SALES - 3 MORE QUICK TIPS - FOR SALES MANAGERS

DECISION MAKERS:

Have your salespeople send you a list of names and positions of the people they contact and see how many secretaries, purchasing officers, clerks and other strange characters they are talking to. If they have developed a “milk run” just to keep their call rate up remember the experts tell us (last time I heard) it costs about US$220 per call. That’s a lot of money to smile at a secretary who can’t approve any purchases.

NO FEAR:

Sales people need to overcome their fear of rejection and have no call reluctance. They need to understand risk in their profession comes from developing too few customers and prospects, not from having too many. They have to accept rejection as part of their life and do not allow a prospect’s rejection to effect and control their mental attitude. Fear can be reduced by planning, being prepared for every step of the selling process backed by solid product knowledge. Even a well developed prospecting script with prepared responses to all of the major questions and objections they might encounter can help.

DESTROY THE SALES SCRIPT… DON”T PITCH

Selling, or more correctly helping the prospective customer through the process of deciding that what you have to offer is a worthwhile solution to satisfy his or her wants (or needs if you must) should be a conversation not a one, two, three (or ten) act play. If you or your salespeople are using a script (and many still do) you are probably not listening to the customer you are just pitching. You need to let the customer explain what he or she wants and then know enough about your product or service to explain how it provides the solution or benefit desired.

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