In the last post we talked about attitudes.  I pointed out that rather than trying to change your attitudes, which are simply the way you look at things based on your values, you are better served accepting your attitudes and using those attitudes to motivate the actions that produce results.  There is nothing wrong with you, or the way you think.  You are uniquely positioned to fulfill your dreams.

There are four core aspects involved in your ability to sell.  Attitudes is one of those aspects.  The other aspects include: knowledge, skills, and habits.

Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills, Habits

Most people think knowledge is the most important when it comes to sales.  Knowledge involves both knowing your product or service, and knowing what to do to produce the sales results you want.  Far too many people waste precious time and miss tremendous opportunities because they think they have to know every gory detail about their product or service.

You could sell all the products and services you want knowing little more than a bare minimum about the details of your product or service.  This is true because your prospects don’t care what your product or service is.  Your prospects only care about what your product or service does that’s important to them.

“Knowing” what to do to sell couldn’t be simpler.  All you have to do to sell your product or service is:

• get in front of people interested in what you can do for them
• set appointments with those people
• help those people make a good buying decision
• maintain your relationship
•  earn referrals

There are literally thousands of books on selling.  You could pick any one and “know” what you need to know to sell, for the most part.  However; there’s a BIG difference between knowing what to do, and knowing “how” to do it.

Skill > Knowledge

That’s why skill is much more important that knowledge.  Skill is knowing how to do what you know you need to do.  Skill is where the disconnect happens.

Most people find it very difficult to read, hear, or watch someone else doing what they know they need to do, and then TRANSLATING that knowledge into their own skill set.  Skill involves:

• taking a concept and applying that concept specifically to your needs
• adapting words and actions to fit with your attitudes
• confidence gained through successful repetition

In sports there are lots of players who know the rules, know how the game is played, and know what they are supposed to do.  Most players never get beyond an average skill level when it comes to implementing their knowledge of the sport.  The very best players develop superior skills not because they have greater knowledge.

The very best players develop superior skills because they work closely with a coach who is able to help them achieve greater skill levels than they ever could on their own.   The coach sees the players blind spots, they help the player build on their strengths and work around their weaknesses.  The coach serves as their rapid translator and skill refiner.  Players who work individually with a coach develop superior skills faster than those who don’t.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself 

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

A lot of people get caught up in the idea they need to improve their attitudes or the attitudes of others.  The perceived solution to a poor attitude is motivational training.  How well does that work?

The thing about listening to a motivational speaker or participating in motivational training is it is motivating at the time.  Yet it has almost no long-term impact.  This reality is through no fault of the speaker or trainer.  It’s entirely the result of understanding what attitudes are and are not.

Attitudes are nothing more than your world view or opinion of something.  Your attitude helps explain why you behave the way you behave, yet your attitude is not a strong predictor of future behaviors.  I realize that might sound confusing so please allow me to explain.

Even though you may have a positive attitude about the assumptive close technique your attitude does not predict the likelihood you will demonstrate that behavior in your sales conversations.  While you view the assumptive close favorably that positive attitude does not necessarily mean you will use it.

Here’s the big catch.  Motivational training or speaking tries to help you change your attitude or world view about an action or idea.  However, that’s not likely to happen and here’s why.

From birth to now you have had experiences.  Those experiences repeated over time, and the experiences that had a dramatic impact over you transformed into a set of values.  Those values are basically the standards you choose to live by because of your previous experiences and beliefs.

What you value transforms into a set of attitudes that create your personal views.  You behave the way you do to fulfill your attitudes.  An adult is highly unlikely to change their attitudes no matter what because those attitudes are based on what you value.  True changes in attitude only come about because of major events that completely change your beliefs and values.

So rather than trying to change your attitudes you need to realize your attitudes are the drivers that make you who you are.  There is nothing wrong with your attitude.  You simply need to use your attitudes in a way that best serves you.

There are 6 attitudes that cause you to behave in certain ways because those behaviors demonstrate your values.  You are driven to fulfill your top 2 attitudes.  These top 2 attitudes are the most important to you and for you.  According to Eduard Spranger the 6 attitudes include:

• Utilitarian - you value usefulness and return on your investments
• Theoretical - you value knowledge and truth
• Social - you value others and serving others
• Individual - you value position and power
• Traditional - you value systems, order, tradition, and unity
• Aesthetic - you value beauty, harmony, balance, and feeling

72% of all people who succeed in sales have a strong utilitarian attitude.  You value money and are driven to take actions that produce it.  However, any attitude can succeed in sales.  It’s just a matter of structuring the way you implement sales so you feed your values and attitudes to produce those sales results.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

If you listen to most sales trainers, Sales Managers, and countless authors of sales books… you would think closing is the most important skill in sales.  Yet, scientific proof demonstrates typical sales closing techniques are ineffective and down right damaging to your sales success.  Here’s why.

