Sell by Caring

We’ve talked a lot about trust in sales, gaining commitment, communicating effectively, eliciting a response and so much more around getting what we want. In the process the client organization gains as well with a product or service that solves a problem or fills a need.

Yet, what about the person who helped to make it happen? The contact / DM who supported our solution and often helped to land the business.

Or consider the prospect who has yet to become a client.

Have you ever considered making the relationship a bit more personal? Professionally, of course.
There is a give and take in sales. Today I want to focus on the give. This goes beyond product info, solution oriented communications or tchotchkes.

Sales is about numbers

Number of calls to make
Prospects to see
Ratio of calls to close
Quotas
Commissions
Proposals/price quotes
On and on

Some sales reps keep very accurate numbers, there are CRM systems with excellent reporting capabilities that provide numbers (when the data is entered) and there are sales managers who hound us with our stats.

And then there are those who haven’t a clue…

Something I have experienced that isn’t written about is that numbers create momentum. The impact is not always direct but balances out in the long run.

There is a surprising statistic in a blog by Jonathan Farrington. He referred to a survey that revealed the most desirable quality customers want in a salesperson – competence!
Scary isn’t it. Here we are honing our skills, learning more about our product or service, as well as industry and there must be hordes of sales reps (cannot use the term professional here) who are “winging it” and perpetuating the image of schlocky sales representatives.
Here are a few other shocking stats the survey revealed:
• Salespeople who know nothing about the customer’s business. 60%
• Salespeople who know little about their products and services. 60%
• Salespeople who are not properly or sufficiently organized. 55%

Managing a business sales pipeline as we mature in our position can become an overwhelming task for sales reps. The proportions don’t match, more new prospects are added than the number who fall off or you remove for any of a number of reasons.
How do we manage to stay in touch, continue to build a relationship and move each prospect forward?
Mini campaigns will help you maintain contact and use your time effectively. Read on to learn how to master this sales technique.

As sales professionals we spend time planning our calls, meetings and presentations to make them as effective as possible. There is an additional element that separates the good from the great professionals – call review. It may seem simple and not that important yet taking a few minutes to ask yourself a short list of questions will make future calls more powerful. The list of questions will be unique for each sales pro but do take the time to create the list and stick to it for each call, meeting or presentation.
I’ll share with you my list of questions. Feel free to use these until you have worked with the call review a few times and personalize them.

What valuable information did I gather?
What did I learn about my prospect / client?
What behavioral style did I observe?
What went well?
What could I have done better or differently?
How can I incorporate what I learned into my next contact?