Εμφάνιση αναρτήσεων με ετικέτα sales strategy. Εμφάνιση όλων των αναρτήσεων
Εμφάνιση αναρτήσεων με ετικέτα sales strategy. Εμφάνιση όλων των αναρτήσεων

Παρασκευή 22 Μαρτίου 2013

Reducing Risk

Fear is the number-one reason why prospects hesitate to agree to a deal. Any change that occurs in someone's life has an element of risk, and selling someone your product is definitely a change for them. The more a prospect has invested in a purchase, the higher the risk. So if you want to nudge an indecisive prospect into signing on the bottom line, you must reduce his perceived risk.

Τρίτη 19 Μαρτίου 2013

Giving Sales Performance Reviews

Many sales managers (and salespeople) dread the annual performance review. And it's true that the performance review can be both unpleasant and useless. But when properly conducted, a review can also be a highly useful tool for building goals and planning your coaching time for the year to come.

The best performance reviews don't contain any surprises. That's because if a salesperson falters, his sales manager should let him know right away and help him overcome the difficulty – not wait until the annual review and then spring a complaint on him. Similarly, a salesperson who performs exceptionally should receive appropriate praise from her sales manager as each success occurs.

Πέμπτη 14 Μαρτίου 2013

Selling Value: Easy to Say – Hard to Do

If we could listen to all the internal sales conversations occurring during any 30-minute period and do a word count, “selling value” would be right at the top of the list.

The modern formulation of selling value has been around for a long time – let’s say at least 30 years. Today almost everyone agrees that the capability to sell value is a survival skill for any sales team. Everyone nods that it is really important – unfortunately not everyone is really good at it.

Learning how to sell value is challenging – particularly given that everyone else is trying to do it – so sales people must master the skill if they are to stand out from the crowd.

Τετάρτη 13 Μαρτίου 2013

5 Behaviors That Are Holding You Back from More Sales

Sales is a numbers game. In fact, it’s two numbers games. There’s one game of financial numbers, and another game of hitting numbers with people. If your numbers aren’t what you want them to be, you might be playing the game wrong.

The five issues below can help you determine what you’re doing – or not doing – to hurt your sales. If you can pinpoint your problems, you can open yourself up to growth and find solutions.

Problem #1: Lack of Desire 

Δευτέρα 11 Μαρτίου 2013

6 Ways to Protect Your Customers From Competitors

If your competitors are trying to grow new business, it's almost inevitable that some of them will start sniffing around YOUR customers, trying to lure them away. Unless you take a few precautions you could find yourself losing your customer base before you even know what's happened.

Stay In Touch
How often do you pick up the phone and call your existing customers? Almost certainly not as often as you should. Yes, it takes time away from other sales activities. But think of the five minutes you spend talking to your best customer as “customer insurance.” As a rule, the more important your customer is, the more frequent your check-ins should be – but don't neglect any of your customers. You're also not just limited to using the phone; email and even snail mail can be great ways to maintain contact. 

Τετάρτη 6 Μαρτίου 2013

Exposed: bank's high-pressure sales culture continues

A Halifax insider describes how the push to 'sell, sell, sell' continues, despite the regulator's finding that such incentive schemes contributed to recent mis-selling scandals

High-pressure selling is alive and well, according to a Halifax insider. Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian

An employee of Britain's biggest banking group has described a "disheartening and demotivating" sales culture that pressurises staff into selling financial products to customers in order to meet strict points-based daily targets.

Δευτέρα 4 Μαρτίου 2013

Making a Virtual Sales Presentation

If your sales territory is a large one, sometimes selling from a distance is the only option. Even in small, densely laid-out territories it can be tricky and time-consuming to meet in person with all your interested prospects. So having a strong virtual sales presentation can be an important part of your sales arsenal.

There are two basic types of virtual sales presentations. The first is the webcam or video presentation, where you and your prospect sit in front of webcams and use video conferencing to communicate. The second is the webinar presentation, where you project the documents from your computer monitor onto the prospect's monitor and take him through a slideshow. For webinar presentations, the prospect will generally be on the phone with you at the same time so that you can talk him through the slides. With the right technology you also have the option of using the computer's speakers and microphone to communicate.

Κυριακή 3 Μαρτίου 2013

How to Raise Your Prices Without Playing the Blame Game

I am constantly looking for ways to raise the prices on my products and services so that I can improve the margins. As you continue to expand your company and improve your services, you'll one day face the challenge of raising your prices.

