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Bad news on the economy, the stock market, and business are all around us these days. As a result, it is more important than ever that we protect our eyes, ears, and brains from the negatives. This doesn't mean that we ignore the news and pretend it doesn't exist. It simply means that we should not indulge in too much negative news or listen to negative news we don't need. For example, do you really need to know what's going on with the market every single day if you're not a financial advisor or in a related field? Probably not, so don't pay daily attention to it.
Also, now is a great time to stay away from negative people. Not that there's ever a good time to hang out with negative people, but now is definitely not the time. By the way, if you do have negative people that are persisting in your life, now might be the time to do something about that. If they are friends, let them know you're on a new positive kick and see if they'll join you. If they laugh at you and continue to be negative, you might want to drop them. If they are family, try the same thing, and then simply try to minimize the amount of time you spend with them outside of holidays and the like. Negative people can drag you down faster than anything and ruin all forward progress.
The bottom line: Insulate yourself from the negatives by surrounding yourself with positive people and keeping bad news and negatives at bay. Put lots of positive thoughts and ideas into your head. Keep your chin up and move in a positive direction.
John Chapin - co-author of Sales Encyclopedia www.completeselling.com
Are you talking about benefits when you talk to prospects and customers? At the end of the day, people care about one thing: what's in it for them. You can express this in benefits.
Especially on cold calls, you want to lead with benefits. When a prospect answers the phone, one of the first things out of your mouth should be your primary benefit. For example: Hi, this is John Chapin with Micro Arc Welding Company we've been saving companies over 40% on machine parts... Then roll into the rest of your call.
Don't ask how their day is, or how the weather is, they know you really don't care, and this fluff gives them a chance to get you off the phone, which is the number one objective of people who you call.
The bottom line: Lead with benefits on everything. On your website, in your letters, on your faxes, in your e-mails, on your phone calls, and on your appointments. The only thing people care about when you call on them, other than getting you off the phone or out of their office as quickly as possible, is what's in it for them.
Do you have caller ID? If you do, and you don't answer calls other than the ones you recognize, you undoubtedly see the number and names of some of the same telemarketing organizations coming up on caller ID daily. Hopefully your prospects don't notice the same from you.
It amazes me how many organizations will call, and call, and call, everyday, sometimes even twice a day, trying to get me on the phone. Also, 95% never leave a message. This is a waste of time, money, effort, and energy, and it is costing that organization tons of all of the above chasing its tail.
While it's true that you want to touch each prospect a minimum of 7 times over say a two to three week period, this isn't the way to go about it. First off, again, very few of these callers leaves a message so how would I know if I'm remotely interested? Second, your 7 touches would not be 7 phone calls. You'd call, then follow up with a fax, then perhaps an e-mail, if you had that information, then perhaps another phone call. And each time you would mention your primary benefit and ask that the person get back to you if interested. After your 7 touches, you reach the point of diminishing returns.
The bottom line: What does your prospecting look like? Are you like the vendor that showed up on my caller ID every single day for 6 months, and never left a message? Unfortunately, this isn't an exception, this is just the record holder at this point. Many have called for a month or two and again, no message. Go for your 7 touches, leave a message filled with benefits, ask that the person get back to you, and let the prospect go after 7 touches and no contact back. You can then call that prospect again down the road, say 6 or 9 months later. At that point, touch the prospect twice within a week.
John Chapin - co-author Sales Encyclopedia www.completeselling.com
Technology seems to be becoming more important in our lives every day. The better, faster, and more advanced devices get, the more we're able to get done; the more we can get done, the more we seem to find to do. But are you using too much technology in your approach?
The more technology we use in our sales process, the more we eliminate the human factor. The more we use faxes, e-mails, web conferencing, etc., the less real contact we have with customers and prospects. Don't get me wrong, technology is great, it can give you a "cutting edge" image, it can cut costs tremendously, and, as I already mentioned, it can help us get a lot more done in less time. At the same time, technology does have a way of distancing you from people if you use it as a substitute for another form of more personal contact.
The bottom line: Use technology and all its benefits, but use them as an add-on as opposed to a substitute for other, more personal methods. For example, if you used to hand deliver proposals, but now you e-mail them, it is a good idea to get back to hand delivering them. Instead of using e-mail to replace these former face-to-face functions, use it to send out pertinent industry information or perhaps even a bi-weekly newsletter. In other words, use it as another touch point to stay in touch and keep your name in front of people, not as an alternative to the personal touch that has helped you build solid relationships over the years.
