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Sales insights

5 Actions to Improve Your Sales Success

4/9/2018

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Pablo Picasso said that, “action is the foundational key to all success.”  While I agree with Picasso, he is missing out on one key element.  They need to be the ‘right' actions.

Too often in sales and business people are doing things, but they tend to be the wrong actions.  They are engaged in activities that feel good, that keep them busy or beneath their level of compensation.  Even worse, there are those who engage in no actions.

What actions or activities should you be doing to increase your success?  Here are 5 ‘right' actions to improve your success:

  1. Actions that create opportunities - networking, prospecting, contributing, etc.​
  2. Actions that are above your desired income - take the compensation you want to earn, divide that number into your annual working hours, & you will know your hourly rate. Never do any task or activity that isn’t worth more than that hourly rate.
  3. Actions that help others succeed - the more people you help succeed in business and life, the more that will help you succeed.
  4. Actions that improve your skill set - study and learn your industry every week, study and learn sales & marketing every day, study and learn business.  There’s no finish line.  Learning never stops.
  5. Actions that are healthy - You will not succeed without health.  You must do something, small or large or in-between, every day that improves your overall emotional and physical health.

Activity without purpose or forward momentum is simply busy, wasteful energy.  Truly successful people in sales and business do actions & activities that contribute to some future result.  Their actions are directly correlated to their success.  Follow the 5 here and you will start increasing your successes.
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5 Rules to Maximize Your ROI at Your Next Conference

3/26/2018

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Conferences are an excellent way to get exposure and network, and a prime source for new prospects.  Here’s the challenge though; you’ve just registered for your next conference with the intent of getting business - now what?

Most companies and salespeople really have zero game-plan how to make the most of their conference.  The intentions are there, but intentions don’t produce results.  As a consequence, the conference ends up like all other conferences.  Nothing to show but a hangover, a collection of business cards that find their way into the circular file and wasted resources.

To maximize and get the biggest ROI at your next conference, follow these 5 rules.
  1. Do your homework - Know in advance who’s your ideal customer.  Research the vendor and attendee roster on the conference website.  Every conference today posts this information.  Target your top prospects, research them on LinkedIn and then create a plan to meet and engage them while you're there.  Do not waste your time with vendors or attendees that aren’t your ideal target.​
  2. Master your introduction/position statement - It’s not an elevator pitch, but it is a 15-20 spot on what you do.  Any more than that, and you don’t know what you do with enough clarity to engage someone
  3. Get attention - Be a speaker, and be viewed as an expert.  Conference planners struggle to find presenters for the smaller stages and breakout sessions.  Positioning yourself as a presenter automatically creates the perception that you are the expert.  Post all over social media about your talk/topic before the conference, during and after.  Post video snippets of the presentation.  If you are not able to present, promote aggressively to your contacts that you'll be there and look forward to seeing them.
  4. What problems do you solve? - Know what problems you solve for your prospects and focus your message on those.  People want to know what’s in it for them, so tell them.  Tell them what problems you solve and how their business or lives will be improved.
  5. Follow up and follow through - Nothing is more important than following up and following through.  These are the two of the most important skills salespeople lack, and the two of the biggest areas customers complain the most about.  Follow up with leads immediately and follow through on your commitments even faster.

Conferences can be fun, and they can also be long and tiring at times.  Either way, they’d better be profitable and successful.  That’s what your company is counting on.  Follow these 5 rules and you will improve the ROI and success of your next conference.
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The #1 Problem You Face in Business is...

3/12/2018

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The #1 one most important success factor companies have is also the #1 problem that all businesses face.  Sales.  

Sales are the #1 reason companies succeed or fail.  You can argue that people, products, services and process are more important. They’re all important, but sales are senior to all.  Without sales, none of those matter. 

This isn’t a what came first argument, the chicken or the egg?  Most businesses today are started by selling and idea or concept, and then creating it after its been sold.  Without sales you don’t need employees, you don’t need products or services and you certainly don’t stay in business.  So if lack of, or not enough of, sales are the #1 problem businesses face, why do so few companies do little to nothing to fix sales growth?

There are many reasons/excuses, and they usually come down to lack of resources; whether those resources are time, money or other, it’s usually resource related.  What’s ironic is resources are the worst excuse of all.  Sales development doesn’t require tremendous amounts of time.  It needs consistency. Sales training isn’t expensive.  It should actually pay for itself with results.

Abraham Lincoln said, “the best way to predict the future is to create it.”  The best way to predict your sales success is to create it.   Your first step in creating your sales success is sales training. To take away any excuses, we created the ideal 1/2 day program for you.  It’s motivational with tangible sales take-aways, and it’s cost effective. For more information, and to learn more for your team, click on the link. 
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Why 'Fake it till you make it" is completely misunderstood

3/5/2018

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You’ve heard the expression “fake it till you make it.”  It’s used frequently by entrepreneurs and professionals alike trying to get to the next level.  It’s a great belief until you realize that almost 100% of the people saying it have no idea what it really means.
 
