Fewer Customers? Sell Smarter. My Interview On Smart Planet With Vince Thompson
Sep 23, 2009 How To Sell and Sales Tips, Interviews, Sales Coaching, sales tips
Read the full interview here.
BOOK EVENT EXTENDED! Due to my book selling out and making #1 on Amazon, we’re extending this event! You can still get the book 34% off and the hundreds of dollars worth of bonus materials. More here.
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Here’s part one of the interview I did with author and columnist Vince Thompson.
Excerpt:
“Let’s face it. When the economy was rocking we had it pretty easy. They we’re buying. We were selling like crazy and so it went. Until it went. Now getting consumers to part with cash is like trying to pull the hood ornament off the new Dodge Challenger….while it’s driving!
Keith, tell us about your business?
Most of my time is spent working with sales and management teams or working one to one coaching, training and strategizing with sales leaders and executives. Whether that means helping managers develop the missing discipline of leadership and become better coaches through a management coach training program, or helping sales teams and salespeople reinvent and re-engineer their selling process and methodology. Most companies are leveraging me to support their two most important business initiatives today, which are acquiring and retaining customers.
To achieve this, organizations are recognizing the need to make their sales and management team more valuable than ever before. This is accomplished through better sales training and executive coaching. Businesses are finally realizing that in order for their people to sell more, it all starts with the way they’re managed. And the simple fact is, you cannot grow with what you already know.
How has selling changed?
Read the full interview here.
Tags: close more sales, interview, sales, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, selling
Tony Alessandra Week on CanDoGo – Generate More Referrals
Jun 25, 2009 How To Sell and Sales Tips, Marketing, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, sales articles, sales tips
Last week on CanDoGo.com was Tony Alessandra week. While a little late on the draw this week, the good news is, you can still access all of Tony’s videos and tips on CanDoGo. This one in particular I felt was so relevant during a time where customer retention and acquisition is top of mind for all companies and salespeople. Below are some best practices when it comes to asking for referrals.
Asking for Referrals
By Dr. Tony Alessandra
Ask for referrals anytime a customer offers positive feedback about you, your company, or your product. Often, the best time to do so is right after your customer has a problem resolved by you, and you’ve proven that you can and will follow through. Any time you ask for referrals, follow these guidelines:
Tags: asking for referrals, networking, prospecting, referrals
PODCAST: Benchmark Best Sales Practices to Achieve Your Sales Goals
Jun 8, 2009 All About Selling, Cold Calling Tips, How To Sell and Sales Tips, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, cold calling, sales articles
Listen to the full podcast here.
Companies are running so fast in an attempt to catch up on their sales numbers that they aren’t aware of the blinders they’ve developed which are obstructing their view of the fuller picture when it comes to selling and driving the right sales activity, especially the deeper level of questioning and discovery every salesperson needs to engage in today.
Sure, you can ask your prospects the more generic questions about the current products, services, solutions and venders they currently use. But what about the questions that facilitate a buying decision; the tougher questions that help you better understand if this prospect is, in fact, even qualified to buy from you now, in the near future or ever? Delivering a recent seminar to a senior team of sales professionals reinforced how most salespeople, regardless of how experienced or seasoned, are still stepping over the additional questions I’m suggesting we need to ask.
I’m referring to questions that uncover:
Here’s a tip from your coach: Low closing percentages = a misalignment in who you should be presenting to and following up with in the first place.
If you don’t have the answers to these questions, you’re robbing yourself of the opportunity to enjoy the certainty and peace of mind that comes from utilizing a formulaic approach to selling. After all, if you define it, you can then refine it.
So, if you’re ever wondering why you or other salespeople fall into what’s known as a ‘sales slump,’ here’s the main cause of that. They aren’t honoring their sales process by the numbers and as such, those who continue to ‘wing it’ as their overall selling strategy are destined to experience the ups and downs in performance and in their stress level, as well as the waning sense of satisfaction and confidence that’s sure to follow in its wake when this amount of ambiguity and uncertainly is present.
