Colleen’s Blog

You know what needs to be done to achieve success. You know that it takes hard work and effort. In fact, I’ve never met a SUCCESSFUL salesperson who did not put in the time and did not take the action required in order to generate positive sales results Unfortunately, it is often easier to choose the safe, easy, and familiar route. I’ve seen entirely too many salespeople convince themselves that they will not be successful no matter what instead of working hard to prove that they truly can be. In fact, here are just a few of the common excuses I hear from salespeople and business owners who are asked to implement a new plan:

Have you ever put together a sales strategy which you believed to be near flawless, only to see it fail in the long run? In my 12 years of consulting, I have rarely (and I mean rarely!) come across a seriously flawed sales strategy. However, I have come across many (and I mean many!) sales strategies which ultimately fail. So, what’s the missing link? If most sales strategies are sound and concrete, why do so few of them make a lasting impact? The key is in the execution. That’s right, most sales strategies don’t fall apart because they are bad strategies, they fail when they are put into action and implemented! I once had a sales VP complain to me about her failed sales strategy. When I asked her about the implementation of this particular strategy, she admitted that she had never really looked into how it was actioned. In fact, she hadn’t even presented the strategy to the sales reps who were expected to create success with it...seriously! Here are a few steps to ensure that your sales strategy achieves success beyond it’s conception.

Did you just do a double take? Stop trying to close sales...isn't that counter-productive to our sales success? You heard me right. Salespeople should not be attempting to “close” sales with clients. It’s all in the definition. Closing is something you do to a person. While it may be just a term, the language is completely one-sided. It implies that you are going entirely for the win regardless of what’s right for the customer. Salespeople who approach prospects with this kind of self benefiting mentality are almost never successful in their long term endeavors. Depending on their abilities and experience, they may in fact convince the prospect to do business with them, but long term, mutually beneficial relationships are rarely ever fostered. This breed of selling creates the "pushy" and "aggressive" stigma that clouds our entire industry. It puts everyone, including well-wishing, value focused salespeople at a clear disadvantage with prospects. Do your fellow salespeople a great service and avoid ever approaching a prospect with only your own interests in mind. Sales closing techniques that have amusing terms or names are often methods that you should not be using. For example:

Price discounts can be a touchy subject for people. Some sales leaders will never give a price discount, and others will go as far offering a discount to the client before it is even requested. It's true, if you MUST give a discount, you should always be asking for something in return. However, before you even think about providing a client with a discount, try and come up with an alternative solution instead. Consider the following alternatives you can offer the client before automatically handing them a price discount.

In my experience, there are two key elements that intimidate sellers and keep them from asking for a referral: ego and fear. I think you’ll agree with me, salespeople have big, healthy egos. This isn’t a bad thing, because we are trained to believe that we can sell even in the face of adversity and when the odds are stacked against us. In fact, in order to really thrive in sales, you must be able to sell even when it seems as though the chips are down. <-- Click To Tweet On top of that, we prefer to sell by ourselves. Each of us consider our own methods to be the most effective. We also don’t want any help when it comes to executing these methods.

Do you feel like you're doing well with establishing trust with potential clients, but aren't seeing this trust translating to more closed deals? While getting the prospect to know, like and trust you is key to developing a business relationship and closing deals, it's actually only half of the equation. The truth is, trust alone is not good enough if you want to close the sale. So, what's the missing link? Clients are looking for experts in the industry to buy from, they want these experts to be able to provide value to their purchase and to be able to guide them to success. The obvious question is, how do you establish yourself and your team as a marketplace experts? Here are a few steps you can take to establish industry expertise.