Last night I was watching the baseball game and an ad came on for a new television show: Lie to Me. They showed a clip from the show in which one of the actors said to the main character, "I hear people don't make eye contact when they lie." To which the main character replied, "Actually, they make more eye contact when they lie."
I knew I had to address this because, if you've ever heard me speak about eye contact, I mention that most people in fact DO NOT make eye contact during a lie. They will either glance away or blink during certain key words while lying.
So, which is true? Do people make more eye contact during a lie, or less? Actually, they are both true, but for the most part, you only need to pay attention to people looking away while giving you an answer. Here's why:
The main character on the show was referring to pathological liars. On the show he deals with criminals and other people trying to deceive others. The point is: if someone is really good at lying, that person will tend to overcompensate by making more direct eye contact during a lie, not less. Kind of like the loud, obnoxious guy who is overcompensating for a lack of self esteem.
The good news is: most of your prospects and customers do not spend the majority of their lives lying and deceiving people thus, they aren't very good at it. As a result, your prospects and customers fall into the 99.9% of the population that does not make direct eye contact during a lie, as opposed to the .1% of people who make either the right amount or too much.
The bottom line: Pay very close attention to the eyes after asking an important question. If the prospect says she doesn't like the location of the property, but won't look at you when she says it, it probably means something else such as: she doesn't think she can afford it.
This morning I woke up, looked in the mirror, and gasped. I looked like I had gotten the bad end of a fight. You see, a while back I got laser eye surgery and I ran into a few issues with my tear ducts. The doctor told me what to do, and as soon as my eyes were better, I stopped doing what I was supposed to. Thus, when I woke up, my eyes were swollen quite a bit. The additional problem? I was speaking to a group of real estate agents that I had never met in 2 hours.
What would you do? For a split second, I thought about cancelling. Sure they'd understand, right? I then started getting ready and just figured I'd tell them about the situation when I got there. Well, by the time I got there to speak, my eyes weren't too bad, but I still explained what happened.
So what stops you in your everyday life? What do you do when you get a flat tire, a fire (either literal or figurative) interrupts your day, or something else happens? Do you let it stop you or do you look for solutions?
I remember another situation in which a Service Manager for the last company I worked at, missed a customer meeting because he spilled coffee on his shirt. Not only that, but when he called the customer, he actually gave that reason for not being able to attend. I don't know about you, but if I had been that customer, I would seriously considered whether or not I wanted to continue to do business with us.
On the flip side, I went out on customer calls in the afternoon on a day in which I had basil cell skin cancer removed from my nose in the morning. And no, this wasn't something they simply had to burn off, they had cut into me and I ended up with 9 stitches, 5 on the outside of my nose and 4 on the inside. But there I was, ugly bandages and all. Another friend of mine got into a car accident on the way to an appointment. His clothes got torn a bit, he was a bit bloody, nothing too serious, and his car had to be towed, but he called to say he was running a little late and would be there shortly. He took a cab.
The bottom line: Again, what stops you day-to-day? To get to the top in sales you have to be creative and you have to go above and beyond, you have to go over, under, around, and through obstacles.
In the past we've talked about selling in a tough economy; here's one more tip that we left out previously:
In a tough economy you want to have your name in front of as many potential prospects and customers as possible.
Now that may seem obvious and yet, a lot of salespeople pull back in difficult times. In other words, not only are they speaking to their current prospects and customers less, they are also spending less time, money, and effort going after new leads. You want to take advantage of this situation by contacting more people.
The bottom line: When the economy is down, there are fewer prospects. In order to get more prospects, you have to have your name in front of more people.
Sales training rarely covers anything on marketing and yet, many times marketing is the best way to stay in touch with, get the attention of, and sell more to your customers and prospects. So what are you doing to market to your customers and prospects?
Yesterday we spoke about sending a holiday card out to customers and prospects every month. Theoretically, this is a marketing strategy that will eventually lead to more sales.
Though holiday cards are marketing per se, they still meet the objective of helping build relationships and keeping your name in front of the customer or prospect, and thus potentially leading to more sales down the road. Other marketing ideas would include e-mails, faxes, letters, newsletters, e-zines, fliers, and the like.
