Are You Reaching Your Goals?

It’s the middle of March and the first quarter is nearing an end. Are you on track with your goals this year? If you want to succeed, you need to set goals. Without goals you lack focus and direction. Goal setting not only allows you to take control of your life's direction; it also provides you a benchmark for determining whether you are actually succeeding. Here are some ideas for achieving your sales goals.

• Know your numbers. It’s impossible to set tangible sales goals without knowing numbers. Identify your past and current sales numbers so you know what targets you can set that are both reasonable and achievable. 

• Develop your attitude. Your attitude is controllable. Conquer your fears. Change the beliefs that limit your success. Your thought habits control your commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, resilience, happiness, and confidence. Be aware of them, decide which ones are unproductive, and then make a commitment to change. With time and effort, you can become the person you want to be.

• Review your sales goals first thing in the morning every day. Say your big picture goal out loud and review goals and actions for the day. At the end of each day, review how the day went, and set goals and actions for the next day.

• Invest time prospecting for NEW business every week. Most salespeople rely on existing clients to generate their sales. Allot a specific amount of time to look for new business opportunities whether it’s within a current account or a completely new company. How much time are you prepared to commit to prospecting for new business?

• Ask for referrals. Referrals are one of the top ways to grow your business.  You can exponentially increase the number of referrals you get, dramatically increasing your client base, by doing one simple thing - asking for referrals.  Most people, especially happy customers, are truly glad to help with referrals when asked.

• Improve your selling skills. Attend sales training programs, read books, newsletters, magazines and blogs. Listen to audio programs. Talk to the top performers in your company. Work with a sales coach.

• Show customers why they should keep doing business with you. Just because someone has bought from you in the past does not mean they will continue to do so in the future. In today’s business climate you need to constantly prove to your existing customers why it makes sense to continue buying your product/service. What can you do to reinforce this to your customers?

• Maximize your time. Focus on your goals. Test every activity for its importance and urgency. Create an ideal schedule, and test your actual time use against it daily. Remember, just one hour a day used more productively adds up to more than six extra weeks of productive time a year.

“Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I’ll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I’ll give you a stock clerk.” ~ J.C. Penney

Are You Constantly Hearing "Your Price is Too High?"

YOUR PRICE IS TOO HIGH! DISCOVER HOW TO SELL VALUE, NOT PRICE When salespeople hear prospects say, “The price is too high” the salesperson usually reacts.  This is a “belief trigger” in the mind of the salesperson. A trigger causes an event or situation to happen or exist.  Hearing a price concern causes salespeople to very often resort to discounting. This reaction is almost instantaneous based on poor programming in the case of all prospects. It should be the last resort, if even any avenue at all. High Price = Discount Demand Why does this happen in the mind of salespeople? These are some things that influence belief triggers: Big box retail thinking.  Although the channels of distribution which employ salespeople to do face to face and consultative selling are different, salespeople believe they should be able to compete on the same margins.  They cannot and never will! Unprepared sales representatives.  When a company employees salespeople they are most generally a premium price organization.  They have to be.  Discounting is NOT a role that highly paid salespeople do to earn business. Poor habits - Because salespeople always do price selling and so do the professionals around them, they become lazy. The cost is always differentiated by sharing a demonstrated value differentiation to alternative product and service offering.  If there are none, shame on the supplier!  If they are not communicated by the salesperson, shame on the salesperson, the company sales trainers and coaches! Social defeat refers to losing a sale with a prospect, or any kind of dispute among humans. A power play defensive system that salespeople use is to offset the impending defeat with a discount to show how POWERFUL the salesperson can be. To break out of the BELIEF TRIGGER of PRICE, salespeople have to work extremely hard at differentiating their offering on results and return on investment.  Salespeople need to re-program their relationship with prospects to create more value than their competitors and focus on showing that they and their company can create greater outcomes. When a salesperson discounts 10% they have to work an extra 11% harder to make up the short fall of revenue and reach the company sales numbers. Based on a 40 hour work week, that is an extra 4 hours a week the salesperson will have to work. The salesperson will have to work half a day on the weekend either Saturday or Sunday. If the salesperson, as in our example, discounts 20%, it means an extra 25% harder to make up the short fall in sales.  This represents an extra 10 hours per week of time on top of the 40 hours already being put in. There is an alternative for salespeople giving up time with their family and loved ones on the weekend or working later each day. That is to SELL VALUE. Companies provide value to their prospects which can be designed to have a higher perceived value in the eyes of the customer than the discount a salesperson might give.  Think for a minute… What is it?  Some things that you could give in return for maintaining your price might include: Leads and introductions for your prospect's business Extra training on the implementation of your offering Offering a higher level of support An extra portion of your product Another month of service Extending payment terms Expediting implementation Provisioning extra users Inviting the prospect to became a part of a user’s group Provide an older version of what you sell that as a gift Create a press release or other marketing asset for your prospect  The goal is to look at the impact of the discount amount and provide more of the product or service that the customer is purchasing or an additional item that has a perceived value greater than the discount that the customer might be attracted to.  This would cost your organization little or nothing in comparison to the discounted amount.

