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!

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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.

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:

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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.”

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!

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Posted on Monday, February 8, 2021

Just Say No to Notifications

We’re all trying to get more things done. But the technology that’s supposed to help us be more productive is actually getting in our way.

Has this happened to you? You’re trying to process paperwork, and suddenly your doorbell rings (in your house AND your phone), your watch dings and vibrates, and your dogs start barking.

You’re notified of a UPS package delivery by your email, your “smart home” app, your watch, AND your dogs!

Stop this madness!

There are SO MANY notifications that interrupt us all day long on our computers, phones, and smartwatches. These rings, dings, vibrations, and buzzes are impossible to ignore. It’s time to pick up your phone and put yourself back in charge! All you have to do:

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Posted on Monday, November 30, 2020

The Sales Promise You Can’t Keep

Scarcity Thinking Leads to Over Promising

There’s a common trap in sales that good people are falling into, and it could be killing your business.

Abundance is an ideal trait that all top performers have. It’s critical to your success. Are you familiar with the idea of an abundance mentality?

Stephen Covey popularized this idea in his essential Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and it’s a valuable way of looking at how we interpret and interact with the world around us. An abundance mindset is one of my core values, and every day I teach my clients about abundance and its counterpart, scarcity.

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Posted on Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Sales Skills are Transferable—You Can Sell Anything!

In my years as a sales coach, I’ve seen this situation play out a million times: A salesperson gets a new job and doesn’t want to call on prospects until they feel like they’ve learned absolutely everything there is to know about the product or service they’re selling.

They feel like making those calls would be “wasting” a lead on someone before they become “good enough” at their job. That is 100% the wrong way to approach things. Doing so will pretty much guarantee that you never become a top producer.

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Posted on Monday, August 17, 2020

Begin with the End in Mind (in Sales)

Creating good time management habits can feel exhausting. If it’s something you’ve struggled with for a while, you may find it hard to know where to start.

In Stephen Covey’s world-renowned book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he suggests using a powerful tip: Begin with the end in mind. What does this mean for a relationship-based salesperson, though? And how can you apply that principle to transform the way you think about your calendar and your tasks?

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