How do you get your sales team solidly behind your telephone sales campaign and telephone sales goals?

Here are 5 Training Tips for Sales Managers:

1. Identify your goals

• Identify the goal of your telephone sales campaign.

• Identify the goal of every telephone call your team will make. (These may differ from your overall campaign goals.)

• Know the difference between your campaign goals and your individual telephone call goals. (For example, if your team is making calls to set new business appointments, the goal of the call is the appointment. The goal of the overall campaign is to gain new customers.)

2. Communicate your goals

• Make sure that your sales team understands your campaign goals.

• Make sure that your sales team understands the goal of every individual call.

• Make sure that your sales team knows and understands the difference between the campaign goals and the goals for individual telephone calls.

3. Plan your campaign and your calls

• Plan out every potential sales scenario.

• Develop an appropriate script for each scenario.

• Make sure that your script includes answers to the objections your sales team is bound to hear.

• Make sure that your scripts are well written and in “spoken” English.

• Test and refine your scripts.

4. Report

• Have a method in place ahead of time to track all calls.

• Track all calls.

• Make sure that your sales team reports all unusual or unexpected sales scenarios.

• Analyze those unexpected scenarios and adjust your plan and scripts accordingly.

5. Trust your sales team

• Once you have planned your campaign, communicated all of your goals and trained your sales team, give your team a voice and decision-making power in handling prospects and customers.

• Trust that your sales team will handle calls appropriately and professionally.

• Your trust will result in better morale, better effort and better results.

© 2005 Wendy Weiss

Wendy Weiss, “The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success,” is a sales trainer, author, and sales coach. Her recently released program, “Cold Calling College”, and/or her book, “Cold Calling for Women”, can be ordered by visiting http://www.wendyweiss.com Contact her at wendy@wendyweiss.com. Get Wendy’s free e-zine at www.wendyweiss.com

You’ll find that the extremely important skill of tactical communicating will be that much easier if you if know who it is you’re talking to. Luckily, there’s a simple, yet powerful formula that Myers & Briggs developed, to pinpoint different personalities, and what I’m referring to is the DISC, or D.I.S.C. personality profile.

In its simplest form, the DISC model breaks all of us into 4 different personality types. The word DISC is an Acronym for these different types of people. The 4 Personalities are easily remembered using letters. But remembering how they act and react in real life is easiest by using birds!

The “D” from D.I.S.C. is the Driver. These people are direct, forceful, and results oriented people. These types of people may not be very good at customer service or repetitive tasks. If they were a bird, they would be an eagle.

An Eagle is top of the food chain. They fly alone, and they make quick decisions. As an aggressive animal, the link back to people in business is that these people are most often the ones with the big office - the President or Manager!

You’ve probably run across this personality type with people who want short answers, no fluff. And they let you know that you better get to the point, they have little time to waste. With a “D” you have to make your point quickly and show plenty of benefit to them.

“I” is the Influencer in D.I.S.C. They want to be everybody’s friend. They are everybody’s friend. They tend to be optimistic, energetic and outgoing. They work well as salespeople, but generally not quite as good at collecting your receivables. Sound like anyone you know?
An “I” personality is usually referred to as a Rooster or a Peacock! Bright flashy colors, screaming “Look at me, look at me! As a general rule these people want to be included and recognized. (An excellent point to keep in mind when selling to one) You’ll spot them easily by the trophies, photos, awards and “#1 Dad” coffee mugs in their office!
“S” is Steadiness. These people are patient and relaxed. They are content to hang back in the crowd and look for direction from others. An excellent choice as an administrator or receptionist. I’ve seen them as Owners and Presidents, quite often in the Medical and Technical Fields. It’s a great character trait, but not one that needs to stand out in the crowd. If you have a lot of Office Managers on your accounts list, this is a personality type that will encounter a lot.

If an “S” was a bird, it would be a Dove.

“C” is the Compliance person. They like “the rules”. As a matter of fact, they need them to function well. They tend to be very detail oriented and accurate. Obviously, these people are a great choice where details are important. So if you sell to Engineers, Lawyers, Doctors, Architects, Law Enforcement, you may encounter C’s.

A “C” personality is like an Owl; wise, watchful and analytical.
Of course, these are all general terms, and most people aren’t confined to just one category. I, myself have traits that make me both an “I” as well as a “D”, but the DISC model does help you to understand the people that you deal with each day, and help you to communicate with them in a way that makes it easier for both of you.