How do you manage poor sales performance?

Performance management makes up a significant part of every manager's job, and this means managers are required to deal with poor performance. Managers often view this as one of the less desirable responsibilities that come with their job.  Sales organizations react in different ways to poor sales performance. Do any of the following look familiar to you? Some organizations will put a revolving door on the sales office for the poorer performers…the under performers either make the grade or they go. In fact, many larger organizations will adopt a process of forced ranking where the bottom 10% will be asked to improve within 3 months or find alternative employment either within or outside of their organization. ​ Some organizations will look at the sales team as a whole and maintain the performers, exceptional performers and under performers in the same environment, on the basis that they accept the bell curve model and appreciate that this is possibly as good as it gets. ​ Some organizations may invest heavily in the poor performers training, coaching, mentoring and offering additional support. ​ Every sales management team and business will have its own way of managing poor sales performance. For every hundred men hacking away at the branches of a diseased tree, only one will stoop to inspect the roots.– Chinese proverb

Do you really know who your best salespeople are?

The Harvard Business Review article “The Trouble with Salespeople”  reports that despite investing even more in sales employees, results are not improving. Just 9% of sales meetings end in a sale and only 1 out 250 salespeople exceed their targets. In fact, only 1 in 3 working salespeople are considered “consistently effective".

We were not surprised at these findings, but continue to be perplexed as to why so many intelligent executives continue to invest in hiring and retaining people who cannot meet expectations or are ineffective at demand generation.

Why would an employer want to retain a poor performer and continue to throw good money after bad?  It’s not only the poor ROI that’s a problem, but according to the study, 63% of the salespeople actually drove down performance.  

Retaining poor performers does not just translate into missed opportunity but the loss of sales that a company had within their grasp. When you add up the salaries, travel, marketing, and benefits, the cost of lost opportunity is huge. Even if the average cost of a meeting is $160, it takes $1,760 of profit per sale to cover the cost of a failed sales meeting!

Never Take A NO From Someone Who Cannot Give You A YES!

You should never, ever ask a prospect in sales this question: “Are you the decision maker?”  Why?  Every sales class, book, or sales manager you have connected with tells you that you must be in front of decision makers in sales. This is accurate, and at the same time the way you make the determination is crucial. It takes grace, style and diplomacy to do it correctly.

• People (including prospects & customers) have a way of thinking.
• People want a good outlook and a higher self worth.
• People will do whatever it takes to achieve recognition.

When you ask someone if they are the decision maker and they are not the tendency to distort the truth exists.  The desire to increase one’s self worth comes out in some people.  This is accelerated when they are asked if they are the decision maker and they are not.  It is as if you are asking them to lie.  People say “yes” to that question for that split second of a good feeling. It’s human nature. You can’t clash over this - so don’t try to.