Almost every day you experience higher prices at the grocery store, gas pump and a range of other places. From time to time, the government requires you to increase employee wages. Why are you the only one not raising your prices? You may say, "My business is so competitive, and it's all price driven." Most companies make that claim. Your competition may be unwilling to ask for a higher price, but it doesn't mean you should be. You are not your competition. You offer a different service, you are a different company, you have different people and hopefully what you offer is a better value at any price. To be successful you must figure know your unique value proposition -- what it is that sets your apart from others.

Τετάρτη 27 Φεβρουαρίου 2013

The Best Questions for Your Needs Analysis

There is no “best question” for you to ask during your needs analysis sales call. There are “best questions.” Personally, I like to ask questions based on the client’s stage in their buying cycle. But there are a lot of ways you can categorize great sales questions.

Who Questions?

I can’t tell you how many salespeople continually make the mistake of not asking “who” questions. They mistakenly believe that because they’ve found a champion that they’ve got the game won.

Κυριακή 24 Φεβρουαρίου 2013

How Email Can Expedite the Sales Process

Too often a sales cycle will get bogged down at one or more points. A prospect may need an approval from a higher-up, may need to wait until the funding is available, or may simply want more time to think things through. Using email throughout the sales process can help avoid these delays or at least minimize them.

After you first speak with a prospect (which will usually happen as part of a cold call), send her a brief email that includes the date, time and place you've agreed on for your sales appointment. Not only does this help cut down on “oops, I forgot about you” on the day of the meeting, it also gives you an opportunity to include a link or two in your email that provides useful and interesting information. You might link an article on a topic you discussed during the cold call, or a document that relates to the prospect's business. This helps you to get off on the right foot with her and also to begin building your reputation as a helpful, experienced contact.

Πέμπτη 21 Φεβρουαρίου 2013

Pipeline Integrity

The funnel/pipeline is a key tool for sales people and managers to assess performance.  It provides so many insights beyond knowing whether you will make your sales goals.

One of the first things I look at on any new project is the pipeline.  It tells me so much about the organization or the sales person.  It’s one of the most powerful tools available to sales professionals, but too many fail to understand it.

A couple of years ago, I was called into a large technology company.  “Dave, our folks just don’t know how to close!  We’ve got lots of deals, but we aren’t able to move them into closing.  We need help!”   I asked the usual questions, “What’s the funnel coverage?”  The response–”Oh, it’s great–we have a great funnel, we have plenty of opportunities to chase after, that’s not our problem, it’s a closing problem.”

How to Stop Chasing Prospects Forever !

Perhaps the biggest challenge faced by salespeople is the problem of chasing prospects. In this article I’ll explain exactly why that happens, and how you can avoid it entirely and make prospects chase you instead.

I once heard Donald Trump say, "In selling, you must never appear desperate. As soon as you look desperate, it's over."

A friend and I were talking about the dynamics of a cold call the other day. When we make that call, we usually hope and expect that the prospect will be receptive to hearing what we have to say. However, salespeople face increasing resistance to cold calling, as well as increasing flakiness on the part of prospects who do meet with them. Instead of thinking, "Ok, this may be interesting," here's what most prospects actually think when they receive a cold call: "Great. You don't know me and I don't know you. You have no idea what my goals are. You don't even know if we need what you're selling, and in spite of all that, you've decided to waste my time anyway with this call."

Δευτέρα 18 Φεβρουαρίου 2013

Basics of Negotiation for Beginners

People learn and practice the art of negotiation from the time they are young children. For a small business, negotiation can make or break your company. Making the best deal possible is especially critical in tough economic times. By following several tips, your small business can effectively apply negotiating skills in many situations to tighten your bottom line.

Preparation

Know who you are negotiating with. This requires some background research on your part. Talk to other business associates who have worked with the person or company before. They can provide valuable insight. Understand the product or service you plan to negotiate. Use strategic psychology in dealing with them. Have pricing in mind before you begin. Consider budgeting, management directives, sales goals and other outside forces. Deal with the right person who can make business decisions so you don’t need to talk to someone else with more authority when you think you have already reached an agreement. 

Diagnosing Your Prospects' Needs

As a salesperson, your role is to help your prospects solve problems and create new opportunities. Your product or service will improve their situation in some way. But before you can show the prospect how that will happen, you must uncover their needs.