In this podcast, I detail several critical questions you need to answer that will enable you to uncover the gaps in your data pool that in turn, will help refine your overall approach to how you prospect and sell and the measurable effort that’s required for you to do so successfully.
Listen to the full podcast here.
Tags: cold calling, discovery, Executive Coaching, pre qualification, prospecting, qualifying prospects, qualifying questions, sales benchmark, sales benchmarking, Sales Coaching, sales tips
Are You Selling By the Numbers or Selling With a Blindfold On? Statistical Benchmarks for Success and Self Accountability That Most Organizations Are Still Missing
May 13, 2009 Executive Coaching, How To Sell and Sales Tips, How to Manage Your Team, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, Sales Training, sales articles, sales tools, training for managers
Stop. Just stop for the next several minutes that it’s going to take you to read this. Okay, now take a breath. Get off the treadmill for a moment and ask yourself these questions. Yes, these questions are that important. So important, in fact, that they could change your entire perspective around what you’re doing, how you’re doing it and how much you really need to be doing in order to generate the worthwhile results you’re looking for.
Because the truth is, you just may be running so fast in an attempt to catch up on your sales numbers, that you didn’t recognize the blinders you’ve developed which are obstructing your view of the fuller picture; the landscape you’re trying to farm and manage when it comes to selling and driving the right sales activity. Here are those questions you need to ask yourself (and your sales team).
“With all the effort I’m putting forth in an attempt to generate more prospects and selling opportunities, following up and retaining existing clients to ensure that I’m bringing in as much business as possible:”
• Am I acutely aware of the activities and benchmarked proven practices (both the activities and the dialogue/message I need to communicate) that I need to engage in daily that would secure my success?
• Am I measuring the numbers and the results of my efforts and allowing these statistical data points to be the driving force behind my sales activities?
• Do I know how much cold calling and prospecting activity is actually enough (emails, voice mails, live calls/connections, letters, and so on) and when to call it quits and move on when attempting to convert a contact into a qualified prospect?
• Do I know how many calls/contacts I need to make each day, each week and how often I need to follow up with a qualified prospect in order to earn their business or move them to the next stage of my sales process? (And have I even defined those specific steps in my sales process to begin with?)
• Am I holding myself accountable when it comes to engaging in the right activities in the most efficient way possible through the effective use of a daily routine?
• When calling on or meeting with prospects, do I have a clear set of outlined objectives that I need to accomplish on every call and during each meeting, especially when delivering a presentation?
• Have I identified the lifetime value of each client or account in order to classify customers according to their sales potential? (What’s the economic impact of the time you invest?)
• Do I have a detailed strategy for each of my clients to ensure that I’m maximizing every conceivable up selling and cross selling opportunity?
• Am I fully leveraging the power and potential of my CRM solution for prospect, client as well as territory management? Do you have a call report system?
• Do I have the right questions that provide me with the critical intel I need in order to qualify each person as a viable prospect so that I can most effectively determine where my limited and precious time is best invested?
And to clarify further when it comes to the type of questions you need to be asking each prospect, this isn’t limited to Selling 101 – Uncovering a Need. I’m also referring to understanding how they buy, how they make decisions, the internal workings of the company, the people and egos involved, the process they are going to go through when they hang up the phone with you or end the meeting and then attempt to solve the problem or find a new solution on their own using the resources or venders they currently have, the concerns or roadblocks that you could encounter down the road that would stall or destroy the potential for a sale, the timely and relevant issues that are going on internally, the overall mood of the company and its leaders, and so on. (Hint: Low closing percentages = misalignment in who you should be presenting to and following up with in the first place.)
If you don’t have the answers to these crucial questions, you’re robbing yourself of the opportunity to enjoy the certainty and peace of mind that comes from utilizing a formulaic approach to selling. After all, if you define it, you can then refine it. So, if you’re ever wondering why you or other salespeople fall into what’s known as a ‘sales slump,’ here’s the main cause of that. They aren’t honoring their sales process by the numbers and as such, those who continue to ‘wing it’ as their overall selling strategy are destined to experience the ups and downs in performance and in their stress level, as well as the waning sense of satisfaction and confidence that’s sure to follow in its wake when this amount of ambiguity and uncertainly is present.
