Trust-based relationships

I typed ‘Sales’ into youtube.com the other day just to see what was on offer. I have to say that some of the initial videos displayed on the front page were very disappointing indeed, especially when it came to building trust-based relationships with clients.

One well-known speaker was spruking ways to get your prospect to call you back. His idea was to leave a provocative half message that said something along the lines of “I’ve just been speaking to your competitors and they said you are in big ” then he suggested hanging up before you competed the message. …

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Peak Performance in Prospecting

Building on from last week’s topic ‘The Optimistic Sales Professional’ I thought I would extend the theme further and explore the topic of ‘Peak Performance in Prospecting’.

A peak performing prospector is a salesperson who displays passion, self motivation and results focus. They are disciplined in their approach, evaluate and purse viable opportunities while remaining optimistic, resilient, committed and energized. They are ethical at all times and display empathy, respect and courtesy towards their prospects. To help us look at this in more depth let’s look at what is considered peak performance.

What is Peak Performance?

“Sustained, continuous performance at …

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Networking

Although technology has become increasingly important in recent years, the importance of relationships in business has not changed. Upon reflection, it appears that we have taken the following path.

Technological Era ——> Industrial Era

In fact, it has been predicted that over the next ten to fifteen years, we will see a new era emerge; that being the era of the relationship in doing business. It is estimated that the relationships we have in business with our customers and within organisations will be the key differentiator for businesses worldwide.

…

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Sales Training is not a luxury – it’s essential

Keeping you and your sales team ‘match fit’ and actively engaged in the market place selling effectively is paramount to your survival and success in today’s market. Yet too many businesses, large and small, do not train their sales teams in the vital skills needed in the much more consultative, value add, less product focused market of today.

I was reminded of this again when I was speaking with a 35+ year veteran in sales and sales management who works in the office equipment and facilities management industry. We were discussing the sales team he has inherited recently and how they …

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Watch who you let near your mind

With the Sub-prime market issue in the US and its effects on countries and the world’s stock markets featuring as a daily major news item at present who can blame people for getting a bit nervous and worried about the future. You can see it with the panic selling of shares and so forth. However if we let this and other issues get to us and allow ourselves to blow things out of all proportion we can, in turn, create our own demise. Whilst it is critical for business owners and sales people to keep abreast of …

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Getting past the Gate Keeper

This time of the year many people are trying to get back into the swing of things after their Christmas break. It’s about this time that many sales people begin their prospecting efforts in earnest and many people are back from leave. It is as good a time as any to prospect.

So as it’s the New Year, I thought we could take a fresh look at some old issues.

One of the most common complaints I hear from sales people time and time again is ‘How do I get around the gate keeper?’

A Gate Keeper is the person who can prevent …

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A Car Sales Story with a difference

Is there such as thing as a ‘good’ car sales story?

My husband and I recently bought two new cars over the Christmas break. We initially went in to buy one car. It wasn’t a Christmas splurge if that’s what you’re thinking – nor was anything it like the recent press on luxury cars and their owners. We wanted to go smaller and greener for all sorts of reasons I am sure you can image and one of our cars was at the end of its lease. Having done our research, the ‘make’ of our last …

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Insights from being in business for 13 years

Happy New Year to you all. I wonder if you took time off over the Christmas-New Year break and, like me, had a bit of trouble letting go initially and then found yourself easing into enjoying a little time off from work commitments. It’s when I slow down that I find some of my thoughts drifting to why I got into business for myself in the first place. There is a good reason for this. You see on the 9 January 2008 my business will be 13 years old.

Around that time, 13 years ago, I wasn’t happy where I …

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Meditation as a path to Happiness

 

Season’s greetings to you, your teams and your families.

I have enjoyed sharing my opinions, ideas and work with you over this year.

I hope it has supported you in some small way to achieve your goals and endeavors and I look forward to being of service to you all in 2008.

 

Now given my focus has been on ‘Sales’ you might wonder why I am focusing on “Meditation as path to happiness’ as my final piece for 2007. There is method in my madness. You may recall some months ago I wrote about ‘reflecting on reflecting’ and how …

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Making the most of Up Selling & Cross Selling

Do you sell one thing and one thing only? Probably not. I suspect your business has a range of things it can offer. And I suspect that many of these things can be integrated together to make an end-to-end solution or various combinations that lead to much larger sales.

If this is the case, then how well are you selling in the size and scope of your business offerings?

Too many times sales people get fixated on the immediate sale in front of them not really seeing the potential of that sale now or into the future. If they would only ask …

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