How Do I Get Myself Motivated To Sell More?
Few people would argue that motivated salespeople and business people sell more. Wandering around looking like the world is out to get you and with your chin dragging along the floor never helped anyone to be a sales superstar and it never will.
Your attitude, your mindset and your approach will always play a huge part in helping you to smash your targets and build the business and the life that you desire. When I am invited to companies as a motivational speaker or sales development consultant one of the most common questions asked by sales managers, sales directors and business owners alike is, “How do I get and keep my sales teams motivated?”
Indeed, one of the most common questions asked of me by salespeople themselves is, “How do I get and keep myself motivated?”
Most people do not understand how and why they get motivated and therefore their motivation levels tend to ebb and flow like the daily tides. Few people have total control of their own motivation levels. Salespeople know that they need to be motivated to sell, they want to be motivated to sell, but often they just cannot maintain that all important motivation to sell.
Motivational speaker motivation tip 1:
Motivation begins and ends with you. You determine your own motivation. Motivation is internal, it’s something that you control; even though you may not realise that this is the case. Most people think that motivation is something external to themselves, something that happens to them. For this reason they and their sales results get buffeted severely throughout life.
Sales superstars do not believe or act this way. Sales superstars know that their personal motivation is down to them. No matter what anyone else does or says they get to choose their own motivation levels. No matter whether they get the deal or they lose the deal, they get to choose their own motivation levels. No matter whether life’s going the way they want or it’s not, they get to choose their own motivation levels.
And it’s that choice that sets them apart and defines them as the rock stars of sales.
If you want to join the ranks of the sales rock star elite now then you need to take responsibility for your motivation on a day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute and moment to moment basis…
Step 1 is to decide to do just that. To decide to hold yourself to a higher standard, to decide that nothing short of operating at the optimum level is acceptable for you anymore, to decide that you are a sales rock star.
Step 2 is to employ effective strategies for boosting your motivation and staying on top of your game. As part of my Real World Sales Tips book project I thought that it would be fun to share your favourite motivational techniques for giving yourself a motivational boost in the arm. One powerful way to get that jolt is by sharing proven techniques so this post is a double whammy – you gain by reading & you gain by sharing.
Make sure that you get involved, the replies for the “What are your favourite sales questions?” post were fantastic, a brilliant resource and you can still add to them now. To see the whole project and every post click here. And remember, the posts are always open so please share your thoughts and expertise in the previous posts as well as sharing your ideas on this latest post how to get and stay motivated. Start by sharing yours in the comments box below now.
What Are Your Favourite Sales Questions?
All sales training experts and sales gurus alike, myself included, extol the virtues of asking good questions. Asking the right question can develop rapport, increase credibility and turn a sale around.
As part of my Real World Sales Tips project I thought that it would be fun to find out what your favourite questions are to ask your clients and prospects.
To get you started here are a few from Real World Sales Skills…
- How do you currently go about…?
- How long have you been operating that way?
- When you considered the options why did you choose that solution?
- How has that solution performed against those criteria?
- What issues have you had with…?
- How often? Who was involved?
- What effect did that have on…?
- Who / what else was effected?
- What options have you considered to resolve this?
Scroll down the page to see other people’s questions and to post your thoughts and ideas.
Should I Only Be Cold Calling Prospects I Convert Most Easily?
Hi Gavin,
I am wondering if you could help me with a problem I currently have. I work for a web development company. We supply our services to designers and web design agencies. In recent weeks I have been calling a list of graphic designers and a list of web designers. For the graphic designers I normally seem to get an appointment from 1 call in 10 (ish), however for the web developers/agencies it seems to be 1 in 25.
I have two questions, firstly, do you think it is worthwhile to contact web agencies where their objections are that they do the website prgramming themselves?
Secondly, if it is, in your opinion; how do you get around the fact that the majority tell you upfront they do it themselves and it is a core business? What would you say to get them to engage further?
My opinion is my time would be better spent calling design agencies where they may need our services, but i am interested as to what your opinion on the matter is
Thanks for the question. Without more detail this is quite a difficult sales training question and the sort of scenario I will be discussing in my new No Fear Cold Calling teleseminars which will be launched soon.
First off, let’s deal with the question of which client type to ring. The answer to this is not simple as it might seem. Cold calling different clients at different times is going to get different results. You need to pay attention to this and is just one of the reaons why it is important to record your personal sales results so that you know what your success and conversion ratios are for every step of the sale.
I work with many companies where they work on generic figures as ratios. This is fine for beginners just starting out or when you have nothing else but it is important that you start to collate your own information as quickly as possible. Knowing your statistics allows you to ask questions like this one and also to monitor the market, find skills areas in which you can improve and calculate likely results ahead of time.
Anyway, on the face of it, it looks like an open and shut case. You should be ringing the clients where you are getting a 1 in 10 return first. This seems a good investment of your time and a fair result which, with skills training and "call warming", you will be able to improve over time.
That said, 1 in 25 is not bad either and there are plenty of successful cold calling industries where 1 in 25 would form the basis of a very successful business.
