Perhaps you’ve seen the video of a study done with fleas. It’s on YouTube now, but it’s been around a while. A researcher puts fleas in a jar and closes the lid. The fleas jump around hitting the lid. Eventually, they stop jumping high enough to hit the lid. The lid is removed. The fleas never jump higher than the level set by the lid, and their offspring never jump higher either. They’re conditioned for life.

Successful leaders are free from self-imposed restraints, what we call lids. These lids are preconceived notions or thoughts that keep us in our comfort zones. They may be assumptions rooted in fear, doubt, or the result of unpleasant past experiences. Strong leaders rise above their lids with a clear path for growth and success, pushing themselves to reach their maximum potential. All salespeople benefit from being able to recognize and overcome the self-imposed lids that limit their success.

Successful leaders are inspiring. They are excellent communicators with an ability to passionately share their vision. Salespeople who create and share a vision of success are much more effective than those who don’t.

True leaders don’t just create followers. They create leaders. One definition of the word “Lead” is: “The art of motivating people to act towards achieving a common goal.” Consider the mission of your sales team for a moment. What are the goals? What is the mission? Would you not be better served if everyone on your team understood the mission and possessed the leadership skills to reinforce it proactively? By training your salesforce in the principles of leadership, they reach and influence additional team members in ways upper management can’t.

Why do salespeople need leadership training? Because it’s a state of mind, not a station in life. You don’t have to be a manager to have a leader’s mentality.

Improve your leadership skills, achieve your potential. Address biases that keep you from accepting new ideas and better alternatives. Evaluate yourself objectively. Leaders know and accept their strengths and weaknesses. What are yours? Do a survey. Ask your family, friends, and coworkers what they see as your strengths and weaknesses. Strive to overcome negative emotions and thoughts that hinder your progress. Be aware of how you talk to yourself! Be positive and encouraging. Successful leaders have a sense of purpose. Do you know yours? Successful leaders understand who they are, what they want, and how to inspire others. They have a plan, and their actions are deliberate.

Help your team answer these questions or answer them for yourself. Attend our Leadership program and master the six levels of leadership.

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Silence is often perceived as awkward. Silence creates a strong urge within us to keep talking. Use it when negotiating to apply subtle pressure and the person with whom you are negotiating may share information they don’t want you to know. At the very least using silence might provide you the insight you need to ask more profound questions about the other person’s situation. In negotiating, information is power. Silence is a magnet for information.

The power of silence is often overlooked when answering questions. How often have we heard a customer ask, “How much?” and a salesperson replies with a lengthy explanation trying to justify a price they believe to be too high. Want customers to accept your prices? Then answer the price question directly, factually, and concisely with solid eye contact and be quiet. Allow time for your prospect or customer to respond. Let them tell you they are not happy with the price, don’t help them by volunteering that you aren’t confident about it either. That is a recipe for lower margins. Who knows, they may not even have a problem with it.

One of the worst things we can do in a negotiation is to talk ourselves out of a good deal with negative self-talk. Sometimes we must be silent to ourselves. Don’t allow negative thoughts to cripple your ability to negotiate confidently.

Visibly nervous people seldom do well in negotiations. When we are nervous, we tend to talk faster and at a higher pitch. Silence helps you avoid looking nervous. You may be coming apart inside, but by remaining calm and talking less, no one will suspect it. Silence exudes confidence. Want to appear more confident in a negotiation? Talk less, ask more. Heck, you might even come across as intimidating . . . If that’s what you want.

Silence slows things down and allows both you and your customer time to think and consider possible creative alternatives.

As with most forms of communication in a business environment, less is more. Avoid the compelling temptation to talk too much. Ask questions and patiently, quietly, wait for the answers.

Attend our Value-Added Negotiating course to better negotiate on value instead of price.

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Mr. Rogers said, “Silence is one of the greatest gifts we have.” Silence is a tool all salespeople have but rarely use. Silence makes salespeople uncomfortable. Why? Why do we think when we ask a customer or prospect a thoughtful question they should answer immediately?

