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Casual Articles - To Improve Your Sales - Begin At The Very Beginning
If you have a computer and a printer, preferably one that can print in color, then you can make your own brochures and business cards that are very professional-looking! Be sure to use good quality paper (that is available at any office supplies store like Office Depot or Staples) for anything that you are going to hand out or send to potential customers and clients.Writing Text for Your Brochure and Business CardThe very best thing to do is to get a few examples of business brochures and business cards, preferably from the same type of business as the business you are starting. If you can’t find any, then think about the type of customer or client you are trying to attract.If you are starting a professional service as your at-home business (such as accounting, bookkeeping, proofreading, etc.), then the text and graphics used in your brochure and business card should be minimal, crisp, easy to read, and contain only the most vital pieces of information. “Clutt
So, once you have a sense that you are moving into the “sales” phase of the process, it is really useful to ask a question to get the prospect’s shopping list. Something along the lines of, “When you are choosing a supplier, what is important to you?” or “When you last chose a new provider, what made you choose them?” This can cause the prospect to stop and think!! They do not get asked this very often – too many people are too keen to tell rather than sell! Listen, write down what they tell you, and keep asking, “…and what else? until you have their list!
This is the key starting point, because this list is their set of value criteria right now! (It might change when you visit them again next month, so you need to check it again.) If you show them how your product or service can deliver against this list you will be able to “convince them of value”. As you keep the focus of your conversation and presentation around what is on their list and they can see you are doing so, the will want
Google became a standard reference tool for almost every group of age and interest. But Google frustrates doctors looking for better understanding of medical billing complexities and modern straight through billing technologies. This article briefly explores the contradictory forces of the most popular search algorithm on the planet and outlines specialized, collaborative, and self-learning technologies to solve its limitations in the context of medical billing and compliance. Google's Limitations As of the end of January 2005, the indexable Web was estimated at 11.5 billion pages [Gulli and Signorini], growing from 200 million pages in 1997. Without effective search engines, such as Google, the Web would either not achieve such huge proportions in such a short time or become the epitome of document anarchy. Internet search engines in general and Google in particular have transformed the World Wide Web from stagnant data repository with a slow and result-p
The important thing is to be very clear about what is selling. Having spent much of my working life in sales, sales management and training and developing people in the skills and attitudes to be successful in these areas I can confidently state that many people do not have a full understanding of it. Yes, they know that it is about a transaction or exchange of some sort. However, when I looked up “to sell” in a dictionary some years ago it had a great phrase within the definition – “to convince of value”. Hold this thought for a minute! When moving on to look up “salesmanship”, the interesting part, for me at least, was “to persuade purchaser to buy”.
These two parts of the definitions provide the possibility of a total rethink of what is required to be successful in selling, regardless of your market. To achieve these two effectively and consistently an organisation needs to think about its sales strategy, sales management style, sales culture and sales approach. The old style “push, push” element will not work in achieving consistent results. In the short-term there may be spasmodic success – with a turnover of customers and selling personnel too!
Let us look at the definitions and consider why they might make a difference. “To convince of value” – what does value mean to you? The beauty of the idea of value is that it is highly individual and personal – and can change according to circumstances. It is not a constant. Most people will tell you they want value for money, but what does that mean? The key challenge for anyone having to sell, is that we need to be able to find what our prospective customers consider to be value at the time. Anyone reading this who has issues about “selling” or being thought of as selling can redefine what you do! If you think about this, your role as a sales person is not to sell or impose products or services on people. It is to find what they believe is value and then show them how you can deliver it. While on this subject, remember that it is the prospect or customer who defines value! Beware of claims which claim to offer added value or value added – the supplier does not define this!
The successful sales people will still use a large number of the fundamental selling skills. A well thought through sales process will help to achieve results and help sales managers and sales people work together towards this end. Do it well and there will be much less rejection and far fewer objections. So, where do you need to start?
Begin with yourself and your own mindset! You will be helping them to buy something – if it is appropriate and they believe it is good value. As an aside, you do need to believe in your own products and services and that they are good value! If you have any problems with this, it is very difficult to put across a positive message with any conviction or integrity! While working on your mindset, remember that any meeting or contact with a prospective client is about them, their situation and what they want. They are the focus, not you, your product or your sales target!
If you have to do any form of prospecting, this is important to remember too. Why should they talk to you or agree to see you? You need to approach them with an understanding of the issues they may be facing and get them talking about these. More about this another time!
