Colleen’s Blog

If you own a dog, you know how muddy they get in April. Conrad (our dog) definitely gets his fair share of spring cleaning baths. The good news? Spring brings about new opportunities and fresh beginnings. For example, while April means muddier dogs, it also means many more opportunities for them to get outside and exercise. Let's face it, winter can severely limit their time outdoors. It's also probably why "spring cleaning" exists in the first place. We seem to emulate nature and if the great outdoors are starting fresh, why can't we? It's important to take time to declutter your home, make space for new things and add that "fresh" feeling to your living space. But, are you taking the time to "spring clean" your sales as well? As we start a new quarter, it's as good a time as any to declutter anything that is blocking your sales success.

Out of all the sales rules, there is one in particular that should never be broken. Being loyal to this one single rule can mean the difference between sales success and sales disaster. What is the number one sales rule? Drum roll please! The number one sales rule to follow is to never end your day without taking at least one proactive step to put prospective business in the top of your sales funnel. That means making one call, asking for one referral, sending a letter, an email, or going to a networking event. It doesn't matter what the activity is, it's just important that you are acting proactively and putting yourself in front of probable prospects.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is trying to sell to everyone that comes into your pipeline. I know, it’s intuitive as a salesperson to sell as much as possible, but effective salespeople know how to pick and choose which prospects to sell to. They know the good from the bad. The reality is, not every prospect is an ideal candidate for your product or service. The sooner you learn this important lesson, the sooner you can focus on the prospects that are ideal candidates for you to work with. By selling to anyone and everyone, you are setting yourself up for huge customer service problems in the future. ← Click To Tweet

Is your business experiencing wild swings in revenue? Contrary to popular belief, putting too much emphasis on closing business is actually counterproductive to increasing your revenues. Every time you close a sale you should be adding three to four more leads to your pipeline. When you’re concentrating too much on closing business it detracts focus from gaining new leads. Before long, you will have no new leads to close business with, and this is what causes swings in revenue or sales whiplash, as I like to call it! Don't worry, dear sellers, there are ways to avoid having this. Are you wondering how you can attain consistent revenue?