Repetition Is The Mother Of All Skill If You Want Sales Success
“Repetition is the mother of all skill.”
~ Tony Robbins, author of Unlimited Power
In sales seminars and sales training programmes I often talk about the difference between sales skills and sales techniques…
Sales techniques are something external to you, they are something that you hear or that you know. Sales skills are something that you own, they are yours through hard work and practise. And, what’s more, they won’t abandon you in even the toughest of markets.
When I speak at sales conferences many salespeople sit back, cross their arms and ask for “the advanced stuff”. They tell their boss that they don’t need sales training because they already know it, they’ve heard it all before…
Take open questions as an example. Any salesperson with more than about 5 minutes selling experience knows what an open question is – a question that requires more than a “yes” or “no” answer. We all know that open questions start with the words what, where, when, why, how, who which. But how many salespeople put undue sales pressure onto their clients by asking (self-centred) closed questions when they should be asking (well constructed) open questions?
“Most salespeople” is the correct answer.
The ability to ask great questions is one of the critical skills for being a sales superstar yet most salespeople fair badly at best in this area.
Think back to the first time you were taught about open questions. Did you understand it? I’m guessing that you did. Let’s face it, it really isn’t that complicated is it? Most salespeople hear it, think that it makes sense and move on. They hear it, they acknowledge it but they never practise it. They get it intellectually but because they never practised it, it never becomes a skill for them. It never becomes something that they own.
Put under pressure in a sales meeting or in a cold call, and with the adrenaline flowing, they revert to type asking controlling closed questions and “forgetting” to ask carefully constructed open ones.
As Robbins says, “Repetition is the mother of all skill.”
- If you want to be a great golfer you need to practise your swing, over and over.
- If you want to be a great pianist you need to practise your scales, over and over.
- If you want to be a great at anything you need to practise it, over and over.
- If you want to be a great salesperson you need to practise your sales skills, over and over.
If you are a salesperson and you want to outsell your competition and win more clients fast, you need to create an ongoing sales development programme for yourself that includes regular practise of all of the sales training basics.
Don’t wait for your boss to put you on a sales training programme. Don’t wait for your sales results to fall off a cliff. Don’t wait until it’s nearly too late to start. Start now and make regular sales training practise of your selling skills part of your daily habits. You’ll be amazed what you can achieve from a mere 15 minutes a day practising your basic sales skills.
If you’re a sales manager, sales leader or business owner then you need to think about how you can help your sales team to practise their core sales skills regularly. One-off training is not enough by itself. You need to create ongoing sessions and exercises for them to participate in, both individually and as a team. One company I know bought several copies of my Objection handling book Objections! Objections! Objections! and then “drilled” the answers in sales meetings. They added £1 million to their bottom line.
Not convinced it’s worth the effort? Not convinced you can get the same results? not convinced that you buy into this whole practise argument? What would Tiger Woods, David Beckham and Johnny Wilkinson tell you to do?
I rest my case.
The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Part I
“For me, making money is better than sex!”
And so the first of the “brightest and the best” from all over the UK opened the 2009 UK Apprentice. No wonder our economy is in such a state…
Second up, some open necked girl (Anita – see later), with her nose stuck in the air, walking through the tube, “I am outstanding. It’s a given.” Oh dear, why I am watching this compulsive car crash TV again? Will we get any outstanding business talent this year or is it another year where the best we have to look forward to are ego maniac statements, reverse pterodactyl impressions and momentous business cock ups?
Phillip in Geordie accent, “You don’t have to make friends on the way up when you’re not coming back down.” Sound like famous last words to me.
Chosen from thousands of applicants, these are the 16 that some researcher with not a clue about real business at the BBC has chosen, more than likely for our viewing pleasure rather than their business acumen. But surely the contestants know that? Maybe not, listening to them…
Cliche after cliché rolls from their mouths (e.g. “In business you play to win”) and then the biggest cliché of the lot, Sir Alan, is back on our screens, “You didn’t sell, you didn’t sell and you didn’t sell” he barks, pointing his finger at some poor loser in some future episode. “First prize you get to work for me, second prize don’t exist”, he continues.
Will there be sales training and business lessons to be learned this year? Will we get sales training tips and strategies from the show? Probably not from the Apprentices themselves, that’s for sure! But from our analysis, I am sure we will.