A diplomatic way to determine and involve the right decision makers is to share the following:

“In this age of conscious decision making many of my clients like to engage other people in their organization in the important choices that the company makes.  Given your style of leadership, other than yourself who would you include in your decision making process?”

One way to lengthen your sales cycle is to spend all of your time with people that cannot tell you yes. Often these people can tell you “no,” but they can’t tell you “yes.”  Your job is to get in front of decision makers that can tell you, yes or no.  If all of your sales appointments and conversations are with Jamie, the clerk, you will end up in a tough spot.  The problem is, James will talk to you. James has time for you.  James is nice. James likes you. Warning signs!

Summertime and the Livin' is Easy!

Hello Summer!

Summertime and the Livin' is Easy!

Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high

Yes, indeed, it was a very rough winter for most of you!  Summer weather is wonderful to enjoy!

How are your sales?

Are you heading into that venerable annual tradition: The Summer Sales Slump

When the calendar turns to July and August, most salespeople struggle to prospect because they believe that all of their prospects are on vacation. The fact is, the top 20% of salespeople still find ways to make their quotas in summer, and they also find ways to set up the end of the year so they exceed their revenue goals. 80% of their competition approach summer like they approach everything else in their sales career - they bluff their way through the summer season and hope to run into business.

"It's the middle of July. People don't buy things in July. It's too hot, they're not at the office, and so salespeople don't have to work." There's a French proverb that says, "He who makes excuses, accuses himself." - "Qui s'excuse s'accuse."  The choice is up to each salesperson. They can either make the excuse and say that people don't buy things in the summer or they can use the time more effectively than their competitors.

Smart companies use the summer months to improve their team's selling skills so they are sharp and ready to take advantage of the fourth quarter. The summer months provide a perfect time for salespeople to attend sales training. This is a wonderful opportunity for salespeople to separate themselves from the competition, and set themselves up for a record breaking autumn.

Summer is the perfect time to improve performance and 

knowledge through sales training.

• Attend a sales training course and integrate what you see into your work.

• Use this opportunity as a way catch your competitors while they're snoozing.

The choice is yours: You can either make the excuse and say that people don't buy things in the summer. Or you can use the time more effectively than your competitors.

Join our other Sales Pros!

We'll make it real easy for you this summer with our August sales training offer! 

Register 2 participants for our next Sales Pro PSS Public Session in Fort Myers, Florida August 20 & 21          

1st Participant - $1495 Regular Price            2nd Participant - Half Price - $747.50

August 20 & 21 Public Session Only

SalesPro PSS Brochure - Description of Sales Training

REGISTER HERE FOR SALES PRO PSS

Listen to Norah Jones "Summertime"

Does This Sound Familiar?

I was reminded today of an older church and evangelism story.  A traveling evangelist knocked on a door and was invited into a home. He seemed surprised to be sitting in the living room with the homeowners and their children politely gathered around.  The homeowner prompted the guest evangelist and said, "Well what do you have to share?" The evangelist said, "Well, I have never gotten this far... I am not quite sure..."

That is exactly how I felt when I answered a telephone call this morning from a Chamber of Commerce representative.  She asked if I had ever considered their fair city to do a program in.  Frankly, having recently looked for new options, I settled in to chat with the young lady.  I said that I would like to give a new venue consideration since my clients come in from around the country. I was surprised by the following opening/closing/ending/good bye! "Should I call you back in a few months to check in on you then?"

  

Are your sales people inches away from learning more yet too shy and untrained to take the ball and run with it?  That is exactly what happened for that Chamber of Commerce representative this morning. I wonder if I will even get a call back in a couple of months.  I doubt it.

We teach salespeople to help their prospects and customers to become more productive and profitable.  Are you a member of a Chamber of Commerce that is serving or not serving your community this way?  How about your own business? Do you serve your prospects and customers?

I would enjoy an opportunity to talk with you and to listen to the challenges that you face in the advancement of your sales.  My office number is 239-599-8408 and my email address is Jim@c4oe.com.  Join me on Linked-In.  Follow me on Twitter and Facebook.  View our Blog.  Visit our website