Most say it and believe it’s about pretending to be a certain way until you succeed. Nothing could be further from the truth.  

Fake it till you make it is not about:
 
  • Flashing a fancy outfit
  • Buying toys (jewelry, cars, etc.) to project an image of success
  • Going to expensive restaurants or clubs for image 
  • Spending time in the office to keep up appearances. 
     
Fake it till you make it is about:
  • Having breakfast with a prospect before anyone else shows up
  • Dressing for success, not for flash to impress 
  • Prospecting, building your skills and building your network
  • Staying late and making one more call, email or ping 
  • Doing the professional actions of successful people 
 
Fake it till you make it means living and breathing like an expert, working like an expert, and not pretending.  Successful people never stop doing what made them successful.  It’s a lifelong decision, not a choice until you think you’ve become successful. 

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5 Traits of Elite Salespeople

7/11/2017

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Every sport, every profession has their version of the “elite” performer.  Sales is no different.  There are certain traits that make them elite in their respective fields, and they are consistent in these traits.  In sales, there are 5 primary traits that all elite sales professionals live by.

  1. They’re not afraid to fail - There’s no fear of rejection, but there is a fear of not succeeding.  Elite salespeople are will to do whatever it takes to push to get results.  Failure in any form is merely a speed bump. 
  2. They maximize their resources, no matter how limited they may be.  If all they are armed with is a cell phone, a computer and LinkedIn, elite salespeople will still beat everyone else.  They’ll just outwork you with the resources present.  Give them more, and they will leverage every ounce of what’s provided.
  3. They accept 100% responsibility - Elite salespeople don’t make excuses and never point the finger at anyone but themselves.  They know they can’t control the economy or prices or company policy.  Those things don’t close sales.  Elite salespeople know that they control their activities, their training and their efforts.  No one else is accountable for those except themselves.
  4. They invest in themselves first, often and consistently - Elite performers all understand that they are there own greatest asset.  So they invest their own resources: time, money and energy in themselves.  They don’t rely on others to make the investment first.  They buy books and read them, they go seminars on their own time and dime, and they constantly are looking for more training and willing to pay the price themselves.
  5. Their lives are governed by massive action - I’d say lights, camera, action, but the reality is elite salespeople beat the sun up and then it’s all action.  They are constantly doing things that move them closer to beating their sales goals.

Will focusing on these 5 traits alone make you an elite sales professional?  No!  But by not focusing on them you are guaranteeing that you will never play amongst the elites.   
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Product Training vs Sales Training 

3/31/2017

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To train on product or to train in sales, that is the question. You certainly need to know your product offering, but what’s the point if you can’t sell your product? You need to know how to sell, but what’s the point if you don’t know what you are selling?

The reality is both are essential to your success in sales. The further troubling reality is most companies mistake product training for sales training. They believe that their product or service is what you sell. So most, if not all, product training focuses solely on all of the features and technical merits. 

When you sell features, technical specs, etc., you become the same as all of the competition. Now you’re competing, rather than dominating by solving problems, fulfilling needs and delivering value. This is where high quality sales training needs to be implemented.

Sales training, or sales development, is designed to teach salespeople the necessary competencies and skills necessary to uncover needs and deliver value-based solutions. Features are not solutions. They are not value. Features contribute to an overall solution and fulfillment of needs. The value is “what’s in it for them” when the customer or prospect says YES.


Product and Sales Training are both important. You need both. They are not the same, and they serve different purposes. Don’t accept only one. Demand both.

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Stop lying to yourself, Sales are the lifeblood of your business

8/17/2016

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How many times, and how many managers, have you heard say and focus on cutting expenses or reducing margins?  Virtually every company I go into, they talk about cutting in some capacity.

Is your company this way?  Is that the focus of management?  If so, they are dead wrong.  You don’t fix by cutting.  You can’t cut your way to profits.  In fact, cut to far and you cut yourself out of business.

Why?  Because the more you cut the more pressure you place on what’s left over.  Worse, the pressure is placed on companies biggest internal asset - its people!  Check any pressure cooker of a business and watch what happens.  Its most valued internal asset quits, and that is the beginning of the end.

So if not cutting, what then?  It’s all about top line growth.  Expenses are not the problem in companies.  Income is the problem.  The top line of every single Income Statement is Revenue.  It’s SALES.  That’s what counts. 

You want to improve margins, then increase your sales.  You also have to raise your selling price.  Easier said than done for sure.  Do you know why?  Because companies, your company and maybe even you, focus on cutting.  You’re not focused on growth.  You’re not focused on selling.  

It’s obvious who’s focused on sales and who’s worried about cutting.  Companies who focus on top line growth invest in top line growth. They spend the bulk of their budgets hiring, training and developing high producing sales teams.  Why?  Because they know that sales is the lifeblood of companies!  

