Colleen’s Blog

Does your sales team know the difference between conversation and combat? Far too often, salespeople will get into verbal hostilities with their potential buyers. They hear a question or an objection and automatically go on the defensive! This is not a trait you want to see in one of your sales reps. You're simply not going to close a sale with a customer you're also arguing with. The last thing you want is for your sales rep to "win" the debate and have your customer sit back and shut up. This is a sign of apathy and it won't lead to anywhere positive for the sales rep or your organization. Want your sales team to be successful?

If you're a loyal reader of this blog, you're probably aware I don't believe that sales need to slow down just because a market does. Are you noticing your team is consistently producing disappointing results and selling less than perhaps your competition? Let me fill you in on an approach which might make all the difference in your sales team's success.

Picture this...you call into your bank for support. Upon dialing the number, you're prompted by a machine to enter in your card number and other details. After this, you're transferred to a rep who then asks you for those exact credentials again. That rep, who can't properly answer your inquiry, transfers you over again to another rep who asks you to verify yourself one more time. It's frustrating just to think about it, right?

Is your sales team doing enough to build their current relationships? When you close a sale with a new client, you create a new relationship that needs to be nurtured. All too often, salespeople make a sale and then move to the next prospect. When a salesperson continues this trend long term, their client retention is going to fail...it’s inevitable! I hope you’re helping your team think ahead and make a plan to increase their sales in 2018. But, as you know, client retention is just as important as client acquisition. Here are a few tips to help you maintain and build your current relationships in the New Year. Be sure to pass this information off to your entire sales team so that they can develop their relationships:

This is an interview supporting the book launch of Millennials Matter. Q: Thanks for joining us today, Danita. Give us a quick overview what you’re seeing and hearing about the importance of millennial salespeople in our companies.

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.

Is your business experiencing wild swings in revenue? This may surprise you, but putting too much emphasis on closing business is actually counterproductive to increasing your revenues. What?! Let me explain.

Generating leads is great, but if none of those people are actually going to end up working with you, or do but turn out to be an entirely wrong fit for your business...what good is it doing?

Like many sellers, you’re wrapping up your fiscal year soon, so it’s time to close-out your year strong. Now, more than ever, it’s time to get real about your sales: knowing what you can realistically close now, as well as what to target in the coming year. Why? Because too often, we engage in avoidance behavior: putting-off problems until later, when they need to be tackled now. That’s at the root of a lot of mistakes I see in the marketplace today, and is a key hindrance to sales acceleration. Stop kicking that can down the road. You need to plan and execute each of these steps to get real in 2018:

Firing people is never pleasant. Regardless of your personal relationship with an individual, in a business environment, if a seller is doing more damage than good, it's time to think about their role on your team.