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I am a “serial goal setter”! I have used goals all my life to chart my path and measure my progress. Perhaps it’s my need to be in control that has driven me to do this or my desire to anticipate what may be looming over the next horizon. Be that as it may, I do know that far too many sales people allow others to chart their course. They blindly accept yearly quotas as their goals for the New Year, never imagining they could enhance their results by layering personal “quality of life goals” on top of them.
I am fascinated by the way clients, prospects and salespeople, in general, define success. It is usually very personal and intimate, and reflects their perspective on their own life. Some define it in terms of income as in “he who dies with the most money” is deemed successful. Others use the importance of their job to determine whetheror not they are successful. A third group speaks of balance, though it is rarely achieved.
We all learn to define success, and to a certain degree failure, at a very early age. It happens when we receive our first report card in grade school. Whether we were educated in a pass-fail system or an A – F system, the marks all of us dreaded were the words “fail” or the letters “D” and “F”.
That may seem like a strange question, but time is one of our most limited resources! Taking a few minutes to evaluate why you should attend THIS particular networking event may save you hours of unproductive time and energy. Read the rest of this entry »
Do you “sell to live” or “live to sell”? I have been training sales people for over 16 years and have found a common trait in the highest performers: they “live to sell”. They love prospecting for new business opportunities. They love being in the role of “closer”. Their sales quota is a benchmark that they regularly exceed because just hitting quota makes them “average”. They don’t hide from the fact that they sell by putting words like “account manager” or “territory manager” on their business cards. They have turned the buyer-seller relationship into a game-A game with rules that they create!
All games have rules. Here are the rules to which the upper echelon of sales people are committed:
1. You have to be a hunter to survive. Hunting means spending 60% of your month finding new prospects. By the way, most sales people fail because they approach selling like farming; they plant seeds they hope and pray will grow into their existing customer base.
2. You cannot manage time. You can and must identify and execute behaviors that enable you to master it. Winning sales people know that the phrase “time is money” is a misnomer. They know they can always make more money, but they cannot recover time that has been squandered. They identify income-producing activities and focus on them in a laser-like fashion during their “pay-time” hours. Read the rest of this entry »
By Carol Rosdobutko
Clients and prospects tell on a regular basis about how they spend 5 – 20 hours a week preparing proposals for business they are “hoping to get;” however, most of the time their efforts are unsuccessful. Why are we compelled to provide proposals when our ‘gut’ tells us we are wasting our time?
Let’s explore some of the reasons we feel inclined to provide proposals:
1. The prospect asked for it.
2. ‘If I don’t provide the proposal I definitely won’t have a chance at getting the business.’
3. ‘I can show the prospect all the other things that I or my company can do for them.’
4. My proposal will give all the details of how I would solve their problems.
5. ‘I’m not great at asking questions – the proposal will cover the things that I’ve missed.’ Read the rest of this entry »
Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity was, “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
That’s also the literal meaning of Sandler Rule #9, “every unsuccessful prospecting call earns compound interest.”
In sales, we take for granted that we will fail more often than we succeed. So on the surface David Sandler’s rule about unsuccessful prospecting should give us hope that the more times we fail the closer we get to a sale.
As Sandler-trained salespeople will tell you, hope is a terrible thing.
What happens when Joshua Bell, one of the world’s finest musicians goes incognito in a busy subway in Washington’s business district? What happens when a musician who can command $1,000 per minute, takes his priceless Stradivari, dons a baseball cap, occupies a corner in a busy Washington subway, and puts on a virtuoso performance for people who would normally think nothing of paying $150 a ticket to see him perform in a tuxedo.
If you’re like most salespeople, you don’t know how to network effectively. Usually you’ll wing it, improvise, or spend time with colleagues or clients you know really well instead of engaging prospects.
When I ask, “why you don’t approach prospects at networking events?”, I’d get a lot of “I don’t knows.” What you don’t know, or don’t even realize, is your problem is mom. Specifically in influence the messages mom drilled into your head in your first six years like:
Peter Ostrow talks about the importance of integrating sales training and customer relationship management. Companies who integrate see more reps meet their quotas, and experience an overall increase in revenue. To learn more, visit www.sandler.com.
Have you ever killed a sale by bringing up an irrelevant feature to your prospect? Something you, or probably your marketing department, thought you prospect should know about before they signed up?
At Sandler, this is known as “painting seagulls in your prospect’s picture.” Unfortunately, your seagull can quickly turn into an albatross.