The closing techniques taught by those sales trainers and authors are very effective at shortening the sales cycle and increasing sales when AND ONLY when you are selling relatively low cost products.  When you try those same techniques to sell an expensive product or service you FAIL.  You fail because those closing techniques pressure the prospect to buy.  Prospects will NOT be PRESSURED into making a buying decision when there is a lot on the line.  In fact, once you attempt to pressure the prospect to close the sale you dramatically increase the odds you walk away without a sale today and with no hope for a sale in the future.

All because you crossed the line and destroyed your opportunity to open a relationship with the other person.

Here’s where the confusion really reigns.  Most people think closing is about pressuring the prospect into making a commitment to purchase.  WRONG sales breath.  That is not what closing is about.

Closing is Obtaining a Commitment from the Prospect to take an Action

Please reread that definition.  Okay, now that you’ve read that again I want to make certain you understand why this is the definition you want to live by.  Low cost products are sold in a single encounter.

You don’t go to the store to buy batteries and walk away telling the store clerk you have to think it over.  No; you go to the store find the right battery, take those batteries to the register for checkout, pay the clerk, and leave.  End of story.

High ticket product and service sales almost always involve a multi-step process.  The idea you would meet and ask for the sale on the first appointment is almost ludicrous.  It might happen on rare occasions but you certainly don’t expect that as standard practice.  And if you try to shorten the sales cycle by pushing to close the purchase then you also shorten the time it takes to get to “no sale” because you are forcing the issue and offending the prospect.

When you move into big sales you can usually anticipate the sales process will go through 4 phases.  In the first phase you introduce your solution and open the conversation.  In phase two you determine relevance and specific needs.  In phase three you demonstrate your ability to produce your solution.  In the final phase you obtain a commitment.

Another thing you will notice about the definition for closing that I’ve used here is that it isn’t specific to the sale.  Due to the very fact that large sales often involve more than one meeting you need a way to successfully conclude every interaction.  Each interaction should CLOSE by concluding with a plan for the prospect to commit to an action.  Both you and the prospect must have a clear understanding of what happens next at the end of every interaction.

The way you successfully close an interaction is by setting the right objectives for action.  Simply gaining agreement for a future meeting isn’t enough.  There are 4 ways a sales conversation is likely to close.

1. Money in the bank - you gain a client and earn the sale
2. Next steps -  the prospect agrees to take an action that moves them closer to a purchase decision
3. No commitment - you didn’t get the sale and the prospect did not agree to an action that moves the sale forward
4. No sale - you will not be doing business together

Money in the bank and next steps are successful objectives for closing the interaction.  No sale is also a success because you know you need to move on and find another prospect.  No commitment is an absolute failure because you are either allowing the prospect to string you along, or you are prolonging a sale that should have concluded already.

When You Hear…

 ”I need to think about it”

“Why don’t you stop back next month”

“I’ll call you when we need to take things further”

These are all examples of no commitment.  You can’t allow a conversation to conclude this way.  These statements are big clues that should tell you that you did not do your job.  A prospect will not make a commitment to act unless you:

• help them identify an immediate need for what you offer
• answer their questions and concerns
• review how they benefit
• recommend a next step

Obviously, you can’t recommend a good next step if you don’t have a clear understanding of what your best next step options are.  If you haven’t already, list the actions a prospect must take to do business with you.  Never forget each action they take should improve your relationship not harm it.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

The very word persuasion evokes different feeling in different people.  Sometimes those feelings are very negative because you think persuasion is manipulation.  Manipulation and persuasion are polar opposites like black and white.

Manipulation and coercion have no place in persuasion.

Persuasion is Not a Technique

Persuasion is not a technique rather it’s a way of thinking… an approach.  Persuasion creates an opportunity for two people to come to an agreement of thought in a mutually beneficial way.  That means before persuasion can exist there are certain underlying circumstances that must already exist.

The first condition that must exist is a search for a solution to an unmet need.  In other words, what you have to offer must be relevant for your prospect.  Your prospect must perceive you have something they don’t, plus they must be open to exploring how you might help them get that because it’s something they are already looking for.  Just like you can’t hypnotize someone and make them act like a chicken against their free will, you can’t persuade someone do to something they don’t want to do.  Thank goodness.