Finding a prospect's needs works a lot like a doctor's appointment. The prospect is willing to talk with you because he sees that he has a problem, but he may not know or realize the specific nature of his problem. Like a doctor, your task is to ask detailed questions to identify the specific symptoms, and then use that information to diagnose a cure (hopefully, the product you're selling).

5 Common Sales Campaign Errors

Sales campaigns cost time and money to launch. They often disrupt the participants' schedules and create a higher level of stress. But a good campaign can more than compensate for these issues by producing a huge boost to sales – something everyone can get behind. If your last campaign or two hasn't been attended by success, check the list below to see if you've been making any of these common errors.

1. Not Researching Your Prospects
Before you start any campaign, you need to know that your approach will appeal to your hot prospects. It doesn't matter how hard you work on your offer if you end up with something that no one really wants! Just as importantly, prospects will respond far better if you already know something about them. At a bare minimum, you should know the prospect's name and (for B2B sales) his company name and title. The more you know over and above that, the easier it will be to connect with that prospect. 

Σάββατο 9 Φεβρουαρίου 2013

3 Golden Rules of Negotiating

The art of negotiating escapes most of us, even good salespeople, because few take the time to correctly understand the word and follow the golden rules of negotiating.

The first and biggest error is a misunderstanding of the word. When I ask people at my Closers workshop what the word “negotiating” means, I get answers like, "how good a deal can I get" and "how cheap can I buy." For many people, it’s a process of painful tactics of stall and overcome or a give and take mostly involving the surrender of price and terms.

“Negotiate” comes from the Latin negotiatus, which is the past participle of negotiari, and means to carry on business. This original meaning is critical to understand because the goal of negotiating is to continue doing business by conferring with another to arrive at an agreement.

How to Handle Objections in Six Easy Steps

Most salespeople think of objections as a bad thing... but they're missing the big picture. If your prospect raises an objection, that's actually a good sign. The fact that they're talking out their concern means that they're giving you a chance to answer it. If someone is completely uninterested in buying your product, they won't bother to object – generally they'll just sit through your presentation in silence (with arms folded) and then send you away. Here's a simple process to help resolve your prospect's objections.

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: Five to fifteen minutes 

Τρίτη 29 Ιανουαρίου 2013

3 Golden Rules of Negotiating

The art of negotiating escapes most of us, even good salespeople, because few take the time to correctly understand the word and follow the golden rules of negotiating.

The first and biggest error is a misunderstanding of the word. When I ask people at my Closers workshop what the word “negotiating” means, I get answers like, "how good a deal can I get" and "how cheap can I buy." For many people, it’s a process of painful tactics of stall and overcome or a give and take mostly involving the surrender of price and terms.

“Negotiate” comes from the Latin negotiatus, which is the past participle of negotiari, and means to carry on business. This original meaning is critical to understand because the goal of negotiating is to continue doing business by conferring with another to arrive at an agreement.

When You Should Fire a Customer

Customers aren't always easy to deal with. Every salesperson has a few customers that he hates talking with, because those conversations always turn unpleasant. And in rare circumstances, a customer can be so problematic that you're better off foisting him onto one of your competitors. The tricky part is knowing when it's the right choice to fire your customer.

Getting rid of a customer should always be your last resort. Just because a customer is difficult to handle or gets on your nerves doesn't mean that you should take the first opportunity to dump him. Hard though it is to admit, a customer might have perfectly valid reasons to be angry and even hostile with you. Whether the mistake is yours or comes from someone else in your company, simply acknowledging the error and doing your best to fix it can be all it takes to turn a difficult customer into a loyal and happy one.

Δευτέρα 28 Ιανουαρίου 2013

10 Unavoidable Factors for Sales Success in 2013

There’s no way around it- the face of business is rapidly changing. With technology evolving at an impressive rate and the level of competition steadily rising, there are some sales techniques that have gone from being simply recommended to being essential techniques for keeping up with competitors.

Sales techniques should be more comprehensive than ever, and your business need to have a constant presence in the public sphere in order maintain success. Here are 10 unavoidable factors for seeing sales succeed in 2013.

1. Mobile POS

A necessity for any business on-the-go; mobile POS systems allow you to make credit card sales using your mobile device or smartphone. This is critical to reaching your customers whenever, wherever. Don’t give them the opportunity to look elsewhere, take their payment right then and there.