I’ve decided (and many of my clients and readers are on board with this as well, so I hope you’ll join us) that it’s no longer as tough as it was out there. That’s right. Strip away what you hear in the media, and look objectively at what you can control; this one telltale sign that something in your selling formula needs to be developed, modified or redefined:
If there are people in your organization, even in your industry or profession who are currently performing like rock stars, that should provide you with one very critical insight. That is, it can be done because it is currently being done by someone else!
Of course it is going to remain “tough out there” if you don’t have your defined best practices, data points and numeric formula to help support your selling efforts. After all, it’s one thing to up your game and work on developing and refining your selling skills as well as your sales management skills. However, to complement this so that you have a comprehensive solution to better performance, you need to have your finger on the pulse of the numbers that will drive your activities in the first place as you exercise your newfound selling and leadership strategies and newly developed competencies. Use these questions I’ve posed to help uncover the gaps in your data pool that in turn, will help refine your overall approach to how you prospect and sell and the measurable effort that’s required for you to do so successfully.
Here’s a very clear insight into one example of some general statistical information about the selling profession that will help you begin the process of fine tuning and developing your own data driven solution to increasing your sales.
48% of salespeople never follow up with a prospect.
25% of salespeople make a second contact and stop.
12% of salespeople only make three contacts and stop.
Only 10% of salespeople make more than three contacts.
Now, get this:
2% of sales are made on the first contact.
3% of sales are made on the second contact.
5% of sales are made on the third contact.
10% of sales are made on the fourth contact.
But 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact.
Now, these numbers may change depending upon your selling cycle, geographic location, the dollar amount of your deliverable, target audience as well as the service or product you’re selling but the essence of this message still remains in tact. That is, do you have your own set of data available which you have used as the cornerstone to constructing your prospecting and selling strategy? If not, it’s the same as getting into your car and saying to yourself before embarking on a trip, “Okay, I need to get to a specific destination, but I’m not exactly sure which direction to travel nor how long it’s going to take me to get there.”
It’s no longer about simply ‘doing more’ but about doing more of what’s right. In our new marketplace, going out in the field and just doing more of what you did yesterday would be the same as trying to sell VCR’s, pagers and CD’s today. (Even my youngest asked me the other day, “Dad, what’s a CD?”). Your product has changed over the years and while your selling and management strategy needs to evolve as well, this evolution must be guided by the numeric benchmarks in order to see the full, panoramic picture of the truth that surrounds your current situation. This will eliminate the costly oversights I’ve detailed earlier and ensure your future success.
We all need to be reminded of this universal law, “We resist what we need to learn the most.” And interestingly, while salespeople and sales managers are more inclined to take the reactionary, visceral attitude, “Lets just get out there and make it happen,” we need to pull back the reigns before engaging in blind sales activities and instead, start with doing what is often perceived as the more mundane, often boring task of benchmarking the right practices and then measuring their effectiveness by the numbers before embarking on these activities. Empirical data will provide the blueprint you need to succeed as well as the certainty, confidence and conviction necessary for a healthy sales mind and attitude.
After all, the greatest rainmakers realize the importance of checking the weather first so they know where the best locations are to make it rain, and have the tools to do so.
Note: If you’re looking for a great tool to help develop your prospecting formula and the measurable efforts needed to achieve your sales goals, check out my Prospecting Calculator here and enjoy the confidence and certainty you’ll experience when you prospect by the numbers.
Here’s the link to the Prospecting Calculator.