One of the biggest challenges you have when talking with prospects is lowering their defenses so they are willing to share ideas with you.  One of the easiest and most powerful ways to make it possible for your prospects to openly share ideas with you is to simply ask questions.  Whether you ask open or closed ended questions is less important than asking questions with the intent of learning more about the prospect and their needs.

When you try to ask questions that lead a prospect to your way of thinking that’s manipulation.  Those types of leading questions immediately trigger a prospects defenses.  Those types of questions are dangerous and should be proactively avoided.  The questions you ask should be more like the questions you’d ask someone you care about to determine what they think about something.

For example, asking “What do you see as the greatest challenge in commercial real estate today?”  Is a safe question because it allows the prospect to share their thoughts and concerns.   This is a good question because the intent is learning about the prospect.

In contrast, asking “How much more valuable do you see sales coaching than sales training?”  Is a dangerous question because you are trying to lead a prospect to an answer YOU want them to give.  A question like that doesn’t help you better understand the prospect and their needs.  It’s a leading manipulative question.

The questions you ask are critical because the only way you can truly understand the needs and desires of your prospect is through the answers they give to the questions you ask.  Therefore, you need to develop some really good questions.  When you are thinking about the questions you need to ask to really understand your prospect be sure to phrase those questions carefully so they are considerate and understanding.  The prospect shouldn’t feel like they are sitting across from an interrogator.  They should feel like they are having a great conversation with the best listener they’ve ever met.

This give and take conversation will help you come to an understanding of thought.

There are a lot of things you know you should do.  There are a lot of things you know you could do.  However, there are only a finite amount of things you know you will do because you are motivated to do them.  That motivation comes from an internal trigger that forces you to take an action.

You have to know what would trigger your prospect to take action.  The only way to find that out is to ask.  You might simply ask, “How would you decide to do something like this?”  Notice you aren’t specifically asking how they would decide to buy from you, rather you are just asking in general how they make the decision to act.  Their criteria for action is another condition that must exist.

You might quickly discover they are just thinking about this, and don’t have any intention of acting now.  Does that mean you’re out of luck?  Not necessarily.

Again you can’t come to an agreement of thought until you fully understand the prospect’s needs and desires.  That means you need to know, “What happens if nothing changes?”  As you explore that possibility with your prospect all of a sudden something they were “just thinking about” can immediately transform into “something I need to take care of now”.

Once you have full understanding then the last condition required for persuasion exists.  Human nature dictates that we will not disagree with ourselves even when we are wrong.  So one of the most persuasive ways to reach a mutually beneficial conclusion and commitment is to simply present your solution to the prospect based on their own words.  Including their words, their reasoning, their logic, and their criteria for acting.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

Have you ever bought something that turned out to be a BIG mistake?  I sure have.  I’ve made purchasing mistakes from inconsequential junk to costly products and services.

When you buy some doo-dad that’s supposed to do something, and it turns out the doo-dad is worthless you throw it away without thinking much about it.  You might feel upset about it, but you didn’t risk much so you aren’t all that worried about the risk when you make the purchase decision.

If you’ve ever made a mistake like that, a mistake that wasn’t a big deal, and you’ve also made a costly mistake you already understand there’s a big difference in how that decision impacts you.  What you may NOT realize is the reason the impact is so very different.  The reason the impact is so different is not limited to the amount of money involved.  Understanding this reasoning will help you understand how to overcome this challenge with your potential buyers.

When it comes to larger investments the money required to invest is a concern; however, it is NOT the BIG concern that holds people back and keeps them from making a purchase decision.  What holds you back and keeps you from saying “yes” is a fear of…

PUBLIC HUMILIATION

Yes, it’s the fear of public humiliation that prevents you from saying “yes” to the buying decision.  A buyer can easily choose to make a $50,000 purchase, yet squirm over a $5,000 purchase and here’s why.  Quit often the buyer has sole decision making authority for the $50,000 purchase.  If the buyer is disappointed with their purchase decision later no one but the buyer ever has to know.  In contrast the $5,000 purchase may involve other people.  I don’t necessarily mean other people will be involved in the purchase decision I mean people who will be involved in the outcome of the investment.

Those people will use the product or service.  Those users will formulate an opinion about whether the purchase was a good decision.  Therefore, this purchase decision is more public and a bad decision is more visible.

The big reason prospects often have trouble with a buying decision is because they fear making a public mistake.  They don’t want to have to answer for a poor decision and face public humiliation.

