photo credit: Manchester Library

After sharing my excitement about a newsletter I faithfully read I got to feeling guilty about leaving you on the hook.  Here I have your curiosity peaked you want to know “what newsletter is she talking about?’ and then I never tell you.  Well the newsletter I’m so excited about is written by the infamous Clayton Makepeace.  Now if you aren’t a copywriter you may not know who he is, however, if you are he’s the “big kahuna of copywriting”.

There are two ways to get the success you want: the hard way and the smart way.  What if rather than doing it the hard way where you’ve been told:

• it’s just a numbers game
• you have to make more calls today than you did yesterday
• if you slug it out, after two years it’ll somehow suddenly get easier
• you just need to get your name out there
• you just have to get in front of more people

…you could do it the smart way.
If you’ve survived the critical first 4 years you know all that is poppycock.  However, you may still struggle  focused  more on the hard way than the smart way.  How would you like to take off like a rocket and never look back?  Well, you can…

• when you know how to crank up your power of attraction
• when you know how to focus on the business that’ll make you the most profit
• when you have systems in place working for you even when you aren’t working

If you’d like to learn more specific details about working smarter, click on this link to discover the 7 Secrets .  Savvy entrepreneurs like you know when it’s time to  stop trying to race a  mule  when you could  be riding  an  Arabian.  You  aren’t afraid to blaze your own trail when you know it will halve your travel time.

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems”

Gandhi

Never fear adapting what works in another industry to succeed in your industry, rather fear doing the same thing as everyone else in your industry.  

photo credit: CJ Sorg

I can’t wait.  It’s the first week of the month and that means I can expect my favorite newsletter to arrive in my mailbox by Friday of this week.  Secretly every day this week I’ll anticipate the arrival of the mail hoping it might show up early.

The day it arrives I put everything aside and rip open the envelop with gleeful anticipation.  It’s like having a mystery box arrive in my mailbox filled with unexpected goodies.  Who knows what treasures I’ll find inside!  I can’t wait to devour yet savor every single word.

Is that how your newsletter recipients feel about your newsletter?  Most businesses in the service industry have a newsletter.  It’s a really good idea if you know why you have one and what you want to accomplish through it.

The purpose of your newsletter is to extend and strengthen your relationship with prospects and clients.  It keeps you in front of them on a regular basis.   For clients, it reinforces their good decision and makes them feel good about you.  When you do it well your newsletter leads to more business and referrals.

How do you get your newsletter to do what you want it to?  As Patsi Krakoff  points out, when your newsletter doesn’t grab the interest of your readers it’s a wasted effort.  If you don’t show them with their very first newsletter it’s worth their time they’ll throw every issue after that directly in the garbage unopened.  OUCH!  A costly mistake.

Here are a few questions you can ask to stimulate how you develop your newsletter.  When you’re deciding what you’ll write about, how you’ll put your newsletter together, and the actions you want them to take because they’ve read your newsletter ask yourself these questions.

• How can I build curiosity around what I want to communicate?
• What unanswered questions do my readers have, and how can I answer one of those questions?
• How can I use a story to make my point in an interesting way?
• What existing beliefs can I reinforce through the content I’m sharing?
• How can I make them laugh about themselves or their circumstances?

“There are things of deadly earnest that can only be safely mentioned under cover of a joke”

J. J. Procter

Imagine your readers waiting by their mail boxes in anticipation for your newsletter.  Just like me, they save every issue and wouldn’t think of giving even one away.  But they will tell others about it, and they’ll tell them how to get their own issue.  It’s the Law of Reciprocity working in your favor.

Communication is measured by the action produced.   How can one of your readers reach out to you?  When they do how will you measure the response your request for action produced?  Complete the circle.  Build the interest, ask for action, measure the results.   

photo credit: cecilsav

Yes, selling insurance can be a fun and positive experience.  Contrary to your experience of being shunned and abused.  You may feel like you have a sign on your back that says, “take all your pent up frustrations out on me” because that’s how it seems people react to you.  Unfortunately, you’re getting the exact reaction you’ve earned because you haven’t figured out how to get people wanting to talk to you…until now.

