Colleen’s Blog

We are now in September. As much as you may not want to admit it, the temperature is starting to drop and the leaves are beginning to change colors. Before you know it, you’re going to start hearing “Jingle Bells” playing on your local radio station! Are you on track to hit your sales quotas for the year? If you’re on pace to hit your goals for 2014, well done! Otherwise, now is the time to regroup and add some discipline to your sales game so you can end 2014 with strong sales results. Gone are the days that salespeople could make a living by waiting for the phone to ring. Today, only the most disciplined salespeople survive, thrive and achieve success. Here are a few tips to help you add some discipline to your daily routine:

When I think back over 20 years of my sales career, I've met only five kinds of people with behaviors that lead me to believe I should disqualify them as a prospect forever. I write about them in my recently released book Nonstop Sales Boom. You may have run across them in your work as well. They are: 1. The Shopper You learn that the prospect is considering two well-known competitors with whom they have a long, successful buying history. You are the last one into the process and the prospect cannot tell you clearly why they would consider an alternative, nor are they willing to allow direct communication with the decision maker. This is a sign that they are using you to compare pricing and features.

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.

You’ve heard it before. The dreaded “Let me think about it” objection is never something a salesperson wants to hear. Salespeople struggle with this objection because they don’t want to be “pushy” or “aggressive.” As a result, they usually thank the prospect for their time and move on. The worst part? They often never hear from the prospect again. The trick with this objection is determining whether or not it’s a real objection. Many prospects throw out the dreaded phrase because they want to get rid of you, while others really do need time to think. How can you tell them apart? Here is a highly effective technique you can use to uncover the real hesitation while giving you essential information so you can close the business.

If you’re doing research about your industry, your market and your competition...well done! Successful salespeople always make moves based on facts, not assumptions. However, if you’re not tracking yourself on a regular basis, you may be omitting your most important pieces of data. ← Click To Tweet When it comes to prospecting, it’s important to set a goal. But, you must also track your progress towards achieving that goal. If you’re not collecting your own prospecting data, you risk falling behind and reaching a point in the year where you can no longer recover for lost time. That's why I strongly suggest measuring the success of your prospecting activities each month. The objective is to ensure that your efforts add enough prospects to the top end of your sales funnels so you can achieve your sales goals. After reviewing your progress, take one of the two following steps:

Are you frequently setting goals? When a plane takes off, the pilot knows all sorts of specifications so the destination can be reached. The exact coordinates of the destination, the amount of time it will take to get there, and other details are confirmed before takeoff to ensure the safe and timely arrival of the flight. A similar process is required for successful goal setting. You must set goals that are detailed, time specific and achievable in your mind in order to create success. ← Click To Tweet The following are example goals that are more likely to generate positive results: - “Increase written and oral communication skills by attending 5 seminars or workshops by December 31st, 2014.” - “Double next month’s sales results by prospecting for an extra hour each day.” - “Make 20 new professional connections before December 31st, 2014 by attending 10 networking events or gatherings by the end of the year.” Notice how each goal has a well-defined result, a time frame and a general “plan of action” to achieve it. Not only can these goals be easily measured and executed, but they are reasonably realistic while still maintaining a respectable “reward” for putting in the work. Let’s compare these with the types of goals that most salespeople set:

As you know, organization is simply one of those “must-have” skills that a salesperson must possess in order to be successful. Let’s make a distinction - being organized in sales doesn’t mean having a spotless office with perfect stacks of paper and a strategically placed hand sanitizer beside your computer. Being organized means having one contact management system that you use every day to manage all client files, your complete calendar, your tasks and all the information you need to prepare for each sales call. You must get yourself organized with a true sales force automation system such as InfusionSoft, Landslide, Salesforce.com, SugarCRM or OnContact because they become your sales dashboard.  While I’m not endorsing any of the aforementioned systems, I do highly recommend using a proven CRM system to help with your day-to-day activities.