It is almost fall. Most students have begun the journey back to the classroom. As they begin their annual quest they will have numerous texts to read and exercises to apply classroom learning. It is always interesting to see the euphoria of students learning new ideas and concepts. One of the most intriguing things is watching passionate students desiring the constant search for new data. No matter what there is a constant desire to close the loop and get answers to sophisticated questions.
This time of year requires from those in professional development. This is especially true for those that require sales help. Selling professionals must always be in constant contact with data. Throughout the day numerous questions arise, requiring conclusive answers.
This then begs the question as to whether or not you’re a student of the game. Professionals today unfortunately claim that they are too busy to attend seminars, read books or engage in other educational activities. However, each day is a learning experience and will we must use it wisely considering that we are in a knowledge-based economy. Wasting time and talent because of busyness is simply an excuse for procrastination. In today’s competitive global accounting professionals of all types are required to be daily students. Each day we learn, each day we develop, each day we must become a student of the game.
There is an intense amount of competition in today’s economy. There is more noise than ever due to the proliferation of social networking. There are also more competitors. With many individuals giving up corporate America for entrepreneurship there are more hurdles to battle. The chronic problem for selling professionals is to differentiate from competitive forces.
Differentiation is the key to business development success. It helps build brand and create cache. Consumers make decisions for brand sake. With sellers consumers make decisions based upon perceived value. Such value recognition is based upon nuances such as; sales language, professional ethics, professional dress and most importantly client recognition. These items help distinguish the indispensible sales and marketing professional from the customary. Here are some tips to make you indispensable.
Be the professional. Review your dress code and dress the part. We’re good clothing and have professional equipment that emulates your corporate stature.
Be the service provider. Customer service is paramount for every selling professional. Return calls when you say you will. Always be the professional and always remember business exists because of the customer.
Gratuity. Always be thankful for clients that have done business with you. Send thank you notes and other types of greetings to ensure you are always top of mind.
Referrals. The only way to ensure your indispensability is by others understanding the value provided. Your brand is manifested by the referrals gleaned from your value.
Culture. It is wonderful if you take all the ideas from this post and utilize them continuously. However, the organizations culture must be congruent.
Relationship. The entire reason for doing business is to invest in relationships. Forget the facts and only worry about creating valuable relationships.
Drew Stevens is one of the world’s leading authorities on <a href=”http://www.stevensconsultinggroup.com/”>Sales Consulting</a>, Business Development & <a href=”http://www.stevensconsultinggroup.com/”>Marketing Solutions</a>. Drew is the author of the successful sales process books – Split Second Selling. He is also the creator of the Sales Leadership Certificate one of only 14 programs in the United States offering an accredited degree in the profession of selling and has a top ranked podcast called Sales Acceleration. To discover how Dr. Drew can assist your organization visit his marketing and <a href=”http://www.stevensconsultinggroup.com/”>sales consulting</a> website – stevensconsultinggroup.com.
It is almost fall 2010. You can almost feel the excitement in the air for football, festivals and the myriad of other activities. One of the most prolific is the end of the year fundraising push. While the church most recently instructions were given for the up coming fall Festival. In the mail I received at least seven pieces of marketing literature from others seeking funds.
We will all be inundated by a plethora of sellers in the next several weeks. They will represent profit and nonprofit institutions such as schools churches and clubs. All will be selling products to their neighborhood kin. While the effort is admirable many will fail miserably. One reason is the current economic conditions. The other is related to a slew of issues that sellers encounter daily.
The largest issue is a lack of customer focus. Many organizations focus efforts inwardly. Organizations are concerned more about how much money will be collected versus the wants and needs of clients. No matter whom your customers, all efforts at all times must be outwardly focused. Organizations exist for one reason- the customer
However raising funds is an admirable gesture as long as it is done properly. Yet many fail. They fail due to lack of planning and they fail because they emulate those sellers that fail too! Many believe they can simply converse with individuals and “sell” Them on products and services. Untrue! Selling is a profession that requires patience, persistence and passion. In addition, it requires the right funds, the right “fit” and the proper formula.
Moreover, many individuals and organizations fail at selling for a myriad of other reasons. Enclosed is a succinct list of selling obstacles to be aware of:
Value. Consumers today require a value from the vendors but they conduct business with. Is a seller’s responsibility to ensure that consumers understand the value provided.
