Archives for October 2015

Don’t get out of shape – spend 20 minutes every day making calls.  You are an NFL quarterback.  You suffer an injury that keeps you out of the league for two years.  Will you be sharp in the first meaningful game you play upon your return, ready to perform your absolute best?  Unlikely.  You’ll need time to get yourself acclimated to the speed and intensity of NFL regular season football.  Your team’s offense may struggle and your team may lose because you are out of sync.  The lesson?  Don’t be “injured” from the daily game of calling prospects!  You cannot afford for even one day to go by without sales calls.  You’ll get out of shape.  One day becomes two days which becomes a week.  Suddenly, you haven’t made a call in three weeks and you’ve lost your rhythmn and your confidence.  Stay in the game every day!

What is the second most wonderful word in sales? “No”! Every no leaves you one step closer to a “yes”! If your rate is to close 1 out of 5 prospects, four “no”s mean your next prospect is a sale (statistically speaking)! Imagine a baseball field. First, second, and third base represent prospects saying “no”. Home plate is a “yes”! As you round third on your inside-the-park sales homerun, you are excited to be a few feet from a sale – home plate! The other bases, where the prospects said “no”, were part of the game you had to play. Don’t get depressed that you have to run the bases as the ball you hit goes to the fence. Run those bases! Get those “no”s! Embrace the “no” because you soon will be scoring a run!

The proverbial elevator pitch should be replaced by elevator questions. No one wants to hear a pitch … EVER! The easiest way to start a conversation in networking situations, chamber events, and yes even elevators is to ask questions. It can be innocuous (like “Did you go to Harvard or just liked the T-Shirt?”), or it can be business oriented (So what do you do?) In either case you get the conversation going by focusing on them and then you can lead it to a discussion of issues they may be having that you can help with. Eventually you will get a chance to tell them what you do and, magically, it will be right on target and help you create a connection and possibly a new client.