Silence can be used throughout the sales process in many ways.

Asking a question and listening patiently without interrupting, encourages people to think and allows them time to provide thorough answers. You learn what they value. This enables you to establish how your product or service is the best solution. Asking a question and being silent also encourages customers to continue speaking. Most of us are not comfortable with silence and fill the void with words. We learn much more about our customers’ needs by patiently letting them respond and actively listening.

Mr. Rogers once asked the children on his show, “Do you want to know how long a minute is?” To demonstrate, he turned on an egg timer, and just sat quietly for one minute. He believed slow space was not wasted space. Salespeople will sell more if they learn to use this slow space. Don’t talk over it!

Silence is even more useful when negotiating! We’ll have more on that in our next post.

Mr. Rogers said the best way to get children to share their feelings was to ask short, simple, direct questions and then wait for them to answer. When they responded, he listened, waiting for them to elaborate, then they would say a little more. He believed this was a great interviewing tactic. This is also a powerful selling tool.

Practice using silence when speaking with people. Before filling that void with words, count to ten slowly in your head. See for yourself what a great gift silence can be. Put silence to work when speaking with your customers and prospects. Reap the benefits of silence!

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It’s often said that to be happy one must be thankful. Well anyone in sales should be thankful for customers. After all, customers provide us with our living. I am sure we are all thankful for our customers on some level, but how do we let them know?

Countless studies have been done on why people lose repeat business and, they seem to agree that over 68% of repeat business is lost because of perceived indifference on the part of the salesperson. Therefore, it becomes critical that we consistently remind our cherished customers how much they mean to us, but how?

Here are seven ways to let your customers know you care:

1. Send them a handwritten card.

These days there is just something special about receiving a handwritten note or card. Take the time to do this to let customers know you truly care. Extra points if you send them a Thank You card for Thanksgiving. Differentiate yourself and be early. Set yourself apart from all the cards they get in December.

2. Take them out for a meal.

Spend time with customers away from the normal grind. You will enjoy their company and learn a great deal about them and their interests.

3. Keep up with their interests.

Let customers know you care. Stay in touch with them regarding their interests. I once had a customer who was a Revolutionary War buff. When I went to Boston for a vacation, I sent him pictures of Paul Revere’s grave and other memorials. He loved them. This simple action forever changed our relationship.

4. Send them relevant stories or articles.

Since you are paying attention to their interest, send links, articles, and news stories related to their interests. Should you come across something in which your customers might have an interest, pass it along or send a picture.

5. Keep in touch with them on a regular basis.

Out of sight, out of mind. Call or email them on a regular basis. LinkedIn is also great for this purpose. Connect with your customers on LinkedIn and be active with them there.

6. Ask for their opinion.

Everyone wants their opinions heard and valued. Listen to what they have to say and then send a “Thank You” note for their thoughts and time.

7. Follow them on social media. Support their posts.

As appropriate, pay attention to what your customers do on social media. Like, share, and comment on their posts. Mention something about it when you speak with them.

8. Always give a little extra.

I know we said seven but here is one extra! Hewlett-Packard used to give out 13″ rulers to their customers. The quote on the ruler said This ruler is just a little longer than most. We put an extra measure of performance into everything we do.

Do the same for your customers.

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What if you could see yourself in the middle of a sales call? Would you see yourself with two ears and one mouth, or the other way around? Do you talk too much? Do you interrupt? Do you ask enough questions? Would you sound just like the salesperson that represents your competitor? Do you work to discover how your products and services help your customers? When you watch yourself give your fantastic elevator pitch, do you see the customer thinking, “So what”?
If you were able to see yourself in a real situation, would you be delighted? If not, make changes!

Ask Questions! Don’t rely upon assumptions. Before you speak with a prospect or customer, plan five open-ended questions you would like to ask over and above the questions you usually ask.