Tags: best practices, Executive Coaching, leadership development, sales benchmarking, Sales Coaching, sales formula, Sales Training, success formula
Weekly Tributes to Gurus and Thought Leaders Begin this Week on CanDoGo.com
May 11, 2009 All About Selling, How To Sell and Sales Tips, Sales Coaching, Videos, sales articles
Here’s something new CanDoGo.com is doing, which sounds worthwhile to check out, especially if you’re a fan of certain thought leaders and gurus on selling, such as Tom Hopkins and Zig Ziglar.
This week, the week of May 11th-May 15th, they are honoring a living legend Zig Ziglar. CanDoGo.com will be featuring classic short video’s including some of Zig Ziglar’s most memorable messages on sales, leadership, hope, and encouragement.
Let’s show Zig how much we appreciate him and tap into some of his greatest archives. Just visit CanDoGo.com. Here is just a sample of a classic Zig Ziglar tip you can find here.
(You can also find my content on CanDoGo.com as well here.)
Next week’s tribute? CanDoGo’s tribute, honoring none other than, Tom Hopkins will begin May 25th.
Tags: Sales Coaching, sales tips, Sales Training, Videos, webinars
“Don’t Sell Like You Buy” Nominated for Article of the Month
May 6, 2009 All About Selling, How To Sell and Sales Tips, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, sales articles, sales tips
What a wonderful email to wake up and read.
“I am delighted to confirm that your article, Don’t Sell Like You Buy published by Sales Gravy has been selected as one of the top ten sales articles for April.”
It seems that this article, (actually on of my personal favorites) Don’t Sell Like You Buy has been nominated for one of the best sales Articles of the Month on Top10SalesArticles.com.
You can read the full article here. Below is an except. This article is a result of an experience I had during a training event I was delivering. Another example of learning and sharing the experiences I gain from my clients and every training event I deliver.
“If you’ve never used a certain selling technique, prospecting approach or a particular set of targeted qualifying questions, then how do you know whether or not they will work or how they will be received by your prospects?”
I was building my case. I then turned to the audience and said, “Do not sell the way you buy.”
Now, you may feel at this point that I’m contradicting some universal selling principles. After all, conventional sales wisdom handed down through the ages suggests how important it is to empathize and sympathize with your prospects and clients.
However, there’s a very fine line between understanding and respecting someone’s decision making process; and assuming that everyone makes a purchasing decision in the same manner and using the same criteria that you do. Moreover, there is also the faulty assumption that your prospects respond in a similar fashion to the type of sales approach and the type of salesperson that you respond to and would buy from.
I then shared a personal example of the dangers of selling like you buy. “Folks, if I sold in the same manner in which I make a purchase and then in turn, transfer those values and beliefs on each prospect that I speak with, then I could tell you with great certainty that I would not be up here talking with you today.”
Reason being, when I make a purchase of any substantial amount, I take the time to research my options and learn about the different products or services available. By the time I’m ready to actually make the purchase, whether it’s something for my home, a television a car or a computer, more often than not, I will know more about the product, the competition and the marketplace than the person who is attempting to sell it to me.
My point is, if I started selling the way in which I make a purchasing decision, I am now putting my values, thought process and beliefs on the customer, assuming they purchase the same or in a similar way that I do. The result? More objections, less sales.
Besides, what if I was talking with an impulsive or assertive prospect who was ready to buy? I would be talking myself right out of the sale!”
Lets defuse a costly myth. The old adage of putting yourself in their shoes is really a costly assumption that destroys many a selling opportunity. Why? Because when you “look through their eyes” or attempt to see things how you assume they see them, it is still really what you see, not what they see.
The result? You develop a sales process based on how you think they buy rather than how they actually make a decision. Why? Because how you think they buy is really how you buy. (Is your brain twisted enough yet?)
If you truly want to wear their shoes, then you need to know how they think and what is important to them. Therefore, the only way to uncover how the prospect likes to process information, make a purchasing decision and the criteria they use to do so is by asking better questions.
Now, lets take this same ineffective model of selling like you buy and turn it around for a moment. If this belief of selling like the way you buy is getting in the way of taking certain actions or asking certain questions when on a sales call, then what about other things that you are doing or saying which you think are safe to you but in fact, are not safe or comfortable for the person you are speaking with because you’re still operating off the same tool, costly assumptions!
