You're Going To Be Great At This!

Let's assume that you have appointments on your calendar. )If you don't, we'll have to address that in another post.) If you hustle and network pretty well, you can manage to get 3-5 appointments a day on your calendar. And we'll assume that a couple of them will cancel or stand you up, so now you have some downtime. What should you do in that free hour or so you have? Here are some suggestions. Set an objective for your next appointment. What is it you plan to achieve in your appointment? If this is your first time meeting the prospect you may just want to introduce yourself and see if there's a need for your product or service. In my world (insurance) I will try to do some fact finding and "open" a case. Whatever your goal is, think of it before you go in willy nilly. Evaluate your previous appointment. A good golfer will always take a few seconds after a shot to review and critique themselves. The same goes for you. As yourself basic questions. Did...

People have told me that I'm a funny guy. I take that as a compliment because my sense of humor has come in handy on many occasions. In school I was typically one of the smaller kids in my class and got picked on quite a bit, and humor was a good way to diffuse a threatening situation. I'm not advocating that you dress like a clown or act silly. The goal of using humor is to lighten the mood and maybe get a smile. When I got into sales I found that a quip helped me get a smile from a prospect. People like to laugh and it helps immensely to get them on your side. With that in mind, here are a few pointers I've learned. It puts your client at ease . If you're always serious, people will stay away from you. And the minute someone discovers that they are dealing with a salesperson they put up their defenses. A smile and a funny comment about something innocuous like the weather will tell your prospect to let down their guard.   It relieves the tension when discussin...

If you're in sales or self-employed, you probably want more business. One of the best ways to improve your sales is to network. I'm not talking about using social media sites like LinkedIn, but physically meeting people in person. So if you're planning on attending a chamber after hours or realtors' association event? Consider a few things before going.   Relationship selling is better than transactional selling. People who network build relationships. If your sales are just transactions, your clients won't have any reason to stay loyal to you as a customer. I have built relationships with people at networking events that have led to them becoming clients or great sources of referrals. I'm not going to get those kinds of results by just asking people to buy, like car lots do. I want to get to know my prospects needs, personally, professionally and financially. Go to networking events often . Here again, you won't build any of the above mentioned relation...

Over the course of my insurance career, a few years involved helping people with their auto insurance. I cut my teeth on life and health insurance, so selling auto coverage involved obtaining a Property and Casualty license. I passed the exam, as well as a kidney stone, on the same day. Both were extremely painful. I was used to working a specific market, mostly B2B sales. Needless to say, my learning curve was different when all of a sudden I was dealing with the general public. It was like retail all over again. And the reason I got out of retail was because I wanted a career where I could choose who my customers would be.  Generally speaking, it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. I started out as a "staff member" in a well-known large insurance office. The clients were pretty good and I was supposed to call the current book of business to discuss life and health insurance, but it didn't work out. I was offered a job at a "substandard" auto insur...