Colleen’s Blog

You cannot grow your business with a particular client if you're relying on a singular point of information. Growth comes from not only the quality of contacts, but also your quantity of contacts in a particular organization. If members of your sales team are not diversifying their contacts within an organization, it's time that you ask them to start doing so. The truth is, your team needs to be increasing their engagement or "infiltration" with their clients if you have any hopes of growing your business within your existing customer base. What's the best way to begin practicing this? Start building an organizational chart. When a member of your sales team meets with a buyer, either in person or on call, get them to ask this one simple question:

Are your client and prospect conversations often turning into a form of verbal combat? All too often salespeople get so wrapped up in being right that they completely forget to acknowledge their clients' feelings and opinions. Demonstrating acknowledgement is a key step in continuing a conversation instead of jumping straight into an argument! <-- Click To Tweet When you acknowledge your client’s opinion (even if it differs from your own) you demonstrate empathy to the way your buyer feels. This automatically puts them in a better, more relaxed state of mind because you’re showing your client that you understand their concerns and you’re willing to find a solution. You also show that you’re less concerned about being right and more concerned about being fair.

You may be surprised to learn that many salespeople and business professionals spend less than one hour a month prospecting for new business. One thing you must always keep in mind is that there is no sales problem that good prospecting skills can’t solve. Unless you’re rude or have a bad attitude (in which case you shouldn’t be in sales!), nurturing your pipeline consistently will lead you to sales success. I frequently coach sales reps who know exactly what to say, when to say it, and have terrific, well-priced products and services...but they still don’t sell. Why? Because they have no prospects waiting in their sales funnel! Simply put, if you have no prospects, you can’t make sales. <-- Click To Tweet To ensure that you are creating a steady stream of new business opportunities, here are a few tips that can help your prospecting and pipeline building efforts:

Did you just do a double take? Stop trying to close sales...isn't that counter-productive to our sales success? You heard me right. Salespeople should not be attempting to “close” sales with clients. It’s all in the definition. Closing is something you do to a person. While it may be just a term, the language is completely one-sided. It implies that you are going entirely for the win regardless of what’s right for the customer. Salespeople who approach prospects with this kind of self benefiting mentality are almost never successful in their long term endeavors. Depending on their abilities and experience, they may in fact convince the prospect to do business with them, but long term, mutually beneficial relationships are rarely ever fostered. This breed of selling creates the "pushy" and "aggressive" stigma that clouds our entire industry. It puts everyone, including well-wishing, value focused salespeople at a clear disadvantage with prospects. Do your fellow salespeople a great service and avoid ever approaching a prospect with only your own interests in mind. Sales closing techniques that have amusing terms or names are often methods that you should not be using. For example:

Do you find yourself using sales lines you heard in Hollywood films like Tommy Boy or The Boiler Room? If so, it may be time to consider a new route. Chances are those movies were not made to demonstrate solid sales techniques to the audience! They will do little to no good in building proper rapport with prospective clients. Consumers want to buy from people they like and that they trust. Let's take a look at four key principles needed to build high trust relationships.