Ever find yourself talking real fast on sales call or a phone call?
If you do, then slow down.
Slow way down.
And shut up once in awhile.
A salesman who is talking is NOT a salesman who is listening.
Silence is something you need to be very comfortable with to be a good seller.
Telling is not selling.
The one who is doing the "talking" is not in control.
Yes, you read that right.
There's sooooo much sales opportunity right now.
These past few months have been some of the best since I have been in business.
But it's not just me.
There's sales opportunity all around.
The key is that sometimes you gotta be willing to go find it.
Read more on There's Sooooo Much Sales Opportunity Right Now…
One of the most frustrating and difficult tasks for sales reps is finding fresh prospects.
I've talked before about qualifying and sorting.
Effective qualifying and sorting is one of the most important tasks that a sales professional must do.
He must do this because so much of marketing doesn't bring in well qualified leads.
So the salesman has to do his own marketing himself much of the time. He must do his own work to find and attract the prospects that are a good fit for his company's business.
Marketing is about attracting the prospects who are able and interested in buying.
Selling is about qualifying and closing those prospects.
Most people like to think of themselves as positive people.
Positive, optimistic, hopeful people.
Hope reigns supreme, or so the saying goes.
Hope even elected the President of the United States this last year.
But as hopeful as people are…
As positive, and as optimistic as people are…
Most people in the world harbor one big contradiction.
I know that sales are off everywhere. Lots of businesses and lots of sales people are suffering right now.
Suffering is a choice though. You may not think so, which is part of the reason why people suffer.
But it is a choice.
A choice people make when then think that they have no other options and that they are the whim of life's circumstances.
One of my customers, Phil Masters from England, rejected the notion of being helpless as his lead flow hit an all-time low. Here's his story and what he did about it…
Read more on Incoming Sales Leads at All Time Low – Here's What He Did…
There was an article posted last week on one of the MSN blogs about how to make some extra money.
52 ways to make to be exact.
Now you might be thinking that you would like some extra buckaroos this year, right? Maybe yes?
So here are just a few of your choices (out of 52)…
Excited yet?
These are some real scintillating ways to make extra dough. Not to mention the whopping amounts o' extra dough you can expect to rake in off these activities
AAAAAAGGGHHHH!
This is what the mainstream media is feeding people.
You are reading this right now because you are better than that.
There's always a way to make some munney, and to make even more munney.
Our inspiring reality show in Washington DC is on the verge of passing something they keep calling a stimulus bill.
Is this gonna help your business?
Is it gonna help the economy?
Is it gonna help you?
Do you think this is gonna help?
I don't know anyone that who actually believes that 800 billyun bux that these boobs in Washington are going to spend is going to help them.
Yeah, I got some friends who "hope" this is gonna work.
Hope, because well, it's all just "too complicated to understand."
Personally, I do understand what's going on and it aint gonna work.
Last night's Superbowl was amazing.
I am not much of a football fan (frankly I just don't understand it very well). But the fight between the Cardinals and Steelers was intense.
Often it seems the Superbowl has a very lopsided outcome as one team just so strongly dominates the other.
But not this year.
Both of these teams fought hard, and both coulda won.
I like watching a good fight.
Even better, I like winning a good fight!
There's been a lot of bad news lately (which I aint gonna rehash here).
But you don't have to focus on it. You don't have to pay any attention to it at all.
Inspiration is all around you if you are just willing to look for it, accept it, and use it.
This Superbowl got me all fired up!
I am gonna kick some ass this week.
What about you?
Sell with Pride,
Shameless Shamus Brown
P.S. Don't give up on your sale year before it's even started. Drive your closing rate up to 70-90% with my Persuasive Selling Skills Audio Program right now…
Back when I was at IBM I remember seeing a survey that ranked people's most common purchasing decision criteria from 1 to 10.
This was a post sale survey, which attempted to discover what issues were most important in making purchasing decisions.
As a young sales rep at the time I was surprised to see that Price was pretty low on the list at number 7.
I can't recall exactly what the number 1 criterion was, but the top two or three were things like Vendor Reputation and Customer Support – criteria that the customer was using to judge how likely they were to succeed if they purchased from us.
"Features" was not the number 1 either. It was somewhere in the middle.
I bring this up because it's important to understand why you win or lose.
It's common for sales reps to complain that they lost because of price. Or because the competition had a key feature or capability that his company didn't have.
But this is really just a bunch of B.S.
People frequently tell me how my way of thinking changes the way they sell, makes it easier, AND they close more deals.
One of the ideas that I often get positive feedback on is the idea of problem ownership.
It's no great secret that most people aren't very good at taking responsibility for themselves and their problems.
So it's common for buyers to put the responsibility for solving their problems onto you. They challenge you, and put the pressure on you to prove how your stuff will solve their problems.
Yes, they do buy your stuff to solve their problems, but you aren't responsible for solving their problems just because they might (or in fact do) buy from you.
No.
In fact the customer must always own the problem, because only the customer can solve it, with or without your stuff.
I got an email a couple of days ago from a customer of mine who gained more control over his accounts by putting this idea into action…
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