Emotion. Consumers do not make logical decisions; they make emotional decisions. Sellers need to refrain from using the features and facts while focusing more consciously on sales language that creates emotion.
Persuasion. Consumers are persuaded from the influences of other consumers. Sellers must be conscious of creating buzz. Customers to customer influences are too important today.
Belief. Consumers invest in particular organizations because of their belief in sellers. All sellers must have passion and conviction in their sales delivery.
Investment. Consumers do not leave bad organizations they leave poor selling professionals.
Consultative. Consumers invest in those that can aid them. Sellers must have an understanding of the prospective buyers company, industry and competition.
Lsten. Too many sellers talk too much. In order for consumers to invest more questions have to be asked. The best selling professionals questioned first and allow the consumer to sell themselves.
Conviction. Successful selling professionals will believe in what they are selling. No matter what the seller must be convinced first.
Dialogue. Good sellers know how to engage in great conversation. They would rather develop a relationship first and sell widgets second.
Gratitude. Good sellers are always gratuitous to consumers. They remain in constant contact and send words of thanks and praise when necessary. They appreciate every interaction.
I recently received a telephone call from a woman named Grace. She was extremely upset because she wanted to end her subscription for my autoresponder. I am thankful this woman was not in customer service because of how brash she was. Sometimes it is not what is said but how. Attitude is everything in business.
Attitude can hurt or hinder. There are many businesses that you frequent because of the hired help. And there are others we avoid like the plague.
It is imperative then that attitude and a culture of customer service are paramount.
We are all busy and we all get stressed from time to time. Clearly one additional e-mail is not enough to send anybody into a tizzy. Yet, the recent issues of the flight attendant and other customer service folly illustrate the need for some best practices.
Check you baggage. We all carry issues with us every day. Some of this stuff is enough to fill a freight train. Leave it home. The entire focus should be on value in deliverables to the client not a psychology session in ending your stress.
Cut the crap. Apathy is never a good thing to bring into the workplace. Have passion for the job that you do or simply quit. The purpose of every business is serving a customer.
Compartmentalize. Sometimes being in business is as harried as riding a roller coaster. There are multiple volatilities during the day. Learn to marginalize the highs and the lows.
Feedback. One of the problems with American business is the constant need to speak. It is a cultural phenomenon. A good best practice is to listen more and not offer feedback.
Small stuff. Not to sound trite but do not sweat it. If you are stressed then take time out for you. Go for a walk or listen to some good music but do not remain in a workplace that will create more stress for you.
Reward yourself. We are all little too hard on ourselves. Take the time to reward yourself for the positive things in life. Go shopping and buy yourself something that you want.
Education. Stress sometimes is attributed to a lack of information. Business professionals must take the time to invest in their own self development. Listen to audio books, read voraciously were enrolled in the class. Only you are the captain of your own destiny.
When the little things start to add up and you feel more stressed than ever it is time to remove yourself from those situations. Clearly getting stressed over one simple e-mail is amazing. Ignore it and move on or have the grace to end it professionally. Do not get lost or blinded by the ignorance of stress. Otherwise you will be seeking reconciliation.
A multitude of recent postings on the Internet discuss the value of cold calling in today’s economy. Apparently many pundits believe this traditional sales method to be effective. The reality is people are busy, decision makers have shifted and more importantly intended recipients do not want to be bothered.
Cold Calling is now as outdated as a physicians’ home visit. Cold Calling is intrusive; places prospects on the defense and typically produces very little if any results. Surveys illustrate that cold calling produces less than a five percent return.
The purpose behind business and selling is to develop relationships. This is an outward process and focuses all energies on the client. The initiation of relationships illustrates value and emotes loyalty.
The contradiction of cold calling is that it is an inward activity. Focus is on the company and widgets sold rather than acquisition, value and concern for the prospect.
To aid lead generation in today’s competitive tempest requires a bevy of integrated activities. Business professional can speak, write articles, comment to blog entries, attend networking events and trade shows, produce sweepstakes, disseminate press releases etc. Each activity helps increase name recognition to produce buzz. When you increase the amount of activities there is a correlation to accelerating the business.
Accelerating business in a competitive world is similar to the weekend golfer. Many swing clubs for hours hoping to hit the longest shot but the returns are minimal. However 90% of the activity in golf is the short game. Making 50 – 60 calls per day is tedious. It produces very little results. It is bold, it is old and continuing traditional methods in a contemporary world will leave you out in the cold!
