Category: Sales & Marketing

Article contributed by Sharpenz

What does it take to be successful in sales? There’s no easy answer because the list is long. It’s one of the great debates in the sales community – WHAT does it take to be successful in sales?

One indication of the debate is the response to a recent question posted on LinkedIn. The question asked:

What is more important in sales, great selling skills or expertise on the product?

The more than 250 respondents – sales managers and sales professionals – were split with their answers. Many couldn’t choose one over the other.

Why? Because both are equally important. However, to truly be successful more is needed! With our work with thousands of sales professionals over the last 12 years, we have found that the top performing sales professionals we know all have 5 Success Factors in common. They are:

1. Goal Transparency – Goals are written, specific and measurable. They are easily seen and detected by self and others.

2. Focused Energy – Personal energy that is exhibited each day. The energy is focused toward proactive and productive activities and is not diffused or scattered.

3. Human Connection – The understanding of, and ability to connect with, others in communication, actions and ideas – in the way that person prefers or needs.

4. Emotional Intelligence – The awareness of, and ability to manage, one’s emotions in a healthy and productive manner. Being able to roll with the ups and downs of sales.

5. Expertise – Skill and knowledge of industry, product, customer and sales process. This is more than just having the information; it’s knowing the value of what the offer does for your customers and the ability to tie WHAT (the features) into the WiifT (What’s in it for Them – the benefits to that person.)

If you think about the most successful sales professionals, you’ll realize these Factors are part of who they are.

The great debate on WHAT it takes to be successful in sales does not have ONE answer. Five Success Factors do form the foundation of long-term sales success. And the great news is that you don’t have to be born a natural salesperson – these Success Factors can be developed over time.

So, don’t just read the list. Print it out, gauge your strength in each factor then identify how you can strengthen each one. Being successful takes more than just selling skills and ‘who you know’. YOU matter.

About the Author
Sharpenz is dedicated to providing sales managers the resources and tools they need to energize, engage and equip their sales team to sell each week. Our 30-minute power sales booster meetings help companies increase sales by providing the right tools and training – fast. Designed with the busy manager in mind, Sharpenz ready-to-go sales training kits will give your sales team the opportunity to grow and earn more – all in a half hour of power. To learn more, visit www.sharpenz.com and sign up for your free ready-to-go sales training kit today!

Article Contributed by Annemarie Cross

You’ve spent countless hours creating your program/service offering; your promotional material has been circulated; your sales webpage promoting your new program is live (and looking extremely impressive); and you’ve spoken to a number of your connections who you know could benefit from participating in the program. However despite all the effort you’ve
put into this entire process – no-one has made a purchase. Is this something you can relate to? If you’ve answered yes – you’re certainly not alone.

Sadly, even though you may have the best program in the world that can support your clients in achieving amazing results, there is no guarantee that you’ll have people flocking to your door with their credit card poised ready to invest in your services.

Before you develop another program or service offering ensure you have the following five steps in place to support you in transforming your prospects into raving clients.

Step 1: Identify the level of demand for your program/service offering

Despite the fact that YOU know your program/service offering would be of great benefit to your clients, have you researched:

(a) whether your target market recognizes they are facing issues and genuinely want to overcome their struggles
(b) the size of your prospective market
(c) whether your target market has a history of investing in the type of solutions you offer.

Before you even begin to develop your program it’s imperative to identify whether there is a large enough market and whether your prospect is willing to part with their hard-earned dollars to invest in you.

Further investigation may confirm that despite their desperate need for your support, an ingrained ‘culture’ will see them continue their struggle rather than choosing to invest in your program and overcome their issues.

Targeting a market that requires repeated convincing that they need your service will only lead to a decline in your energy, your sanity and your hip pocket, so it’s important to identify a market that has a high level of demand AND a willingness to invest in your services.

Step 2: Pinpoint your target market’s needs

If I were to ask you to describe your target market could you identify their demographics, their needs, what keeps them up at night and where they hang out, etc?

