If you say you Lost the sale on Price, what you are really saying is that you did not establish your Value. Without Value, it comes down to Price only. Remind yourself What is your USP?

If you can’t get an appointment, it’s because you are boring and sound like everyone else. Have fun. Be more interesting. Be Creative.

Are you Engaging the Prospects? What kinds of Questions do you ask? Do any of your questions make the prospect thing differently?

Voicemail sucks doesn’t it? And you can’t get calls returned, huh? Why? You don’t give them any reason to call you back. Be Creative. Be Different. Intrigue them. Be funny.

What makes me laugh is the “I don’t have enough time to ….” Time Management is everyone’s Achilles Heel, but you have to do what is important, not urgent. Pre-call preparation is important. Dialing and Smiling works better with a little research. We have this thing called Google that holds a boatload of info about your prospective company.

At the end of the day, Action, Hard work, Creativity, and Preparation will help you succeed. Remember to Work the Process.

Listen as if you care what the other person is saying. Don’t just wait for your turn to say something or blather.

Active Listening Is an Essential Sales Tool by Keith Rosen contains Eight Ways to Become the Most Effective Listener, including Listening for what is not said.

David Kahle has the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Technique for Improved Listening here.

I hope you were listening.

When we checked in at Gitomer’s training, no one asked if we wanted to go to the Action section. Gitomer made a statement about how he likes ActionCoach CEO Brad Sugar, but no upsell there either.

When you have that many touch points in a sales process, you need to take advantage. Want to see a company that does it well? Go buy a domain name.

Keith has released a prospecting checklist for you to use to schedule more appointments with key decision makers. (Notice the term “key decision makers” – that’s called a qualifier).

Another gift from Keith is his new 100-page e-book, Leadership Mojo. To receive your free copy, simply send an email to mojo at profitbuilders.com with the words “Leadership Mojo” in the subject line and within minutes, you’ll receive your special download! Now go sell seomething!

“Most sales people walk into a customer meeting with a “me me me us us us”
pitch. Little time is spent with probing questions like “What are your team goals for the year? How can we help you accomplish those goals? What are your biggest concerns/issues you are facing with vendors today?” It’s not a novel idea-but it’s one easily forgotten.”

Prospecting or as I call it Disqualifying. Identify who needs your product; wants your product; and can afford to pay for your product. Must have all 3.

Needs Analysis. After you find the prospect, you engage in a conversation to understand if there is a need. Where’s the pain? No pain. No way to make the prospect a buyer.

Presenting and proposing. This is where you lay out how your product can solve the pain usually in budget.

Closing. Look for buying signs. Ask for the sale. Re-phrase and ask again.

Follow Up. the key to sales is the number of touches. It can take seven touches to persuade the prospect to buy. It could take more or less depending. But you need excellent follow up as a sign of commitment, responsibility, and expectations.

Improve upon each step of the sales process and you improve your sales.

“With the cost of selling to a new customer being five times the cost of selling to an existing one you can’t afford to lose established business.’ [CSM]

The secret to selling is about promise and delivery. So Follow-Up is key. A CRM system helps to keep the sales process flowing (If Used!).  When implementing CRM systems, you need to ask:

1. How will our customers benefit from this new program?
2. What will be our return on this significant technology investment?
3. Do I have commitment from all levels of the company?

[thanks even carmicheal]

As a salesperson, what is your Money Concept?

Are you following a sales process?

1. Building Rapport
2. Upfront Agreement (giving them permission to say No)
3. Find the Pain
4. Budget
5. Decision
6. Fulfillment

When more than one bid: “Why do you think I am more than the others?”

No unilateral concessions. Make the buyer give some too IF he is the decision maker.  If not, get in front of all of them. Will the buyer be able to handle all the Q’s that the real decision makers are going to ask?

When a sales stalls (2-4 weeks of no contact) – ask if you can close the file. Are they still decising or have they chosen to go another way? I’m just asking so I can close the file.

Hot Potato from Buyer – throw it back at them.  “Mr. Buyer, what are You going to do?”

The take-away close still works.

As a former CFO of a billion dollar organization a positive ROI was necessary to get my support. To get my support a project had to have the following criteria:

1. Within the scope of our existing priorities;
2. A solid business plan;
3. A plan for a annual retroactive review to assure that the project is meeting the objectives.
4. A champion that I could hold accountable for the project.
5. A well vetted, risk adjusted ROI, that was based on reasonable and supportable assumptions.

In times like this, it is even more important to do thorough ROIs on all projects. By thorough, I mean the inclusion of a risk factor and well vetted facts and assumptions. With funds being limited, it is important that they be spent on those projects which provide the best return. [Editor: And advance overall goals and values of the organization].

As it relates to CapEx or OpEx, the decision to use either should be part of the ROI. If the project has a very positive ROI and the company has the funding to support the project, than the project should move forward.

Making decisions based on sound business practices is the key to long term success. An ROI analysis is a very sound business practice. As a result I was always willing to support projects that met the above criteria.

Another answer came from Chip Nickolett:

Not only are organizations being forced to do more with less, timelines for projects have been shortened to have a more immediate and measurable business impact. Expenditures that don’t make an immediate impact (i.e., within 12 months) will be tough to get approved, unless it is essential and in-line with the strategic plan for that business. ROI and TCO are more important than ever in this economy since they focus on both CapEx and OpEx, and have a direct impact on profitability.

[Editor: That's sound business advice].