Silence is golden! When you ask your customers a question, allow them time to think if they don’t answer right away. Wait until your customer is finished speaking before you respond. Do you tend to say, “mm hmm”, or “uh huh”, when someone is speaking to let them know you are listening? This is called chirping. Chirping is distracting. Don’t chirp when someone is speaking. You will glean more from your prospects and customers if you maintain eye contact and listen quietly.

What are you doing to set yourself apart from the competition? How are you different? What value do you bring? Know this. Be able to explain your value concisely.

Embrace that you are there to help your prospects and customers. Ask questions to determine what is of value to your customer. It is imperative that salespeople understand the benefit.

Paint compelling word pictures. Practice using words, concise stories, and questions to connect emotionally with your prospects and customers. Help your customers visualize benefiting from your products and services.

Go a step further and attend a Sales Concepts program. Our programs are designed to help you see yourself in selling situations. We customize our courses for each individual. Attendees sell their services and products, away from the group, in one on one situations and receive powerful feedback regarding how they perform.

What would you want to see if you could catch a glimpse of yourself selling? Sales Concepts gives you that glimpse! Work to make it a reality.

The post Do you see what your customers see? appeared first on Sales Concepts.

Why do children ask so many questions? Any parent knows curiosity and a desire to learn to play a big part in their questions. Children’s favorite questions begin with why. Their curiosity about the world around them helps to build concepts, skills, vocabulary, and an understanding of the unknown. Curiosity is a fundamental part of how they learn.

As a salesperson, can you place a value on building your concepts, skills, vocabulary, and understanding of the unknown? Ask entrepreneurs why they decided to start their business. Ask newly-placed executives why they chose the position and company. Ask decision makers why they prefer this but not that. Ask successful businesses what makes them successful. Ask troubled businesses what they see as a challenge.

Before you make your next call, consider your customer or prospect. Make a list of five why questions. Pay attention to the answers. The worst-case scenario is it will be somewhat better than just another sales call. The best-case scenario is discovering what takes you to your next level of success.

Find the business equivalent to the following questions posed by children: Why do cats have fur? Why is the sky blue? Why is there a Leap Year? Why does cutting onions make us cry? Why do we drive on a parkway but park on a driveway?

Embrace Your Youth.

Be Curious!

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Tom Brady, whom many are calling the GOAT (Greatest of All Time), has a new show on Facebook Tom vs.Time. It chronicles how he, as a 40-year-old, prepared for this season. The footage shows how he trains to be the best. He has been successfully playing football for most of his life. He has won five NFL championship rings and plays for a sixth this Sunday. He is still getting coached. He is still pro-actively training every day. Even with his experience, expertise, and success, Tom Brady believes he can improve.

If we are having a conversation and you tell me your team is experienced and does not need training, I am cringing. Why do people think if they have experienced salespeople there is no need to improve? Would you choose to see a doctor with 15-20 years of experience who believes he or she has nothing new to learn?

For a salesperson to achieve greatness, they must take stock of what they do well and areas they can improve. A salesperson must be open to change and develop an intentional plan for improvement. Training makes weak salespeople stronger and strong salespeople great.

Sales Concepts offers individual public programs, customized group training, and a two-year continuing program consisting of 12 different courses. Let us help your team become the GOAT sales force at your company.

“Good is the enemy of great.”

Jim Collins.

The post Ready or Not, 2018 is Underway! appeared first on Sales Concepts.

What is the toughest objection a salesperson encounters? Could it be one of the following?

• We don’t have the budget.
• Your price is too high.
• We need time to think about it.
• We are already working with vendor X.
• Company Y has this same solution for less money.
• There is too much going on now to make a change.
• We are doing great now, they don’t really see the need.
• Our team does not see the return on investment.

