Colleen’s Blog

Want to know the easiest way to lose control of the sales process? Time and time again, I’ve seen salespeople hold off on presenting their price to a prospective client until the final written proposal. They don’t bring up pricing in person or before a written proposal is sent because they’re afraid to scare away their potential client. Ironically, by following this methodology, they end up scaring away the prospect anyway. If you avoid discussing pricing options until the very last moment, you make it too easy for the prospect to ignore you. They may love everything about you and what you have to offer, but if the amount they see in writing is not something they’re comfortable with, chances are they will simply avoid discussion rather than initiating it. In their mind, it’s much easier to ignore you than to reach out to you for a chance at a better price. Remember, your buyers fear rejection too! When this scenario unfolds, you lose complete control over the sales process and you make it very difficult for yourself to recover from it.

You've heard the saying variety is the spice of life before. So, 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.

Do you want to be successful? Alright - that was obviously a rhetorical question. Since I know you want to be triumphant with your sales, it’s imperative that you surround yourself with success. You’re probably familiar with the following quote: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” If you want to manage a successful sales team, you must do your best to learn from and work with successful sales leaders. If you’re learning tips and strategies from poor salespeople, you’re not going to be able to relay effective information to your team. If you don’t currently work with any sellers who are creating positive results, branch out and meet high achieving salespeople via networking events, conferences and trade shows. The idea is to surround yourself and learn from achievers. It doesn’t stop at your immediate network. Here are a few steps you can take to create a success mindset so you can create a prosperous sales career. On top of following these steps yourself, I highly recommend you ask your sales team to do the same:

If your sales are suffering right now, I want to make you aware of a shocking statistic. According to a study conducted by our friends at InsideSales.com, an incredible 30% of leads are never followed up on by the sales team when passed on by the marketing department. Can you believe it?! It doesn't matter if you have a client base of 10 people or 10,000 people. Ignoring 30% of your leads is a great way to create a sales disaster in your business. At the very least, I'm sure we can all agree that even if your sales are on target, that extra chunk of business can't hurt! Now that we have that surprising stat out of the way, let's discuss what's required in your follow up.

How long do you typically take to get back to a prospect upon receiving an inquiry from them? Anything longer than 24 hours is too long. Your customers are busy people - by taking too long to respond you’re letting go of an otherwise potentially easy sale. ← Click To Tweet The number of salespeople and organizations who let days or weeks pass before responding to an inquiry is absolutely staggering. This type of behavior not only breaks several rules in sales etiquette but also displays a complete lack of professional etiquette as well. If you're looking for the easiest, most foolproof way of losing a sale, just trick yourself into believing that your potential customer will be at your beck and call and ready to buy whenever you feel the urge to reply to them. For example: I once sent an inquiry to a company about buying a tradeshow booth. I expressed a strong interest in their product and indicated that I simply needed a few pieces of information before making a purchase. I expected a prompt reply due to my clear readiness to buy their product.

What's the easiest way to lose control of the sales process? I'm sure you've noticed, many salespeople hold off on presenting their price to a prospective client until the final written proposal. They don’t bring up pricing in person or before a written proposal is sent because they’re afraid to scare away their potential client. Ironically, by following this methodology, they end up scaring away the prospect anyway. If you avoid discussing pricing options until the very last moment, you make it too easy for the prospect to ignore you. They may love everything about you and what you have to offer, but if the amount they see in writing is not something they’re comfortable with, chances are they will simply avoid discussion rather than initiating it and trying to come to a solution. In their mind, it’s much easier to ignore you than to reach out to you for a chance at a better price. Your buyer fears rejection too! When this scenario unfolds, you lose complete control over the sales process and you make it very difficult for yourself to recover from it.

You may be familiar with the salesperson who claims they’re stuck, or complains that things don’t go their way. It’s the individual who never takes accountability for their own actions or results and is always quick to blame, but never ready to accept responsibility. It’s important to understand that you have complete control over your results and the choice always belongs to you. - You choose who to sell to - You choose how to sell - You choose what to sell Unhappy with the market that you are selling to? The onus is on you to find a more profitable market or distinguish yourself in such a way that makes you irresistible to your customers. If your current sales methods aren’t working, it’s your responsibility to discover new approaches and try something different. If your product has flaws that make it difficult to sell, it’s your job to overcome those obstacles as well (or begin selling a product that you are proud of). The problem with many salespeople is that they are able to point out the flaws with everyone and everything else, but aren’t able to self-diagnose anything. Subsequently, the same issues occur, the same mistakes are made and the poor results continue.