Colleen’s Blog

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 because you are similar you might not understand each other. Case in point, a Glaswegian accent…..

If you’re a professional salesperson, there’s a good chance that you’re also a professional traveler or will become one in the near future. Let’s face it, traveling can be an extremely stressful and energy draining experience. Missed flights, lost itineraries, lack of sleep, lost passports, bad weather, long lines at the border, car searches, obnoxious plane passengers sitting beside you, and countless other travel setbacks can cause massive headaches and leave you less than prepared for business. Because of this, I've put together a list of tips that can help you prepare for your future travels while drastically cutting down the chances of running into problems!

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.

Your success is created by small daily efforts. While you likely won’t make or break your success on any given day, a series of successful days will result in positive sales results in the long run and a series of unsuccessful days will likely result in less than pleasing results. Therefore, it’s essential that you show up to work each day with a sense of purpose. Dedicate time at the start of your work day to make prospecting calls. To ensure that you maximize your chances for success, here are 8 steps you can take to increase your productivity and your results when making your calls: