Colleen’s Blog

The best salespeople are constantly looking for ways to improve. They are not staying static for extended periods of time because, let’s face it, if you’re not moving forward - you’re moving backwards! There’s almost nothing better than reaching (or exceeding) all of your sales goals for the year. A certain feeling of accomplishment is natural, and should be embraced! However, will you be satisfied if your numbers stay the same and stagnate? Are you doing anything to improve upon your past accomplishments? The answer for many salespeople is no. They often work hard to create temporary success and soon after end up in a worse situation than they were before because they allow temporary accomplishments to hinder their work ethic. Here are two things you can do to improve upon your current success:

I talk often about a new performance-management culture taking hold in today’s B2All marketplace. To meet that challenge, not only must selling skills change, leadership skills must evolve too. Your sales manager’s number-one job now is to teach and refine the skills of sellers to help them hit their peak and stay there. So, what’s the best way to make that happen: by simply turning your existing top sellers into leaders? Not so fast! 

Always be prospecting. Why do I say that? I can tell you that in 25 years of selling, I have never met a sales problem that can’t be solved without good prospecting skills.

Thinking back to my post on Monday, another lesson we can learn from Mykonos is the value of adding value. Adding value, especially when it is not expected, creates a lasting impression in your customers minds and keeps them coming back. Even more, it converts your customers into evangelists bringing you more customers at little advertising costs. For example:

After a week in Mykonos, Greece, I’ve determined that Myconians are the most hospitable people in the world. And, I believe that the best investment any hospitality business can make is to send their people to Mykonos for observational training. The way locals interact with their customers is outstanding. It's memorable. And, it's definitely profitable.  Here are 4 general observations:

Our team spends a lot of time working with our clients on compelling value propositions and client testimonials. There are two ways to use client testimonials that are often overlooked that I think are some of the most powerful uses of this type of content.

Last week, we talked about proposal formats. Therefore, it makes sense that we talk about presentation formats this week.

I would like to talk to you about a proposal format that you can customize for whatever business you’re in. You can use this whether you’re in a products business, a service business, or a hybrid of both.

In a previous video, we talked about the concept of learning by doing instead of learning through a training workshop or a facilitated training event. I was recently at an extended leadership team meeting for one of my best clients and he had all of his sales managers there. We introduced a quick concept to them around proper account planning and management.