Dominic Rubino is a sales trainer and business coach whose personal goal is to make every salesperson a sales superhero. You can visit his website at http://www.ultimatesalesmeetings.com

10 Ways To Profit In An Uncertain Economy by: William R. Nabaza
of http://www.Nabaza.com

1. Sell more back end products to your existing customer base.
You already created rapport, trust and proved your credibility
to them.

2. Make it a practice to up sell to new and existing customers.
After they decide to buy one product, offer them another product.

3. Cross promote your products and services with other
businesses that aren’t competition. You will reach a wider
audience at less cost.

4. Create joint venture deals with other businesses. You can
expand your product line and target other profitable markets at
a lower cost.

5. Start an affiliate program for your business. You will be
able to spend less profits on risk advertising and spend more
money on guaranteed sales.

6. Trade advertising with other businesses to save revenue. You
could trade e-zine ads, banners ads, links, print ads, etc.

7. Out source part of your workload. This can save on employee
costs, equipment costs, taxation costs, expansion costs, etc.

8. Add low cost bonuses to your offer that have a high perceived
value. It could be e-books, members only sites, consulting,
e-reports, etc.

9. Use viral marketing to promote your business on the internet.
Give away free stuff with your ad copy include on it so others
can give it away.

10. Follow up with all your prospects. You can use a free
e-zine, a follow-up auto responder, an update or reminder list,
etc. —- William Nabaza of http://www.Nabaza.com specializes in
domains, webhosting, webmaster’s tools, netpreneur’s articles
and resources. Stands out as a freebie provider, business
opportunity provider and the like. Visit his site at
http://www.nabaza.com or contact him directly at
william@nabaza.com

more free articles here: http://www.nabaza.com/resources.htm

You’ve heard this before: There were four people named
Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was
sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it.
Nobody did it. Somebody got angry because it was
Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Somebody would do
it. But Nobody asked Anybody. It ended up that the job was
not done, and Everybody blamed Somebody, when actually,
Nobody asked Anybody.

Question is - What was the Job?

At a trade show, the job that Anybody can do, and Everybody
thinks Somebody will do, but winds up being that Nobody
does it - well, that’s the follow-up part.

The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (ceir.org) says
research shows that up to 80% of leads gathered at a show
are not followed up. Bottom line, that translates to - you’ve
wasted 80% of your money.

Here are tips for recouping your investment and improving
your bottom line:

1. What’s Your Purpose at the Show?

If it’s to gather leads, then that should be the main focus for
the entire process - before, during and after the show. What
if it’s something else, like meeting with clients or recruiting
employees? That doesn’t absolve you of following up leads.
You still have to do it.

2. What’s a Lead?
Define before the show what you consider a lead. Is it a
company that will purchase within a certain time period?
Has a certain budget? Is looking for a particular product you
sell? You can separate the contacts into levels - A, B, C or
hot, medium, cool - and work them that way. But they still
have to be contacted.

3. Who’s Responsible?

Before you get into the Body problem - any, no, some and
every - write out the process. Produce a schedule for
following up. The first contact should come within 10 days of
the end of the show. Otherwise people forget who you are.
The trail becomes cool, then cold. Determine names and
responsibilities at each step of the follow-up process.
Accountability is important. Make certain people know what
is expected of them, and who else is in the process. This is
critical when the person staffing the booth is not the person
who does the actual call. The farther and longer the process
from the show site and date, the more chances there are to
lose the lead.

4. What’s a Follow-up?

At minimum it’s a Thank You note to every contact you
made. These people invested time and money to come to
the show, time and effort to stop by your booth. The simple
courtesy of a Thank You goes a long way in today’s fast
paced and impersonal world. If you listened properly and
were able to gather specific information, you can provide a
quote, supply answers and have a real reason for the
follow-up call.

5. What Should You Send?

Unless requested, do not send the $20.00, 20-pound
corporate package of literature that tells absolutely
everything about your company. Do not send an obvious
form letter (“Thank you for visiting us at the ABC Expo in
Booth 6543 six months ago…”).

Do Send:

* your business card - people will remember a logo and
spelling of names and companies
* information about your company - a generic piece is fine
* the specific answer to the question - My company can help
your company ____ (crunch numbers faster, ship with less
hassle, increase accuracy in testing)
* any samples, price lists or references which will help
speed the sales cycle.

