Peady’s Selling Engagement sponsored by IRD Prospector
I’m back on deck after a great break during the Easter/Anzac Day period – hope you had time to spend with your family and friends too.
While I was away I read an article by author and sales trainer Ari Galper in which he said “Hopeium is like a drug that many of us come to depend on when we make cold calls or believe that we’re close to making a sale”.
As regular readers know I get to work with a variety of sales people and too many times I hear how they hope things will improve; hope the client (or customer) will make a decision; hope this month will be an improvement on last; hope the campaign will work. They are addicted to “hopeium”.
This just doesn’t make sense because if you want to create real success you have to OWN it, not hope it. As former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said: “hope is not a strategy”.
How do you own it?
Two ways:
First, own the positive – when you do well, know exactly what you did well, which behaviour led to which outcome, what strategy drove new business and which questions created readiness to buy in your client and even HOW you asked those questions, down to your body language, tone of voice.
Second, own the negative – when you did not close the deal, delve into what didn’t work. Was it your own mindset/belief system? Are you not sure which are your main objections? Perhaps you don’t have a proven strategy in place?
There is always another sales person in the market who has twice or even ten times the success that you do even though they might be less talented or skilled. Ultimately it’s the person who knows how to influence and can create a powerful strategy that is more successful.
In other words, they have a plan.
What’s your plan?
Implementing winning selling strategies is what differentiates the world’s top salespeople and those who come second. Strategies such as:
· Having a structured and well defined selling system
· Maintaining a healthy opportunity pipeline
· Effectively qualifying suspects into prospects
· Identifying and selling to a prospect’s business “pain”
· Building a real competitive difference
· Defining a prospect’s decision-making process
· Analysing and understanding personal activity metrics
· Having a clearly defined set of written goals
Kick the habit and go cold turkey on “hopeium”. Own a strategy and make it your own.
Until next week good selling!
About the author
Stephen Pead is a media industry veteran of 30 years with significant experience in direct sales, sales management and general management. He is based in Sydney and specialises in helping SME’s market their businesses more effectively and providing training for salespeople and sales managers.
He can be contacted at [email protected]