Interrupt.  Whether you’re cold calling on the phone or in-person, networking, or utilizing marketing promotions you have a tiny opportunity to positively interrupt the person you want to communicate with.  And that’s exactly what you have to do.  You have to abruptly interrupt there current existence, and get them to pay attention to you.  Using the other persons name is one of the easiest ways to do that.  When you don’t know their name then the next best thing is to get their attention by calling out to the specific group they belong to such as: ladies, agents, small business owners in Omaha, Ne.

Engage.  Now you’ve been on the receiving end of more sales pitches than you’ve probably given, so what usually happens?

Hint, when it does you immediately and angrily disengage.

The sales person metaphorically pukes on you.  They immediately go into this big spiel about who they are and what they can do for you.

WHO CARES????

Questions are engaging.  Rather than telling try asking.  Use open ended questions to ask a about something relevant to what they want.  You like to ask questions like, “how long has it been since your last insurance review?”

NO, NO, NO.
Your question is about you.  If you want to engage them it has to be about them and something they’re interested in.

Attract.  I’ve yet to ever hear anyone say, “I just couldn’t sleep last night thinking about how I just had to buy life insurance first thing in the morning.”  And neither will you.  However, I have heard people express their concern about all kinds things that are important to them.  As soon as you provide a way to give people what they want they’ll be attracted to you.  One of the things they want is information about how to get what they want.

Increase sales through your communication.  The purpose of communication isn’t helping others to understand you and what you do.  The purpose of communication is to produce an action.  However, you can’t communicate with anyone until you interrupt them, engage them, and give them what they want.

photo credit: Rob Lee

Yes, attitude is important.  A salesperson with a poor attitude won’t ever experience the success they could.  However, a super duper ever so positive attitude alone won’t make you successful.  These are what Robert Ringer refers to as the “all show and no dough” folks.  Strive for a confident positive attitude that makes you a pleasant person to be around.

Attitudes drive your behaviors and your behaviors drive your results.  And that’s why a bad attitude is so dangerous to you.  When you’re thinking to yourself, “I don’t know why I’m even meeting with this person they’ll never buy anyway” you’ve just determined the outcome of that appointment before you even shake hands.  All throughout the appointment your behaviors will shout your attitude so loud it will be as though you’ve actually said it to the prospect.  Consequently the prospect won’t buy and you get the result you predicted.

Sales requires knowledge.  In many cases you can’t even legally speak to a prospect until you’ve demonstrated you have the minimum required knowledge.  But once you’ve got that knowledge you need to run with it.  When you spot a sales person who has to know everything before they can possibly meet with a prospect you’ve just met a sales person who will never get off the ground.

Sales is a highly rewarded skill.  Observing an average sales person and a top producer doing the same thing is like listening to a piano recital in contrast to a concert.  It’s hard to even tell the same thing is supposed to be happening.

Combine your attitudes with your knowledge and developed skills and you’ll increase sales.  Knowledge is the easy part.  It’s the attitudes and skills that take time and experience to acquire.  And it’s easier to acquire those attitudes and skills with personal help spaced over time than it is on your own.

It never hurts to have a few tools to make things easier.  Jill Konrath is sharing some tools  for presentations and cold calling.  Take a look.

photo credit: Thunder Thumbs

My father was the quintessential salesperson. He believed completely in his product. He was confident but not arrogant. He truly cared about the well-being of his prospects and clients. And they knew it. It was a pleasure to watch him interact with his customers.  Needless to say, he was very successful.

Let’s explore each of these aspects of the successful salesperson in more detail.

1. Belief in one’s product or service.

If you are going to sell something, you should believe it is the best thing out there. Understand what makes it stand out; what its benefits truly are. Be realistic. If there is something better on the market  - know what it is and what makes it better. Then ask yourself – can I really sell my product?

I don’t know about you, but I would find it difficult to sell something I didn’t believe in completely.  What you believe emanates from you. If you aren’t completely sold, people will know it. Then they won’t want what you have to sell.

On a separate note, your knowledge of and belief in your product will provide you with your marketing message. What you know and believe about your product or service is what you want to share with others. Small business owners have an advantage here. They believed so much in something that they were compelled to start a business around it. All that is left for them to do is share.