Sitting outside the board room for the first time, the Apprentices are silent, perhaps for the last time in twelve weeks. Cue Sir Alan…
“Good morning ladies and gentleman. Welcome to my board room.” Sir Alan introduces himself to the group and tells them that one of the boys group has already “bottled it” and has not shown up for the programme. That’s the kind of decision that I am sure many of these Apprenti might look back on in years to come and wish that they’d made!
“I know the words to Candle in the Wind; don’t make me Elton John” quips Sir Alan. “I’m as hard to play as a Stradivarius and you lot are as easy to play as bongo drums.” More David Brent than big business man this year then. I reckon Sir Alan has been spending his winter nights between last year and this thinking these sayings up. “Trust me, you’re going to be under extreme pressure” he says.
And then, the first task…
“I started my business from nothing… I always dirtied my hands… This first task is all about clean… You go out there and you clean things… The team that comes back here with the highest profit wins.” As usual, first task is split up girls versus boys with silver fox Nick stalking (?) the girls and Margaret, the boys. “Don’t underestimate these two, they’re dead sharp” says Sir Alan, pushing his puppet master buttons for them to both nod in agreement. Sharp in this company maybe…
On the way to the first task, the boys introduce themselves to each other in the car. Some cocky teacher says, in his smooth Rochdale accent, that he loves the sound of his own voice. I just hope that our government didn’t see fit to let this clown take leave with permission to go back when he’s failed…
“I look the part, I talk posh and I look posh” he continues… Err right, deluded as well then. It’s shaping up to be even more X-Factor this year. But I do know a school for him, Waterloo Road anyone?
Meanwhile, the girls are bigging themselves up…
“I am a Commercial Development & Strategy Manager but I’m actually a trained lawyer” nods one girl (Anita again), imperiously. And there, my friends, is the problem with our economy…
Their first job is to come up with a team name and the American is the first to start talking about marketing and brand names. When will these muppets realize that this is all about selling. They are not building a lasting brand. They will be doing things for one day. No-one cares what the name of the company is that cleans their car or their shoes if they are never going to see them again. Ideas above their station as my mother used to say whenever my sister or I got above ourselves. Who cares what your stupid teams are called?
Despite thinking it important they showed the originality of a very uncreative person without a creative bone in their body…
Strike and Carpe Diem suggested the boys… original then. Empire suggested another, jingoistically. The others agreed and that’s was their name. Ignite, decided the girls. Oh dear.
Howard Ebison is the boy’s manager. “What is our objective?” he asks. Err, make money I think Howard. Meanwhile the girls are struggling to elect a leader but eventually pick Mona.
Sales training thoughts: This is a straight forward sales task and they have one day only. The key to it is to define your market fast, locate it fast and get working fast. It does not get more simple than this…
But as usual both teams get bogged down in talking about what they’re going to do and making a hash of ordering supplies. The problem with the Apprenti is that they all like talking about how good they are but none of them actually want to do very much…
15 ego maniacs + 1 task = MAYHEM
Half of the boys arrive at a mini-cab office to pitch to clean some cars that are going to the auction house. The boys offer £17 per unit and the manager says he is already paying £17.50 so they are not doing him any great favours but they can have the job if they will do it for £15. “Will you do £16?” asks one of the boys and the client agrees then quickly sneaking in a last minute concession, “We will only pay for the cars that we’re happy with…”
It’s now 1130am and the girls arrive at a limousine company in West London. Yasmina, a finance director, heads up to lead the negotiations. £300 she offers confidently for cleaning 3 stretch Hummers only to be informed that the prospect is currently paying only £60 for all three. “We’re here right now, we’re ready to go, we want to tie the deal and get on with this” says one of the girls adding that they’re not desperate. Au contraire, I think you are; you’ve driven out there, you have nothing else planned and if this client does not say “Yeah” you have wasted so much time.
Meanwhile, the other girls are looking at classic cars in North London and have agreed to clean the cars for £10 per car. Eventually the girls at the other venue agree a price of £40 per Hummer and Mona says, “It’s done by women not stinky men”… (Ed: !”£$&^£*&!) “I didn’t want him to think we were desperate” she said. Bit late when you’re all standing there with the sponges in your hands Mona.
130pm and Howard and the boys with him are polishing shoes at St. Pancras station. The other boys are having their cleaning work on the cars torn apart. Howard decides to join the car cleaning team and finish the cars together. Geordie Phillip, who has done nothing but moan about Howard, “Sometimes too many cooks spoil the broth… I’d love to see Howard clean a car”. He’s never met this bloke before and he had done nothing but snipe. He continues that Howard is looking for a fall guy. This chap is a moaner.
