by Rob Polonsky
Each year that approaches brings a new set of challenges and obstacles that we must plot a course through in order to grow our respective businesses and make sales. There are some things we have no control: downward external pressure in your marketplace, increased competition or the loss of market players. Likewise, there are also things we can control: proper goal setting, consistent prospecting activity and high percentage selling (you are in control of your sales process, not your prospective client).
As I mentor and train sales leaders, my message stays consistent through my sales training workshops. I tells folks, “if they know their business, know their competition, and understand why their client’s customers buy, and most important, follow a sales process, you will thrive and earn more.” It’s survival of the fittest today in sales; the playing field has been altered.
There is so much that goes in to scalable and sustainable sales performance. If you truly commit yourself to change, growing every day and becoming the best in the world at what you do (shoot for the stars, worst case you’ll end up on the moon), next year could be your best year yet, regardless of the economic doom and gloom. There is still a lot business up for grabs.
I am about to share five demonstrated practices for increasing your sales probabilities and driving more qualified prospects through the sales funnel… faster. These proven practices and methods worked yesterday, they work today and they will work tomorrow. The rest is up to you.
1) When cold-calling for an appointment, get “pain points “only. A face-to-face appointment utilizes roughly 4 work day hours. That’s almost 50% of the day. We all know that time is money. I teach people to generate qualified leads via their cold-calling efforts by asking prospective clients tough questions. You want to find out if there really is a need. (Hint: We don’t do it by product dumping on the call). We will simply ask what their issues are, where it hurts, how it is effecting their business today and what they plan to do about it. Your call does not need to last for more than 5-7 minutes. “Mr. Jones, as an expert in widget making, what would you say is the #1 issue with your marketing department today?” Pretty easy.
2) Don’t let your prospect rush you through the sales process. Successful sales people have a sales process in place for many reasons; it is your sales road map and focal point. It is important that we understand there are two agendas at play when dealing with a prospective customer; yours and theirs. If you allow your prospect to rush the process, submitting a proposal before you have qualified them or executed a thorough discovery step, you might find yourself chasing hours for dollars. We have studied over the years that 95% of the time prospects will value a salesman who holds his ground and follows a process over one that behaves as a classic weak, low-informational salesman (they say jump, you say how high?). Stick to your process, hold your ground, allow the opportunity to play out under your terms, not theirs. Sales process is everything.
3) Don’t present to a non-decision maker, ever. This subject has no grey areas. A non-decision maker can only say NO, they can’t give you a YES. Salespeople love to live in the world of maybe or what we call “hopium”. Here is what happens: we lose the courage to ask who is involved in the decision process at the genesis of the relationship. We fear hearing the NO (or any form of resistance). We convince ourselves that talking to someone is better than talking to no one. We are in the YES or NO business. And not unusually, a lot more No’s than Yes’s. Don’t put yourself in positions to fail; play for the YES. Figuring out very early in the process who the decision makers are is sound business. It might echo like this: “Mr. Jones, thank you for agreeing to see me today, I am looking forward to our meeting. If we decide to move things further along after today, I will be coming back to present some solutions; who else besides yourself is involved in the decision making process?” Easy peasy. Do it!
4) Gain a date and time at every step up from hello through close. We glance at dates and times as a series of mini-commitments. If you can’t get a real date and time, go back to see the prospective client with the intent of moving them forward through your sales funnel. You really don’t have a prospect; we merely have an opportunity. If you are not in a prospects calendar, you’re not in their future. Obtaining a date and time – from the initial meeting to a signed agreement – will radically speed up your sales process and more importantly, disqualify suspects faster. A real prospect has time in their calendar to see you again; a suspect is a too busy and can’t see you for seven weeks. Get the date and time at the end of each call or meeting.
5) Maintain an activity journal, track your ratios, take your temperature. You won’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been. If your selling duties call for cold-calling to generate leads, you should be tracking your call ratios daily, no exceptions! It is essential that know the ratios and data points: how many calls you make in a day, how many people you reach and how many give you an appointment. Track these metrics daily, the end result is you’ll end up creating more prospects to call on and sell. When you have a tough prospecting call or face-to-face visit, do you write down the experience, good or bad? Taking notes on calls that do not result in second meetings and new business will help promote healthy self-correction. Benchmarking is what successful sales people do. Start now.
Change is evitable, growth is optional. It is time to make a choice in 2011. You can choose the status quo or settle on taking a more proactive approach towards writing more business with real change, real progress.
