Posts Tagged ‘consult’
get real sales tip :: before your next consult
A little series I’ll be doing, giving you some juicy “get real sales tips” via the video. And anyone who wants to give me some editing tips so my frozen video doesn’t make me look like a blow up doll, that would be appreciated.
This tip: Something to think about before you go on your next sales consult or reply to your next business inquiry.
Happy Selling!
10 Sales Tips for Event Professionals, featured….
Thank you to Michelle and Kelly who produce an awesome business blog and business workshop The Simple Plan, for featuring me today!
I quickly wrote out 10 Tips on how to Make the Sale (down and dirty, blunt as usual) for event professionals for their current How to Gain Attention Series.
Be sure to click on this link to read all the tips!
Happy Selling!
Where are your Hot Sales leads kept?
I like to keep important information right in front of my face. Of course, I use software; but nothing beats a good ‘ole fashioned white board. I installed one in the office and it sits right in front of my desk.
Ideas, strategies, and important notes go up on the white board.
Also, our sales leads. Sure we have a database strategy to keep track of the sales leads that come in and keep track of our sales cycle such as responses, notes and scheduling dates for follow up. That stuff is automated within our company online calendar.
But I’ve found it very motivating to put potential client’s names on the white board: and track results in a modified way. This keeps them in front of my face and constant reminder to follow and close the sale.
Sure it’s a little bit of double work, but it is so satisfying to draw a line and put the word SOLD on their name. Also right under the section of potential clients is also a fabulous thank you note from a happy client. Just to remind ourselves how happy we make our clients!
How do you do it?
Happy Selling!
{update on photo: Since the photo was taken, we can add two more “SOLD” notices to it. Holla!}
Selling when you are “down” in Spirit
There’s been an obvious hiatus from the blog and sales tips. My father passed away in August from undetected cancer. His unexpected and untimely death definitely consumed my personal time. And of course I have my main business, planning…forever events, so the sales coaching/speaking/blogging took the back burner.
Obviously, it has been a trying summer. Hell. It’s been a trying year. Not just for me and my family, but for MANY. The economy is a whirlwind of instability with the wonderful media giving it coverage every second of the day. Never a dull moment with them.
This will bring a people down. In their very core. In their spirit.
How do you bounce back from that? How do you concentrate on your business and be positive, even if you feel like the walls are closing in on you? Because you can’t quit! You cannot give up!
Here are a few of my own tips:
- Align yourself with the right people, real people. The ones that will let you complain a bit, but will tell you to get off your butt and go make it happen. The ones that will remind you that while it is bleak, it will get better. The ones that do not bring you down, but lift you up. And more importantly to me, the ones that are keeping it so real that they aren’t over-the-top, Pollyanna, but will still give you encouragement.
- Turn off the news. Don’t watch, read or listen to the media. It is only a downer, a distractor and a demotivator.
- Boost yourself up with positivity. Everyone is different. Some read motivating books, some people like to read motivating blogs, some pray, some spend a few moments a day doing something they love. Whatever the case is….find your positive motivation and incorporate it daily into your life.
- Do not open bills before going to bed. Do not pay bills before going to bed. Do not talk about bills with your spouse/significant other while in bed.
- Eat well (remind me of this when you see me chowing on left-over pizza for the 2nd day in a row). Nourishing your mind is one thing but fueling your body with proper eating habits will physically altar your brain power.
- Focus on all the positive things that are happening to you. THEY ARE HAPPENING. Some of us may have to dig deep. Write them on post-it notes and fill your office, fridge or bedroom wall with them. You need this collage!
Consider this: If you had no financial worry, no business worry, no personal concerns….what would your daily potential be?
Happy Selling!
Sales: Have a Sense of Urgency
I was conducting a one-on-one sales coaching session with a vendor who was having a hard time in getting prospective clients to get back with him after the initial sales consult.
I asked him, “What do you say at the end of the sales consult?” He replied, “I let them know if anyone else calls for their wedding date, I’ll contact them.”
Hmmmm. So pretty much you have left the ball in their court to either get back with you or not. The prospect can take their time while you’re left exposed, waiting for them to move on making a decision and an income.
Now I’m not a fan on pressure sales tactics, doesn’t work with me, so I’m not going to use it on someone else. However, I’m seriously not a fan of leaving a consult as an open-ended conversation.
Instead, when you deliver your proposal (or at the sales consult with your pre-set service packages), let your client know that they have xx days to get back with you or you will open that wedding date to others. You are a professional. You have a business to run, it’s as simple as that.
We use something like this:
As a courtesy, we will hold your wedding date on our books for fourteen (14) days or August 4, 2009 from this email. If we have have not heard from you before that date, we will release your date back into our inventory. As we discussed, we take a limited amount of weddings per month and it is entirely based on the needs of our clients so that we may deliver exceptional, personalized service.
The actual number of days that you will hold their date is entirely up to you. Larger markets it may be 72 hours or if it is during a popular wedding month, 7 days. Doesn’t matter. Give them a deadline and as always, follow up when that deadline is met.
You’ll be surprised how well this works.
Happy Selling!
PS: Read this blog in your RSS feed. And don’t be afraid to tell a friend, or two.
2009-10 Copyright Get Real Sales Coach Saundra Hadley
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