Sales training tip: Watch out for sales terrorists in your business who focus everyone on the negative things and undermine your business. In today’s turbulent economy you cannot afford to have negativity like this in your teams.
“Never before have so few cars been washed by so many people in so much time” says Margaret, coming out with a line that sums up the whole of this first episode for me.
Meanwhile, both of the girls’ teams have gone proactive, flagging down cars and knocking on doors. “Imagine if we had done this all day, we would have made a killing” says one. Err, yes. You would. This task was about getting going fast and neither team managed to do that.
In the boardroom they all look dead beat. Sir Alan said, “I’m sorry. You lot look exhausted. If you cannot show more energy than this after one day’s honest work you’re unemployable. You’re all sacked.”
Now that would have been TV. But back with what actually happened…
The girls’ team, Ignite made £357 and spent £196. Profit £160.55
The boys’ team, Empire made £347 and spent £107.39. Profit just over £239.
The boys won with a pathetic per head profit of £34 per head.
Sales training thought… If I gave you a sponge and a bucket and 8 hours how much money do you think you could make cleaning cars? If you stood on a busy road junction in London and cleaned windscreens every time the lights changed and you made only £1 every 6 minutes you would make £80. This figure is, as it has been on the Apprentice many times before, is frankly pathetic. I know boy scouts who do better than this. It was a simple task and with all of their “leadership wanabe” they managed to make it very, very complicated…
Back in the board room Sir Alan concluded that the girls failed because they spent too much money. He asked who was responsible for the business plan? One of the girls said that no-one was made responsible for any particular tasks. Mona said that they wasted too much time as if, as team leader, she was not ultimately responsible. But then, if you look at the examples set in politics and big business these days, when exactly does anyone take responsibility for their errors? So how do we expect these media savvy Apprenti to behave any differently?
Mona decided to bring back Debra and Anita for no particular reason other than no-one really knew what had gone on. The girls argued. Sir Alan listened for 30 minutes and concluded that he had no idea either!
“Mona, you’ve shown me a bit of spirit, you’ve not shown me any business acumen. Anita you was on the back of that van, you was seeing the money flow out. Debra, at the end of the day you are seriously responsible for a lot things that went wrong on this task. My gut instinct is telling me something Anita. You put yourself forward as one of Britain’s best business prospects. You showed no initiative as far as I’m concerned in spotting that you were going for a disaster and on that basis, Anita, you’re fired.”
So much for grandiose titles then. Sales success is about results not titles.
Anita in the cab, “I’m bitterly disappointed but I accept that it was not a stellar performance.”
… Humility?…
“I just think that Sir Alan doesn’t particularly like lawyers”
…probably not then…
“Let see if in 10 years time he doesn’t sit and think “Hmm maybe I made the wrong decision””
…Ah, that’s better!
But, seriously Anita, surely even you can’t think that he will ever give you another thought?
So another first show and another set of Apprenti. Who will the stars be? Who will make the biggest business mistakes? Who will we learn the most from – whether from what they do well or what they do badly? What sales training tips will we pick up?
My top 5 sales training and business tips from tonight’s show…
1. Know what you sell.
They all spent far too long making everything too complicated when this was a simple task of cleaning something and pocketing the readies. It was always going to be a time based task in which they wanted as many people working on as profitable tasks as possible for as long a time as possible. As inexperienced cleaners, I would have avoided car showrooms as they are too high end and require too much of a quality clean and would have targeted the public who would not have been as discerning. For sure, they may have been able to make more per car the way they did it but they could not guarantee the numbers or the delivery quality,
2. Know the best route to market.
Time = money in this task and they needed to locate clients faster and spend more time cleaning. Period. Sometimes you just have to get your head down and get on with it. I have watched those windscreen cleaners rub a dirty cloth across car windows in West London and make £3/4 on EVERY light change. It may not be a long term business venture but this task was all about maximizing cash in and minimizing cash out.
3. Under promise over deliver.
Both teams failed to deliver satisfactorily and did not clean some of the cars sufficiently well. In the girls’ team, this cost them 10 cars which the client would then not agree for them to clean and this ultimately lost them the competition. In the boys’ team, they lost time and money. Delivering on your promises is essential in any business. This lot talked a good game but then did not knuckle down and do the job well. Sales superstars always give 100%.
4. Watch your costs.
Many business people spend too much on the wrong things at the wrong time. In today’s economy, sales are vital but we also need to manage unnecessary costs. Over spending on stock lost the girls this round.