Interestingly your personal life is no different.  Your problems aren’t your expenses.  Your problem is that you don’t have enough revenue to cover your expenses.  Go sell and earn more.  Suddenly, your expenses are no longer an issue. 

Our society has become so polluted with the supposed financial experts.  They’re telling you to save and not spend, to cut back and to live modestly.  “A penny saved is a penny earned.”  No it’s not.  It’s a damn penny.  That is a bullshit set of lies companies and people have bought into.  Saving is easy when revenue is high enough.  Saving is not possible when revenue suffers.

How’s your revenue?  How’s your lifeblood?  Make no mistake, sales and revenue are everything.  Shift your focus and invest.  Expenses shortly will no longer be the issue. 

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Time Management is a Myth

5/6/2016

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Is there such a thing as effective time management?  Can you effectively control time to your advantage?

Absolutely not!  You cannot control time no matter what anyone try's to sell you. It's not possible to manipulate the 24 hours we are given everyday.  Time management is a myth. 

You can, however, mange what you do with those 24 hours.  You can manage activities that you engage in.  So the real question is, what should I focus my activities towards?

The answer is a direct reflection of your goals and results. Do you want more money? Than what activities will drive more money your way?  Do you need more sales, then prospect more.  Do you need better closing skills, then get training. 

Do you want to lose weight, then your activities must reflect weight loss functions. Whatever your goals are, your activities must directly impact those desired results.  What activities you fill up the white space on your calendar with are how you manage the time you have. 

You must focus on activity management.  Time management is a myth.  You can control the activities you engage in.  You cannot control time.   

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The Difference between a contact and a contRact

4/11/2016

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Sales, selling, the art of selling, whatever you want to call it, has lots of rules.  Some rules are better than others.  I noticed a colleague recently talking about how many contacts she had and the number of connections she has made.

She continued that, “in sales, it’s all about the contacts.”  While this is true, it’s only partially true.  If you want contracts from your contacts you’d better understand the difference between the two, and it is a simple as one letter.

It's the letter "R" for relationship.  Unless you turn your contacts into relationships you’ll never earn the contracts.  Relationships are everything.  One quality relationship is worth more than dozens of contacts that produce little to nothing.  I have a dear friend who, while not in sales, makes similar misjudgments. 

He has more social media connections than you can possibly fathom, and when pressed, he admits that he really doesn’t know many of them very well.  You likely have some friends similar in nature. 

You have to wonder - how good are these relationships when you want to leverage them for something more, different or better?  The answer is obvious.  They’re of little to no value.  Why?  Because they’re contacts and not relationships. 

Relationships take time to develop and cultivate. Trust must be earned and built. Relationships are a give and take, not take only.  Relationships grow and mature. Relationships take work and effort.  Contacts are easy.  Contacts take little effort. Contacts are everywhere.  Contracts though, they come from relationships, and the name of the game in sales is Relationships. 

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Lessons from a Billionaire

3/21/2016

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"There are 1645 billionaires world-wide, and contrary to popular belief we don't all wear hoodies, jeans and tennis shoes."  

A few months ago I was networking at a business roundtable where the keynote speaker happened to be one of these 1645 billionaires.  He is a distinguished member of our community, and an incredible philanthropist.  When a billionaire (not a millionaire) offers advice, you pay very close attention.

That first statement was his opening statement, and not what any of us expected.  His message centered on the very art of networking, and how crucial it is to any individuals success in life.  He offered brilliant and real usable information. Here are just a few of the highlights and his "billionaire" reasoning:
  • Dress for success - money attracts money and money is serious. Dress serious, look professional, clean shaven, suited and booted as the British say.  If you want to turnoff money and repel success, then by all means drop your standards and dress casually. 
  • No hoodies jeans and tennis shoes - there are very few dotcom billionaires, and what you see in public is not how they show up to board meetings, meetings with their banks and meetings with other movers and shakers.  Stop being fooled. 
  • Money is serious business and should be treated accordingly - any lack of respect in your professional presentation, speech, and attitude will repel the very people you're trying to attract. 
  • Money hangs out with money, better look the part - if you want to be apart of the club or close the deal, you have to play in the right spheres of influence.  Stop associating and spending your time with people who can't help you or support your success.
  • It's not fake it until you make it; it's become the person you must be in order to attract and live the life you desire - Make your best effort to look, behave and become the success you desire.  Make that your new norm, not a false representation. 
Interestingly, during the Q&A, on the of the guests questioned why people shouldn't just accept them for who they are, and not based on how they look or talk.  Mr "billionaire" simply said "if that's the way you feel, you're right, good luck."  He turned his head and said "next question". 

We knew the billionaire.  No one remembers the guest.  Hmmm, lesson learned from breakfast with a billionaire.  

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