One Crucial Sales Tip!

I get lots of questions. It goes along with the job. When you’re a consultant, coach, trainer, author and professional speaker people seem to think you know what you’re talking about. (And it’s a darned good thing! If I don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to selling then it’s about time for me to find a new career) The questions come in all shapes, sizes and flavors from how to find a new job, how to make more money in your current job and heck, I even had a guy who came to me for coaching on how to meet the woman of his dreams and get married. (fyi – I did some private coaching with him and he met the girl of his dreams within six months. They were married a year later and still are!)

Of all the questions I get, however, the one that seems to pop up the most is, “Jeff, if you could only offer me one piece of advice with regards to selling, what would it be?” Me only give one piece of advice on selling? That’s like trying to eat one potato chip. Nearly impossible, but here are some that are among my top three things most likely to improve your sales results.

1)Fill your pipeline and keep it filled with new opportunities

If I had to choose just one piece of advice this would be it. Most salespeople dislike prospecting and often avoid it like the plague. Especially when we get busy working on proposals and servicing existing clients we tend to drop the ball on looking for new clients. This is a sure recipe for paycheck disaster. Even in an industry like insurance where, if you do things right, you eventually build up a client base that just needs to be serviced regularly and they’ll keep renewing, you still should prospect (at least a little) each day. In most industries, which do not provide residual income, daily prospecting is the thing most likely to improve your income. We salespeople need a steady stream of people who might be interested in doing business with us. Prospecting, however you choose to do it, helps to provide you with that steady stream. Your sales skills could stink but if you see enough people, some will buy. Improving your skills should improve your closing ratio but you still need to see enough prospects If you intend to meet, and exceed, your quota.

2)Always get an action step

This suggestion is about my favorite way of shortening your sales cycle. Assuming you’re interested in doing business, never, ever, leave a meeting or a phone call without setting up the next meeting or phone call right then and there. When a prospect agrees to another meeting they’re sending you a message and the message is, “I’m interested.” They’re not saying they’ll definitely buy from you but almost no one will give you more of their precious time and attention if they aren’t interested in what you have to offer them. (The exception can sometimes be procurement officers – they sometimes make a buying decision but still need to get competing prices to show their boss they’re doing their job) By setting the next meeting before you leave someone’s office you can usually shave one to three weeks off your sales cycle each time you do it. The longer your sales cycle, the more important this philosophy becomes.

3)Always provide WAY more value the your customer expects

Customers, including us, are used to being treated poorly and not getting what we feel we paid for. It’s a sad state of affairs but, for the most part, its’ just the way things are. This provides us with an amazing opportunity to set ourselves apart. By providing expected service you almost automatically look better to your clients than 90% of the companies in business today. (Because most salespeople and companies overpromise and under-deliver) If you actually go the “extra mile,” and provide more than the customer really expects you become a superstar in their eyes and you are one step closer to not having to worry about them taking their valuable business elsewhere. Customers are extremely precious commodities. THRILL them by delivering sooner than expected, more than expected and better than expected and they’ll pay you back with more business and referrals.

I could go on and on but since you only wanted ONE selling tip, I’ll close here for now!

As always, call or write if there’s any way I can help you. It’s always my pleasure.

Make It Happen!

Jeff