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
March 27, 2018
Selling
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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 It is thought that with the Internet, e-mail and all the modern conveniences, cold calling is obsolete.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 ...
Habit 48: Place the “Target Account” list into a 90 day calendar
February 27, 2018
Selling
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To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 48: Place the "Target Account" list into a 90 day calendar. Last month's newsletter talked about sorting the "Target Account" list geographically. This month, let's look at placing the "Target Account" list into a 90 day calendar. Start with a rule of thumb: call on customers and key prospects four times per year and utilize your geographically sorted "Target Account" and customer lists. With this strategy, it is easy to start building your 90-day calendar. Of course, there are customers and prospects that you will want to call on more or ...
Habit 47: Sort the “Target Account” List Geographically
To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 47: Sort the "Target Account" list geographically. Last month's newsletter talked about maintaining the "Target Account" list once it is created. This month, let's look at utilizing the "Target Account" list by sorting the list geographically. Typically, you have invested many hours in creating your "Target Account" list and many more hours maintaining it. Why not invest the time to maximize the use of your list by calling on the as many of the right people as you can when you are making sales calls? Making in-person sales calls correctly takes time ...
Habit 46: Maintain the “Target Account” list on a weekly basis
December 22, 2017
Selling
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To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 46: Maintain the "Target Account" list on a weekly basis. Last month's newsletter talked about developing "Target Account" lists and detailed how to do that including where to do the research. This month, let's look at maintaining the "Target List" once it is created. We find that many time sales people overlook not only the importance of creating a focused "Target List", but the critical need to maintain their list. Think about that for a minute. The key to successful sales is calling on the right people, at the right time, ...
Habit 45: Do the Research!
To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 45: Do the Research! Earlier newsletters talked about developing "Target Account" lists. How do you do that? Where do you do the research? There are many databases available including your own customer list that can assist you in developing your "Target Account" list. Regardless of the service used, the important issues are the search criteria. The development of data is not what you are after. You are after the development of accurate data that details a list of companies that do the very same thing as your existing customers so that you ...
Habit 44: How Much Should I Travel?
To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 44: How Much Should I Travel? Travel is a relative thing and I don’t think there’s any real benchmark that accurately predicts the perfect amount of travel. It’s not about how much you travel it’s about how much you sell. If you are hitting your numbers, $2400.00 per hour for example, I think you are traveling just about right and more travel could be a waste of time and money. There are some rules of thumb; to sell $6 million a year in a regional territory you should travel approximately 40 to ...
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