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!
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sales tips & articles
Tips to Kickstart your Sales in 2012
How to run a meeting with a prospect
The purpose of the first meeting or discussion is to build rapport with your potential client and uncover as much relevant information about the business and their needs. It is also a chance for you to provide a brief introduction to your business and its benefits. Your goal is to determine if there is a need for or interest in your products and services and to get progress the sale to the next stage.
It is a well known fact that ‘people buy people’; we always deal with people we know, like and trust. For this reason it is always recommended that (where possible) you meet with prospects and customer in person to discuss their requirements. Additionally, when you meet prospects face to face it will not only help speed up the sale process but will help you to get more people saying yes.
The objective of the meeting is to determine ‘is there a need or interest for your product or service and would they be interested in receiving pricing?’
The way to determine this is through questioning, however, having purpose and a basic outline to your meetings will help you to stay on track, improve your confidence and keep to the objective.
When you meet with or talk to your prospects for the first time, it is important to include:
• The purpose of the meeting and what you would both like to achieve
• An introduction and background on your business and it’s benefits
• Questions that will help the prospect or customer realise a ‘need’ or desire to improve
• A call to action that progresses the sale to the next stage i.e. preparing a quote or proposal
• The next step
When you know this information you are ‘qualifying’ the prospect to ensure there is a need and interest in progressing the sale, however, it will also identify (very early in the sales process) if there is no need or interest, which is OK too. It is always better to know this after the first meeting so you don’t waste valuable time and effort chasing prospects that have little to no interest in using your products and services.
Note
It is important to include an introduction and background on your business that explains the benefits and value you can add and that gives prospects the confidence to do business with you. Your prospects may not directly ask you but they want to know how long you have been in business (or in the industry) and whether you are still going to be there in 6 months time. When you cover this information in your first interactions it will reduce objections and delays later on in the sales process.
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 virtual sales management.
If you liked this article, subscribe to our monthly Sales Success ezine.
You will learn...
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here
Sales Tips and Tricks
If you are just starting out in business or in sales here are some quick tips and tricks you can use to get you in sales mindset, develop a sales language and start selling !
- Be yourself
- Have you ever bought anything of anyone you didn’t like?
- People buy people, not companies so relax and just be yourself
- Having a good Introduction/Elevator Story ready
- This will help to give you confidence whenever you go into networking or face to face business meetings. Your introduction should only be around one minute and include who you are, what you do, your experience (if relevant) and what is the benefit of doing business you.
- Ask questions, ask questions, ask questions
- It’s the only way you will know what your clients really want. When you know what they want you will know how you can help them.
- Think about the benefits of your business and its products and services. What makes then unique or superior to your competitors?
- Why do I need to buy your products or services? How will they make a difference to me?
- Talk more about the benefits or the ‘why’ elements rather than the features so your clients understand why they would want them.
- Know where to find new clients
- Get out there and find your potential clients, don’t wait for them to come to you. Networking is a good place to find clients and there are hundreds of groups around. Try BNI, Chamber of Commerce, and Women’s Network Australia, Australian Institute of Management or type ‘business networking’ into Google.
- Sales takes time
- Increasing your confidence in sales and the ability to win new clients takes time, it isn’t easy for everyone, so give yourself some time. Allocate some time each week to focus on building new sales.
- Follow Up
- One of the hardest elements of building a business is finding a constant stream of new clients. You have already done the hard work through networking, advertising or marketing so don’t waste it. Make that follow up call now! The biggest complaint that people have in relation to sales is that no one ever followed them up.
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Tips on how to present a Proposal or Quote
Many people in business and in sales find discussing price very confronting and very uncomfortable, yet it' one of the most important aspects of the sales process and can be a significant indicator as to whether you will be successful in winning the business. Whether you prepare a written proposal or a simple one page quotation, whatever you do, don't try and avoid discussing the number that is on the page or skip over it onto something else. It's is one of the most significant factors that influences the buying decision and you want to make sure that your prospective client understands what tangible and intangible benefits they are getting for their money.
I have compiled a list of tips that will help you win more sales and to win them quicker but also to help reduce any anxiety or discomfort when talking about price.
- Avoid nasty, uncomfortable surprises when the price is discussed or when you ask for the business. Before you start discussing the proposal, ask if anything has changed since your last meeting.
- Insert a “Current Situation” or “Executive Summary” to the beginning of your proposal. A short summary of the first meeting to demonstrate your understanding of the business and what they would like to achieve
- Where possible, present your pricing in person rather than sending via email. It may seem like a waste of time but it gives you the ability to read an immediate reaction to your proposal and your price. It also saves you the time and hassle of having to phone them later and ask if they would like to proceed.
- Take a copy for each person in the meeting, however, have ONE copy that is not stapled or bound.
- Present one page at a time to the person or the group, taking the time to reinforce the key points in each section. This allows you to talk about the value you can offer and the benefits of dealing with your business, before it gets to price.
- Close the sale. Don’t let the opportunity go by because you feel pushy or are worried they might say no. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Besides, they might have been meaning to call you but have been caught up.
- If you are uncomfortable asking for the sale, use an Assumptive Closing technique. For example: “to get started all we need to do is” or “if you could send over the files, I can go through them” or “I’m free on Wednesday, if that works for you”.
- Read a book on Body language. Having the ability to read a person’s reaction through their body language is very useful when presenting pricing and negotiating. You can immediately see a positive or a negative reaction to the price.
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How to engage prospects and customers online
In today’s economy, marketing budgets are being stretched, messages are getting lost and we are getting bombarded with advertising and marketing messages, so how can you really stand out and attract new business on your website?
