April 26th, 2017

Breaking Bad Sales Habits

Breaking Your Bad Sales Habits Is Possible

 

A habit is something that you start frequently doing, whether you were taught it or learned by trial and error. Many salespeople get into the habit of doing the wrong things, whether they realize it or not. If you wonder about bad sales habits and breaking them, you’re not alone. Many top salespeople have worried that they’re falling into a rut or doing the wrong things.

 

Poor/No Follow Upremember-follow-up-sticky-note

 

One of the biggest bad sales habits includes not following up after the call or doing so incorrectly. Breaking this habit is something that should work hard on as soon as you notice that you’re slipping. Why would you bother to start something if you weren’t going to finish it? The follow-up is how you gain control. If someone doesn’t seem that interested, a follow-up could be just what they need to decide to buy.

 

Related Article: The Power of Positive Sales Habits

Busyness Instead Of Business

Almost everyone knows how to seem busy without doing anything. You may act like you’re cleaning the equipment at a fast-food restaurant, but you’re really leaned over playing with your smartphone. Every moment of your work day should be productive, excepting breaks and lunch hours, of course. Time is precious, and most people squander it away, not realizing how much it hurts their productivity and output, as well as their income.

comfort-zone-quoteComfort Zone

There are times to be within your comfort zone and times to get a little uncomfortable in selling. However, always selling inside your comfort zone is just one of many bad sales habits that should be broken. You can’t achieve progress or growth if you never branch out and expand your mind. There are times when you want to work within the comfort zone, but it’s just as important to realize when to step outside the area and get a little uncomfortable.

Related Article: How Successful Sales People Grow

 
Contact us today if you are interested in breaking your bad sales habits for good.
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April 17th, 2017

How General Patton Would Lead a Sales Team! How To Become a Sales Rainmaker

If you were asked to list top professionals in the sales field in their industry and then asked those professionals to list their biggest influencers, you may be surprised to find out who makes it on those lists.

General-PattonOne name you may not expect to see is General George S. Patton. The methods he used to lead in the military can be transferred across lines to be extremely useful in the sales field. Just like Sun Tzu The Art of War is commonly referred to in the world of business.

General George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a senior officer of the United States Army who is best known for his leadership of the U.S. Third Army in France and Germany following the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944.

To see how General Patton would set up a sales team for success, consider his principles of command for every battle and every campaign he entered.

  • Be a Leader
    • Patton understood that to be an effective leader you had to truly be in command. This meant to make a plan and take responsibility for ensuring everyone understood and could be successful at his or her job on the team.
  • Make Accountability Mandatory
    • Everyone under Patton had to accept accountability for the tasks they were assigned. There was no passing the buck; rather the buck stopped here when it came to assessing both failures and successes.
  • Always Delegate
    • Patton was not a micro-manager. Instead, he used officers (supervisors and managers) to carry out the required tasks. If the manager is bogged down in the minuscule details there is no time to plan, organize and set the roadmap to the big picture goal.
  • Anticipate Problems
    • Proactivity looking for weak links or areas where there is or could be poor performance, problems are quickly recognized, corrected and moved past. This is very different than reacting to poor numbers or sales process problems after the results are tallied.

Finally, General Patton saw everyone, including himself, as replaceable. For sales, this means actively encouraging the team to constantly keep growing, developing and challenging themselves to do better and achieve more.

Related Article: Ronald Reagan’s Top 5 Motivational Quotes For Sales Professionals

The Sales Coaching Institute works with sales leaders and sales teams to develop basic and advanced sales skills to boost sales and exceed goals. Click here to learn more.

April 10th, 2017

Ronald Reagan’s Top 5 Motivational Quotes For Sales Professionals

Before his 2-term presidency from 1981-1989, he was the 33rd Governor of California, from 1967 to 1975, after a career as a Hollywood actor and union leader. Ronald Reagan achieved so many positive and life-changing tasks in his life and was amongst one of the greatest leaders of all time. Reading Ronald Reagans top 5 motivational quotes that were formed by his natural leadership abilities and his fascinating and productive life is a great way to help you conquer your week ahead!

Related Article: How Motivated People Lead

RONALD REAGAN‘S TOP FIVE MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES FOR SALES PROFESSIONALS

POSITIVE PROSE FOR PERSISTENT PROS

  1. We Can’t Help Everyone, But We Can Help Someone.

  2. Life Is One Grand, Sweet Song, So Start The Music.

  3. Don’t Wait For The Perfect Moment. Take The Moment And make It Perfect.

  4. The Future Doesn’t Belong To The Lighthearted. It Belongs To The Brave.

  5. While I Take Inspiration From The Past, Like Most Americans, I Live For the Future.

We hope you enjoyed watching and/or reading Ronald Reagan’s top 5 motivational quotes for sales professionals. If you did enjoy this article/video, there are some related articles and videos below that you might also enjoy!