When you do get face to face with a prospect, there are a few basic steps to follow in order to get to the situation where you can find out what they consider to be value. The first stage is to gain a degree of rapport, which needs to be the right level for the prospect. During the early phase of any meeting the prospect is making a variety of judgements about you – and your organisation! These may be accurate or totally unreasonable as they will almost certainly be subjective, or based on subjective criteria! Regardless of this, we have to be able to gain some degree of trust from the prospect. Without this, it will be extremely difficult to get the real information from them.
Once there is rapport, the conversation can move to the “sales” part. Hold it – do not start telling them all about your company, product or service! The key element to establish is what they are really looking for – and why! There is a great quote from “The One-Minute Sales Person”, “When I want to sell, I remember how I, and others, like to buy.” Stop and think. How do you like to buy? When you last bought something which was a significant purchasing decision, what was important to you? Why did you choose the product and supplier?
Whatever your reasons for this – their combination will have matched what “convinced you of value”. The challenge in a sales situation is to find out these criteria from your prospect. I call this their “shopping list”. Do this before talking about what you can offer, because the things the prospect is interested in will be related to what is on this list and not the other aspects you think are important for them.
So, once you have a sense that you are moving into the “sales” phase of the process, it is really useful to ask a question to get the prospect’s shopping list. Something along the lines of, “When you are choosing a supplier, what is important to you?” or “When you last chose a new provider, what made you choose them?” This can cause the prospect to stop and think!! They do not get asked this very often – too many people are too keen to tell rather than sell! Listen, write down what they tell you, and keep asking, “…and what else? until you have their list!
This is the key starting point, because this list is their set of value criteria right now! (It might change when you visit them again next month, so you need to check it again.) If you show them how your product or service can deliver against this list you will be able to “convince them of value”. As you keep the focus of your conversation and presentation around what is on their list and they can see you are doing so, the will want
Self-inking stamps are characterized by their separate die and re-inking pad, incorporated into a convenient spring-loaded mount. Pressing down on the top of the mount makes the stamp impression. The stamp die rotates away from the pad and down on to the area to be stamped. Self-ink stamps are mid-priced, and they cost more than conventional stamps, but less than pre-inked stamps.The number of lines and the mount size determines the prices of self-ink stamps. Usually, 6 self-ink mount sizes are available. Care should be taken to avoid banging or applying excessive pressure on these self-inking stamps. The stamps should be pressed down firmly over the area to be stamped and pressure should be applied evenly. The advent of self-ink stamps has ensured consistent impressions and allows easy alignment to information on brochures, business cards and envelopes. A single ink refill would enable the user to make thousands of impressions.Self-inking stamps are flexible to use
These two parts of the definitions provide the possibility of a total rethink of what is required to be successful in selling, regardless of your market. To achieve these two effectively and consistently an organisation needs to think about its sales strategy, sales management style, sales culture and sales approach. The old style “push, push” element will not work in achieving consistent results. In the short-term there may be spasmodic success – with a turnover of customers and selling personnel too!
Let us look at the definitions and consider why they might make a difference. “To convince of value” – what does value mean to you? The beauty of the idea of value is that it is highly individual and personal – and can change according to circumstances. It is not a constant. Most people will tell you they want value for money, but what does that mean? The key challenge for anyone having to sell, is that we need to be able to find what our prospective customers consider to be value at the time. Anyone reading this who has issues about “selling” or being thought of as selling can redefine what you do! If you think about this, your role as a sales person is not to sell or impose products or services on people. It is to find what they believe is value and then show them how you can deliver it. While on this subject, remember that it is the prospect or customer who defines value! Beware of claims which claim to offer added value or value added – the supplier does not define this!
The successful sales people will still use a large number of the fundamental selling skills. A well thought through sales process will help to achieve results and help sales managers and sales people work together towards this end. Do it well and there will be much less rejection and far fewer objections. So, where do you need to start?
Begin with yourself and your own mindset! You will be helping them to buy something – if it is appropriate and they believe it is good value. As an aside, you do need to believe in your own products and services and that they are good value! If you have any problems with this, it is very difficult to put across a positive message with any conviction or integrity! While working on your mindset, remember that any meeting or contact with a prospective client is about them, their situation and what they want. They are the focus, not you, your product or your sales target!
If you have to do any form of prospecting, this is important to remember too. Why should they talk to you or agree to see you? You need to approach them with an understanding of the issues they may be facing and get them talking about these. More about this another time!
When you do get face to face with a prospect, there are a few basic steps to follow in order to get to the situation where you can find out what they consider to be value. The first stage is to gain a degree of rapport, which needs to be the right level for the prospect. During the early phase of any meeting the prospect is making a variety of judgements about you – and your organisation! These may be accurate or totally unreasonable as they will almost certainly be subjective, or based on subjective criteria! Regardless of this, we have to be able to gain some degree of trust from the prospect. Without this, it will be extremely difficult to get the real information from them.
