sales tips & articles

Did you come back from the New Year break invigorated and inspired to make 2012 your best year yet?

I love the saying "if nothing changes, then nothing changes" so in order to achieve bigger success this year, changes need to be made, and remember, it's not just the business which might need tweaking, ask yourself what you will do differently to achieve your goals this year.

Use these 5 quick tips and get motivated, get active and start taking the steps toward building your success this year.

Set Yearly, Quarterly and Monthly Goals.

What do you want to achieve each and every month? It can be related to sales figures, client numbers, performance, units sold or even the number of networking events & client meetings you would like to have. Ask your salespeople to write a one page plan and list their goals, what they plan to do differently and how they plan on achieving monthly and quarterly targets.

Regularly review progress

If you aren't already, hold weekly sales meetings to review the activity and performance of your team and ensure they are on track with their plans and sales achievements. 

Have you got a 'consistent' process in place to know where you are each month, identify red flags and ensure your salespeople are accurately estimating their potential? Receiving weekly forecasts and a pipeline from each person in the team provides much needed visibility into the future and allows you to provide feedback and take corrective action, if required.

Review your sales process

How easy is it for customers to buy from you? How long does the process take from first meeting to signed order to implementation and how many people get involved? How many leads or customer orders fell out half way through?

The sales process begins when you start discussing a potential opportunity with a new or existing customer. Review each step to streamline the processes and remove unnecessary steps or delays that may have caused the sale to stall or be lost. 

Knowing you are different just isn't enough. You might have the best product or the best servcie in the world but if no one knows about it, it's worthless. Additionally, staff who deal with customers tend to become bogged down in a world of negativitiy,  never ending issues and complaints and will lose sight of all the benefits and positives that the business has to over 

Analyse customer base and improve customer loyalty

The simplest and cheapest way of increasing sales is to look through your client base. Analyse your customer database to discover  what percentage of sales each customer contributed to the overall revenue. Classify your customers into A, B and C level depending on the spend, percentage or value to the business.

With particular focus on your A and B class customers, how loyal do you think they are? When things start to get tough and your competitors are knocking on their door offering savings, will they pay more to stay with you?

How will you demonstrate or communicate the value you bring, over and above what they are paying for?

Dig deeper and analyse what products or services each of your A and B  customers haven't bought and what else they could get some value or benefit from. 

Arrange to visit your customers and discuss their plans for 2012 and what they hope to achieve. Is there any products or services that you have that will assist them or make it easier to achieve? Use the visit to update them on your plans for 2012, how you plan to 'love them' this year, new products or services being introduced or talk about a product or service that they aren't buying that you feel they might get benefit from.

Lastly, let them know that your plans are to grow in 2012 and you would welcome any referrals or introductions.

Be different and yell it from the rooftops

Knowing you are different just isn't enough. You might have the best product or the best servcie in the world but if no one knows about it, it's worthless. Additionally, staff who deal with customers tend to become bogged down in a world of negativitiy,  never ending issues and complaints and will lose sight of all the benefits and positives that the business has to over.

Hold a staff or sales meeting and review the successes and positives from last year. Have a discussion on the differences between your business and the competition, as a group analyse your strengths and weakness vs their strengths and weaknesses. How can you use your strengths to highlight their weaknesses and how will you combat their strenghth over your weakness?

Keep focussed on the positives and discuss what is possible and what can be achieved when everyone stays positive and focused. This will help staff to forget the negatives of last year and see the potential opportunities of the future.

Assist staff who aren't comfortable talking about themselves by discussing ways these benefits and differences can be introduced into the conversation or how they can be used to overcome objections and negotiate. 

Understand and identify what new business you want

In the end, it all comes down to prospecting. When we know what we want, we know how to find it and prospecting is no different.

Don't leave it up to the salespeople to decide what customers your business should have in 2012. Share the new business strategy to the team and discuss what the business plans to do to support them and make the job of prospecting easier and more successful.

And remember................ if nothing changes, then nothing changes. Here's to great selling in 2012.

This sales article was written by Karen Andrews, Director of Shine Sales Solutions, a Sydney based Sales Coach and Sales expert that works with businesses to increase their sales through strategy development, sales coaching and mentoring.

If you liked this article, subscribe to our monthly Sales Success ezine. You will learn...

* Easy ways to increase your sales and grow your business
* Simple strategies to sell yourself, even if your not in sales
* How to generate sales easier and quicker!

Enter your details at the top of the page or click here

Questioning or probing as it is also known, is most of the most important skills you can learn when dealing with customers and one of the most powerful. The ability to ask questions that uncover important information about a customer’s needs, current supply and willingness to change is a strong characteristic of a ‘consultative’ sales approach.

Most importantly, when you ask great questions it can help you to win new business much quicker and with fewer objections. When we help prospects to think about the needs of their business and to really think about current or potential problems or challenges they may face, they start to see us differently and understand the value we can add to them or their business.