2. Confidence not arrogance

This is critically important. Being confident – in yourself, in your product or service, in your message – is essential. However, being overly confident or arrogant will destroy you. Arrogance leads people to ‘sell’. To talk instead of listen. After all, they believe they know best.

You simply have to think about your experiences with arrogant people to know this is true. They’re self-absorbed but not self-aware. A confident person doesn’t have anything to prove. They possess a depth of belief so they don’t feel the need to convince anyone of anything. You see, arrogance is born from insecurity – it’s overcompensating for what one doesn’t know or believe.

3. Truly care about the well-being of your prospects and clients

It is this caring that creates an environment where you are actively listening, and processing what you are hearing. You are realistic, honest, and capable of seeing things from the client’s point of view. It’s basic respect. You aren’t trying to ‘sell’ them. Rather, you are trying to help them solve a problem.

You care about their well-being when you:

            -Care that they get their problem solved – whether YOU can solve it or not

            -Care that they pay a fair price

            -Care that they make an informed (not coerced) decision

You can see how when you believe in your product or service, are confident in yourself, as well as your message, and care about your client’s well-being, you will develop outstanding relationships. It is those relationships that will bring you quality business for years to come.

Copyright© 2007 Seize This Day Coaching

Diane Helbig is a Professional Coach and the president of Seize This Day Coaching. Helbig works with salespeople, small business owners, and entrepreneurs, helping them realize success as they define it. Diane is also the Co-Founder of Seize True Success, a coaching practice dedicated to working with franchisees. Diane is a Contributing Editor on COSE Mindspring, a resource website for small business owners, as well as a member of the Sales Experts Panel at www.topsalesexperts.com. To learn more or schedule a complimentary discovery session, visit www.seizethisdaycoaching.com or www.seizetruesuccess.com.

photo credit: visualpanic

Click on this link and read the wonderful article by Clayton Makepeace.   I’m serious I want you to read his article first.  Not only will you get a good chuckle, but you’ll learn a valuable lesson.  Go read his article, and then come back here to read further.

Wasn’t that article a delight?  Have you noticed Top Producers always seem to have a smile on their faces and something positive to say about just about everything?  Have you also noticed that those in the bottom 20% have a similar reaction to something good as the little girl in Clayton’s story?  Did you know that pessimism and optimism are both habits?

Yep, pessimism is a bad habit that you can break.  Even though it may be an ingrained habit you can change it by simply:

• identifying how acting like and responding like a pessimist is rewarding to you
• identifying what you’d get out of being optimistic instead of pessimistic
• carefully watching out for those pessimistic behaviors and actions, and immediately changing them mid-thought or mid-act into a positive form 

All this takes place in that critical 6 inches between your ears.  As long as you can’t see yourself as a Top Producer you won’t be.  However, once you sell yourself on the idea that you can be a Top Producer you will be.

Get your head in the game before you go out on the field.  Sell yourself on:

• why and how you add value to your clients
• why your ideal clients should want to work with you and only you
• why your solution is exactly right for them
• why your clients are cheating themselves if they don’t take action now
• how you’re cheating both yourself and your best prospects by not helping them to become clients

So, given your new optimism…

• how can you turn your current situations into an advantage for you?
• how will you help yourself become a Top Producer?
• how will you help others to help you become a Top Producer?

photo credit: jaycoxfilm

7 things you can do to become a goal getter.  Have you noticed how Top Producers seem to consistently hit their goals?  Have you wondered why they hit their goals when you don’t?  Now you too can set goals and get them on a consistent basis.

First - set your own goals.  While Top Producers may be influenced by others and take what they have to say into consideration they only set the goals they want to set.  That means they never allow a company or sales manager to establish either their goals or the specific targets they want to hit.

Second - focus on the ultimate outcome.  For most people, even Top Producers, numbers alone aren’t all that motivating.  Your goals should be so exciting for you so motivating for you that you’re like you were when you were a little kid marking off and counting down the days until a major holiday.  It’s never the numbers themselves that have you on the edge of your seat in anticipation eagerly and tirelessly taking action.  It’s the outcomes those numbers produce in terms of what hitting those numbers allows you to do.

