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Last week I promised you some additional tips to better prepare for your sales calls. Remember, just five more minutes?

Resist the urge to go on that sales call partially prepared: Let’s face it, that’s what the vast majority of salespeople tend to do – they rely too much on verbal fluency, hearsay, and their own opinions – they don’t bother to uncover any real information about the prospect. Why not give yourself an edge by preparing? You’ll stand out from the crowd.

Let’s look at positioning: How are you seen in your market? Yes, you! Not just your company, your product, your sales manager, or your sales team as a whole…How are YOU perceived?

Write down the 2 or 3 words your customer or prospect would use to describe you. Be honest. If I called your customer would they describe you this way? What have you done to deserve this description?

Your personal positioning is paramount to your success. Are you a value resource to your customer? Or are you more of a nuisance? Why would time spent with you be valuable?

Take five extra minutes and ask yourself:

• What do I know about this customer’s needs and wants?
• What have I done to understand this customer’s buying cycles?
• Who is the decision-maker? Are there other people who might influence a buying decision?
• Do I understand this customer’s most pressing issues?
• How have I distinguished myself from my competitors?

If you’ve done the above – and done it well – the customer’s description will truly position you well. Isn’t that worth 5 more minutes?

Submitted by: Richard Dickerson

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Sales is driven by accurate, prioritized and profitable results.

• This is the result of planning, having a tangible plan, getting in front of the right people, asking the right questions, presenting the right solutions, creating value, closing and servicing accounts. All the rest is irrelevant.
• Disorganization is a function of personality style, work style and habit…so is being overly organized. You need to determine which style is yours and then go about fixing the problem.
• All of this is a function of:

o Planning your sales strategy
o Organizing it
o Scheduling key appointments
o Expediting the process
o Selling to the right people
o Servicing sold accounts

• It’s all about speed – but speed with accuracy coupled with strong enough detail orientation not to get yourself into trouble.

Is it that simple? Yes, it is.

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In a recent interview, controversial major league baseball slugger Gary Sheffield (Detroit Tigers) described his former team (New York Yankees) as a “corporation” and claimed the organization puts winning at the top of its priority list. (Could that be one reason the Yankees have won more championships than any other professional sports team?) Furthermore, when asked if he would recommend to a young player that he play for the Yankees, he said that if winning was the most important thing to a player, then he should consider the Yankees.

I must be confused; I thought that being a professional was about winning. Let me be more specific and say that winning fairly (no performance enhancing drugs, corked bats, etc.) is very important in sports and in business.

Athletes like Gary Sheffield sign multi-year contracts that guarantee them millions of dollars regardless of whether or not their performance lives up to the expectations that go along with the big money. Win or lose, Sheffield’s bank account grows larger every day. Perhaps Sheffield doesn’t realize that not everyone in the “corporation” earns as much as he does (about $14 million per season). For example, when his team plays well and attendance is up, the ushers, hot dog vendors and service workers at the ballpark all earn a few extra dollars – a pittance compared to his millions of dollars, but enough to help put food on their tables or gasoline in their cars.

As a salesperson, you’re not the only person on the company payroll. Your success not only rewards you, it also pays the utility bills and the people back in the office who support you in your efforts, be they the receptionist, building janitor or the folks who make the products you sell. You see, they’re counting on you to “win” too, not just “show up.” They deserve your best, everyday.

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(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)

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We’re in the process of putting together a one-day seminar based on the book, How to Sell at Prices Higher Than Your Competitors, so we’ve been talking a lot around here about why price selling is so stubborn – why even those who sell complex, high-ticket products are willing to haggle like they’re selling produce at a farmer’s market.

So I took notice of Warren Greshes’ blog post about beating price:

Could it be that you like selling price because it’s easy? And that maybe what it takes to duplicate great customers is just too hard to standardize? And instead of admitting that you don’t want to do the hard work and effort it takes to duplicate these great customers, it’s just easier to convince yourself that price is the way to go?

That’s exactly it. Long-term relationships – both professional and personal – are harder to build. They take more work, more sacrifice, better planning and far more commitment. But, the payoff is far greater. Most salespeople simply don’t realize that the choice is theirs – they can either put in the hard work that it takes to build a relationship or they can keep going out and pounding on doors looking for new customers.

Consider these statistics from Peter Drucker:

Your chances of selling to someone you’ve never done business with are 1 in 14.
Your chances of selling to someone you’ve done business with in the past are 1 in 4.
Your chances of selling to someone who’s a current customer are 1 in 2.

Sure, you can keep going out and finding new prospects…you can make sure you offer them a lower price than anyone else…and many of them will buy from you. But what happens the next time that customer makes a purchase?

Take a look at this clip from a recent training program on value-selling:

So many salespeople just don’t realize how much easier selling could be if they stopped focusing on price and started building value – if they stopped pushing so hard for the next sale and started focusing on their long-term relationships with their customers.

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