...for next year?
...for next month?
...for next week?
How about tomorrow? Do you at least have a plan for how you will spend your selling hours tomorrow?
No? Could that have something to do with why you are not as successful as you wish you were?
Start planning NOW....otherwise, another day will end and you will be no closer to where you want to be than you are at this moment.
© 2011 Patrick L. Williams, The Selling Sherpa™
In this day and age, there is a ton of information that is easily and readily available about almost anything you want to know about.....including you, your company, and what you sell.
The days of "white-washing" are over, bub!
Don't imagine for a moment that you can hide, disguise or mislead buyers into believing your product, service or treatment will do something it can't.
Or that your company is more reputable and trustworthy than it really is.
Or that you are something you are not.
Between search engines, social media, and review platforms, the truth is out there for anyone to find, and that is good news for people and businesses with integrity.
© 2011 Patrick L. Williams, The Selling Sherpa™
Hopefully, you've already established a solid business selling your product, service or treatment to a very specific market that is absolutely loyal to you because of the way you deliver.
If so, your sales should be growing steadily all the time, based on referrals from your thrilled customers.
But if you need to grow sales more quickly, here are your two choices:
- Add additional products, services or treatments that compliment what you already offer to your existing customers.
- Reach out to markets that are similar to your existing customers with your current offerings.
Pick one or the other.
Trying to do both at the same time can lead to disaster.
© 2011 Patrick L. Williams, The Selling Sherpa™
I know a lot of salespeople who mentally shut down on Thursday.
They use thir Friday for cleaning up the desk, filing old paperwork, reading trade publications, and such, but avoiding making any appointments to SELL on the last day of the week.
Most of the time, if a prospect will agree to meet with you on a Friday, they are already mostly sold and only need a little conversation and convincing. That's especially the case when they agree to meet with you on Friday afternoons.
Don't shut down early....you might be missing out on the most lucrative day of the week.
© 2011 Patrick L. Williams, The Selling Sherpa™
When setting an appointment to meet with a prospect, ask for a :15 or :45 time.
Asking for appointments on the quarter-hour suggests you are a busy person, and you probably wont take more than 15 minutes to make your pitch.
Plus, it's just different from what everyone else asks for (on the hour or the half-hour), and that will make you stand out, too.
© 2011 Patrick L. Williams, The Selling Sherpa™
Don't think for a moment that automating your social media posts is anything more than a convenience for YOU.
It isn't.
Neither is the automated phone system with a message that says, 'for customer convenience, please select from the following options..."
And, believe it or not, your customers are smart enough to know you are only doing it to make it easy on YOU.
© 2011 Patrick L. Williams, The Selling Sherpa™
Just attended a business learning event.
The scheduled presenter was unable to make it, so they had someone they trusted stand in for them as a presenter.
Only problem: the stand-in did not know the slide deck.
While the pitch-hitter was pleasant enough, it was obvious that they were pretty much reading the slides to the audience.....ho hum! Worse, they didn't even bother to stand up to deliver the presentation.
The coup de grace: they had no knowledge about or awareness of one of the products being pitched in the presentation.
Sometimes, you may have to use a stand-in; just make sure your stand-in actually knows the part. Rehearse it with them a few times. Make sure the message you want conveyed is the same one that will be delivered.
If you can't do at least that to make sure the impression is what you want, you're better off postponing the presentation alltogether.
Yes, that will be a bad impression, too....but it's better than allowing misinformation to be presented on your behalf.
© 2011 Patrick L. Williams, The Selling Sherpa™
Do you review every sales call to discover what worked well, what didn't and how you can improve next time?
Most salespeople don't; most sales managers don't require it.
The top-earning salespeople make it a habit to review EVERY sales call, whether by phone or in person, to constantly improve their technique and increase the likelihood of a sale on the next call.
Create your own review process and use it consistently to produce consistent results.
© 2011 Patrick L. Williams, The Selling Sherpa™
...is that in one action, you:
- uniquely acknowledge another person.
- give them a personal memento of you.
- tell someone they are worth your time and effort.
- deliver more value to your prospect/customer. (This one is optional and a nice touch if you do it.)
© 2011 Patrick L. Williams, The Selling Sherpa™
I stopped at a gas station/convenience store to fill up.
Near the entrance door of the store was a sign explaining their restroom was available only to paying customers who had a receipt with today's date.
Inside the store was a woman almost shouting, arguing with the store owners. She had paid for gas and opted not to print a receipt before she knew their policy.
Now she needed the restroom.
The owners were loudly and firmly stating they have the right to ask for proof; the customer responding in kind that they were being unreasonable.
I'll bet this happens a lot at that place.
If the signs were on the pumps, problem solved.
If the owners were willing to flex, problem solved.
Obviously, this store doesn't care about repeat business, and will probably survive anyway.
Have you thought through all of your rules and policies? Do they embrace the customer or offend?
© 2011 Patrick L. Williams, The Selling Sherpa™
Patrick L. Williams is The Selling Sherpa, and his Sales Tip of the Day reaches subscribers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Australia.
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