Which one do you think is the hardest objection to handle? If we could hear your thoughts, each of you would have a different answer. Why? The hardest objection to handle is the one you believe to be true yourself! If you believe an objection is true, then you will struggle to convince your prospects or customers otherwise. So, look at this list. Add to it. Then, rank the objections from the most difficult to the easiest. Focus on why the difficult ones are the most difficult. Work first to overcome the objections for yourself, then you will be better prepared to address the concerns and perceived risks of your customers.

The post The Toughest Objection You Will Ever Encounter. appeared first on Sales Concepts.

On the phone or in person the candidates talk and talk about their qualifications in glowing terms. Few, if any, ask thoughtful questions. Sometimes we even ask them to sell us something, most tell us about the item, but few ask what we intend to do with it.

Salespeople must be curious. This is a necessary trait for success in sales. How can you help a prospect become a customer if you don’t understand their needs and expectations? In our training, we emphasize asking open-ended questions that can’t be answered with a single word or sentence. We believe when trying to help someone purchase your products and services you need to ask thoughtful and insightful questions. If you don’t know exactly what a prospect wants or needs, ask! Ask more than one way to ensure you fully understand. Your questions should reveal your prospect’s story.

Only after you fully understand their situation can you help them paint a visual mental picture of your solution benefiting them. You’ll have a much better chance of winning business if your prospects visualize themselves using your solution, and like what they see. Questions help you paint the picture. Questions come from curiosity. Curiosity comes from truly caring about your customers and what they are trying to do. Selling is tough.

Selling when you aren’t curious is nearly impossible.

To be successful in sales be curious and paint mental word pictures. You’ll close more business.

Selling is not telling, so stop telling!
Be curious, ask questions. Win more business!

The post Are you curious? appeared first on Sales Concepts.

If you think it’s expensive to hire a successful sales person,
try hiring a mediocre one.

Here are some ways successful salespeople are different from mediocre ones.

• Successful salespeople ask questions.
  Mediocre salespeople make statements.
• Successful salespeople are naturally curious and care about customers and prospects.
  Mediocre salespeople are myopic and self-centered.
• Successful salespeople are persistent.
  Mediocre salespeople are easily discouraged.
• Successful salespeople understand and fulfill needs.
  Mediocre salespeople assume what customers need.
• Successful salespeople read, study and constantly learn about selling.
  Mediocre salespeople know it all.
• Successful salespeople have a strategy.
  Mediocre salespeople wing it.
• Successful salespeople have a system for tracking prospects like SalesTalk.
  Mediocre salespeople don’t.
• Successful salespeople are open to feedback.
  Mediocre salespeople are defensive.
• Successful salespeople are humble.
  Mediocre salespeople have big egos.
• Successful salespeople have a strategy.
  Mediocre salespeople wing it.
• Successful salespeople acknowledge and learn from mistakes.
  Mediocre salespeople blame others.
• Successful salespeople apologize when they are wrong.
  Mediocre salespeople are never wrong.
• Successful salespeople find customers for the products and services their company currently has.
  Mediocre salespeople complain about what their company lacks.
• Successful salespeople are seldom satisfied.
  Mediocre salespeople rest on their laurels.
• Successful salespeople set proper priorities and invest their time wisely.
  Mediocre salespeople watch the clock.
• Successful salespeople spend company money as if it were their own.
  Mediocre salespeople spend their company’s money in ways they wouldn’t spend their own.
• Successful salespeople make their numbers and are consistently over quota.
  Mediocre salespeople blame market conditions or the economy for coming up short.
• Successful salespeople actively listen.
  Mediocre salespeople are easily distracted.
• Successful salespeople have an ownership mentality.
  Mediocre salespeople see selling as a job, not a career.
• Successful salespeople enjoy what they do.
  Mediocre salespeople don’t.

We hope you enjoyed our list. Please let us know if you think of one we missed. We’d love to hear from you.

The post Successful Salespeople are Different appeared first on Sales Concepts.

Anyone who has ever served as a teacher knows teachers learn as much, if not more than their students. The idea of discovery has always been at the heart of the learning experience. Great teachers are concerned with sharing what has been learned and discovered rather than positioning themselves as authoritarian figures who believe they are smarter than their pupils.