Once there is rapport, the conversation can move to the “sales” part. Hold it – do not start telling them all about your company, product or service! The key element to establish is what they are really looking for – and why! There is a great quote from “The One-Minute Sales Person”, “When I want to sell, I remember how I, and others, like to buy.” Stop and think. How do you like to buy? When you last bought something which was a significant purchasing decision, what was important to you? Why did you choose the product and supplier?
Whatever your reasons for this – their combination will have matched what “convinced you of value”. The challenge in a sales situation is to find out these criteria from your prospect. I call this their “shopping list”. Do this before talking about what you can offer, because the things the prospect is interested in will be related to what is on this list and not the other aspects you think are important for them.
So, once you have a sense that you are moving into the “sales” phase of the process, it is really useful to ask a question to get the prospect’s shopping list. Something along the lines of, “When you are choosing a supplier, what is important to you?” or “When you last chose a new provider, what made you choose them?” This can cause the prospect to stop and think!! They do not get asked this very often – too many people are too keen to tell rather than sell! Listen, write down what they tell you, and keep asking, “…and what else? until you have their list!
This is the key starting point, because this list is their set of value criteria right now! (It might change when you visit them again next month, so you need to check it again.) If you show them how your product or service can deliver against this list you will be able to “convince them of value”. As you keep the focus of your conversation and presentation around what is on their list and they can see you are doing so, the will want
"Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep saying it." — Robert Frost, early 20th century American poetWe can't inspire and energize people with memos, mission statements, data and analysis, charts, goals and objectives, measurements, systems, or processes. These are important factors in improving performance. But that's management, not leadership. People are inspired and aroused by exciting mental pictures of a preferred future, principles or values that ring true, and being part of a higher cause or purpose that helps them feel they're making a difference.Highly interconnected with and dependent upon a leader's ability to provide Focus and Context is his or her communication skills — especially verbal skills. When I was eighteen and starting my Culligan career I took a Dale Carnegie sales course. I followed that with their public speaking course. Both had a major impact on my leader
The successful sales people will still use a large number of the fundamental selling skills. A well thought through sales process will help to achieve results and help sales managers and sales people work together towards this end. Do it well and there will be much less rejection and far fewer objections. So, where do you need to start?
Begin with yourself and your own mindset! You will be helping them to buy something – if it is appropriate and they believe it is good value. As an aside, you do need to believe in your own products and services and that they are good value! If you have any problems with this, it is very difficult to put across a positive message with any conviction or integrity! While working on your mindset, remember that any meeting or contact with a prospective client is about them, their situation and what they want. They are the focus, not you, your product or your sales target!
If you have to do any form of prospecting, this is important to remember too. Why should they talk to you or agree to see you? You need to approach them with an understanding of the issues they may be facing and get them talking about these. More about this another time!
When you do get face to face with a prospect, there are a few basic steps to follow in order to get to the situation where you can find out what they consider to be value. The first stage is to gain a degree of rapport, which needs to be the right level for the prospect. During the early phase of any meeting the prospect is making a variety of judgements about you – and your organisation! These may be accurate or totally unreasonable as they will almost certainly be subjective, or based on subjective criteria! Regardless of this, we have to be able to gain some degree of trust from the prospect. Without this, it will be extremely difficult to get the real information from them.
Once there is rapport, the conversation can move to the “sales” part. Hold it – do not start telling them all about your company, product or service! The key element to establish is what they are really looking for – and why! There is a great quote from “The One-Minute Sales Person”, “When I want to sell, I remember how I, and others, like to buy.” Stop and think. How do you like to buy? When you last bought something which was a significant purchasing decision, what was important to you? Why did you choose the product and supplier?
Whatever your reasons for this – their combination will have matched what “convinced you of value”. The challenge in a sales situation is to find out these criteria from your prospect. I call this their “shopping list”. Do this before talking about what you can offer, because the things the prospect is interested in will be related to what is on this list and not the other aspects you think are important for them.
So, once you have a sense that you are moving into the “sales” phase of the process, it is really useful to ask a question to get the prospect’s shopping list. Something along the lines of, “When you are choosing a supplier, what is important to you?” or “When you last chose a new provider, what made you choose them?” This can cause the prospect to stop and think!! They do not get asked this very often – too many people are too keen to tell rather than sell! Listen, write down what they tell you, and keep asking, “…and what else? until you have their list!