In reality there are so many things that can be done with a website but I have decided to just focus on one, which came about from a business associate was telling me about the success he's had with some of his clients in relation to video... in short "Video Works Bettter"
Information supplied by Ajit Singh from Rocket Productions
Did you know that online video ads get around 500% more clicks than photo ads online? Or that around 78% of Australian internet users download and stream video and audio online (CGM)? Showing the benefits of your product or service on your website is typically done by photos and text and considerable investment is put into these mediums, however, video actually attracts more people and emotionally engages decision makers, often better than photos and text. We know that the greater a prospect’s desire is, for your specific product or service, the more likely they are to buy from you instead of someone else.
Standing out is critical in today’s market. Communicating with imagination and making your audience sit up and take notice of you, delivers the ‘wow factor’ better than traditional mediums. Professionally produced video content delivers better outcomes than the homemade handycam option, so it is always far better to get an experienced professional to make sure your content looks fantastic and does the job well.
Click here to find out more.’
Achieve your Sales Targets with your Sales Pipeline
Being aware of and managing the amount in your sales pipeline each week, fortnight or month can have the single biggest impact to achieving your sales consistently from month to month and quarter to quarter.
It is an important forecasting tool that all businesses should use even if they don’t have salespeople, as it clearly shows how many sales to expect and when to expect them.
If your not sure what a Sales Pipeline or Funnel is; it is simply a list of all the prospective customers that have indicated some interest in buying your product or service. They will all be at different stages of the sale depending on their interest level and buying cycle and some will drop eventually drop out.
Information such as total sale value, probability of sale and expected close date should also be included to complete the picture.
The term “funnel” is used because you need to continually fill the top with new opportunities to ensure you have an even and consistent flow of closed sales coming out the bottom. The stages can differ from business to business (i.e. can be simpler with fewer stages), depending on how you sell to customers and what the buying cycle is.
It is important to make sure the funnel is always being topped up with new opportunities, that prospects are moving through the stages and sales are being closed. When you need to close some sales quick, it is easy to identify who is the closest to making a decision (thus easiest to close) by looking through prospects in the negotiation or solution evaluation stage.
The sales funnel is a great tool to help you determine if you have enough prospects and to reduce the impact of lost or delayed sales on meeting targets. It’s all in the numbers and that’s why sales is called a ‘numbers game’. To work out how much you need, follow my example:
- Start with your monthly sales target, lets say it is $25,000.
- Work out what the average sales value is, even if it is a rough estimate.
- Determine your sales conversion i.e. of all the first meetings you had or enquiries received how many of those where you successful in ‘converting’ from prospect to customer. e.g. If you received 20 enquiries and made 5 sales, you have a 1 in 4 sales conversion rate.
- So you will need ‘4 times’ the amount of your monthly target in your funnel at any time. If we go back to the example, you will need $100,000 worth of quotes or opportunities.
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
Are you asking questions that make your customers & prospects THINK?
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:
- Does the prospect start to give you a summary of the information you need before you have the chance to ask any questions?
- When you do ask a question, does the prospect answer it relatively quickly or do they take a moment to think about their answer?
- How often do you hear your prospects say “that‘s a great question, I hadn’t thought about that?”
Here are some to get you started:
- How will these issues impact the organisation in the future?
- How do they impact you?
- What do you look for in a potential supplier (or partner)?
- What do you like about your current supplier?
- What do you like about them?
- Is there anything that you don’t like?
- What would make you change suppliers?
- How would you like to see it working (perfect world)?
- 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.
Build your Sales Pipeline and Boost Your Prospect Numbers
Do you get frustrated constantly searching for prospects and contact information? The traditional methods of building a list of people that you can market and sell to such as purchasing databases, driving around business parks and noting the tenants of buildings that you walk past are great, and they do work, however, they are costly and time consuming. If your looking for something quick and effective that you can do from the safety of your desk, try these:
1. LinkedIn
If you do an advanced search on LinkedIn you can search for contacts in a particular industry, location, position or a mix of all three (e.g. All Sales Managers in Sydney). It will give you their name and tell you if anyone in your network is connected with them, so you can ask your contact for an introduction.
2. Google Earth & Google Maps
Google Earth and Google Maps are great tools to find concentrated areas of business and to avoid having to drive around or randomly call through the yellow pages. If, for example, you have a client in Building A and you would like to find out who else is in that building that you can sell to (always smart to sell to their neighbours, it’s known as sandwich selling) or that location, a quick search on Google Earth or Google Maps will give you a list of the businesses in the building, the street and the suburb. Google Earth will also let you pan around the area and see other buildings and other streets.
3. Industry Association Websites
I have used these for years and it has been a great way for me to target an industry sector and get new appointments. Quite a lot of the Association websites will list their members by location or profession. A quick search will give you a list of their name, address and phone number.
4. Franchise Directories
Selling to franchises can be a very successful and very lucrative way to increase sales and help you to consistently meet your sales targets. This is where volume sales come in and when you have a critical mass of franchisees as customers, they tend to do the selling for you and promote your business through word of mouth and referrals.
5. Your Website
This one is mentioned a lot these days but I’m still amazed as to how many people don’t utilize their website to generate new enquiries or build their contact lists. Offering free tips, e-books or access to free resources and tips is a great way to build a marketing and prospect database. I send out information every 2-3 weeks on sales techniques, sales tips and free resources just like this blog article! It has been a great way of accessing people I would never normally come across as well as building my profile.
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.
Free sales tips and advice from Karen!
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2009 The Year of Reinvention
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.
- 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.
- 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?
- Take this opportunity to make changes so you can readily adapt and respond to changing market conditions.
- 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.
- 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.
- Communicate with your team. Hold regular staff or sales meetings to discuss changes in the marketplace and brainstorm ways to overcome them.
- 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.
- Be seen and heard. Increase sales and marketing activities so the market can find you and get out and network, network and network.
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
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