Countering the Fear

Before your buyer can make a “yes” decision you have to counter their fears.  The only way to counter their fears is to provide them with a logical argument for why this is a good buying decision.  They need you to help them formulate their argument because this is how they will explain their decision.  They don’t want any holes in their story.

They want to know if things don’t turn out like they planned that any reasonable person would have made the same decision.  They literally want you to finish the statement, “Any reasonable person would have decided to make this purchase and here’s why…”

So before you presume money is the reason a prospect isn’t buying face the reality the real reason may be fear of making a publicly visible mistake.  Then help your prospect develop a logical argument for why any reasonable person would make this decision.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

We get so stuck inside our own heads we often overlook critical things that make or break our sales success.

When we get our message wrong it’s because we communicate what we want, what we think is important when our potential clients want our message to be about what they want, what they think is important.

When we think about what we are selling we take it literally and think about the particular product or service we offer.  However, you can’t sell that product or service by itself.  The product or service you sell comes with something very important, something you often don’t pay enough attention to, something that has a major impact on the sale.

Every sale comes with…

YOU

Whenever you are selling a costly product, and especially when you are selling a service, that sale comes with you.  Your soon to be clients know that.  They know they aren’t just buying a product or service they are buying a relationship with YOU.

So if you know your product or service meets or surpasses the needs of a potential buyer, the potential buyer tells you they see the value, yet they still won’t commit perhaps YOU and the idea of a relationship with YOU is what is holding you back.

Act Like a Sales Person & YOU Lose

This is exactly why you can’t come off like an ordinary sales person.  Most people do not think well of sales people, and they don’t want to start a relationship with someone they don’t like being around.  Your potential buyer will be weighing the perceived value of starting a relationship with you as part of the investment required to purchase.

They must perceive a relationship with you as mutually beneficial.  They must see you as a value added part of the purchase decision.  They shouldn’t feel like they lose and you win if they buy.

Whether you realize it or not your relationship with your potential buyer started at the first point of connection.  That point of connection may have been a phone call, a handshake at a networking event, an ad, etc.  However they first became aware of your existence at that moment the relationship started.

At this point, the point of the sales conversation, the potential buyer is weighing whether they want to continue a relationship with you as part of the bargain.  Common sense tells you that you want to maintain relationships with people who:

• are pleasant to be around
• are willing to help
• put your needs ahead of their own
• are committed to your success
• treat you with kindness, respect, and integrity

I’m sure you’ll have no trouble adding to this list.

Now think about how you demonstrate those things in each connection and encounter.  Think about how you can increase your value to your new potential client, and then how you’ll keep the value going after the sale.

Coach Cheryl

Before you can answer that question you would have to know what that skill is.  I’ll get to that in a moment.  First, I want to talk about a common deadly mistake made by people trying to sell their products and services every day.  Especially people who previously sold a low cost product.

I Already Know How to Sell

Unfortunately, many people who start a business who have experience selling low ticket products believe they have an unfair advantage because they already know how to sell.  Yes, you know how to sell that product yet if you are now selling a service or a high ticket product the knowledge that led to your success will lead to your failure now.

There’s a big difference between selling a service and selling any type of product.  Plus there’s a big difference between selling a low cost product and an expensive product.  Product sales are transactional and experiential whereas high ticket product and service sales are relational and emotional.

Features Do Not Create Value

Product knowledge can play a significant role in product sales because the customer has a mental checklist of features they want, and features they don’t want.  The product with the most relevant checks on the customers mental checklist is likely to gain the sale.  The only thing standing in the way is cost comparison.

Compared Cost is NOT the Same Thing as Perceived Value

When you are selling a product and you can rattle off features like a machine gun it can work for you because you are rapidly hitting and missing the prospects buying buttons.  When you try the same approach selling a service or higher value product you make a deadly mistake that works to your disadvantage and costs you the sale.  The more feature bullets you fire the less interested the buyer gets, and the more likely you are to lose the sale.

Prospects are very familiar with what a product is supposed to do before they ever decide to buy one.  They know that some versions of a particular product do more things they want while others do less.  Typically the prospect has experienced the product either through a previous purchase or through someone they know having one.

High ticket products and services have far more “features” than a prospect ever wants to know about.  Most of the possible features don’t add value they only add confusion, and confusion leads to “no sale”.   The potential buyer cares far less about how they get what they want than about simply getting what they want.

The single most important skill in sales is the ability to help a prospect uncover and imagine the perceived value of ownership.