Winston Churchill may have said it best, “I’m always eager to learn, although I don’t always enjoy being taught.” Henry Ford said, “Anyone who stops learning is old; anyone who keeps learning stays young.” Brian Herbert, the elder son of science fiction writer Frank Herbert of the Dune Trilogy series said, “The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.” Magic happens in our classes when an attendee offers the group a gem worthy of repeating as well as incorporating in their daily lives. We believe learning is a community event. The more participation, the better.

Many people take learning for granted. They don’t appreciate the opportunities provided to grow and better themselves. An objection we often hear from managers is, “My people are experienced, they don’t need training.” This is shocking because experienced people still learn, grow, improve and share their knowledge with others. Learning is not just for new people. Would you feel comfortable seeing a doctor who has learned nothing new in the past ten years?

Ask what you’d like to tell.

Once a student shared, “Ask what you’d like to tell.” Six words that encapsulate the whole idea of selling and asking questions! Our instructors stress the value of asking questions in all our programs. Sales people must ask questions to move the process forward. They ask questions to understand the prospect’s needs. Ask questions  to  clarify ambiguities.

We once had a 42-year-old instructor leading a class that included a 68-year-old student. A quick calculation revealed that the student had been selling for the instructor’s entire life! A younger student asked the older student, “You’ve been selling longer than our instructor has been alive. Why are you attending a training course for sales?” The very experienced student replied, “I never stop learning; if I do I might as well be dead and I’m too young to die.” If only we all had this attitude!

The fun thing about teaching is that on the good days, you learn as much as you teach. When instructors create an environment where people share, everyone learns, everyone grows. That’s what we call Experiential Learning. The capacity to learn is a gift. Channeling that capacity is a skill. Doing it is a choice. Choose to attend one of our classes and experience how experiential learning will help you.

What words of wisdom have you created or learned? We’d love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts.

In the words of Mahatma Gandhi:

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow; Learn as if you were to live forever.”

The post Learning! Is it a gift, a skill, or a choice? appeared first on Sales Concepts.

Consider these three key components when prospecting:

1. Set appointments with yourself.

   If you wait for a convenient time, you’ll never find it. Make an appointment to prospect, just like a sales call or a doctor appointment. Hold yourself accountable, make sure you keep the appointment!

2. Leave Voice Mails

   Think of voice mails as advertisements. Studies show people engage with you after the fifth call; most salespeople give up after the third. Stay with it; if you set out to chop down a tree it will take more than two or three swings. Prospecting is similar. If you hit a tree once and leave it alone, it will heal. If you call a prospect once or twice and leave them alone, they will forget you.

3. Stay Focused and Organized.

   It is critical to track your steps. If you found a gold mine and left to go get tools, you’d surely keep careful records of where the mine was found. Whatever type of CRM system you use, make certain you don’t lose track of what you are doing as well as how and when you need to follow up!

Sales Concepts prides itself on providing training that is process-driven, not event-driven. To that end, we’ve partnered with SalesTalk! SalesTalk provides cloud-based platforms that can be used alone or elegantly complement your current CRM system. SalesTalk helps salespeople automate the prospecting process and simplify the information they gather and use.

They also offer Lead Intelligence, Virtual Playbooks, Automated Sales Tasks and much more. Using Sales Concepts and SalesTalk helps your team increase sales to new customers and sell more to existing ones. Visit GetSalesTalk, call or email me to learn more.

The post Buyers are evolving. Has your sales process? appeared first on Sales Concepts.

In today’s digital age, such an environment seems more like a Saturday morning cartoon from the 1970’s than anything we can relate to in 2016. Yet, some sales professionals (Doesn’t that sound better?) are still pursuing their fortune very much like they did in the dark ages, uninformed and unenlightened. Information has always been the source of power and success.