The lesson; Don’t believe everything you sell, I mean, tell yourself.
Salespeople who sell in the same manner in which they buy are sure to have a lower number of satisfied clients. Take a look at some different scenarios where utilizing your own beliefs, assumptions and value system can have a detrimental effect on your performance and income.
Since Carol usually shops around before choosing which company to buy from or which product to buy, she accepted the prospect’s reason for doing the same. Like herself, she couldn’t expect people to make a decision during the initial consultation.
When Mike makes a purchasing decision, he usually purchases the least expensive item available. He thinks you can get the same top value at a lowest price. Although he represents one of the highest quality products in his industry, the amount of money he sold for was always at the lowest profit margin. Mike had a hard time asking for more money, even though he was offering the consumer the highest in value.
Robert hated hearing sales presentations. When he went out on his appointments, he was always done within thirty minutes. In order to effectively cover all of the necessary information and provide the right solutions for the prospect, the average time a representative should invest during an appointment was between two to three hours.
Dana was very indecisive when it came to making a purchasing decision. Because this was inherent in her personality, she offered her customers many different alternatives. The end result was confusion on the consumer’s end, on Dana’s end and no work order.
There are salespeople out there who are even more indecisive than their prospects. Can you see it? “I’ll ask for the order now. No, I’ll wait a little longer. No, I might miss the opportunity to do so later, so I better do it now.” This can clearly put a damper on your performance as well as your mental health.
Sell in the manner in which you were trained to sell and stick with the proven selling sequence that works for you and within your industry or profession. You cannot expect prospects to purchase in the same manner as you do.
If you sell in the same manner as you buy, you are instilling your beliefs onto the other people. Since every person’s beliefs and buying habits are different, every prospect processes information differently. What is important to one person may not be important to another. Therefore, there will never be two presentations exactly the same.
While one prospect might weigh company stability and the quality or value of the product as the most important aspect in making their decision, another prospect might weigh price as the most important.
Learn to adapt your presentation around the values of each specific prospect. In the end, people make purchasing decisions based on their style of buying, not yours.
You can read the full article here.
Tags: close more sales, how to sell, sales articles, Sales Coaching, sales tips, Sales Training, selling tips
Live Event! Win More Prospects Today: How to Dramatically Increase Your Selling Opportunities to Boost Your Sales
Apr 17, 2009 Cold Calling Tips, How To Sell and Sales Tips, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, cold calling, podcast, tele-sales, tele-workshop, telesales, webinar
Concerned about how to find new and profitable prospects to develop and maintain your customer base? Then stop stressing over how to do it and attend this live, 60-minute Audio Conference that I’m delivering in two weeks and learn how to cold call and prospect like a sales champion. Below are the details.
TITLE: Win More Prospects Today: Dramatically Increase Your Selling Opportunities to Boost Your Sales
DATE: Thursday, April 30, 2009
TIME: 1:00-2:00 p.m. EASTERN STANDARD TIME
LOCATION: Your Phone
PRESENTER: Keith Rosen
Click here for more information or to register now for this exciting event or call 800-964-6033.
SUMMARY
Prospecting in this tough economy can leave salespeople banging their heads against their desks. However, finding new and profitable business has never been so important. You must find new prospects and develop great relationships today so you and your company will be thriving and well positioned in your industry when the economy turns around.
Join us for this 60-minute conference where you and your colleagues will get the tools to:
• Learn lead generating ideas to keep your pipeline filled all year
• How to get past the toughest gatekeepers and straight to the decision maker
• Follow up strategies that grab attention without the pestering
• Ways to handle “I’m not Interested” – Overcome any objection
PROGRAM BENEFITS
This practical 60-minute, audio conference will provide you and your colleagues with the skills needed to prospect effectively and efficiently over the telephone to increase sales and boost revenue.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
How to Make the Gatekeeper & Voice Mails Your Ally
• Learn what to say to get you in the door – and get your calls returned
• How to build instant rapport with gatekeepers – get them on your side
• Must know fatal cold calling mistakes every salesperson makes
Heat up Your Cold Call & Pump Up Your Prospecting
• How to find customers who ARE buying and avoid ones who aren’t
• Learn opening statements that will keep prospects from hanging up
• Successfully overcome your fear of cold calling. (It doesn’t have to be painful!)
