Posted on Monday, April 19, 2021

Ten Truths About Closing

Many salespeople enjoy the relationship part of relationship selling, but when it’s time to close, they suddenly feel awkward. Is this you?

If you’re nervous about closing sales because you don’t want to be “pushy” or don’t want to feel like a “closer,” I get it. We work hard to build relationships with our prospects, and we don’t want to turn them off.

Too many salespeople avoid the “close” step of the sales cycle —just because closing makes them feel like… well, a salesperson.

If you’re not asking for the business, you’re doing yourself—and your prospect—a disservice.

The truth is, your close (or lack of one) could be costing you thousands. If you don’t know how to ask prospects for their business, they’ll find a competitor who does!

Posted on Monday, April 12, 2021

Focus Time: The Key To Productivity

Are you working more than you have to? Get things done faster (and better!) by devoting an hour a day to deep work.

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Do you ever wish there were more hours in the day? You’re not alone, but you’re wishing for the wrong thing! We don’t need to work more hours, we need to use our time more effectively. That’s why one of my favorite time management strategies is daily, dedicated Focus Time.

Focus Time is a block of time you devote to maximum productivity. During this time, you commit to an ultra-focused frame of mind, concentrating on getting tasks accomplished.

What you’re really doing during your focus time is giving your best effort to completing a single task as thoroughly as possible—with no distractions.

Posted on Monday, April 5, 2021

Tough Decision? Flip A Coin

If you’re stuck on a tough decision, this simple trick helps you discover the path to follow.

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We face tough choices in business. You might have to make a decision you don’t really want to make—for example, whether to keep a salesperson or manager on your team—and keep kicking that decision down the road instead of facing it.

I understand! As relationship-based salespeople, we like people and value our relationships with them. It’s hard to know if our emotions are clouding our judgement, or even know what our gut is telling us. It’s even worse if we’re constantly battling decision fatigue. So what can we do?

Posted on Monday, March 29, 2021

When You Sell On Price, You Lose On Price

Learn to focus on clients who care about more than price.

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In relationship selling, we want to keep our clients happy. We don’t want to lose long-term relationships to a competitor who’s undercutting our prices. So, to keep our clients, we always need to win on pricing, right? Wrong!

Statistics show that 81% of customers are willing to pay more for a better experience. That means less than a fifth of customers think “the lowest price” is more important than anything else.

If your sales cycle is focused on price, you’re probably setting yourself up to lose. Don’t be lazy and fall into this trap! Instead, you need to:

Posted on Monday, March 22, 2021

The Dangers of a Flexible Schedule

Your flexibility could be costing you business.

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Are you a salesperson with a flexible schedule? If so… do you mind running an errand for me?

In so many households, it’s the person in sales who gets to pick up deliveries, drop off dry cleaning, meet with the plumber, and run to Costco at lunch. They have a “flexible” schedule, and all these tasks fall to them—just because they don’t punch a time clock at work!

Sound familiar? You are probably wasting five to ten hours a week on tasks that do nothing to move your business forward. If your flexible schedule is working against you, try these three things:

Posted on Monday, March 8, 2021

You Win When Your Team Wins

Don't forget to give credit to the team that contributed to your success

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Salespeople love winning. It’s pretty thrilling when you earn that incentive vacation trip, and it feels great to have your hard work recognized at sales rallies or company meetings. Bask in the glory! You earned it, right?

Sure, you earned it—with help from a huge network of people who have your back!

The sales champions who win year after year, always crushing old sales goals, consistently earning the top awards—they love being in the spotlight. But they never forget this:

Posted on Monday, February 22, 2021

Client Relations: A Tale Of Two Tokens

Ever had an upset client? Here's how to have them say, “It’s no big deal.”

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In the 1980s, an executive named Jean-Louis Gassée was chosen to head Apple’s operations in Europe. He quickly identified a flaw in their customer support: if a client reported an issue, it was usually blamed on the customer’s inexperience with new technology.

But dismissing people’s problems just makes them angry, and Jean-Louis knew that Apple couldn’t afford to have a bunch of disgruntled customers bad-mouthing his computers across the country. Apple had plenty of money to make things right for their customers—and the issues weren’t even really a big deal to fix!