Someone once said, “It’s better to have a little information ahead of time than to have all of it afterward.” There used to be a good excuse for not being informed; there really was no efficient means of doing so. Even with the Internet, many hours have been wasted ineffectively searching for information.

With the advent of the Internet, and specifically Social Media, there is no excuse for not being well informed, ahead of time. Every single principle of connectivity in sales is made better by the use of the Internet and social media as a valuable selling tool for the individual. We are not talking about corporate use; we are talking about individual sales professionals maximizing their effectiveness on behalf of their customers and not having to wait on someone else to handle it for them. Even today, too many salespeople still view the Internet as the home of Facebook or games and fail to take advantage of its full potential as a selling and prospecting tool.

One of the most perplexing and enduring questions continuously haunting sales professionals is; how do I stay in touch with customers without being a pest?

Most business professionals today would agree that any sales professional not fully embracing the Internet and Social Media risks being uninformed or becoming obsolete. The trouble is that most sales professionals believe they are using the majority of the Internet, when in reality they are using only a tiny fraction of what is available. How do you know if you are using all that is available to you? How do you know if you are using it as effectively and efficiently as possible? It’s difficult to know what you don’t know. Why not have pertinent information find you?

Attend Selling In The Digital Age to ensure you are making the most out of all the Internet and Social Media have to offer.Back in the day, salesmen (Yes, that’s not politically correct; that’s the point. Stay with me.) would pack their wares on the back of a burro (donkey or cart, etc.) and go see their prospects. If it wasn’t on the burro’s back, it couldn’t get sold. Pretty inefficient for sure!

In today’s digital age, such an environment seems more like a Saturday morning cartoon from the 1970’s than anything we can relate to in 2016. Yet, some sales professionals (Doesn’t that sound better?) are still pursuing their fortune very much like they did in the dark ages, uninformed and unenlightened. Information has always been the source of power and success.

Potato Chips
Someone once said, “It’s better to have a little information ahead of time than to have all of it afterward.” There used to be a good excuse for not being informed; there really was no efficient means of doing so. Even with the Internet, many hours have been wasted ineffectively searching for information.

With the advent of the Internet, and specifically Social Media, there is no excuse for not being fully informed, ahead of time. Every single principle of connectivity in sales is made better by the use of the Internet and social media as a valuable selling tool for the individual. We are not talking about corporate use; we are talking about individual sales professionals maximizing their effectiveness on behalf of their customers and not having to wait on someone else to handle it for them. Even today, too many salespeople still view the Internet as the home of Facebook or games and fail to take advantage of its full potential as a selling tool.

One of the most perplexing and enduring questions continuously haunting sales professionals is; how do I stay in touch with customers without being a pest?

Most business professionals today would agree that any sales professional not fully embracing the Internet and Social Media risks being uninformed or becoming obsolete. The trouble is that most sales professionals believe they are using the majority of the Internet, when in reality they are using only a tiny fraction of what is available. How do you know if you are using all that is available to you? How do you know if you are using it as effectively and efficiently as possible? It’s difficult to know what you don’t know. Why not have pertinent information find you?

Attend Selling In The Digital Age to ensure you are making the most out of all the Internet and Social Media have to offer.

The post Are You Selling Like It’s 1999? appeared first on Sales Concepts.

We all know you can’t eat just one potato chip. They are so good! Most of us have been guilty of eating chips and not even thinking about the number that have been consumed. You just keep popping them in your mouth. Rarely does a person say, “I am only going to eat one chip.” Imagine if you stopped at just one chip. You wouldn’t even notice that chip on the scale. Your clothes would not be tighter. You would not feel bloated from the salt. One chip would not change your day or your weight much at all. Not true for a whole bag of chips. Unfortunately, you would notice it on the scale and in your clothes!

So, what does this have to do with Prospecting? Simple – one is not enough! You cannot make just one call to prospects and expect that to change their day or your forecast! Rarely do prospects call you back after the first call. Unfortunately, most sales people make one call, maybe two to a prospect, then assume there is no interest and move on. Even more shocking, we hear from attendees in our Prospecting classes that when prospecting, many don’t leave messages!