Understand Your Most Valuable Proposition
• Increase sales opportunities with crafted prospecting templates
• How to ask the right questions- get the prospect to reveal their pain
• Be aware of words that work & words that destroy selling opportunities
Click here for more information or to register now for this exciting event or call 800-964-6033.
Hosted by Progressive Business Publications, a leader in fast-read actionable advice on workplace issues, the audio conference gives you the opportunity to add immediate, impact to your prospecting efforts in a manner that is:
FAST - No wasted time here. Get right to the heart of the matter in a 1-hour block designed to easily fit into your busy schedule.
CONVENIENT - No airlines. No travel. No time out of the office. Listen from the comfort and convenience of your desk.
EASY - A telephone is all the equipment you need. Just dial in, punch in your access code, and you’re in. That’s it. Follow along with the audio conference handout that will be provided in advance.
ACTIONABLE - Our audio conferences provide money-saving tactics you can start using right when you hang up the phone.
IDEAL FOR MULTIPLE LISTENERS - Use a speakerphone and as many people as you want can listen in – at no extra cost to you. Many professionals use these sessions as a cost-efficient, time-efficient means of training supervisors, managers, and staff and reinforcing key issues in a fresh new manner that they will remember and act on.
AFFORDABLE - Priced at $199, it is a fraction of the cost of travel and attendance fees for other high-priced conferences or seminars.
Click here for more information or to register now for this exciting event or call 800-964-6033.
Tags: cold calling, cold calling training, get leads, prospecting, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, telesales
Tune Up Your Prospecting Strategy, Get Your Cold Calling Game On and Secure More Leads and Appointments
Feb 21, 2009 All About Selling, Books, Cold Calling Tips, How To Close The Sale, How To Sell and Sales Tips, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, sales articles, sales tools, tele-sales, telesales
Refine Your New Business Development Strategy to Win New Business
Use this checklist here
Do you prospect effortlessly and have a steady flow of new business? We all need more selling opportunities. To find them, we need to connect with more qualified prospects.
Sometimes new isn’t always better. Here’s an incredible tool I created years ago when I came out with my cold calling book. I’ve used this countless times to help coach salespeople and companies to develop and fine tune their cold calling approach and strategy to schedule more appointments with the right decision makers that will accelerate your selling cycle and ultimately close more sales.
Managers love this checklist because they can leverage this as a tool to help coach their salespeople and uncover the more elusive gaps in their follow up, warm calling or cold calling approach. Remember, coach the process, not the result.
Use this appointment setting and new business development checklist to discover what it takes to cold call or prospect like a pro and see if you’re set up for success or failure. The Prospecting and Cold Calling Tune Up is a checklist that contains all of the components needed to develop a masterful prospecting and follow up system that’s been proven to bring in new business, fast.
If your prospecting system does not contain the listed components, then you can find everything you need to develop a masterful prospecting system by clicking here.
This prospecting and cold calling checklist will help you identify what you need to refine or develop in your approach to retrain more customers and get into bigger accounts, set up more qualified appointments with decision makers all the way up the C-Level chain to the CEO, get more voice mails returned, set up a step by step prospecting and cold calling strategy that works, close more sales and help your salespeople fill their sales funnel with more qualified prospects.
Make it rain more than ever before. Adopt to the new rules of engagement and win in today’s economy. Tune up your approach here.