As the cost of ownership rises so does the prospect’s uncertainty.  Uncertainty is reduced and perceived value is increased when you help the potential buyer discover:

• How your offer produces or eliminates exactly what they are looking for
• How much faster, easier, etc. this will make things
• How the value of getting what they want is far less than the required investment

These discoveries must be made by the potential buyer with your help.  They must say these things in their words not hear them in yours.  You must help them feel their current frustration along with the feelings of removing it.

I’ve always said you would do far better knowing next to nothing about the product or service you are selling if you’d just meet with people and get to the heart of what they really want.  Once you know that, then and only then, can you develop a plan to help them get that and have them eager to hear it.

Sometimes, like in this case, the damage is in the details and the gold is in the heart.

Coach Cheryl

Judging by the increased number of emails, junk mail, and cold calls I’m getting I would say, “It’s a jungle out there.”

With the unemployment rate where it is now business owners can’t fall back on the old, “I’ll just have to get a job” safety net because getting a job is every bit as difficult as selling your services.

Anyone thinking about starting a business places a lot of attention on:

• What you do
• How you do it

I’m not saying you shouldn’t think those things through because you certainly should.  However, before you quit your job, or further risk your resources realize your attention should be on:

• Who would be willing to pay for this
• How will you sell your services to those people

The old sales adage goes, “Nothing happens until somebody makes a sale.”  To a certain extent that’s very true.  You can get everything in your business ready to serve customers, but until you actually have paying customers none of that is really important.

Once you realize things just aren’t working out the way you thought they would many business owners will think, “Well, I’ll just hire some sales people to go out and bring in some customers.”  So they place an ad and hire some sales people.

Once they discover the sales people they hired aren’t selling enough to cover their cost most business owners will think, “Well, I guess I’ll just have to hire a Sales Manager to whip these sales people in shape, and get them out their selling something.”

Sales Managers don’t come cheap so you expect immediate results.  Most Sales Managers end up falling in one of these 4 groups:

• Task Masters - Task Masters are great at creating reports and generating data, but those reports and data don’t put money in the bank.
• Corporate Climbers - Corporate Climber view working for you as just one more step on the rung to the job they really want.
• Team Players - Everyone likes a team player they are so friendly and great to talk to; however, all that warm chatter isn’t putting money in the bank.
• Scalpers - Scalpers get your sales people to bring the red meat to them so they can close them one way or another, and then demand a cut from the sales person’s commission.

When the business owner finally realizes hiring a Sales Manager didn’t really help much it’s often too late to make a recovery.

Bottom line none of those decisions were decisions that were based on a real Sales Plan.  Each decision was a desperate effort to make something happen.  Each decision led to increased frustration and a lighter bank account.

A real Sales Plan demands:

• A clear definition of your best potential client
• A clear understanding of what those people are already looking to buy
• A succinct message relevant to those potential clients
• Knowledge of the process buyers use to make a buying decision
• The skills required to implement a sales process
• Defined daily actions
• Proven results from those actions

Bottom line if you can’t sell whatever you’re selling you won’t be able to hire a sales person to sell it either.  I should know because I made that very mistake myself at one time.  So before you invest dollar one in a business idea, or before you invest another dollar in your business make certain you have both the knowledge and skills required to sell whatever you’re selling.  Then and only then will you have the money to actually run a business and call yourself a business owner.

Coach Cheryl

photo credit: GDS Digital

There are two sides to winning any sale.  There’s the work you do on you, and the work you do to best prepare for your new potential client.  Daniel Waldschmidt is a vivacious dude with some great perspective on what you can do to work on the YOU side of the equation.  What I’d like to do here is work on the prospect’s side of the equation.

Dude!  It Ain’t About YOU!

If you haven’t gotten this concept through your thick skull yet I recommend you get one of those Nerf bats and keep hitting yourself in the noggin until it sinks in.  When you contact a prospect and start off the communication about you… you are done before you start.  There’s no point in even making that contact.

The first utterances of any communication must communicate in no uncertain terms….

RELEVANCE

If what you have in mind is NOT relevant to me you can save us both a lot of frustration by exiting stage right in an expedient manner.  The only things that are relevant to me are the things I’m already looking to invest in to solve a problem, produce an outcome, or achieve a result.  “If you don’t fall in the relevant group don’t call, don’t email, don’t send me something in the mail just leave me the heck alone”, says Mr. Prospect!

A recent email provides a perfect demonstration of what NOT to do.

“Hi cheryl,

I hope this finds you well!  In effort to earn a conversation with you, I thought I’d email as that might be a  better way to reach you.