At Sales Concepts we liken prospecting to a lumberjack. Picture a tree. Would a tree ever fall if a lumberjack hit the tree haphazardly with an axe on the trunk? Can you imagine a lumberjack just swinging the axe and hitting the tree wherever on the trunk? The tree would never fall. BUT… if you hit the tree consistently in the same place over and over, the tree WILL fall. Prospecting must be approached in this manner. You must be consistently persistent. You cannot make just one call. People are busy, they won’t usually return your calls.

Statistics show that 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect after the first call. 25% of sales people make a second attempt and never try again. 12% of sales people make more than three attempts. This is the elite group of sales people that win the business of new prospects and rise to the top of their sales organization.

Statistics also show that less than 2% of sales are made on the first contact, yet 48% of sales people never reach out again. Less than 3% of sales are made on the second contact. Roughly 5% of sales are made on the third contact, and fewer than 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact. A shocking 80% of sales are made between the fifth to twelfth contacts to a prospect! If you keep reaching out to your prospects, you are bound to surpass your competition and increase your odds of closing new business!

So, act like a lumberjack who eats potato chips. Be consistently persistent. Treat prospecting like potato chips. Don’t stop at just one!

The post The Power of Potato Chips! appeared first on Sales Concepts.

You have the right to ask about deadlines.

Asking about your customer’s timeframe is useful in many ways. This helps you anticipate delivery options early in the process. It helps you forecast. The sooner the customer wants to move forward the more likely it is they will. Usually, the sooner the customer wants to move the more amenable they are to embrace change. This allows you the opportunity to ask what may impede the progress of this business? Most importantly however, knowing the customer’s time frame may provide a way for you to establish a sense of urgency in your customer’s mind.

You have the right to ask for referrals.

Not only do you have the right but you have the responsibility to ask for referrals! There is no better way to acquire leads than to ask your current customers for referrals. They may not always have a name for you but when they do it’s usually golden. “Who else might be interested?” is the million dollar question because if you ask this throughout your career in sales you will probably earn at least a million more dollars.

You have the right to contact other people in the company.

While it’s true that people buy from people it’s also true that companies buy from companies. Salespeople often find themselves stuck working with one person in a company who will not buy. Call on other people in the company to minimize the impact of one person’s resistance. As one of our readers said last month; you are not going around someone, you are triangulating.

You have the right to say no.

Another one of our readers from last month believes; not only do you have the right, but you also have the obligation to reject a client when your services are inappropriate for that client or vice versa. Learning how to say no is tough but necessary for a smooth-running business. One of the biggest differences between rookie salespeople and successful experienced ones is that the successful ones know when and how to say no. In my own company, I knew I had made it when I rejected a client for the first time. Sometimes you have to walk away from opportunities that are not best suited for your or your company. The health of the business and company come first for both you and your customers.

You have the right to a good reputation. . . If you’ve earned it.

You are responsible for your personal brand and you have a right to protect it. Everyone has a voice on social media and many take advantage of the anonymity it provides. People tend to say harsh things that may not be entirely true or not true at all. You must be vigilant about what your customers are saying about you on social media. If you see trouble respond to it in a professional manner.

You have the right to brag. . . about how you help customers.

Customers are not necessarily going to make the connection about how you and your company add value. You need to be prepared to state your case and answer the question all customers have. “What’s in it for me?” You need to do this clearly and concisely.

We know the original Bill Of Rights consists of ten Amendments and we have provided eleven. We hope that this will serve as a simple reminder to always give a little extra in everything you do. Your customers will appreciate it. All of us at Sales Concepts trust you will keep your rights as a sales person in mind as you sell. Thank you to those of you who contributed your ideas. As always, we are thrilled to hear from you. Please share with us what you are encountering.

The post The Salesperson’s Bill of Rights – Part II appeared first on Sales Concepts.