyone to say, "I'm a professional" and, in fact, anyone that gets paid is, by definition, a professional but that's not the point. The word, professional, implies someone who is specialized, qualified, proficient, expert, trained, practiced ...
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