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  1. Top 5 Motivational Quotes by Winston Churchill for Sales Professionals

  2. Top 5 Motivational Quotes for Life & Business by Pitbull The Rapper

 

Related Article: How Successful Salespeople Win

Happy Selling!

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March 30th, 2017

It’s 6:00 AM – Do You Know Where Your Salespeople Are?

Two sales productivity maxims I have lived by and sold to is more relevant and true now than ever before.

The maxim states…

1. “Sales is the highest paying hard work and the lowest paying easy work”

2. “The most productive and successful salespeople do all non-sales related activities between 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM – 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM is invested in meeting with a legitimate prospect who has a need, desire, financial capacity and authority to purchase your product or service.”

So what is the definition of “non-sales related activities”?

Non-sales related activities include non-critical emails, social media updates, client research, proposal development, and completion etc – anything that is not in support of “getting belly-to-belly with a prospect or current client. The prospects or clients you are striving to meet with should have net new revenue opportunities that will culminate in a sale in the next 30 to 90 days.

Related Article: Survive & Thrive With A Positive Mental Attitude

The 6:00 AM start of the sales day mindset is a choice and will manifest into quota killing reality if practiced diligently daily. The best sales professionals are not always the ones with the most talent and highest IQ’s, they are the ones with the can-do attitude. I’ll take can do over IQ any day. These sales people are willing to make choices that others are not willing to make. 6:00 AM then becomes a choice to do the hard things over the easy things.

success-is-a-journeyYour sales journey of success starts with the right mindset and choices you make on a daily basis because how we live our sales days determines how we live our sales lives!

 

Time is money and if you spend your time wisely, you can enjoy your career and your life. Living with a high standard of sales productivity maxims helps hold you accountable for your success and your failures. But remember, no-one every succeeded without failing first.

 

 

Good luck & good selling!

The Sales Coaching Institute

March 20th, 2017

Sell More Creatively and Unlock Your “Inner Edison”

Sometimes it seems like you just can’t catch a break. No matter how hard you work or how well you pitch your product, you simply can’t generate a sale. Don’t allow this to frighten or discourage you. Take a look at Thomas Edison’s life and look at his creative process. By doing this you will learn whole new ways you can hone your creative skills and use them to help you generate more income through relationships and sales.

Edison was a really good listener. Part of this was because he was genuinely interested in people and enjoyed hearing their stories. Another reason he was such an astute listener was because he learned that by listening to others, by absorbing the stories they told, it would often trigger an idea.

By listening to the stories prospective clients tell you, pick up on something that will help you quickly create a pitch that works for you.

Edison had fantastic people skills. It didn’t matter if he was with someone one on one, or if he was hanging out with a group of talented individuals, he knew how to connect with all men and women that he met in nearly any setting.

You can start doing the same thing. The next time you’re in a group of group-leaderpeople take a few moments to observe them. At this point, you should assume the role of leader, simply because you do have some knowledge to offer them that they otherwise would not know. Make it a point to draw each person into the group and identify the talents there influence ads. You’re going to find this trait makes you stand out from your associates and allows you to assume a leadership role, putting you into a position to take on bigger accounts. You should be humble and proud of this, do not take this for granted and do not be scared to try this.

In addition to acknowledging the talents of your other sales associates, you need to be willing to take a step back and let them shine individually in order to truly listen to what they are saying. Also, you don’t alway need to be the leader, if you have an account you can’t seem to connect to, see if someone else might be better suited for the task. After all you’re supposed to be working as a team.

The next time you meet someone force yourself to keep an open mind, assume nothing. This was a skill Edison used to his advantage. By not making assumptions, your body language won’t be an accidental tell for a potential customer. The Sales Coaching Institute offers training and tips on how to avoid these types of situations.

You might not know it, but since you decided to take on a career as a sales person, it’s likely you have a touch of arrogance. Some people might like many attributes you have! However, many will find it some of your methodologies and ideas offputting. You need to be humble the next time you go out on a sales call, be honest with yourself and take it for what it is. You can not and will not sell everyone so just make sure you respect everyone and you will make it much farther and always continue to sell more creatively.

Happy Selling!

Sales Coaching & Sales Training