Remember - The job that Anybody can do, and Everybody
thinks Somebody will do, but Nobody does - well, that
changes when all understand the importance of trade show
follow-up.

Julia O’Connor - Speaker, Author, Consultant - is an expert
in the psychology of the trade show environment. She
understands the reluctance of some staff to be company
players at a trade show - the “It’s-Not-My-Job” attitude.

Companies spend big bucks to exhibit , then drop the ball at
follow-up, which can be the most important part of the whole
experience.

http://www.TradeShowTraining.com — 800-355-3910

Originally the conference call was limited to businesses paying exorbitant fees to the telcos. For business, it still made sense economically because the costs were less than the travel costs involved in bringing the people together. Additionally, significant time savings are involved, both in terms of travel time and in being able to communicate fairly rapidly to an extended group.

Telcos then extended their market by providing conference calling services to home consumers for an added fee. For some, it made sense to be able to bring a family or group with common interests together easily, usually to plan some physical event.

With the expansion of the internet, and in particular, the increasing availability and decreasing pricing for high speed internet access, conference calling has expanded far beyond its original uses.

For business, it remains a vital tool and has, actually, become far more useful as prices fall and the ease of use increases. Real time audio/video conferencing is already in use (and in some organizations has been for quite some time). As the cost of bandwidth decreases and the technology underlying audio-video transmission over networks improves, true real-time video conferencing will increase dramatically.

With the growing sophistication of the typical surfer and the expansion of internet marketing, audio and video have become hot items. Within the internet marketing community, conference calls - usually known as teleseminars, have become a standard feature. Offering the opportunity to reach a large group of interested prospects in a relatively simple and inexpensive format, teleseminars also offer the marketer an opportunity to create an instant product. A recording of a teleseminar can either be sold as a stand-alone product or used as a marketing tool for back-end products.

Marketers are using both free and paid teleseminars. Generally there is a higher level of injected sales content in free teleseminars, but it does vary a great deal.

Solutions available now range from the rather expensive to essentially free. Your choice is going to depend on exactly what level of service you require. There are a number of providers which offer an introductory pricing scheme (I’ve seen it as low as a $1 for the first month), which gives you the opportunity to see firsthand how their service works at a very modest cost. You do need to make sure you understand just how your users will access the conference. Solutions which use telephone call-ins are generally more restrictive and/or expensive than those utilizing an internet connection or VoIP softphone connections.

True real-time audio/video conferencing hasn’t arrived yet for most. The bandwidth requirements remain excessive and the quality of the video, in particular, is fairly low. If you ever done live chat with audio and a web camera, you’ve seen the limitations.

Most online presentations which involve both audio and video generally use static images which change either rarely or slowly, such as charts, website images, topic outlines and so on. This can be extremely useful for teleseminars, of course, because it makes it easier to demonstrate certain points and provides a visual as well as an audio focus for participants.

The combination of audio and visual elements is particularly useful in training situations where one can reinforce the other. Plus, you have the advantage of reaching those who learn better through visual means, as well as those partial to audio.

For those of you doing eCommerce the evolved conference call can be an incredible tool. Consider how much impact regular teleseminars about your area of expertise could have on future sales. You can provide buyers with instructional teleseminars. You can introduce new products. And in each instance you’ll be generating recordings which you can either sell or make available on your sites, or use as added viral marketing tools.

With the increasing sophistication and usability of the tools for conference calling, the possibilities are virtually unlimited and well within the reach of every entrepreneur. You’ll be hard pressed to find another tool that offers you the impact and potential of the conference call.

Copyright 2005 Richard Keir

Richard writes, teaches, trains and consults on business and professional presentations and eCommerce related matters. For more on conference calling, web conferencing and related subjects visit http://altaglobal.com - for wireless and cellular subjects see http://www.altaglobal.org and for networking and security check http://www.altaglobal.net

Every sales manager or director knows that they have to spend some time training and working with their staff so they continue to improve, however frequently managers get so caught up in their own schedules that they neglect coaching for other duties. When you’ve got new staff, that isn’t a good idea. Whether experienced or not, all reps need polishing from time and time depending on their level of skill. It takes time and energy, but the results in the long run, are worth the time put in. Below are some tips to become a better coach for a new team:

Be sure to make time for coaching. Set up a weekly meeting with each rep to see how things are going and ensure that they are continuing to improve. Be specific in the meetings, discuss customer problems/challenges, and what the rep needs to do to make the best use of their time. By having defined goals the rep will be on track as they increase their skills and understanding of good selling practices. Ensure that reps are informed of what is expected of them. More experienced reps also need feedback, it helps build confidence which is important in keeping reps fueled.