This is the key starting point, because this list is their set of value criteria right now! (It might change when you visit them again next month, so you need to check it again.) If you show them how your product or service can deliver against this list you will be able to “convince them of value”. As you keep the focus of your conversation and presentation around what is on their list and they can see you are doing so, the will want
Why work for someone else and commute to an office daily when you can establish you very own business right in the comforts of your home? This would mean flexible hours for working, lesser expense on traveling to and from work and no boss to nag you everyday.Imagine person “A” working as a sales employee of Company XYZ. Person “A” works up to the wee hours of the morning just so he can sell advertisement space worth at least a million for the smallest size. When the sale goes through, he gets $20 worth of commission. Person “A” here enriches Company XYZ through his efforts but he only gets his base pay plus the $20 rcommission---all that for the millions of pesos he brings in to Company XYZ’s coffers.If Person “A” devises a way to establish a home based business similar to what he is doing now for Company XYZ, getting his old clients and building up their list, then perhaps he will have more to take home each month than if he remains working for Company XYZ.another time!
When you do get face to face with a prospect, there are a few basic steps to follow in order to get to the situation where you can find out what they consider to be value. The first stage is to gain a degree of rapport, which needs to be the right level for the prospect. During the early phase of any meeting the prospect is making a variety of judgements about you – and your organisation! These may be accurate or totally unreasonable as they will almost certainly be subjective, or based on subjective criteria! Regardless of this, we have to be able to gain some degree of trust from the prospect. Without this, it will be extremely difficult to get the real information from them.
Once there is rapport, the conversation can move to the “sales” part. Hold it – do not start telling them all about your company, product or service! The key element to establish is what they are really looking for – and why! There is a great quote from “The One-Minute Sales Person”, “When I want to sell, I remember how I, and others, like to buy.” Stop and think. How do you like to buy? When you last bought something which was a significant purchasing decision, what was important to you? Why did you choose the product and supplier?
Whatever your reasons for this – their combination will have matched what “convinced you of value”. The challenge in a sales situation is to find out these criteria from your prospect. I call this their “shopping list”. Do this before talking about what you can offer, because the things the prospect is interested in will be related to what is on this list and not the other aspects you think are important for them.
So, once you have a sense that you are moving into the “sales” phase of the process, it is really useful to ask a question to get the prospect’s shopping list. Something along the lines of, “When you are choosing a supplier, what is important to you?” or “When you last chose a new provider, what made you choose them?” This can cause the prospect to stop and think!! They do not get asked this very often – too many people are too keen to tell rather than sell! Listen, write down what they tell you, and keep asking, “…and what else? until you have their list!
This is the key starting point, because this list is their set of value criteria right now! (It might change when you visit them again next month, so you need to check it again.) If you show them how your product or service can deliver against this list you will be able to “convince them of value”. As you keep the focus of your conversation and presentation around what is on their list and they can see you are doing so, the will want
DescriptionThe well known English phrase “last but not least” could not better describe how important the project closeout phase is. Being the very last part of the project life-cycle it is often ignored even by large organizations, especially when they operate in multi-project environments. They tend to jump from one project to another and rush into finishing each project because time is pressing and resources are costly. Then projects keep failing and organizations take no corrective actions, simply because they do not have the time to think about what went wrong and what should be fixed next time. Lessons learned can be discussed at project reviews as part of the closeout phase. Closure also deals with the final details of the project and provides a normal ending for all procedures, including the delivery of the final product. This paper identifies the reasons that closeout is neglected, analyzes the best practices that could enhance its position within the busine
So, once you have a sense that you are moving into the “sales” phase of the process, it is really useful to ask a question to get the prospect’s shopping list. Something along the lines of, “When you are choosing a supplier, what is important to you?” or “When you last chose a new provider, what made you choose them?” This can cause the prospect to stop and think!! They do not get asked this very often – too many people are too keen to tell rather than sell! Listen, write down what they tell you, and keep asking, “…and what else? until you have their list!
This is the key starting point, because this list is their set of value criteria right now! (It might change when you visit them again next month, so you need to check it again.) If you show them how your product or service can deliver against this list you will be able to “convince them of value”. As you keep the focus of your conversation and presentation around what is on their list and they can see you are doing so, the will want to buy from you. In doing this, you have a much smoother and simpler conversation and by dealing with the elements the prospect wants you will have fewer objections to deal with and will feel more confident in asking for commitment.
Whatever your business, you need to find clients or customers. They will choose to use you to supply them provided you can offer them “value”. For me, one of the enjoyable aspects of selling is meeting different people and finding out more about each person’s challenges or issues and what is on their “shopping list” at the time. This really makes each sales meeting unique and fun! Once I have this, I am not selling to them. I can help them to achieve what they need to in a way which matches the factors on their list – and if I do this effectively, they will buy from me. Selling does not have to be a battle or a challenge, it is about working together giving the prospect what they want and need to get value.
©Graham Yemm www.solutions4training.com +44 1483 480656
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