Colleen’s Blog

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.

Are you selling the same way you were five years ago? Many salespeople have not adapted with the times and have not updated their sales process. As a result, their sales are suffering and they’re not selling as much as they used to. When it comes to your sales processes, it’s important to constantly stay on top of what’s working and what is not. ← Click To Tweet That way, you can identify and stick with the strategies that yield the best results for you and kick the “sales trash” to the curb! Here are five common practices that, in my experience, hurt sales and are often not addressed by salespeople! If your sales results are struggling, consider reviewing these five practices and identify whether or not you have recently updated these points in your sales process.

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.

Just like many other things in life, keep the word variety in mind when it comes to your sales if you want see greater results. If you’re only using one or two pipeline streams to create more success with your prospecting, you are likely either currently experiencing or will experience less than impressive sales results. Why? Because the goal of efficient salespeople is to fill their sales funnels with the right prospects using multiple pipeline streams. In today’s market, your buyers have access to information anywhere, anytime and on any form of media they desire. In fact, they are often gathering information about you in places you would rather they avoid, especially if you have little to no presence in those spaces. Therefore, you must be ubiquitous! It’s critical that you retain control of all pieces of information about you and your business by embracing all forms of prospecting tools and media. You need to continue using the traditional and direct prospecting tools that you’re used to but you must also begin using indirect tools such as social media and publishing to your advantage. By doing so, you also expand your presence in the market.

Referrals are powerful selling tools when used correctly and as a part of an overall plan to increase your sales results. However, there’s a proper way to ask for referrals and another way that can leave your current clients annoyed and thus hurt your sales in the long run. Far too often, salespeople will commit to making classic mistakes when asking for referrals and assume (based on their disappointing results) that referrals aren't a worthwhile method to create more sales. However, referrals do work. They have the potential to connect you to new opportunities via your current network. This allows you to work with new potential clients with a level of trust and familiarity which otherwise would not exist without the referral. Let’s look at the top two mistakes salespeople make when asking for referrals:

Have you ever just wanted to fire a client? Perhaps they demanded too many things, were consistently rude, or did not fit well with you, your team or your services. While you are sometimes able to tweak your own services or set out guidelines that are mutually acceptable to all parties, there are times where you simply need to get rid of certain clients so you can focus on other customers who are more profitable on both a financial and a personal level. However, many salespeople are hesitant to fire a client because they don’t know how to approach the situation without the fear of burning bridges or causing a massive argument. These feelings are natural, but if a customer is taking time away dedicated to other areas of your business and causing massive headaches, it may be time to sever your business relationship. By following a few key steps, you can let go of customers easily without causing too much commotion.