Do you find yourself typing in the same familiar email to your prospects and clients again and again? Whether it’s boiler-plates, generic thank you messages or directions to your business, there is a tool in Microsoft Outlook 2000/2003 – AutoText – that can help you automatically insert text into an email with minimal effort.

Whether you need to automate a paragraph or a three page email, I will show you how you can use AutoText to help save time so you can spend more time selling.

There are four easy steps to create an “AutoText” Entry

1. Type your email into the email body area.

2. Highlight the text you want for your AutoText Entry.

3. Once the text is highlighted… click – Insert > AutoText > New… Or you can simple hit Alt+F3 (Function Key – Not F then 3)

4. Name the AutoText and click OK

Using your AutoText Entries:

1. In a new email start typing the name you gave the AutoText name

2. When the yellow box appears as you type (above), simply hit the “Enter” key. Your AutoText will then automatically be placed into the email body text.

Option Two: If you can’t remember what you named one of your AutoText entries, you can use the Insert AutoText Option.

1. Click – Insert > AutoText

2. Find the name of your AutoText
1) Click the name of the AutoText
2) Click “Insert”
3) Click OK

You can download this in a quick reference guide by clicking here

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This was one of Bill Brooks’ favorite principles. He always preached that managers need to get out from behind their desks and get into the field. This doesn’t just mean sales managers, but also VP’s and C-level executives. Top organizations have executives and managers that “walk the walk.”

I made a sales presentation to the executive team of a Fortune 500 financial company. The CEO, CFO, COO, Divisional VPs, and Directors attended the meeting to evaluate our company against five others for training and consulting services. During the Q&A portion of my presentation, the COO asked me, “Why is it that when other organizations do sales training they get results, but when we do it we don’t see any change?”

Being the blunt, direct person I’m known to be, I responded, “The difference is everyone in this room. If you decide to work with us – or any of the other five companies you’re considering – you will be choosing an excellent organization with success stories from clients who’ve achieved positive results. We all have excellent tools. The difference is what you do with those tools. You’re fooling yourselves if you think you will see strong results simply by choosing a training company, then going back to your offices to wait for the P&L to change. Great organizations drive training from top down – they not only establish expectations, but they get out in the field and set the example for those expectations.”

Here’s an example from the NBA: Mitch Kupchek is the general manager of the LA Lakers, and Michael Jordan is part-owner and GM of the Charlotte Bobcats. Recently, the hosts of a sports talk show interviewed an NBA “insider” who observed that Mitch Kupchek goes to practice every day. He also attends almost every game, before which you’ll find him down on the floor talking with the media and meeting the fans. He’s also highly visible promoting the Lakers in the community.

In contrast, Michael Jordan drops into practice about once a week. He’s rarely seen at games – and when he does attend, he’s not out talking with the press and the fans – nor is out promoting the Bobcats in the community. The Lakers are competing for the championship and the Bobcats were at the bottom of the standings all year.

If you want to be one of the top organizations in your industry, look at where you’ve set the bar for your sales force, your executive team, and yourself. How often are you and your executive managers visible in the field, setting the example?

As Bill Brooks always said, “You can’t lead where you won’t go and you can’t teach what you don’t know.” (Sales Management Principle #6)

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In the many years I’ve been a salesperson and a sales trainer, salespeople have continually asked me, “Why can’t I seem to close a sale? I do everything according to the six steps of the sale. I do what the company requires, but I can’t get the customer to sign the contract. What am I doing wrong?”

I believe salespeople focus too much on the close and not on the process of meeting the customer’s specific needs. Most salespeople I’ve observed have a tendency to:

1. Dominate the conversation; thus, it becomes a monologue
2. Demonstrate only the items that get them the largest commission
3. Sell anything in their “bag of tricks” to close something today
4. Talk the buyer into a product or service they really do not want
5. Take the easiest path toward a one-time sales call

This behavior wastes both the salesperson’s and the buyer’s time. For higher closing ratios, I suggest looking at these five considerations:

1. Make the toughest sales appointments when you are at your highest energy level.
2. Find out as much as you can about the company before you arrive.
3. Take initiative to learn the names and faces of possible decision makers that may be attending the sales call
4. Remain totally focused on the client/prospect you are with presently – not another, bigger appointment later that day or the appointment you just left
5. Ask for the order. It’s simple. But, fear often prevents you from taking this final
   action.

These five simple steps would make a salesperson’s closings increase dramatically by handling each call with a more professional, pre-planned, priority-based, personal approach.

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We half jokingly say that if you laid all the sales managers in the world end-to-end, they’d be more comfortable!

We find that over half rarely travel with their salespeople. They “direct” from behind their desk. Dishing out volume, quota, performance orders, but rarely spending mentoring time with their salespeople. Even when they do it’s from the “critical parent” perspective, punitive words or messages, even explicit threats about goals, targets, etc.

Ever consider how your leadership style affects your salespeople? Ever asked or measured its effect? In “First Break All the Rules” authors Buckingham and Coffman point out “that managers trump companies, and people join companies, but quit managers.” No where is this more true than the relationship of salespeople to their sales managers. Have your salespeople “quit” you?

Maybe it’s time to re-examine your role and your influence. It’s worth the effort.

Richard D.

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The Tuesday’s Sales Truths are taken from Bill Brooks’ Book Entitled: Universal Sales Truths

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