It’s imperative to have an intimate knowledge of your target market, including:

– The problems/issues they are experiencing
– The words and phrases they use to describe their issues
– The type of support/solutions they are typically looking for
– The pricing point they are willing to/can invest
– The language/triggers that will catch their attention and prompt them to want to learn more about your services

Answer the above questions to create a thorough profile of your ideal customer so that you can accurately pinpoint your target market’s needs. This information will support you in creating your marketing plan, your webpage sales/marketing copy as well as helping you locate the best place to connect with and get your message in front of them.

Step 3: Get clear on your brand

With the increasing number of competitors in the marketplace it’s important to have a clearly-defined brand that showcases your expertise and the benefits your clients can expect from working with you, in order to stand out from the crowd.

Do you know what your strengths are and what makes you unique? Do you continue to present this information in an influential and powerful way? It’s important to create a strong brand that is memorable and magnetic and enables you to be recognized as an expert and leader in your field to continue attracting your ideal client.

Remember an inconsistent brand message can cause prospects to become confused and a confused prospect will often say no. Don’t set yourself up to receive a ‘no’ to your offer because you are sending a weak and incoherent brand message.

Step 4: Grow Your List

Thriving businesses state that one of the most important elements that has enabled them to secure their wealth and success is building their list. In fact, one of my mentors often states ‘the money is in your list’.

Are you actively building your list? Do you have a process in place that prompts clients to hand over their email address and other contact details to you? Consider offering prospects a free report or a video and/or audio series that provides
valuable content. In order to access these resources your prospect is required to provide you with their email, thus adding their details to your list. [Step 5 explains how you can continue to leverage your list.

Step 5: Build Your Relationships

Do you have a regular newsletter that enables you to remain in contact with your list of existing customers and prospects? Are you consistently taking the time to not only strengthen the relationship but also continue to portray your knowledge and expertise by providing informative practical tips?

Remember, people do business with people they know, like and trust and consistent communication with your list is a fantastic way to build a solid relationship. It often takes several communications before a prospect is ready to make a purchasing decision so sending a regular newsletter that provides useful information is a great way to strengthen your relationships while continuing to showcase your knowledge and expertise.

Are you adopting all five steps in your business to support you in transforming your prospects into clients – especially Step 1 and 2 before you even begin developing your new programs/service offerings? If you’ve answered yes, congratulations! If not, which step will you start to work on within your business today?

About the Author:
Annemarie Cross is a Brand Communication Specialist helping ambitious business owners to get noticed, hired and paid what they’re worth! Want to learn simple yet powerful ways that you can build your brand, your credibility and your income? Visit http://www.AnnemarieCross.com to access our free audio mini-series ‘7 Easy Steps to Build Your Brand, Your Biz, and Your Income.’

Every effective sales training course teaches sales professionals to ask their prospects open-ended questions. These are the questions that start with who, what, why, when and how.

Open-ended questions are universally taught because they:
•    Solicit great information
•    Get the person talking
•    Allow you and your prospect to find out if there is an opportunity
•    Can show your expertise, IF you ask the right questions

All that sounds great, doesn’t it?  Most of the time, open-ended questions really ARE effective, but not 100% of the time. When used incorrectly, they can make a needs analysis seem more like an interrogation – they can be leading, forced, narrow, product-focused and irrelevant. Sales pros can come off like militants drilling a suspect to get to the information they want so they can pitch their product. And this is definitely not the way to make a sale.

There is a way to demonstrate professionalism by using the 3 ‘I’s with open-ended questions:
1.    Intent
2.    Intelligence
3.    Interest

Intent. We have seen sales pros launch right into a list of questions that might seem irrelevant to the prospect, and the prospect thinks, “What does this have to do with anything?” It’s essential to explain the intent of the line of questions so the prospect can put it in perspective and answer thoughtfully.