5. Watch your mouth.
Anita mouthed off and got shot down. Top sales performers perform, they don’t talk about performing. Sales is not about what you say you’re going to do, it’s about what you actually deliver on. Sales is about results.
It will be a few weeks until we really get to grips with these new Apprenti but why not post your thoughts, comments and opinions below?
More sales training videos and articles due later this week. In the meantime, sell with passion.
Successful Selling Lying On Your Back
I never cease to be amazed by how little effort many salespeople put into improving their sales skills. Ironically, of course, if you’re reading this I am probably not speaking to you. If you didn’t care about your sales development and your sales results then you probably wouldn’t be reading this at all.
One of the questions that I ask of the audience in my Selling in Tough Markets (or Selling in a Recession) keynote speech is, “Who is currently reading a book on selling?” The answer is usually about 2% of the audience at any one particular sales conference. Even if you widen this to, “Who has read a sales book in the last 6 months?” the percentage of sales professionals answering in the affirmative is still well under 10%… a very low figure by anyone’s reckoning.
Reading a book on sales, business, personal development or even a biography of a successful person can benefit you in many ways. You can benefit by…
- Learning new skills, strategies and techniques. If each book that you read delivered you even just one new strategy, one new skill and one new technique what would that mean for you, your sales results and your business over the next 5-10 years? A heck of a lot – that’s what. Top performing salespeople tell me that they always learn something from every sales seminar they attend or every sales book they read. It’s only less successful salespeople that come up with the line, “I knew it all already”.
- Revising, improving and reenergizing existing skills. As Anthony Robbins is fond of saying, “Repetition is the mother of skill”. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. I am constantly amazed by how much I “get” from rereading really quite basic books that I have read before. Sometimes, several times. It’s not that there is something new in there, it’s that you see stuff differently and make critical distinctions that you did not make on the first read.
- Building motivation and self-confidence. People who study have an inner confidence. It comes from knowing that you know your stuff, knowing that you are in the top 5%, knowing that you can do a professional job and knowing that you have put your time in.
- Continuing professional development. All professionals undertake ongoing learning programmes to improve, refresh and update their skills. Why should salespeople be any different?
- Empowering yourself with a sales superstar mindset. In today’s economy, there is far too much negativity and far too many people moaning about how bad things are, how we should be prepared for the worst, how things are all going to go wrong and why there is nothing you can do about it. Spending time focusing on what you can do, what people are doing and sharpening your sales and business skills is the perfect antidote.
Listening to the news and reading many experts at the moment is like being bitten by a deadly snake – the bite won’t kill you but the poison seeping through your veins just might. I have two tips…
- Take lots of pre-emptive antidote &
- Try not to be bitten in the first place
That means, surrounding yourself with motivational books, audios, seminars and people and avoiding negativity as and when you can. Still not convinced? Check out what someone wrote having read Objections! Objections! Objections! recently…
I am a sales professional and have been selling for about 15 years… I have contracts that require a lot of cold calling. I seemed to not be getting anywhere and was feeling pretty de-motivated. I saw your book Objections, Objections, Objections and read it cover to cover. I put the advice into immediate practice, and from getting an appointment rate of 1 per 10 phone calls, I am now getting on average 6 per 10 phone calls – simply by changing my approach.
Now I don’t know about you but that seems like a real sales result to me. Here’s what you need to do…
- Think about the areas of selling and business that you could do with a boost in.
- Research books or other learning products that meet your needs.
- Check out their reviews online.
- Buy them.
- Commit to reading 15 minute per day.
It’s amazing what you can achieve in such a short period of time. Have a great week
Getting The Sales Superstar Mindset, Sales Training Video 1 Of 3
The first of 3 sales training videos on how to adopt the mindset of a sales superstar and make more sales.
Better Business Focus: Weathering The Storm
Better Business Focus magazine’s January issue is entitled Weathering the Storm and in it you can read the following articles…
- Weathering the storm by John Stanley
- Best advice I ever got… maybe
- Ask questions by Paul Sloane
- Bestselling business books
- Customer loyalty: why one number is not enough by David Jackson
- Effective purchasing by Colin Coulson-Thomas
- 10 reasons why small businesses fail
- Connect to your customers through your customers by Ron Kaufman
- 7 tips for selling in an economic downturn by Gavin Ingham
- Why postcard marketing works so well in the internet age by Bob Leduc
- US recessions and expansions from The Great Depression to today
Click here now to read this issue of Better Business Focus from Bizezia.