Third - your goals are written and actionable.  You’ve heard a thousand times that you need to write your goals down, however, simply writing them down isn’t working for you.  Top Producers makes certain the goals they write down are written in sufficient detail so they know the specific actions to take, and they track and measure their progress toward completion.  Fuzzy or hazy goals produce equivalent results.

Four - plan your way around the obstacles.  Top Producers know they can expect the unexpected in addition to the things they can predict will get in their way.  The best way to attain success is to plan for success by planning how you’ll work around anything and everything that gets in your way.

Five - adopt, adapt, act.  When a Top Producer is exposed to an idea that is in alignment with what they want to accomplish they ask, “how could I adopt and adapt this idea in my business?”  Most of the most profitable ideas will come from taking an idea from another industry and applying it to your business.  Never exactly copy any idea and never ever exactly copy an idea from a peer.  Without adaptation the idea will never produce the results for you that it does for the originator.  No matter what, the biggest secret to goal getting and results is action.

Six - focus.  No matter what a Top Producer stays focused on the prize.  How you get there can and will change, but your focus shouldn’t.  Your focus should be on the ultimate outcome.  Be willing to adapt how you get there.

Seven - accountability.  Top Producers hold themselves accountable.  They don’t set themselves up for failure by committing to actions they know they won’t take.  Just like you there are certain things they don’t like, don’t want to do, and don’t feel they’re good at.  Just like you they know there are many things they do like, they will do, and that they feel competent at.  It makes more sense to build your plans around those things, the things you know you will do, than trying to fool yourself into thinking you’ll make yourself do the things you don’t want to do.

photo credit: keepitsurreal

Will you attend a conference, trade show, or seminar at some point this year?  Most sales people will and they will miss out on a lot of opportunities.  Why?  Because you won’t prepare to turn the connections you make into something more.

When you go to any event you want to promote yourself in a way that makes a positive impression.  An easy way for you to do this is to take something mundane and make it interesting and unique.  You garner interesting simply by developing a different take on something standard making it unexpected.

Your business card is one of the easiest ways for you to gain interest.  Make sure your business card isn’t the same boring business card that everyone else hands out.  One of the easiest things you can do is use the back of the business card to provide something more than just your contact information like you find on the front of your business card.  Use the back of your card to:

• have a picture or drawing that demonstrates the benefit you provide and that you can use as a talking point
• give them something more they can get by going to your website or emailing you deepening their connection to you
• have something interesting, surprising, or intriguing that the recipient will be curious about and want to know more about

Getting attention is just the first step in developing your edge.  The more important next step is gaining their interest.  The people you meet, like you, will be interested in things that benefit them.

The great thing about these events is you have an opportunity to make face-to-face connections that you might otherwise struggle to get.  Don’t waste this opportunity by not having a next step connection already planned out.  When you’re thinking about the next step think about something that adds value to the person you want to connect with.

The next step is something more. 

• What do your prospects want?
• How can you give them something they want?  If you provide them a way to reach out to you to get what they want, and it’s something that really benefits them they will reach out to you.
• And isn’t that a whole lot easier than chasing after people who don’t want to talk to you?

Develop an edge that helps you to increase sales by helping others to be interested in you.

photo credit: Novecentino

Do you have a business or did you buy yourself a job?  The reality is many of you bought yourself a low paying job.  And you’re getting very little satisfaction or reward from this job you call a business.

No matter what service related industry you’re in there is at least one aspect of your business that you either are already really excited about or you could be really excited about.  It may only represent a tiny portion of your business now, however, if it were to represent the bulk of your business you’d be living your dream business.  You could be living that dream business right now if you’d just allow yourself to do it.

What is it about that aspect or area of your business that makes you so passionate about it?  I’ll bet it excites you because of what you’ve seen it can do for the people you work with.  Perhaps, it made such a dramatic impact on your life it led you to get into the business you’re in.  Could you summarize the big ultimate outcome this aspect of your business produces for people you work with in one or two sentences?  The secret to marketing yourself is in this statement.

