Colleen’s Blog

What if I told you that you may be standing on a sales gold mine and not even know it? There are actually countless organizations who will miss their sales targets this year, without realizing that if they took advantage of this gold mine, they could not only make up lost ground, but completely exceed the results they hope to create this year. Don't worry about grabbing your shovels, no physical labor is necessary to tap into and grab the gold that's already waiting for you. Wondering what I'm talking about? Enough suspense!

Do your team members possess the key trait for sales success? People are always asking me what they think the number one personality trait of a successful salesperson should be. Now, there is obviously a mixture of key strengths an ideal salesperson should possess, but one that stands out for me is personal responsibility. A salesperson is simply not prepared to reach their maximum potential until they take responsibility for their wins, losses, and their development as a sales professional. Here are a few questions to discover if this trait exists in your next candidate:

Home fitness is all the craze these days. You know, those big, bulky machines that supposedly deliver amazing results or certain 90 day programs that make you fit and healthy? Don't worry, I'm not about to bash anything that can increase your fitness, health and overall well-being. The fitness machines and programs are not my issue. In fact, if you eat right, work hard and stay committed, you probably will get into great shape. My issue is with the people who buy these machines/programs, and then leave them to collect dust. You can have greatest fitness program or gym pass in the world, but if you don't use it, the results won't come. 

This is one of the few times in a year where professionals across virtually every industry can look at their goals with hope and excitement. Unfortunately, for the bulk of goal setters out there, this excitement lasts usually until the end of the first quarter (often much sooner) - at which point they realize they've burned through 25% of the year with little progress on those new year's plans that offered so much to look forward to a couple months prior. Don't let this be you! Regardless of how 2016 ended, it's now behind us. Your full focus should be on making 2017 your best year yet, and the best time to take action is immediately. Let me help you by highlighting some simple disciplines that will send your sales skyrocketing this year.

Do you turn your computer on each morning only to find a mountain of unread emails that need your attention? Email overload is an epidemic in the workplace. Most salespeople that we poll tell us that they spend up to 40% of their day just managing email correspondence between clients and internal partners. If this sounds about right for you as well, let me put things into perspective. If you continue this trend throughout 2017 and work 5 days a week, you will spend 104 days next year in your email inbox. If you manage a sales team of 10 people, that is almost 3 years of collective time in 2017 between your sales team that will be spent in an email inbox and not actually selling. If you manage a sales team of 100 people, well...you can do the math.

Are you prepared to combat a destructive virus on your team as soon as it shows up? Unlike the cold virus, the negativity virus has no "season" - it can show up in any given month, on any given day and without warning.  Similar to the common cold, however, it can be highly contagious and just one team member infected with this bug can quickly spread the virus to the entire sales team.

Is your market slowing down? Be sure not to get caught up in a “slow down” mindset! While most salespeople will complain about the market, the successful salespeople will be looking for ways to turn a negative situation into a positive one. The majority of salespeople fail to realize that a market slowing down is actually the perfect opportunity to revise sales strategies and increase sales activity. Think about it, the slower market does not just create problems for you, your competition is likely struggling as well. Chances are they're facing the same challenges your sales team is facing, so it’s important to capitalize on this opportunity. By switching yourself from a  “slow down” mindset to a “speed up” one, you are essentially taking the first step towards achieving prosperity in difficult markets.

It's simply one of the oldest and biggest problems in sales...how does a salesperson get their calls returned? You've probably encountered this problem before. I don't anticipate this age-old issue becoming any easier in the near future. The truth is, there is no magic key or phrase or intro or any other "quick trick" that will guarantee a returned phone call 100% of the time. Because let's face it, if there was a magic formula...sales would be easy!

You’ve probably had to deal with professional criticism at some point (or often) in your sales career. In such a fast-paced, high-pressure profession that is continuously focused on results, we are often subject to our fair share of criticism from colleagues, managers, clients, and prospects. If you want to be successful in sales, you must train yourself to take criticism and use it to your advantage. ← Click To Tweet It’s easy to get wrapped up in your faults when others are pointing them out to you. But, there are steps you can take to efficiently move past the negativity and actually create success through the criticism that you receive.