Archives for January 2020

The best way to achieve your goals and to stay motivated is to review your goals at least weekly. Your day to day actions are based on your motivation. Your motivation is based on what goals you are trying to achieve. The more empowering the goal, the more likely you will do the things you need to do to reach the goal. BUT, this all assumes that you are constantly in touch with what the goals are. One of the easiest ways for you to defeat yourself and cause yourself not to reach the goal is to just forget about the goal. No one intends for that to happen; it just happens all too frequently. Reviewing the goals weekly keeps them on top of your mind and keeps you on the path to achieving your goals week by week, quarter by quarter and year by year.

If you have a sales question you would like to discuss follow the link to schedule a call:
https://calendly.com/dancaramanico/callwithdan

Don’t let what you think you know get in the way of what you need to find out. Long experience in an industry or with a product can work against you sometimes. If you have been around for a while you think you have heard it all. You the prospect starts to tell you the problem or challenge they are facing, and you immediately think “OK I know their problem, I know where this is going”, and you stop listening and start thinking of how you are going to move the sales process forward. You may have seen this problem before, but what you need to find out is how this problem is affecting this prospect from his perspective, not yours or your last customer’s. Salespeople must have the humility to truly listen to the prospect and appreciate that, although the problem may look the same as other similar situations faced in the past, this prospect’s situation and how this prospect views the problem is most likely different. Don’t problem solve while they are talking, don’t interrupt the flow of information they are giving you. Do probe a little deeper and you will uncover the nuances that exist in this situation. Bonding between you and the prospect will increase which will lead them to open up and give you more detail about the issue. You will have a better understanding of the compelling reason to buy and you just may have learned the bit of intelligence that will give you the inside track on closing this deal.

If you have a sales question you would like to discuss follow the link to schedule a call:
https://calendly.com/dancaramanico/callwithdan

Your product or service has value to the prospect to the extent that it solves a problem or pain that the prospect is currently experiencing. That pain will vary over time so the length of the sales cycle of your product’s perceived value will also vary. Here are two simple examples, one for a short sales cycle and one for a long sales cycle. If I am in my auto mechanics shop and he tells me he is having a special sale this week of half off on transmission repair, I will not care very much about that if my car has been running smoothly over the last few months. Since I am not in pain I will say something like “Thanks, Fred but I am good for now.” However, if a month later my car gets stuck in park and I need to have it towed to Fred’s shop to get the transmission fixed, his service has much more value to me and I won’t be worrying about the price he will charge. At the beginning of longer cycle projects, the prospect has certain issues and questions. Your expertise will have a certain value. But over the course of 18-month sales cycle the prospect becomes more knowledgeable, the economy will change, the industry might change, and the project requirements will change. Hence the pain at the end of the cycle will be different than it was at the beginning. The optimal salesperson will stay in touch with the changes in the pain over the length of the sales cycle. This is especially true at the end of the cycle when they may change rapidly.

If you have a sales question you would like to discuss follow the link to schedule a call:
https://calendly.com/dancaramanico/callwithdan

I don’t believe in that sales axiom “always be closing”. That strategy annoys the prospect and , makes them want to avoid you. However, I do believe that every prospect in virtually every meeting is closeable. You may not be able to get the prospect to buy or to give you a purchase order at every meeting, but you can get a decision at every meeting. Sometimes you close for the next meeting, sometimes you close for the ability to keep them on your marketing list, sometimes you close to get taken to the boss, and sometimes you close to get the prospect to recommend your product even though you can’t get to see the boss or the committee. There are many other variations. All you have to do is get the prospect to tell you what the decision process is and what he or she is both willing and able to make. The key is that they must be both willing and able to make a decision. No matter how small the next step is, close for that and you will keep the process moving. A small step forward is preferable to leaving and waiting for something to happen at some future date. So, how do you know what the prospect is both willing and able to make? You just ask. It’s that simple but many salespeople don’t do it.

If you have a sales question you would like to discuss follow the link to schedule a call:
https://calendly.com/dancaramanico/callwithdan