If you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always got.
At the end of every year I receive dozens of requests for sales training or some sort of sales team intervention.
“Tom, I love your blogs and webinars – do you ever do anything on Sales?”
Yikes!
Um, yes I think I may have something on that…
For all the sales managers and owners out there who want to conduct their own end of the year sales retreat, here is your required reading.
Slow down.
Our goal is to close the deal.
No reason we have to do it today.
Before you hop on that important call with a key prospect, pause. Read these five reminders.
The one piece of sales advice I always (give because it has always worked for me is): “If the customer wants to hire you, they will haggle. Go ahead and quote the higher price.”
Fear is an emotion.
But that’s not our biggest mistake when it comes to emotional pricing.
How do you fix a problem when the solution is the byproduct of the fix? The moral to the chicken and ham parable was don’t lament what you don’t have. Use what you do have and get started.
Single level objections are the most common and therefore the first thing we need to learn how to handle as sales professionals. The skill we need to develop to better handle objections is called, “Being in the moment.” Teach your team how to spot these situations.
What do you really know about a potential buyer? Does your qualification process only consider the types of projects and revenue? What happens if you fail to pick up on the customer’s buying style?
I don’t often talk about how to get your price down. I’m more of a ‘how to get more money out of your target customer’ kind of coach. However, some of my followers are cost leaders and sometimes they need to leverage that advantage.
Too often we conflate our cost with price. There is a correlation: If your costs are higher so must your price be. But never forget that…
The marketplace sets the price for most of us.
When I sit in on the conversations (or have them recounted to me), I observe one recurring issue: The salesperson isn’t prepared for the kinds of questions clients ask.
I suspect that customers may even be trying to trip you up. Could they be that clever? I wonder…
Many years ago I found myself in search of the proper title for my position. Job titles were not a big thing at my employer, but we had a business reason to devise one for me. A preferred provider agreement needed a key organizational contact and “Tom” was not going to cut it.
I thought about the daily tasks I seemed to be responsible for. I sold things. I defined operational processes. I tried to herd salespeople. The warehouse supervisor reported to me. What am I? I could not find a parallel in other companies like ours. Everyone was either “Sales” or “Operations”.
Tom Stimson MBA, CTS is an authority on business and strategy for small- to medium-sized companies. He is an expert on project-based selling and a thought leader for innovative business processes.