Secondly, be sure to observe your reps in the field. It is difficult to determine where your reps need additional help, especially new reps if you aren’t observing them on a live call. Watch how they interact with clients, use time management, and take care of their other job duties. It is a good practice to go on at least one sales call per quarter with your staff, and more often if you see a particular rep that is struggling. You may also want to consider having seasoned reps make calls with new reps, however ensure that you understand the potential expense of taking a top performer out of the field. It may make sense if the senior rep may lead into a management role, however if not, time away from selling will impact the bottom line.

Finally, be one step ahead of the game. Don’t wait until reps have a problem, because at that point it may have left them feeling unconfident and demotivated. Seek out each rep monthly and ask how things are going, in a controlled atmosphere such as a meeting etc. Managers should make a dedicated effort to keep in touch with new sales staff whether face to face or with a phone call. Part of the manager’s efforts in the beginning will determine the rep’s willingness to go the distance.

Tim Hagen owns Sales Progress LLC a sales development and consulting firm located in Mequon, Wisconsin. Tim has worked in a variety of industries and has typically increased sales between 15-35%. Feel free to contact him directly at salebuilder@aol.com or visit the website at http://www.SalesProgress.com.

Are you searching for new and innovative ways of sales lead
generation? Are you lacking in sources of good quality leads?
Are you tired and bored using the same methods for generating
sales leads?

If you answered No to these questions you’re either satisfied
with the income you’re earning - or you’re not interested in
earning a 6-figure income in sales. Please stop reading this
article.

If you answered Yes, then you’re going to be very excited to
read not only this article but the rest of the series I’ve
written on sales lead generation.

Here are the 11 most profitable methods I’ve found for sales
lead generation that have turned hundreds of sales people into
6-figure sales people.

Sphere of Influence

Create a list of at least 100 people you know. Send out an
introductory letter telling them about your product or service.
Talk with each person at least every three months. Send them
information of interest at planned intervals throughout the
year. Consistently ask for and receive quality referrals.
Remember, if each person you know also knows 100 people, well
you get the idea.

Cold calling

Using cold calling effectively for sales lead generation
requires five key ingredients. Target the market you are going
to call. Know your objective (get an appointment, get a name).
Have a memorized script. Smile. Be prepared for rejection. Have
fun!

Knocking on doors

This method is much the same as cold calling. I used this very
effectively in real estate. I used to knock on doors year round.
Do you think people would remember someone who knocked on their
door in the middle of winter?

Farming

This is another technique that is used effectively in real
estate and can be adapted to any product or service. Pick a
market of 200 homes or businesses and become the only person
they think of in regards to your product or service.

Seminars

Seminars are great for sales lead generation. People who attend
your seminar have an interest in the information you are
presenting and a need for your product or service.

Mass mailing

Also known as direct marketing. Successful used of this method
requires mailing a well written sales letter to a targeted
mailing list.

Newspapers

Pay attention to the local news, business and announcements
sections. Look for the people who get promoted, have babies, buy
and sell homes and start up new businesses. There may be leads
here for your product or service.

Email publications

Getting email addresses of past and current clients, your sphere
of influence and any one else you come in contact with is a
great way to keep in touch.

Hairstylist

Most everyone has a barber or hairstylist they use on a regular
basis. When ever I’m in the chair the conversation covers a
variety of topics.

Offer them a $1 for every card they pass out or motivate them
even more by offering a percentage of the sale that result from
their referral.

I’ve even picked up business myself while getting my haircut.
Keep your ears and eyes open at all times.

Daily Contacts

Every day when you leave the house take twenty business cards
with you and make it a point to give them away. That’s twenty
cards times five work days. If you’re really ambitious, do it on
Saturday and Sunday also.

When you’re looking to generate lots of quality sales leads the
more lines you have in the water the more fish you’re apt to
catch.

These are all effective methods of sales lead generation and
should be used regularly.

The title says 11 methods of sales lead generation, however, if
you count there are only ten. That’s because I gave the best and
most effective lead generation method its own page. If you
effectively work this method you will soon find you have more
business than you can handle.

The multi million pound cosmetics industry is acutely aware
of the value of packaging. You’ll know this if you’ve ever
bought anything from those glamorous ladies whose counters
are always just inside the front door of Department stores.

