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1.
Prepare Yourself To Excel.
Use a checklist to prepare your attitude, appearance, customer information,
company and product information and the selling environment, so you can be at
your best on every call.
2. Notice What Is Working.
Study yourself, your product or service and your company to know what is working
now. Reinforce the actions and tools, which are generating results. Learn from
your successes as well as your failures.
3. Know Your Competitive Advantage.
Study your company and your products and services in relation to what your
competitors offer. Know where and how you stand out, and where you don't. Be
prepared to discuss these comparisons at any moment.
4. Improve Your Sales Skill, Not Just
Your Product
Knowledge. Don't rely on product knowledge to make you more persuasive. Sharpen
your skills in reading people, describing your offer in compelling ways and in
asking for the order at the right time.
5. Target The People Who Are Your Best
Prospects.
Best customers have patterns. Most will fit the same pattern, so prospect among
those who fit the pattern. Calling on people with similar needs, circumstances,
and interests makes you more likely to create another best customer.
6. Know What To Be Curious About.
Know in advance what questions to ask by knowing what answers you need.
Cultivate a strategic curiosity. Learn to be curious about the things that will
advance your chance of making a sale.
7. Realize Who Is In Your Market.
Create a profile of the ideal market for what you offer. Define who they are,
where they can be reached, what they care about, what they fear, what they read,
whom they admire and more. Know them well.
8. Understand The Person And Their
Situation.
Create an awareness of the psychological needs of your prospect as well as
knowing what their technical needs are. Sometimes the way someone wants to feel
has more influence on their decision to buy than what they actually need.
9. Find The Diamonds In Your Own
Backyard.
More business exists around you than you know. Look among your friends,
neighbors, existing customers, past customers, colleagues, competitors and
coworkers for the opportunities that others overlook.
10. Ask For Specific Referrals.
Tell people what your ideal customer or prospect looks like. Ask them who they
know who fits this description. Then ask them to take a specific action to help
you meet the prospect; a telephone introduction, a testimonial letter, arrange a
luncheon or coffee shop meeting, etc.
11. Manage Your Sales Reputation.
Determine today how you want to be thought of tomorrow. Specify the reputation
you want within each group of which you are a part, and then work a plan to earn
it piece by piece.
12. Grow Your Brand Identity.
Get yourself and your company known within your market area. Write articles,
letters to editors, offer expert input for reporters and publishers, conduct
surveys, provide free services to key people, donate your time to worthy causes,
put your photo on your business card, share valuable ideas via email. Create a
broad awareness of yourself as an authority on what you do.
13. Build A Fortress Of Great
Relationships.
It is not only who you know that determines the value of your relationships; it
is whether they know you as a valuable business resource. Define who you need to
know today and five years from today. Start now to cultivate the relationships
and the reputation, which will expand your possibilities.
14. Learn To Manage Points Of View.
Half your job is keeping yourself and others in the right frame of mind.
Cultivate your ability to keep the focus on the things that matter most. Become
a person who can put everything in perspective for others.
15. Manage Tension Throughout The Sales
Process.
As tension rises, trust falls. Be aware of the ebb and flow of tension as the
sale unfolds. Learn to reduce it when it gets in the way and to momentarily
increase it to add urgency to the decision process.
16. Look Like Good News To Your Customer.
The way you are perceived by your customer determines how much resistance you
will encounter as you sell. Learn to project a positive feeling among those you
communicate with. Become a partner in problem solving, not a sales persuader.
17. Cultivate A Selling Style That Uses
Your Sales Strengths.
Use the combination of online communication, in person calls, telephone
contacts, trade show attendance, and public speaking, which allows you to shine.
Build a mix of activities to diminish your sales weaknesses and amplify your
strengths.
18. Give Samples Of The Experience You
Represent.
A movie ticket doesn't just buy you a seat in the theater; it buys you the
experience of enjoying the movie. What experience does your product or service
bring to people? Give them a way to sample that experience through your
presentation.
19. Stay Conscious Of The Meaning In What
You Do.
When a person doesn't find much meaning in what they do, they don't bring much
value to what they do. Write down specifically how your product or service makes
life better for those who buy it. Read this description every day briefly, to
keep in mind the reason behind the purchase. It's not about buying; it's about
benefiting from buying.
20. Know When And How To Ask For The
Order.
Learn to recognize buying signals, how to ask differently with different people,
when to let the customer sell himself, how to negotiate details and when to walk
away. If you don't ask you don't get. But how you ask often determines success
or failure.
21. Deserve To Have Loyal Customers.
Know how to cultivate dedicated clients. Become competition-proof by delivering
more than people expect. Overfill your client's needs and be their business
friend, even when they are not buying from you. Be the kind of person people
rave about.
(Excerpted from The Eight Competencies Of Sales Leadership)
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