Here’s the snag however…
Your conversion ratios are not the only figures in play here. What I have just said ONLY APPLIES if the deal sizes in both clients are the same, if the lifetime value of the clients are the same and if your meeting to sale conversion ratio is the same. To really know that your 1 in 10 clients represent a better use of your time you would need to know the average deal size, the lifetime value of a client and your conversion ratios.
Consider this, if the average deal size in the web agencies was 3 times the size of that in the designers who would now represent the best use of your time? Has that changed your mind?
What if the deal size was the same but the frequency of purchase was 5 times as high thus making the lifetime value of the client higher? Unless you’re desperate for business now that may well change your plans too!
Or what if your conversion ratio was better in one than the other? You’d then need to look at "why" but again that could change your plans.
So, in brief, you’re on the right tracks but make sure that you have all of the figures to hand before making your decision and know that the web agencies will still make good prospects when you have finished!
With regards to the objection that you are getting. I am not surprised that they are saying that. It would seem the quickest way to get rid of cold callers like you! But you have the advantage here because you know that objection is likely and you can plan and prepare for it. What you need here is a good reframe objection handle which allows you to back off into questions.
Ask about what they design, when, where and with whom. You are looking for gaps, challenges and problems with the way they currently do things. You need to find a way that you can add value to their existing approach. Remove this objection and that alone might siginificantly change your ratios!
For more on objection handling check out my book "Objections! Objections! Objections!" and make sure that you join my newsletter as I often talk about objection handling.
Tips For Negotiating In The Toughest Of Negotiation Scenarios
How to negotiate like a sales superstar when it seems you can only fail…
As with all of my sales training tips and sales strategies it´s important that you know how to apply tactics in the real world. Here is a negotiation question that has been asked of me several times and in several different guises:-
Gavin. I´ve got a client who is already using us. He is using one product list value 3000 and another worth 2000. Total value 5000. He has only been paying 1500! He now wants to drop the 3000 product and continue with the 2000 product but is expecting a discount from his current investment of 1500. What can I do?
Great question and one which is not at all uncommon. The first problem here is that this client has obviously been seriously under sold in the past and this has set his expectations. Whilst there is not a lot you can do about this situation now it´s important that you learn this and do not fall into this trap yourself when signing up new clients yourself…
For this case, here are some negotiating strategies you may be able to use:-
Work out your walk away price.
What is the least that you will be happy doing this deal for? You need to decide before you ever go anywhere near your client. In the heat of the moment salespeople often sign deals that shouldn´t be signed. If you are certain about your walk away then at least you can´t make this mistake.
Work out what you think the client is going to want.
You should have a good idea about this. Based on past conversations and history – what deal do you think the client will be going for?
Work out what the client will settle for.
What´s the most you think the client will pay? This is crucial because this is what you are going to be negotiating up to.
STOP.
Now you have 4 possible deals:-
1. Your opening price 1500
2. Your walk away
3. The client´s opening stance and,
4. The client´s walk away
Hopefully, there is some overlap!
Work out your concessions
What variables can you add or remove from this deal that you can negotiate with? In all of the sales cases and with all of the sales people I spoke with in similar scenarios we managed to find several…
Work out how much the client needs you
It may be that this client is about to play hard ball but that really they need you and they know that they have been getting the deal of a lifetime in the past.
Now you need to consider how you are going to run the client negotiation meeting itself. Some planning on the steps of the negotiation could well be rewarded with a successful negotiation here.
Set client expectations
You have to tell this client that they have been getting a great deal and help them to understand that you may not be able to continue with it but that you do want to walk away with a win win if at all possible. Try and get them to agree that they need you and link it to their business. Don´t discount the possibility that you might be able to upsell them on the full package again.
After resetting client expectations try and get them to commit first on price. It doesn´t matter how low they go really, it´s a starting point and one from which you can only go up. This will allow you to start to judge the likelihood of a positive outcome. If the first offer is really low don´t be scared of shrugging it off and asking for another more realistic one.
Once you have a starting figure you can make your first offer. Make it as high as you "reasonably" can. Only now can you start to trade concessions and variables whilst using all of your negotiation skills.
For more on the process of sales negotiation that will help you to negotiate win win end games and close more sales more profitably, join my RSS feed and then join my newsletter wihch is packed fulls of tips, tricks and strategies free.
Happy negotiations!
Should Cold Callers Ask, “How Are You Today?”
Should we ask, "How are you?" at the start of a cold call? It’s a great question and one which salespeople and sales trainers alike are split on!
Do you want to sound disingenuous?
Whilst accepting that there are always exceptions to every rule, I’m on the not side. My main reason is that most salespeople do not sound like they mean it and most potential clients think it’s disingenuous! Here’s a real conversation that took place from one of my delegates on a course who would not stop asking this question…
Sales: "Hello X, it’s Y here from ABC company. How are you today?"Client: "I’ve been off sick for two weeks and have just got back today."Sales: "Oh. The reason for the call today is…"
Oh, come on! How rude is that?! Right at the start of the call our "hero" has totally ignored the client. Disaster. But the problem is that the alternative conversation where we delved into his private life was unlikely to go much better…
“How convenient is it to speak?”
Far better to realise that clients are not hanging around hoping for cold calls and to ask the more polite question, "How convenient is it to speak?" This questions is rarely asked because salespeople have the mistaken belief that by not asking it clients are more likely to stay on the phone… righto!
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