There are 2 common types of questions you can ask: ‘open’ questions and ‘closed’ questions:

1. Open questions usually result in longer answers and are aimed at getting your prospects to think about the answer.

For example: “What plans does the organisation have to achieve...”

2. Closed questions can be answered with a yes, no or one word and are used to qualify the response to an open question.

For example: Do you have any plans at the moment?

The challenge in questioning is to ask more open than closed questions as it is easy to fall into ‘interrogation mode’ by asking lots of closed questions rather than a few strategic open questions.

Over the years I have met many people who are looking for help to close sales quicker and/or easier and the first thing I ask them is “what happened in the first appointment”, “what needs of the prospect are you meeting” and “why would this prospect want to buy your product or services?”

When we discuss their questions they are usually very surprised to find out that they are asking the same stock-standard questions that most people ask and they typically aren’t that interesting either. Imagine how repetitive and un-interesting it is for your prospects to be asked the same questions over and over again?

Ask yourself, “are you asking questions that all your competitors are asking or are you making your prospects think?”

Here is a quick test you can take to see if you are asking the same questions as your competitors or whether you are making them think. In your next appointment:

1. Does the prospect start to give you a summary of the information you need before you have the chance to ask any questions?
2. When you do ask a question, does the prospect answer it relatively quickly or do they take a moment to think about their answer?
3. How often do you hear your prospects say “that‘s a great question, I hadn’t thought about that?”

As I said, asking great questions isn’t easy but once you start you will really notice the difference in your appointments. Spend 5-10 minutes before your next appointment thinking about the questions you will ask and write them down so you don’t forget them in the meeting!

Here are some to get you started:

1. How will these issues impact the organisation in the future?
2. How do they impact you?
3. What do you look for in a potential supplier (or partner)?
4. What do you like about your current supplier?
5. What do you like about them?
6. Is there anything that you don’t like?
7. What would make you change suppliers?
8. How would you like to see it working (perfect world)?
9. What is your decision making process?

If you liked this article, subscribe to our monthly Sales Success ezine. You will learn...

* Easy ways to increase your sales and grow your business
* Simple strategies to sell yourself, even if your not in sales
* How to generate sales easier and quicker!

Enter your details at the top of the page or click here


This sales article was written by Karen Andrews, Director of Shine Sales Solutions, a Sydney based Sales Coach and Sales expert that works with businesses to increase their sales through strategy development, sales coaching and mentoring.

Receive free sales tips and sales advice when you join subscribe to our monthly Sales Success ezine. You will learn...

• Easy ways to increase your sales and grow your business
• Simple strategies to sell yourself, even if your not in sales
• How to generate sales easier and quicker!

Details to your right !!!

*We promise to never sell, rent, trade, or share your e-mail with any other organization.

Is it just me or is 2009 going to be the biggest and best year yet?

Despite what is being reporting in the media and what we are seeing overseas, many of the people that I’ve spoken to recently are extremely motivated and confident that 2009 is going to be their best year yet (including me).

So if 2009 is going to be your best year yet, now is the perfect time to sit down and work out what you want to achieve and what you need to do to make this happen.

I believe that the businesses that adapt and change and invest in the development of their people will continue to succeed in 2009. There will be ‘pockets’ of opportunity in the marketplace that you may not have dealt with or thought about before so, get some outside help and develop a strategy to know where these are and how to find them.

Additionally, in some sectors there will be reduced demand, less opportunity to sell and increased competition so it is extremely important to ensure that you and your team have a consistent prospecting and lead generation strategy in place.

Salespeople also need to adapt and change. If you are working in sales and have targets to meet, have you thought about how you are going to achieve them? Do you have the right attitude, the right skills and the right approach to be successful? Business plans aren’t just for business owners, they are extremely useful tools for salespeople as well; they are a roadmap to success. It can be as simple as a one page plan that outlines your goals, your daily or weekly plan for prospecting and business development.

So don’t just sit back and see what the year will bring use the tips below, take action and be in control.

1. Be a leader. Don’t get caught up in the negativity or gloom and doom, instead, be inspirational and motivate your team to success. Remember 2009 is going to be your best year yet.
2. Take time out and get some ‘headspace’ to work on your sales strategy. Will you need to change your target market, the type of clients you work with, marketing activities or the way you sell to win new business?
3. Take this opportunity to make changes so you can readily adapt and respond to changing market conditions.
4. Identify skills gaps or weaknesses in you and your team and provide the necessary training, coaching or mentoring. People are the key to success and with fewer opportunities to make sales and increased competition, ensure your team is equipped with the right attitude, the right knowledge and the right skills.
5. Look after your customers because if your not, your competitors soon will be. Pick up the phone or arrange meetings with your clients to discuss their plans for this year and what they will be doing to ensure success.
6. Communicate with your team. Hold regular staff or sales meetings to discuss changes in the marketplace and brainstorm ways to overcome them.
7. Increase accountability. Review staff performance both weekly and monthly to ensure everyone is focused, on the right track and most importantly is building the sales funnel.
8. Be seen and heard. Increase sales and marketing activities so the market can find you and get out and network, network and network.

