Sales Rev November 2009

Five Quick Articles

Reading Time - 6 minutes

Do it now, you know it makes sense.

1. Two Sure-Fire Actions that Help Close Sales

Accessing all key players who have the ability to influence the outcome of a sale will increase your likelihood of closing more business as the year-end approaches. But reaching the one individual who makes the final decision can be tough. Ensure you're talking with the right person by incorporating these two activities into your conversations:

Listen for clues to the big picture: If the person you suspect to be the final decision maker isn't talking about challenges that apply to the organization as a whole (i.e. profitability or ROI), you may not have the right individual. The person who has the power to say 'yes' or 'no' should have a firm grasp of the challenges the company faces and will reference those issues.

Cover above the bases: To be absolutely certain you identify the right decision maker, connect with someone who has a title higher than the person you believe to be the decision maker. Talking with contacts at higher levels in the organization can help you ensure you are selling to the person who has the power to approve your company's proposed solution.

You will dramatically increase your ability to win business by taking the time to correctly identify all the key players who will influence the final decision.

From Miller Heiman Sales Performance Tips

2. That will be the phone Reg...

I am seeing a greater rise in email marketing and mobile marketing and at the same time a stronger rise in the quality of SPAM filters and hence more emails being stopped at corporate or ISP firewalls, anti-SPAM filters and if you are lucky email ending up in Junk Folders.
I have also personally experienced many emails and proposals ending up in Junk Folders when previous emails have made it through. However, I always follow up with a phone call and that is why I know if a proposal had made it or not.
I am also having far more success using the phone in making new connections and building relationships.
Here is my million dollar tip. Buy a decent headset for the office and blue tooth for the car and get to work. I also know some people are scared of the phone and would rather hide behind email so my second million dollar tip is:
"Lose your Fear and get the Phone to your Ear"

3.The Value of Communicating

I was talking with an entrepreneur who told me over a twenty year period he had bought 33 cars. The point was that with these 33 cars he had dealt with 33 different salespeople. All keen to get his sale, get their commission and move onto the next opportunity. Not one of them had kept in touch. Surely if they had of this man would have been worth a lot to them.
I am reminded of the quote by US Insurance sales man extraordinaire Frank Bettger who said:
"Never forget a customer and never let a customer forget you."

In these days of low cost digital connections there really is no excuse not to stay in touch with customers is there?

4. Christmas Party Success Tips

As the Christmas party season is about to kick off I thought this piece of advice from Nicholas Boothman author of the New York Times Bestseller "How to get people to like you in 90 seconds or less" was appropriate.

If a stranger across a crowded room catches your fancy, ask your host or a mutual friend or acquaintance to introduce you. But don't leave things to chance. Instead, prepare your own ten-second commercial ahead of time by telling your introducer what to say-your name, perhaps where you're from, and what you do for a living, or something else memorable about you, all put in an interesting way. It'll come off a lot better than "Heather, this is Jim. He got soaked coming here, didn't you, Jim?"
It's also important to follow that old rule: Two's company, three's a crowd. Politely ask your host to introduce you, say one or two interesting things about you, and then leave. "Heather, this is Jim. He lives in Seattle and he makes films." You want the third party out of the way so the conversation doesn't become two people talking and one listening-a bad dynamic for making a connection, no matter who ends up doing the talking.

If you really want to impress, ask your host to tell you two or three interesting things about the person you want to meet before he introduces you. Then, when you do connect, you can say, "Bob told me that you spent last month in a Buddhist retreat. What was it like? What inspired you to go?" This strategy puts you on a more personal footing faster.

5. Events

Small Business Roadshows
I have just completed 20 Small - Medium Business Sales Performance workshops with the Victorian and NSW Governments over the past three months. We managed to speak with over 2,000 SME business owners which was both insightful and inspirational.Thanks to all the crew that assisted from the various government departments and from SSi. Stay tuned for more of these in 2010.

New Facebook Page
All upcoming Miller Heiman Sales Performance Workshops and Selling Strategies Events are now listed on our new Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/sellingstrategies

The 5 essentials of growing your business
International business improvement consultant, author and colleague of mine Bill Lang is presenting a business-building seminar on Friday November 27th from 8.00am-10.00am in Melbourne to help your business thrive, even in turbulent times. Bill will expand on the business growth insights from his latest book, Scores on the Board^TM - the 5 part system for building skills, teams and businesses, including:

The 5 simple steps that are guaranteed to grow your business
How you can incorporate the activities of world-best-practice organisations into your business
How to create high-performing teams that continually strive to improve their effectiveness
The importance of developing leadership, coaching and mentoring skills
Practical tips to get your employees turning up, turned on and tuned in
How to achieve every business owner's ultimate goal: 'results without dramas'

The seminar is valued at $97.00 however for SSi subscribers it is free. Please RSVP quoting SSi to info@scoresontheboard.com for more details and to reserve your seat

Where's Rob?

You can always find out where I am and what I am up to at http://www.twitter.com/robhartnett if you have a Twitter account (and if not why not?) make sure you follow me and I will follow you back.

Blog
My Sales Performance Blog is located at http://www.robhartnett.com/robs-blog and is updated frequently when I have something useful to say.

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/SellingStrategies

Contact: www.sellingstrategies.com.au | www.robhartnett.com
Email: rob@sellingstrategies.com.au
Office: 61 3 9560 1188