You're Going To Be Great At This!

With Thanksgiving here, I made a short list of things that people in sales should be grateful for.  Yes, sales is hard. It can be lonely, demotivating and hard. But there are a few things that make a career in sales totally worthwhile.   You choose who your clientele is . This may be partially true, depending on your industry. In the insurance business, I decide who I want to deal with. For me personally, I enjoy working with business owners and entrepreneurs. Others may want to work with senior citizens, or the special needs market. My years of working retail, where you had to deal with anyone who walked through the door, helped me decide that I wanted a career where I could choose my customers.  You can set your own schedule . Want to take a week off? Do it. Need a sick day? Take it. I will stay up at all hours of the night working on marketing, scheduling, paperwork, etc, so I can have time off during the day for family time (when they are awake). Remember, you ha...

Back in my old financial advisor days, there were certain things that made most of the people in our industry angry. At the top of the list were "financial gurus" who made appearances on radio and TV. These "experts" gave generic, blanket advice which was meaningless, but they made a great deal of money in appearances and book sales. Why was their advice bad? Because they conveniently omitted something that we, as financial professionals, knew: Everyone is different! When it came to our clients, incomes, risk tolerances, ages, goals (personal, professional, financial) and family situations were all different. And the only way to know what the client's needs were was to ask questions and keep asking even more questions. For instance, how many kids did they have? Were they planning on funding the kids' education? What was in their budget to spend on insurance, investments, etc? Did they even have a budget? Did they work? When did they want to retire? And s...

I attended my first official sales training class right out of college. About 60 people from all walks of life were put up in a hotel for 2 weeks. Each Monday through Friday, we would go to an office building a few blocks up the road and sit in a classroom, where we'd hear lectures on how to keep the prospect's attention or memorizing countless rebuttals when the client didn't want to buy. We were even taught some things that I considered a bit sinister, like how to get a little old lady to open the door to her home when she didn't know us from Adam. Here are some takeaways from various sales training classes/schools.  Some will focus on product only . In my opinion, this stinks. I worked for a large insurance carrier who didn't tell us how to find prospects, but wanted us to know how to explain their rather large portfolio of products. That's great if you have a client, but trying to figure out how to find these people on my created a long and horrible le...

The amount of turnover in a sales career is enormous, and for various reasons, which I'll discuss in next week's blog. But given than certain industries lose up to 90% of their sales people in the first year of employment should tell you that something is terribly amiss. However, there are those people who stay in sales and are successful. They are a different breed altogether. Entrepreneurial and driven, they manage to hold out for the next sale. What makes these people tick and what keeps them moving forward? Here are a few possibilities. It's like a game for them . When I got my first real sales job, video games were just getting popular. Our manager told us that we should compete against ourselves and beat our personal "high score". As a decent video game player I was intrigued by this logic.  My forte was a game called Crazy Climber, wherein you helped a guy scale buildings while avoiding things like flower pots and bird crap, and I wanted to beat my pe...

I mention in my book that referrals are always a great way to grow your business, and I also prefer networking events because I can actually meet someone and let them know I'm credible. But one of the most tragic things I've seen over the years is people buying leads and then complaining about how horrible they were. Let's take a look at why buying leads is a bad move. It's almost a cold call . It's tough to explain to someone who you are, how you got their name and number, and make an appointment. The person you are contacting may have simply clicked a box indicating interest in a product, not expecting a phone call from a salesperson. I have had too many frustrated people on the other end of a call on these occasions.  You really don't know where the leads are coming from . Are they verified? Are they leads or just names from phone book? (Yes, this happens). I worked in an office years ago where sales people were complaining that some of the leads were ...

We often get a business card from someone at a networking meeting with the intention of calling the person, only to put the card in our pocket and not following up. Maybe you lost the card or you put it on a desk with a pile of other cards. For whatever reason, the follow up never happens. This is why we need a sales system. There are all kinds of systems out there, from expensive CRM's to spreadsheets to filing cards. There are basic elements to all of them so try a few out and see what works for you. In the meantime, here's what you need to know. Sales is a process . You don't typically meet someone and sell them something immediately. You'll need to aggregate your prospects and move them through the process. If you have lots of prospects (and I hope you do), they'll eventually be at different stages. You'll be trying to just get appointments with some while others will be ready to close. Much like juggling, keeping track of all of your prospects and c...

Those of us in the business have heard lots of sales adages and proverbs. Some are relevant and some are just obvious. Below are a few of my favorites. Never discuss religion or politics with a client .  Not only do I agree with this, but I wish more people on social media would heed this advice as well. There's nothing more awkward than finally sitting with that whale of a client and going straight into the buzzsaw of "And which church do you attend?" I attend church, but I'm not here to talk to you about my beliefs, religious or political. I just want to get down to business! Stack 'em high and watch 'em fly. (retail) Back in my mall days, we would fill a table full of merchandise and "watch 'em fly". You've probably seen this technique at your local Wal-Mart, especially near the electronics department. Bins full of DVD's or other stuff are designed that way to get your attention. If it wasn't for people it would be the eas...