However, from time to time we’re presented with surveys
about the creams we rub on our bodies which take years off
our age and make our skin as soft as a baby’s bottie. The
surveys tell us “Buy the cheap stuff or the own label one
from the supermarket, ’cause they’re all the same.”

But do we? Of course we don’t. Human beings are driven by
emotions not logic and never more so when spending their
money. People buy with their eyes, we love packaging. The
marketing and merchandising experts have it down to a fine
art and know the colours and shapes that we’re most likely
to buy. They then design their packaging accordingly and
make sure it grabs our attention.
The product in the packaging has to do what it says it’ll
do, however if it looks like it can do the business, then
we’re more likely to believe it can.

It’s just the same with people. Whether we like it or not,
people are likely to make judgements about us by the way
we’re packaged. They’ll then decide whether they like us,
whether they’ll give us a job or even just believe what we
say.
This seems to be so obvious. Yet I’ve seen professional
speakers with scuffed shoes, business leaders with outdated
suits and politicians wearing clothes that don’t fit them or
suit their shape.

A few months ago I attended a function where an accountant
was invited to speak about his business. He told the
assembled audience how efficient his business was and about
their attention to detail. However his tie was undone and
his shirt looked like he was breaking it in for a smaller
friend. His suit, though probably expensive, wasn’t the
right colour for him and merely drew attention to the fact
that its wearer liked his grub.
All of the things he was saying were totally contradicted by
how he was packaged.

Lawyers, accountants, plumbers or software engineers; it
doesn’t matter what you do, other people are very liable to
make a judgement about your abilities by how you’re
packaged. Your colleagues and your boss will all make
decisions about the quality of your work and your promotion
prospects by your dress and image.

There’s the famous story about the 1960’s pre-election
television debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard
Nixon. These debates were also heard on radio, which was
much more popular at the time. After the debates a poll was
taken of how TV and radio audiences had reacted to the two
participants. The radio audience voted for Nixon, however
the TV audience voted overwhelmingly for Kennedy. The TV
audience liked the look of Kennedy better than Nixon - they
liked the packaging.

We also tend to make decisions very quickly about people we
come into contact with. Psychologists have established that
we subconsciously make around eleven decisions about other
people within the first six seconds of meeting them.
Personnel managers have admitted in surveys to making a
decision about a job applicant within the first thirty
seconds of an interview, these decisions being made
primarily on how the people looked and carried themselves.

How we look will confirm or contradict what we say. Imagine
someone in a policeman’s uniform at your door telling you
he’s come to read the gas meter, I doubt if you’d believe
him. First impressions are also lasting impressions and
take a lot of changing.

Okay, so we can’t all have the perfect looks or the perfect
body, what ever that is. It doesn’t matter what shape you
are but it does matter how you package that shape, if you
want to make an impact on other people.

How you package yourself can also make a huge difference to
your self-confidence. Have you ever noticed how confident
and self-assured you feel when you dress in something you
feel good in? Particularly when someone genuinely
compliments you. How you dress can have a huge impact on how
you carry yourself and project to other people.

The problem is that many of us don’t have a clue as to what
really suits us and compliments our shape. This is why so
many business people are turning to an image consultant to
improve their personal impact. This may seem like a costly
luxury however consider the cost of restricting your career
or possibly not winning a new account.

Dress down Friday is a particular challenge for men. The
temptation for many guys is to pull on an old pair of chinos
and a worn out polo shirt and hope for the best. The only
thing is you end up looking scruffy and certainly don’t
impress anyone.

So what do you do? Well you could ask your nearest and
dearest to be honest with you and tell you what they really
think about what you wear. The thing is, you really need to
listen and take heed of what they say.

Buy some of the fashion magazines and keep up to date on the
latest fashion. It can also help to find a good clothes
store where the sales assistants will give unbiased advice.

It’s also important to look after the details. Do your
spectacles suit your face? Are you in need of a more modern
haircut? What does that cheap plastic watch say about you?
Men need to be careful about novelty ties and fancy socks
with a business suit. Women need to take care with make-up,
colours and perfume.

You may have a lot more to offer than a jar of anti wrinkle
cream or a packet of cornflakes; however no one is going to
pick you off the shelf if they don’t like your packaging.