I’d really like to explore blogging and Compendium as a lead generation, client acquisition and organic SEO tool for measured success inc .

Can we schedule a brief call to discuss the webinar you’re signed up for to make that time more valuable?

Thanks,

Julie”

First, this is obviously an auto-generated email, but our friend Julie here didn’t even take the time to fix the capitalization which is a one click thing to do.

Then she starts off with that ridiculous milk toast statement.  Email demands fast.  You have to start off with exactly what’s in it for the reader no dilly dallying around if you ever want anyone to respond to your messages in a POSITIVE way.

The rest of the message is all about her and what she wants.  Julie uses the pronoun “I” 4 times in as many sentences.  Plus her message isn’t relevant to me.  Probably the most embarrassing thing of all is she’s sending this pathetic email to a sales coach.  If this is the best she’s got she certainly needs coaching, and I strongly recommend she find a coach that works with sales reps.

Thus poor Julie doesn’t even make it past step one, making contact.  If Julie had written a even a half-decent email message it might have read something like this…

Hi Cheryl,

You already have a good online presence through your website and blog.  Would you be open to exploring some ideas that could increase both the number and quality of leads and clients you get through your website?

If it makes sense, perhaps we could schedule a brief call prior to the webinar you signed up for so we can make that time even more valuable for you?

Thanks,

Julie

Once you make contact and gain a sales appointment there are 3 questions you must answer quickly, and better than the competition:

1. How does what you offer get me what I want better than my other options?
2. How do I know I’m making a good decision?
3. How do I know I’m getting a good deal?

Dude!  It’s All About ME!

Revisit the communications you make and make sure every communication IS all about me, the prospect, not you the seller.  Fine tune and revamp the way you say it until your message is all about me the prospect.  You’ll notice two things immediately.

First, you’ll get more appointments.  Second, you start the contact without triggering the potential buyers defenses so it’s easier to transition from stranger to buyer.

Coach Cheryl

Every year people eagerly set New Years resolutions in anticipation of a better year… a new start.  You should be way ahead of the game in comparison to your competitors because you spent the last month breaking some skull sweat to develop your very own “Strategic Sales Master Plan“.  You now know exactly what you are going to do to increase your sales.

One of the hardest concepts for new business owners to grasp is the fact they really aren’t in the business they think they are in.  First, you are in the business of effectively communicating the business you are in (marketing).  Second, you are in the business of helping ideal potential clients buy what you sell (selling).  Then and only then, are you in the business of delivering what you sold (doing what you get paid to do).

Doing all that is no small undertaking as you well know.

Recommended Reading

The “Strategic Sales Master Plan” helped you become much more effective when it comes to communicating the business you are in.  Because you are so much better at telling people what you do and why they should care, you naturally get more selling encounters.

By selling encounters I mean REAL sales appointments.  Real sales appointments are scheduled appointments with people who are genuinely interested in how you might help them, and how you might do business together.  How you handle those encounters determines if you get money in the bank or simply make a new friend.

You know what’s wrong with most books?  Most books allow you to read the book as a spectator.  That means you read the book, you might think something is a good idea, but once you finish the book you set it down and forget about the book and those good ideas.  Nothing much happens with those good ideas or as a result of reading that book.

That’s where the two books I’m going to recommend you read are different.  These books actually require you to take action as you read that book.  That means rather than reading the book as a spectator you have to engage in the learning process.  When you engage in the learning process you actually learn something, and you actually implement those ideas immediately so… you actually get results.

The first book I’d like to recommend is: The SPIN Selling Fieldbook  This was the book that peeled the scales off my eyes and helped me really understand what selling was about.  I’ve built off this model and taken it a step further by including the science from another scientist who uncovered the concept of conditioned reflex.  However, this book will help you have real sales conversations like a professional.

As I mentioned earlier there’s a lot to operating your own business.  You don’t have time to waste.  You need to squeeze the most value from your time so you have time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

There are two aspects to the way you use your time.  First, there’s efficiency.  Efficiency is about getting the most things done with the least effort.  Second, there’s effectiveness.  Effectiveness is about getting the right things done.  What you really need is to get the right things done in the most efficient way possible.

When I wrote The Race To Success  I wrote it with you in mind.  This isn’t just some general time management book.  In fact, it isn’t at time management book at all it’s a time mastery book.  It will help you master your time so you are working in the most efficient and effective way you can.

In combination these three tools will help you keep your new resolution to increase sales by helping you take the right actions.

Coach Cheryl