23 Tips

How many of these are you going to do?

This is from SalesDog.com:

Before You Complain About the Economy...

by Colleen Francis

I think we can agree that the economy is still unstable. While some companies are flourishing, others are suffering. Likewise some sales professionals are exceeding their goals and others, I would say about 75%, are crying about their poor results and blaming the economy.

I see it every day, with sales rep after sales rep not achieving their goals asking for advice on how to sell in a slow market. The first comment I make to all of them is this:

"If your market has slowed and you have slowed with it, you will soon be out of business. So tell me, what have you done to ramp up activity this year?"

Usually that question is met with silence and then another complaint about how no one is buying.

"No one?"

Of course some people are buying, someone always is. So my question to you is this:

"If your market has slowed to a crawl, or maybe only half of your market's buyers are buying, what are you doing to ramp up your activity — working both smarter and harder — to capture a greater share of sales in your slowed market?"

Sadly, it's been my experience that most salespeople give up when their markets slow down. They resign themselves to the fact that it's going to be a bad year and they don't even try to hit their quotas.

A very few refuse to wave the white flag. These top performers attack their markets with vigor. They approach more prospects with new and increased sales activities. These are the few reps who, even in a bad market, are selling more.

I met one of those types recently. Mike is selling to home builders, renovators and consumers, arguably a down market. His sales are up 200% this year because he is, as he said, "powering through this economy and out hustling my competition."

So, before you complain about the economy hurting your sales I need to ask: Are you taking any of the following actions?

1. Reach out to your current client database at least twice per month with a value-based, content-rich newsletter.

2. Attend at least 1 networking event per week.

3. Ask for referrals at least once per day.

4. Follow up on your leads at least 7 times by email and 7 times by phone before you give up.

5. Prospect every day to keep your funnel full. A full funnel is one full of opportunities totaling 300% of your goal.

6. Identify new target markets to sell to.

7. Attend trade shows regularly and follow up with the leads within 24 hours.

8. Make 5 more calls every day.
9. Implement a reactivation campaign to win back lost customers.

10. Revise your goals for the month, quarter and year.

11. Change your presentation to place the customer's values first and your corporate marketing messages last. Remember clients only care about what's important to them.

12. Talk to your five best customers. Ask them to evaluate your situation and make suggestions for new markets.

13. Get a coach or a mentor. Invest in a live training program and network with other professionals for a new perspective.

14. Get to work an hour before everyone. Put in more productive time.

15. Stay away from the complainers. Don't make your sales worse by hanging around the life suckers and underachievers.

16. Each night before you go to bed, make a list of 20 things that happened that day that you are excited about or proud of.

17. Spend 15 minutes before you start work reading materials that focus on developing your positive attitude. Search for blogs or online sources, or start a classic book from Napoleon Hill. Skip the newspaper!

18. If you travel, listen to motivational or educational CDs in the car ALL DAY. Make sure your mp3 player is also loaded with motivational CD's for listening in airports, train stations and while traveling.

19. Record your live presentations. Review them with a manager, a superstar colleague or your coach. Take notes. Implement new ideas immediately.

20. Ride along with the best salesperson you know and watch how they communicate with clients. Implement what they do into your sales approach.

21. Take your boss with you on calls for a week. Or ask them to listen in on your sales phone calls. You'll get more feedback than you can handle, but it will help.

22. Record your calls and listen to them. Would you buy from you?

23. Tweet, blog or update your social media status with a value message or inspirational message daily.

You can change your results in any economy. Just look at Mike!

Once you accept the fact that you can change your results, you can begin to recover one step at a time. Don't try all 23 ideas at once. Simply pick one or two new ideas per week. Implement them every day for seven days. Master them. Own them. Continue to use them as you pick two more the next week. Soon you will own your market.

Believe in yourself. I do.

Colleen Francis, Sales Expert, is Founder and President of Engage Selling Solutions.

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