Archives for November 2017

If you show up on a sales call with a new prospect and you haven’t looked them up on social media you will have two big problems on your hands. The first, and probably the most important, is that you risk coming off as unprepared, uninterested and unprofessional. Research is so easy now it only takes a minute or two to learn the basics about a company or individual from their website or LinkedIn page. The second issue is that checking them out ahead of time can give you ideas on how to approach the sales call. You may discover that you have a common friend. Or you may discover that you have relevant experience in a part of the business you were not planning on talking about. At the very least you can speed up the call by already having a context for the discussion you are about to have with the prospect. Don’t spend all day on it but a few minutes (2-4) can be well worth the investment of time.

What gets measured gets done. Tracking your sales activity is like eating your vegetables. You don’t like to do it but the long term positive results are undeniable. In athletic metrics are all the rage. Baseball in particular has come up with all sorts of new things to track like launch angle and exit velocity for hitters. Devotees swear they can just look at the numbers and tell how a player is performing and will perform in the future. It is not that complicated in sales. A few simple numbers will suffice – attempted calls, conversations, appointments, and qualified opportunities. Of course there are the ones everyone tracks – proposals and sales. My message is brief today … track your activity or give up a great opportunity to accelerate your growth.

“No one buys during the holidays”. “If I don’t hit my number by Thanksgiving it’s over”. These are two of the most common refrains I hear salespeople singing this time of year. Salespeople believe it, then work hard to make it come true. They curtail their sales activity, they mentally shut down until the new year and they hang on for the end of the year. Now, if you have your numbers wrapped up by November 15th, go ahead and take a break if you need to or want to. But selling this time of year can be very lucrative. Many sales people are at higher commission rates having hit ratchet points earlier in the year. Many clients have extra money at the end of the year. People are in a better mood this time of year. The competition has shut down so there is less competition for the remaining budget dollars. People are less likely to travel this time of year to be close to home for the holidays. So change your belief about what is possible and ramp up your activity. You will be surprised at the results you can get this time of year. At the very least you will set yourself up for a hot start in the new year.

When you are apprehensive about asking a question in a selling situation, just ask the prospect whether it is ok to ask. You will find that they always give you permission. You will also find that your reluctance to ask is most often not based in objective reality but in your own self-limiting beliefs or insecurity. If a question seems tough to you it is because it starts to infringe on what you believe is inappropriate. For example, many people are reluctant to ask about money. That is based on their belief that it is impolite or not socially acceptable or the fact that they are uncomfortable about discussing money in general or because they are not sure their product is worth that much or it seems like a lot of money to them. The list could go on and on. The sooner you recognize that you are the problem the sooner you can start to obliterate your beliefs by getting out of your comfort zone and seeing that what you were afraid would happens almost never happens. Your income will grow in proportion to the effort you put into getting out of your comfort zone.