Alan Fairweather is the author of four ebooks in the “How
to get More Sales” series. Lots of practical actions you
can take to build your business and motivate your team.-
http://www.howtogetmoresales.com

The Cash to Cash Cycle
Part Three of Series

We’re sprinting toward that million dollar mark…and we’re only a couple strides away…

Decreasing inventory carried us over the first hurdle, and last week reducing Accounts Receivable sped us through the half-way mark. We’re making great time, so let’s bring on the next mile marker – marketing and sales.

Increasing Overall Sales and Marketing Effectiveness

If you are an organization spending $500,000 or more on marketing expenses (e.g. advertising, trade shows, print materials, direct mail, etc.) then STOP! We found it again. Why you ask…? Because marketing has the greatest potential of being very unproductive. In fact, many marketing programs struggle to break even, and actually frequently lose money. So if we increase the overall effectiveness, then we can eliminate 50% or more of your wasted marketing efforts, which translates into $250,000 in cash.

So now, let’s see how this actually works in a real-life scenario.

Sales and Marketing Company Policy Case Study

An organization with $500,000 in marketing expenses needed assistance. We examined their sales and marketing process to understand and quantify the lead flow, follow-up, and demand forecasting issues. Then we designed and implemented a process to improve their sales cycle efficiency and tie it closer to their customer’s buying cycles. After the marketing reductions, we then reinvested $100,000 back into new processes for public relations and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), both of which were suffering badly.

The metrics we developed reduced their marketing expenses by 60% overall and increased their sales cycle efficiency from 40% to 60% within 6 months of implementing the new procedures. With these new processes and reports, the company now tracks sales cycle efficiency and life-time value rather than just sales quota achievement, as the measure of their sales & marketing effectiveness. The result: an extra $300,000 in cash plus a 50% increase in process capability (capacity).

As we have seen time and time again, time can be our best friend, if only we let it.

Methods to Design the New Sales & Marketing Process

• Improve Follow-up. Only about two percent (2%) of sales occur on the first contact. Eighty percent (80%) of sales will require five to eight contacts before the sale closes. This means that if you are contacting the prospect less than five times or more than eight times, then you could have a problem with follow-up.

• Sales Cycle Efficiency. Time kills deals. The speed at which a prospect is converted into a customer and the number of prospects required to make that conversion determines your sales cycle efficiency. So ask yourself, are you taking the right steps to measure and reduce lost sales?

• Life-Time Value. How profitable a given customer is over time defines your LTV or Life-Time Value. Companies spend ten times more to acquire a customer than to keep a customer. However, existing customers are more likely to purchase again, spend more money, and therefore become more profitable. If you don’t know your LTV, then how do you know how much money to spend and on which customer segment?

• Demand Forecasting. Every customer buys on a cycle. So this means that you should track cycle times and variance to increase the accuracy of your forecasting and the loyalty of the customer. Do you know when your customers need to reorder?

• Improve Lead Quality. Do you have methods in place to measure the conversion potential of each lead? Lead generation activities (i.e. forms) should pre-qualify every new lead so that you can take the right follow-up actions for the marketing offer. Strong leads produce strong sales.

• Increase Awareness. To keep the sales pipeline full of good quality leads you must continuously increase the awareness of your company and the solutions that it provides. Public relations is more efficient at building awareness than advertising, yet many companies spend wildly on advertising and trade shows while neglecting to fund public relations efforts much at all. Increase your name recognition, not your budget.

• Reduce Discounting. Discounts represent deficiencies in the sales & marketing processes, which means that you should use them sparingly. Instead, determine the root cause and then fix the process that’s causing the need to discount. Show customers the added value, and they won’t focus on price.

• Train Personnel. Provide your sales & marketing personnel with regular formal training. This will arm them with better product knowledge, as well as presentation, negotiating and selling skills that will improve effectiveness. This will boost both employee morale and the bottom line – a win-win.

Control of Sales and Marketing Policy and Procedures

Improve your sales cycle efficiency. Reduce your marketing expenses. Tie it closer to your customer’s buying cycles. And take control of your sales and marketing program to let it work for you.

Improvement with Well-defined Policies and Procedures

With well-defined processes and procedures in place, you will increase efficiency by reducing ineffective sales and marketing programs. And, again, we make such improvements to create more cash on hand – all toward that million dollar goal and to cross the finish line.

Next week, we will hurdle the final $250,000 mark with the Accounting Payables function – so close you can see it.