Are you getting excited just thinking about it?  Now be careful because here’s the part where many a sales professional messes things up for themselves.  You’re so excited about what you have to offer you can hardly contain yourself, and when a prospect shows even a little interest in what you have to say you get all wound up and start spinning like a top telling the prospect everything about it.  Hold off cowboy/cowgirl!  You have to connect what you have with what the highly qualified prospect wants.  AKA slow down and allow them to help you unravel your story.

Position yourself as the expert.  This will be easy for you to do because you’re already very interested in this area of your business.  Now you just need to connect your knowledge to the specific things your prospects want.  As the expert you never ever want to try and impress your prospects with a bunch of industry gobbledy-gook.  A real expert makes the difficult easy, the complicated simple, and the confusing clear.  That’s how you really impress upon your prospects that you are the expert.

Now this is the scary part about getting your dream.  You need to switch your focus from trying to attract and work with everyone to trying to attract and work with someone.  Start setting your sites and adapting your prospecting efforts to attract the highly qualified prospects who will most benefit from and appreciate your expertise.  This little shift will increase your sales and make your dreams a reality.

photo credit: bbaunach

How many times have you walked away from an appointment and wanted to just kick yourself in the behind.  You got to the end of the appointment, the point where you needed to ask for the sale and your mouth was full of cotton your throat was so constricted you couldn’t breath and your heart was pounding so hard in your ears not only couldn’t you hear but you thought your ears would catch on fire at any second right there in front of everyone.  Now you think the trouble started at this point, however, the problems really started from the beginning.

What is the first thing you need to do in any appointment?  Introduce or re-introduce yourself to the prospect and establish rapport.   The purpose of establishing rapport is to help the prospect to like you.

When you don’t take the time or make the effort to establish rapport you become an adversary rather than a trusted adviser.  Have you ever been to a used car dealership?  When my oldest son was shopping his first car we had an experience that demonstrates this perfectly.  We drove on the lot, got out of the car, and walked over to a car that might have been an option.  The sales guy walks up to me as we’re looking at the car and asks, “why don’t you buy it?”

What a stupid way to introduce himself and try and establish rapport.  For some reason he thought he could start with the close.  I was highly offended by such a ridiculous question, and immediately left the lot.  I realize you don’t have this problem because you aren’t asking for the close at all, however, one reason you can’t ask for the close is because you know you haven’t established rapport with the prospect.

As you establish rapport you want to position yourself to partner with the prospect not to sell them.  Let’s go back and revisit my son’s car buying experience and examine the sales experience with another sales person.  This time we pulled into the lot, got out of the car, and started walking around looking for a potential car.  The salesman comes over to my son and says, “I realize you’re probably just looking around at this point, however, I can help you narrow your search and save you some time if you can tell me what you’re looking for in a car.”  He then says, “I’m pretty familiar with the inventory of the surrounding dealers, so if I don’t have what you need I can probably point you in the right direction.”  Wow, what a difference!

This “salesperson” did not position himself as a salesperson at all, but rather as an assistant buyer.  I’d suspect the first guy has skinny kids and this guy’s kids are well taken care of.   Throughout the buying experience it was simply a matter of this not that, and when it came time to close it was another this not that choice.  The salesman says to my son, “am I correct that this is the car that best suites your needs?”  To which my sons responds positively.  The sales person has established small agreements throughout the conversation, it’s obvious the buyer is highly motivated to buy, and their is trust and understanding between them.  So, the sales person wraps it up with a bow by asking, “would you like to drive the car home with you now, or would you prefer I deliver it at a time and location convenient for you tomorrow?’  Final sale.

This not that works just as well with services as products. 

• You start the relationship as the helper.
• You guide the prospect to make best choices.
• You clearly define the desired outcome.
• You establish a strong motivation to act and act now
• You provide choices for the “yes” decision

There isn’t any need to feel uncomfortable because you’re working together.  They may reject a choice, but they aren’t rejecting you.  You may discover they aren’t a match for you, however, when they are a match they aren’t afraid you’re going to push them into doing something they don’t want to do.   Both you and the prospect are comfortable closing the sales because you’re helping them to get what they want.
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