This sales article was written by Karen Andrews, Director of Shine Sales Solutions, a Sydney based Sales Coach and Sales expert that works with businesses to increase their sales through strategy development, sales coaching and mentoring.

If you liked this article, subscribe to our monthly Sales Success ezine. You will learn...

* Easy ways to increase your sales and grow your business
* Simple strategies to sell yourself, even if your not in sales
* How to generate sales easier and quicker!

Enter your details at the top of the page or click here

It’s difficult to ignore the news of the financial crisis that is occurring around the world and the fear and uncertainty that it is creating. Here in Australia many companies have been tightening their budgets and reducing their spending over recent months and it looks like it’s going to continue. So what does this mean for those of us running businesses or working in sales?

To me it means choices. You can:

1. do exactly what you have been doing in the past and hope that it works
2. admit defeat and tell yourself there is nothing you can do, or
3. sharpen your sales skills and see it as an opportunity not a threat

Opportunities, at a time like this? Yes because situations and events create opportunities.

It’s times like this that many businesses are open to discussing other options and some may even need to evaluate current supplier relationships. It’s a great time to get back in touch with old prospects, find new prospects and to spend time with customers to ensure they are indeed satisfied and happy with your product and service.

No matter how bad the economy may or may not be, people and businesses still have problems that need to be solved and they will still need help to solve them. Sales may slow but they aren’t going to stop.

Here are some ideas on how you can increase your sales and maintain your client base:

1. Maintain or increase your marketing, it’s important to remain visible.
2. Re-focus your sales team and talk about the opportunities.
3. Re-contact prospects that have been called over the past 12 months.
4. Pick up the phone and talk to your customers.
5. Work on your selling skills, particularly your questioning. Make sure your asking the right questions e.g. “Why do you think that?”, “What impact will that have”.
6. Dig deeper and uncover the real need or buying reason. “We need to improve productivity by 5%” is not the real need. Asking “why” will start to uncover the real reason.
7. Improve your listening skills and be an active listener. If you receive a response that is vague or you’re not sure what it means, ask questions.
8. Focus even more on the needs of your customers and your prospects.
9. Stay positive, it will rub off on everyone around you.

Remember, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going and the rest will just complain”.

Which one will you choose?


This sales article was written by Karen Andrews, Director of Shine Sales Solutions, a Sydney based Sales Coach and Sales expert that works with businesses to increase their sales through strategy development, sales coaching and mentoring.

If you liked this article, subscribe to our monthly Sales Success ezine. You will learn...

* Easy ways to increase your sales and grow your business
* Simple strategies to sell yourself, even if your not in sales
* How to generate sales easier and quicker!

Enter your details at the top of the page or click here

Want to increase your sales and grow your business but worried you will come across as a pushy sales person? Not sure what to do or where to start to ensure your business is a success this year? The key to success, particularly in sales, is planning ahead and always be willing to try something new.

1. Review the previous year

Did you make enough money? Did you reach your goals? Compare your sales month to month. When were the good times and when were the quiet times?

2. Learn from your successes and your failures

And reinforce the actions and tools that generated results and those that didn’t. Maximize the good times and minimize the quiet times

3. Know who and what your best source of business is

Was it client referrals or word of mouth and if so, who were your best referrers? What networking events generated the greatest amount of business or provided the best opportunity to meet your target market? How many enquiries were generated from your website?

4. Develop a sales target

Takes into account your personal and professional goals and ask “how will this be achieved?”

5. Improve your sales and business skills

Not just your Industry and product knowledge. If you would like your business to change and grow, how will you and your staff need to grow and change?

6. Know your target market

Create a profile of your ideal client including what they care about, what challenges they face or what they would like to improve. If you know what you are looking for it’s easier to find them.

7. Ask for referrals

Tell your clients and your business network what type of clients you would like to work with and ask them if they know anyone that fits that description. Reward those clients that send you successful referrals.

8. Up sell your existing clients

How many of your clients know about all of your products and services?

9. Increase your networking activity

Expand your contact sphere and go out and meet more people. Networking can be the best form of advertising for your business because you are the promoting it.

10. Follow up, follow up, follow up

The last and most important point. So many sales are lost simply because no one bothered to follow up. It’s not about being pushy and arrogant to get the business; it’s about helping that client make a decision that will benefit them in the long term.

This sales article was written by Karen Andrews, Director of Shine Sales Solutions, a Sydney based Sales Coach and Sales expert that works with businesses to increase their sales through strategy development, sales coaching and mentoring.

If you liked this article, subscribe to our monthly Sales Success ezine. You will learn...

* Easy ways to increase your sales and grow your business
* Simple strategies to sell yourself, even if your not in sales
* How to generate sales easier and quicker!

Enter your details at the top of the page or click here