8 More Tips For Confident Cold Calling…
I promised last post that I would continue with more of my 23 tips for confident cold calling so here are 8 more sales superstar tips that will help you to become a more confident and successful cold caller.
Tip 8
Don’t put the phone down between calls.
Putting the phone down between calls can slow you down and impede your motivation. Keep the energy going by keeping the phone in your hand once you start your cold calling sessions.
Tip 9
Wear a headset if at all possible.
Wireless ones are the best. Holding the phone to your ear can impede your movements and impact your ability to communicate naturally. By using a headset you allow yourself more freedom of movement. The more freedom of movement you have, the more you can express yourself.
Tip 10
Sit up, or better still, stand up, when on the phone.
This is a particularly useful tactic at the start of cold calling sessions or when you are feeling your enthusiasm beginning to cool off. Sitting up or standing up will inject much needed energy and vitality into your calls.
Tip 11
Keep your head up and breathe naturally.
Maintain the correct physiology by keeping your head up and breathing naturally. This helps to improve your focus, your attention and your motivation.
Tip 12
Be well prepared.
Being well prepared not only enables you to make more targeted and more professional calls but it also increases confidence because it helps you to know that you are going to make a great call.
Tip 13
Learn from your mistakes.
Everyone makes mistakes. The real question is not whether you make any missteaks mistakes but whether you learn from them or not.
Tip 14
Remind yourself of past successes.
Think of a time when you achieved success through cold calling; maybe when you won a piece of new business or secured a sales appointment with an important decision maker. This will help to get you thinking positively and feeling more confident.
Tip 15
Accept that you can’t win them all.
So stop beating yourself up when you don’t! Even the best cold callers don’t get that appointment or close that deal every time so get over it already!
For more on cold calling check out my No Fear Cold Calling seminars, my Power Canvassing audio or my Power Canvassing DVD programme. Make sure that you join my Sales Success newsletter – it’s always jam-packed full of sales strategies, sales tips and sales techniques that you can use right away to boost your sales and best of all, it’s totally free.
p.s. Want to get even more tips for successful cold calling for free? Check out this video, 10 tips for confident cold calling, now.
Selling In Tough Markets – Free Special Report
7 strategies for selling more in an economic downturn or recession. This 14 page special report on how your business can not only survive but thrive and grow in even the most difficult of markets is yours to download and read at your leisure. Packed full of strategies, tips and ideas this report will help you, your team and your company to focus in on what’s important – more sales.
I have decided to restrict the downloading of this report for members of GavinIngham.com only but don’t worry if you’re not a member of our sales and business success club as you can download your own private copy of these powerful sales success tips by joining the GavinIngham.com community free here.
As I have talked about over the last few weeks, now is a time of contrast…
- Contrast between those who get stuck in and those who give in
- Contrast between those who step it up a gear and those who choose to free-wheel
- Contrast between those headed for business success and those headed for professional suicide
At GavinIngham.com I am committed to providing you with world-class, sales resources, business reports and information to help you to increase your sales, build your business and achieve your goals. I get a buzz out of reading your emails and comments about your successes and how you have used this material to help you to achieve business and personal success so keep them coming.
So here’s the link for joining and getting your own personal copy of Selling in Tough Markets: 7 Strategies for Selling More in and Economic Downturn or Recession.
Enjoy!
7 Tips For Selling In An Economic Downturn
It’s hard to look at this week and to not worry about the impact that current events might have on sales. Many of you may be reading this and thinking, “They already have”. Every media outlet, every paper, every radio station and (seemingly) everybody is talking about events. Even people whom I have never heard talk about economics or the economy have had something to say – usually negative!
I was listening to the radio on the way home from my Close the Sale seminar last night and they spoke to someone who said that he was going to put his money under the bed because he didn’t trust banks. You know the kind of person; one of those “random” types that the research crew see wandering down the street with a can of beer and a kebab in their hand and looking out of their BMWs they deem him to be Mr Average. Anyway, what interested me was not his advice (!) but that he knew what they were talking about at all. I think it’s fair to say that normally, Mr. Average would have little or no awareness of these things.
The message is clear… many people are starting to panic.
Now I am not going to advocate gung-ho tactics. Nor am I going to wax lyrical about how you get what you focus on. Nor am I going to blow hot air up your ass (where did that phrase come from!). You don’t need that.
What we all need is straight talking. What we need is ideas and tactics. What we need are strategies to help us to navigate this choppy water so here is my sales kick up the ass approach to selling in a downturn.