Free Tele-Seminar: The Art of Enrollment – The New Language of Selling: A Live Event You Can’t Afford to Miss
Jan 14, 2009 All About Selling, Business Advice, Communication, How To Close The Sale, How To Sell and Sales Tips, Live Events, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Training, coaching for managers, seminars, tele-workshop, webinar
Keith Rosen’s Free Seminar Series
-The Art of Enrollment – Turn More Conversations into Clients
Mark your Calendar! January 28. 2009
Participant dial in number and access code below. Attend this event as our guest for free.
“People don’t want to be sold. They want to be enrolled.”
If you’re a coach, trainer, consultant, or non-selling professional, this is one tele-workshop you can’t afford to miss on the evolution of selling.
How effective are you at converting conversations into clients? Do you find yourself struggling to find more clients? What do you do to be unique and make an impact in the very first conversation you have with a prospect? Masterful coaches and speakers leave not only a lasting impression – they also create one.
It’s no secret that most coaches, speakers and non-selling professionals don’t like to sell. The income of most coaches reflects that. As such, they unknowingly use ineffective selling strategies rather than develop healthy, winning relationships with clients. Relying on price as a competitive differentiator dilutes your true value offering.
Coaching and training is not something you “pitch and sell.” The next evolution in how you engage clients is through the Art of Enrollment. What has been initially perceived as an inherent ability in certain leaders, coaches and top achievers is now a documented, step by step process that allows anyone, especially non-selling professionals, to convert more prospects into clients. You can do so in a natural, conversational way that honors your personal strengths, talents, integrity, values and style of communicating.
In this program, I’ve taken my twenty years of coaching and million dollar enrollment process that enabled me to develop one of the most successful coaching practices in the country and I’m now sharing my system with you in this program, The Art of Enrollment; a proven process to build a highly profitable, rewarding and sustainable business.
Specifically designed for coaches, consultants and trainers to learn how to:
Date: January 28. 2009
Duration: 90 Minutes
Time: 12pm EST
Location: Your Phone
Cost: Free! Please attend as our guest.
Sponsored by: The International Coach Federation
Below is the access number and code to participate:
Approximately 5 minutes before the session begins, start to dial this U.S. based phone number: 212.457.9879
When prompted, enter their Participant Access Code: 124866#
For more information visit the course description page here. I look forward to ‘seeing’ your there!
The Top Paradoxes of Prospecting
Nov 12, 2008 Cold Calling Tips, How To Close The Sale, How To Sell and Sales Tips, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, accountability, sales tips, tele-sales, telesales
Many of the strategies that we engage in today, whether in our thinking as well as in our actions, are often counterintuitive to what we may believe would be the solution to achieving our goals and objectives; especially as it relates to cold calling and prospecting for new business.
Here’s a sample of the top paradoxes of prospecting that make prospecting so challenging. However, once these paradoxes are woven into your thinking, you’ll notice how these contradictions will provide you with a competitive edge that no other marketing piece, feature or benefit of your product or service could even come close to.
You want the sale (appointment, demo) but you must detach from the outcome and have no expectation, since the sale is not the initial goal of prospecting.
You want the prospect to say “Yes” to taking the next step in your sales process but you have to qualify them first to see if there’s even a fit worth pursuing.
You want the prospect to buy from you but must learn to give value unconditionally, whether or not they buy or meet with you.
You want to deliver and push through your presentation but you must get the prospect’s permission even before you present.
You need to keep your eye on your objective, set your goals and plan your strategy for the future to determine the path to travel on but you must bring yourself back into the present moment during every prospecting conversation.
You want to make more money and achieve greater success in your career but you have to make the sales process about the prospect, instead of you, in order to do so.
You want to sell to each prospect you speak with but need to qualify them to see if you even want them as a customer. (Remember, if you want to build a business or career you hate, just find the people to work with who you just can’t stand.)
Lets face it. You and I both know that the ultimate objective of your prospecting efforts is to sell more and boost your income. However, to achieve this goal, it’s just not where you are going to focus your energy and thoughts.
If you can understand and embrace these paradoxes, you now have the opportunity to respond to each prospect in a healthier, more productive, and more enjoyable way.
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