Believe in What You’re Selling
The last newsletter reviewed the "conviction to do what is right" and mentioned that "Top Performers" "believe in what they are selling" and are comfortable talking about the features and benefits of their products or service and connecting these to solutions. The concept of "Believe in What You're Selling" is critical to success in sales and can separate those that sell from those that do not. Think about this for a minute, with the right kind and amount of training, sales people can learn the features and benefits of products and services so they are armed with the basic information they ...
Conviction to Do What is Right
The last newsletter reviewed “Top Performers” as leaders that have the “Courage to Win”. With this courage, we also need the “Conviction to do what is right”. When the thing to do is obvious, then the conviction required to perform is minimal, but when the situation goes against the norm or standard or is not the easy option, then the decisions become more difficult and the conviction required to make the decisions and stand by them is critical to success. Conviction is defined as “a firmly held belief or opinion”. “Top Performers” are firmly convinced of what they believe, and the ...
Do Your Salespeople Have the Courage to Win?
The last newsletter discussed the fact that "Top Performers" are leaders and that leadership related to the sales process can take the form of having the "courage" to do what is necessary to succeed. That is, to "Win". Today, many people conform to belong and to be part of the group or team instead of striving to be leaders. Typically, these people lack the "courage" to take a stand or to push back against those they confront and work to do what is right and what is needed to succeed where others fail. "Top Performers" are different from the ordinary sales person ...
Leaders Win
The last newsletter discussed the fact that "Top Performers" are winners and it is their skill that set them apart from others. A key skill that "Top Performers" have is leadership. While leadership is hard to define as it means different things to different people, leadership related to the sales process can take the form of having the courage to do what is necessary to succeed. That is, to Win. Sales people love to win and in sales we can easily measure when we win and to the extent that we win. We measure success with Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) and ...
Top Performers
"Top Performers" are winners and winners are great to be around. "Top Performers" are the best of the best and have skill sets that set them apart and drive them to do better and be better. We talk quite a bit about Top Performing sales people in the 50 Habits of Top Performing Sales People book, but each business contains (or needs to contain) "Top Performers" in every department. It makes us better, it makes our teams better, it makes our customers better and it makes our Bottom Lines better. "Top Performers" are leaders and they need good ...
Habit 50: Follow-Up!
By Bill Phillips, Strategen, Inc. To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 50: Follow-up cold calls with a phone call, every other day, to secure appointments. Last month's newsletters talked about the importance of making cold calls. This month, let's discuss following-up. We firmly believe that "Follow-Up" is the most important function in sales and in management for that matter. You can do all the planning, all the organizing, and all of the executing you want, but without follow-up, you're dead. You can do all the research and the list development, and the cold calls but without follow-up, you're ...
Habit 49: Make regular cold calls that are integrated with existing customer calls, project calls and “C” and “D” calls
To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 49: Make regular cold calls that are integrated with existing customer calls, project calls and "C" and "D" calls. Last month's newsletter talked about placing the "Target Account" list into a 90 day calendar. This month, let's look at the importance of making cold calls. Much of today's conventional wisdom is against making cold calls. It is thought that with the Internet, e-mail and all the modern conveniences, cold calling is obsolete. I am here to tell you that this is absolutely, positively not true. You cannot be successful in ...