1. Stay positive!
Your attitude determines your altitude. Your attitude determines your ability to access your skill. Your attitude determines your success of failure. If you don’t know that, you should go do something else instead of sales!
Many individuals and companies are starting to droop at the moment like little flowers in the sunshine. They need to give themselves a good dousing with common sense and motivation. Success in every market is totally dependant on attitude. This is even more the case in tough markets.
If you want to fail, get a negative attitude and I can pretty much guarantee you failure. Clients buy on emotion and you’ll never create emotion by going through the motions. Work on staying upbeat and positive. Clients have enough doom and gloom thrown at them from the media and their colleagues, they don’t want it from you too!
2. Believe you can!
I know of one large company who have just laid off their sales training department seeing it as a luxury! This is sheer fool’s folly and the directors need their heads banging together. What’s worse is that they aren’t even suffering any negative affects in their business at the moment. They soon will. Sales training and development is essential in any market, particularly tough ones. Sales training teaches your staff the skills that they require to do the job properly. Tough markets require top skills.Changing markets require changing sales skills. Sharpening your sales skills requires sales training and development.
What’s more, investing in your staff builds the belief that you believe in them and that your company is going to thrive. Cutting training teaches the exact opposite. Staff who believed that their company was “rock solid” won’t now. They’ll question, worry and share their fears and soon feelings will become beliefs and beliefs will affect their activity and their results. They will achieve what you believe. Imagination will become reality.
What you believe about this market is going to determine what you get. There’s plenty of negativity out there, don’t let you, your team and your business be a victim of this. What are you going to do to build, support and nurture positive beliefs about your company, sales and success?
3. Prospect! Prospect! Prospect!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the lifeblood of salespeople is prospecting. No matter how good a salesperson you are, prospecting is critical for your success. The more clients you call, the more chance you have of closing more sales. This is not a case of quantity or quality because quantity and quality are not mutually exclusive.
You need quantity and quality. If your conversion ratio is down, up your activity. If your existing clients are pulling in their belts, ring some more. When everyone else is sitting on their arses, get out there and meet people. Selling is not complicated, are you up for it?
4. Visit more clients!
In the busy times we often neglect some of our clients. Maybe we take on a new piece of business with a client but we don’t get chance to meet them as often as we’d like (or at all!). Maybe we have existing clients that we’d like to see but we don’t have to, so we do something else instead.
In a downturn clients want reassurance that they are working with the best, that their suppliers are thriving and that their supply lines are rock solid. Take some time out to plan which clients of yours would benefit from a face to face visit, a lunch or a coffee and make that call!
5. Check commitments!
Salespeople who learn to sell in easy markets cut corners. Not because they’re lazy but because they don’t know any better. Dotting the “I”s and crossing the “t”s is not so essential in booming markets because busy markets are sellers markets. Busy markets pick up the slack. Qualifying properly is still important but it is possible to succeed by doing a reasonable job rather than a perfect job.
Tough markets are not like this. In tough markets you need to check commitments. You cannot afford to be working on client opportunities where you end up giving “free consultancy” or where your client is just on a “shopping comparison trip”. The key to gaining commitments is asking the right questions and this is something that I teach in both my Close the Deal seminar and my Professional Selling Skills seminar.
6. Ask for referrals!
Few salespeople ever ask for referrals. Fewer still always ask for referrals. Most never ask for referrals. This is because clients can and do say “No” so it is often easier to just not ask than to risk yet another rejection.
Asking for referrals should be built into what you do. Asking for referrals should be mandatory for you, your sales colleagues and your sales team. Sure, you’ll get some refusals but if you ask at the right time and in the right way you will get some fantastic leads and introductions and you will grow your business with quality prospects.
Know a salesperson, sales manager, director, entrepreneur or business owner who would benefit from reading my blog and newsletter? It’ll take you two minutes to send them a quick email telling them to have a look at www.GavinIngham.com.
7. Strengthen relationships!
Most salespeople do not spend enough time thinking about the quality of the relationships that they hold with their clients. There are many aspects of your relationship with your clients and spending time strengthening and improving those relationships will encourage loyalty, openness and partnership in all markets not just tough ones.
Think about the various aspects of your relationships with individual clients (for example the awareness they have your company, how they view your business, how they view you, your personal relationship, your business conversations…) and devise a plan of action for improving and strengthening those. Start with your key target clients now.
So there wer are, 7 tips for selling in tough markets. Go grab yourself a cup of coffee, give yourself a talking to and plan what you’re going to do to make the rest of the year and 2009 a great time for you and for your business.
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