Many entrepreneurs subsist in small offices pondering how to obtain the next client. The problem emanates from a lack of planning. Given that 98% of most business fails in the first five years and the odds decrease marginally in the proceeding years, planning is the best means to ensure financial feasibility.
There are a multitude of reasons to develop a plan; here is the top five:
1. Developing a plan takes the information from your head and produces a structured format to ensure your business has feasibility. A business plan enables a proprietor to streamline operations and delete tangential items.
2. If you want to obtain venture capital you must have a formal plan. No lender will provide any money without one.
3. Planning enables entrepreneurs to gain focus. Too many get mired in reviewing capital and income yet the most imperative part of planning and often forgotten – customers. Entrepreneurs must develop an acquisition and retention plan.
4. To a certain degree a formal business plan assists in producing goals and standards. The business plan helps to produce entrepreneur accountability.
5. Business planning helps to develop buzz. Review any business plan and a significant portion of the plan resides with marketing. Planning forces entrepreneurs to choose a target market, integrated marketing communications to create value and tactical activities to grow brand. Producing this vital plan helps with budgets and prioritization.
Two vital components for business growth are passion and conviction. Yet the best business will fail without proper planning and development. Take the time to visit a consultant, business college or community incubator to help develop your plan. The investment of time and money might just be the tools needed to give your business foundation and the kick start needed to thrive.
The new edition of Sales Acceleration is ready for you to listen to so that you can accelerate your income!
Sales Attitude
Attitude is a large portion of the selling game. Having a good attitude is healthy but your negativity just might weight down your revenues. Learn the secrets of an “Attitude Package” to create healthy relationships, more value and long term clients.
It is a known fact that companies are not doing well and require more attention to the item that keeps them in business – selling. The concern here is that while the recession continues to drudge its way through the economy many organizations (large and small) have drastically decreased budgets for training.
Training is not the pivotal answer to creating revenues but it is a start. In a recent report from CSO Insights, 53% of those companies that conduct sales training close more business and build more value than those that do not. Simply put, investments in the sales department offer return.
However, training is vacuous if not part of a process. To compete in today’s global economy requires multiple components such as business intelligence, customer service, coaching, mentoring and facilitation. Athletes spend immense amounts of time honing their craft and organizations require similar with frontline staff. The competition is simply too intense.
With over 6 billion individuals to market to and hundreds of thousands of firms, organizations need to not only be at the top of their game but top of mind. Investing time and money in those that create relationships and illustrate the firm’s value helps to commit the strategic intent of the firms long term success.
In a competitive business environment the one advantage that a business will have is business intelligence. With our knowledge-based economy, knowledge is power. Business Intelligence empowers business users to make more informed decisions by providing timely, relevant, and accurate information wherever, however and whenever they need it.
Business intelligence is highly important for organizations that desire to be more strategic amongst industry and individual competitors. The use of information allows organizations that are malleable to make the immediate changes necessary to be innovative and competitive. In addition erratic changes in the marketplace enable organizations to meet the needs of increase customer demand such as labor, production or delivery.
With computers and mechanization now entering a sixth generation, the increase in large databases and mobile devices positively affects how organizations can react to market needs. Real time information immediately enables organizations to run analytical reports and scenarios to gain competitive advantages. So where then are these places to obtain some of this pertinent data?
Company information – There is gold in them hills. Discover the gems that already exist in your corporate databases. It is ironic when those that need information forget to look at the light in front of them.
Annual Report. There is a major concern that with the amount of work and effort involved, many do not read these treasure troves of data. The content from executives and directors is invaluable.
Mystery Shopping and Consumer Feedback. Customers are the lynchpin to competitive data. Meet with them often to discern your organizations strengths and limitations.
Daily and Weekly Periodicals. At one time a manual position but the convergence of technology has eliminated the public relations department. Public Relations epitomize the success of any organization. The use of RSS readers and other business intelligence software enables organizations to understand what stakeholders and publics say.
Research Journals. Wall and Main Street constantly report on company information and the data is very helpful in understanding company position.
Real Time Feeds. The prowess of Dow Jones, Reuters, Bloomberg and other feeds capture real time information to enable spontaneity to current events.
Knowledge is power and content is king. Business intelligence is the strategy to success, if your organization seeks to be more competitive. Do not allow the firm to be a pawn. Create the information necessary to trump your competitors and become an industry leader.
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