Chris Anderson is currently the managing director of Bizmanualz, Inc. and co-author of policies and procedures manuals, producing the layout, process design and implementation to increase performance.
To learn how to increase your business performance, visit: Bizmanualz, Inc.

The topic of this issue’s article is a response to a question submitted by one of my newsletter readers.

QUESTION - “At the moment, my competitor’s have a far better product/deal, due to circumstances out of my control. However, customers go to the competitor and then come to me to compare. How do I go about convincing the customer that our service/product is better even though on paper it isn’t???”

ANSWER - Thanks for the question. I’m going to answer this to the extent that I can without knowing what it is that you or your competitor sell.

I believe that this is a common experience for many of us in sales. Customers use us for free for all kinds of freebies - information, demos, test drive’s, consulting, etc. Sure, it is good to give away something free to expose people to your offering (my newsletter is an example of this).

This has gone way too far however, and it’s our fault in the sales profession. We have been bludgeoned into thinking that we must do whatever it is that the customer asks of us. That we should jump through hoops like trick dogs, if that gets us just a little bit closer to *possibly* getting a sale.

Freebies should be used as a marketing tool. The purpose of freebies is to generate a lead. And that’s where the free giveaways should end. Once you have the lead, and are able to engage the customer in live conversation, the marketing ends and the selling begins.

Successful selling is an exchange of value for value. It has always been this way since people traded grains and cloth for chickens and pigs. Today as sales professionals we are “representing” a company and its products. This is why we are called “sales representatives”. We act as the agent, representing our company in the trade, representing our company in the exchange of value for value.

As sales reps, we offer significant value to our prospective customers. Yes our products have value, but I am not talking about that. The value that we offer is our knowledge and our time. We know a lot about our products, about our industry, about future trends in our marketplace, about our competition, and many other things.

We sell our products every day. Our customers (most of them at least) do not buy these products every day. So our knowledge has value. If you don’t believe this to be true, then you either need to think about this a little more, or you work in an industry that is about to get disintermediated by ecommerce.

So what should you do?

Respect your value as a salesperson.

Get commitments from your prospects.

Get a commitment - Qualify them first for pains/wants, budget, and decision capability, Then before presenting details about your product. Get a commitment to make a definitive decision upon completion of your presentation or the proof step of your sales cycle. For this to work, you must have asked really good questions to elicit the important pains/wants that are driving the sale. You must know that they have the money to buy it. And you must be presenting to the decision-maker.

You only have so much time in a day, so use it well. If you chase every deal that comes your way, you are losing real sales that you could have gone out and looked for.

Break any of these rules, and you are simply rolling the dice. (Yeah I know, this works for some people - but you’ll never make it really big in sales winging it this way).

Notice that what I outlined above is the reverse order of the way many salespeople have learned to sell. The key thing that I am telling you to do here, is to present AFTER you have qualified the prospect and AFTER you have a commitment to make a decision.

If you have a long sales cycles involving multiple levels of decision-making, you can use this same approach. Instead of getting a commitment for a decision up-front, you can get a commitment to be taken to the appropriate next step. That could be a meeting with a higher-level decision-maker, or it could be earning the right to give a presentation to a more influential audience. I call this “chaining commitments”.

This is the best solution. By getting commitments, you will stop wasting time with the people who aren’t serious about you. By asking good questions up-front (a topic for another newsletter), you may uncover something that your competitor missed, giving you a chance to change the rules of the sale set early on by your competitor’s getting there first.

If your product isn’t better, I don’t believe that you can persuade or convince someone that it is. Most people aren’t stupid. They will figure out eventually that you are trying to pull one over on them, if they don’t figure that out while you are actually trying to do it to them.

Lastly, even with the most competitive products, the number two product usually has some advantages over the number one product. Determine these advantages, and focus your selling efforts on the prospects who want such benefits. Create questions designed to uncover the pains/wants that would cause someone to want such benefits. Follow the process above of questions and commitments first, presentations last, and you’ll find yourself making money even when you aren’t selling for the number one company.

© 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.

Shamus Brown is a Professional Sales Coach and former high-tech sales pro who began his career selling for IBM. Shamus has written more than 50 articles on selling and is the creator of the popular Persuasive Selling Skills CD Audio Program. You can read more of Shamus Brown’s sales tips at http://Sales-Tips.industrialEGO.com/ and you can learn more about his persuasive sales skills training at http://www.Persuasive-Sales-Skills.com/