Colleen’s Blog

In today’s fast paced, automated world, it’s quite common to send an email out and receive an instantaneous reply from an autoresponder. Don’t get me wrong, if used effectively, autoresponders are great at providing your client with prompt communication. However, they can also be genuinely perceived as “cold” if you aren’t careful with your automated messages. I sent an email recently and received this automated response: “We have received your email. Emails are answered twice daily. Thank you, enjoy your day!” What’s your first impression of this automated response? If you’re anything like me you may agree with the following:

There are two types of salespeople. Some salespeople slow down in the face of adversity, and others use the crisis to motivate themselves to push harder towards their goals. “Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.” I absolutely love that quote by Will Rogers. It’s a reminder that you must always be taking action if you want to reach success. You may have excellent product knowledge and exceptional communication skills, but if you’re not making use of your time, you will be “run over” by your competition. They will find a way to achieve better results even if they are considerably less talented than you. This philosophy is especially true in the sales world.

Your mindset is typically one of two things. It can either be one of your greatest tools or one of your worst obstacles. The good news is you get to choose which side of the spectrum your mindset sits. If there’s one quality every successful salesperson can share, it’s their overall mindset for success. I haven’t yet met a successful salesperson who spends most of their time focusing on scarcity or negative circumstances. ← Click To Tweet As hard as you must work in order to see results, you should be working equally as hard to stay positive. Here are a few tips to get you on the right track:

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is trying to sell to everyone that comes into your pipeline. I know, it’s intuitive as a salesperson to sell as much as possible, but effective salespeople know how to pick and choose which prospects to sell to. They know the good from the bad. The reality is, not every prospect is an ideal candidate for your product or service. The sooner you learn this important lesson, the sooner you can focus on the prospects that are ideal candidates for you to work with. By selling to anyone and everyone, you are setting yourself up for huge customer service problems in the future. ← Click To Tweet

How long do you typically take to get back to a prospect upon receiving an inquiry from them? Anything longer than 24 hours is too long. Your customers are busy people - by taking too long to respond you’re letting go of an otherwise potentially easy sale. ← Click To Tweet The number of salespeople and organizations who let days or weeks pass before responding to an inquiry is absolutely staggering. This type of behavior not only breaks several rules in sales etiquette but also displays a complete lack of professional etiquette as well. For example: I once sent an inquiry to a company about buying a tradeshow booth. I expressed a strong interest in their product and indicated that I simply needed a few pieces of information before making a purchase. I expected a prompt reply due to my clear readiness to buy their product.