Sharing intent can sound like this:  “We’re meeting to talk about your human resource needs. What we have learned is that understanding how HR fits into the overall company’s goals and objectives helps us give you a more accurate picture of how we can help as valuable resource for you. The first questions we’ll cover are focused on the broader picture and then we’ll get more specific into your training needs.” Once the intent is shared, we go into the list of questions with better understanding from the prospect.

Intelligence. Your questions reveal a LOT about you. Here’s how to raise your ‘perceived’ intelligence level:
•    Explain the intent of your line of questioning and ask questions that broaden the dialogue to a bigger, more strategic discussion.
•    Focus on the solution or value desired versus just the product.
•    LISTEN once you have asked a question. When you ask intelligent questions, the person may need to think before responding, and this is usually a good thing.  How long? According to research, they might need 15-25 seconds to think and respond. That’s a long time to wait, but it can pay off.

Interest. Your questions should be interesting to the person. How? Make them relevant to the situation and person. When it’s about THEM, it’s interesting TO them. Every aspect of the sales process should be focused on what’s in it for THEM – and this includes your questions!

Open-ended questions can make your needs analysis productive if you use the 3 ‘I’s to guide your line of questioning. And with a little forethought and preparation, you will be seen as informative and not an interrogator.

About the Author:

Sharpenz is dedicated to providing sales managers the resources and tools they need to energize, engage and equip their sales team to sell each week. Our 30-minute power sales booster meetings help companies increase sales by providing the right tools and training – fast. Designed with the busy manager in mind, Sharpenz ready-to-go sales training kits will give your sales team the opportunity to grow and earn more – all in a half hour of power.  To learn more, visit www.sharpenz.com and sign up for your free ready-to-go sales training kit today!

Many sales professionals and sales leaders are so busy handling day to day challenges that they forget to formalize their sales career aspirations and goals. Make the time to do this today. Spending just 10 to 20 minutes on this 5-step sales coaching process could make all the difference in the world.

You might already have some ideas floating around in your mind, and now it is time to get them written down. Or maybe you have even completed something like this before in the past, but you have not looked at your notes or updated your sales career goals in years.

1. Think about what you’d like people to say about you at your retirement party. This general concept comes from Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Begin with the end in mind.” Imagine you are at the end of your sales career, looking back. What would you like to have accomplished in your career? How would you like to be remembered?

Start acting now, how you want to be remembered. Be now, how you want to be remembered, and don’t wait! You want to be a VP of Sales for a major Fortune 500 company, then start acting like one. What do you think a top VP of Sales was doing when she was in your shoes?

2. Brainstorm and write down some specific sales career goals you would like to accomplish before you retire. This exercise should flow much easier after completing step #1. There are many areas you could focus on, but here are some general topics to get you started: responsibility held, freedom created, impact on others, income made, started own business, moved into sales leadership or management, #1 performer, helped others to be a #1 performer.

3. Pick 3 sales goals. Take a look at your list and choose up to 3 goals that really stand out to you. Pay attention to the energy around each goal and find which ones really get you excited. Don’t get rid of the other goals, but just pick 3 to focus on, for now.

4. Break it down and make these 3 sales career goals very specific. What do you have to accomplish in the next month, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, and so on, to reach these goals? Plan it out step by step so you know exactly what needs to get done to accomplish your goals.

5. Action! Start with what you need to accomplish this next month and create specific action items or a to-do list for each week of the month. Ask yourself what can I do to accelerate these goals, and if I only get one very important thing accomplished each day this week, what would that be?

Follow this simple 5-step process and you will be taking positive steps towards your sales career goals and dreams.

About the Author:

Jeremy J. Ulmer is one of the most dynamic and requested sales coaching experts in the country. His company specializes in working with executive sales leadership, organizations, and individual sales performers to transform their sales results. They deliver customized sales coaching programs and sales management coaching seminars. Sign up for free sales tips and free sales coaching webinars at: http://www.SalesCoachingHabits.com/