When you do a true marketing piece, focus on benefits, what will it do for the prospect or customer.
The bottom line: You need to have your name in front of the customer or prospect once every two weeks, on average. You need to touch them in many different ways, not just via phone calls or in-person visits, though those should be your primary touch points.
Okay, I'm a few days late, after all, Columbus Day was three days ago, but what does that have to do with sales?
How often do you contact your customers and prospects? I heard a statistic recently that customers and prospects begin to forget about us after not hearing from us for 21 days. So how do you stay in touch?
One way to stay in touch is with monthly holiday cards. This will be in addition to e-mail, faxes, and other mediums you use during the month. The theory is that every month you can send a card for something. You have Thanksgiving, the December holidays, the New Year, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Ground Hog Day, religious holidays, 4th of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day, birthdays, anniversaries, you name it. You can even send an anniversary card out to your unmarried customers and prospects that marks the first day they started doing business with you.
The bottom line: Stay in touch with your customers. Sending a monthly holiday card is one way, but also look for other ways to keep your name in front of them. Try to touch prospects and customers in some way at least once every 2 weeks.
Most of us get so caught up in our day-to-day selling that we many times forget to step back and look at the "big" picture. Where are you at right now with regard to your annual goals? Do you have a business plan and are you on track? How many calls are you making, leads are you getting, etc.? In other words, are you on track, are you doing what needs to be done to be successful?
The bottom line: Pick a few times during the year, usually once a quarter works well, to see where you're at with regard to your overall plan. If there are any short falls, where are they? Do you need to simply work harder or smarter, or do you need to change your approach?
John Chapin - one of the co-authors of Sales Encyclopedia www.completeselling.com
Have you ever noticed that pretty much everything in life seems to have a domino effect? "A body in motion tends to stay in motion, one at rest tends to stay at rest." An even better saying might be, "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer."
So why does the world work like that? It starts with our mind set. If we look for opportunities, we'll see them. If we look for obstacles, we'll see those too. If we are positive, more positive things will happen and vice versa if we're negative.
Here's an example, my book Sales Encyclopedia has a list price of $59.95. It is well over 600 pages of the best, most up-to-date sales information around. There are ideas in there that people who have been in sales for 30 or 40 years admit they have never heard of before. In short, there's tons of quality information that can have a HUGE impact on one's income level. The people who stand to gain the most from this are new salespeople or those who are struggling. So what do I find? The people who need the book the most, don't have the money, and the people who need the book the least, buy at least one copy, but I've had them buy more than one at times.
The people who need it the most say they can't afford it. This is even when I had a pre-publication special of $30! I tell them, "Look, just take the book, look through it either now for a few minutes, or even take it home with you and bring it back in a few days." and do you know what? They won't even take it and open up the front cover. They just say, again, "Sorry, I can't afford it."
This is a poverty mindset. The book has a 45 day guarantee, I even offer to let them look at it first. Still, the prosperity mindset people buy, because they know one small idea will be worth more than their investment, while the poverty mindset people, who could use the book to launch a successful sales career, that could lead to hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, can't come up with $30.
Okay, this wasn't supposed to be an advertisement for the book, so I hope it didn't come across as one. The bottom line is: If you see and fear failure, you'll head that way whereas if you envision success and move forward with a positive attitude, you'll head that way. Your mindset is arguably your most selling powerful asset.
Okay, the stock market is tanking, the real estate market is tough and... the sky is falling. :I
If you're looking for negatives and doomsayers, you don't have to look far, they're all over the place. Your objective is to ignore them. That's right, even ignore the newspaper and TV news if you have to.
I first got my securities license in September 1987. Do you remember what happened in October 1987? Black Tuesday, the stock market dropped 22+% in one day.
It was easy to get caught up in the negatives, especially as a kid that had just turned 22, but buying into the negatives in life will not only get you nowhere, you'll actually regress, things will get worse for you.
It's true that lots of people got rich during the Great Depression, and it's true that, no matter how badly you think things might be, there are people out there making more money than ever, and it's not because they are lucky. Sure, some are lucky, but the majority are people who remain strong, committed, and determined to stay the course and work hard no matter what everyone else is saying.
The bottom line: Check your attitude at the door and do everything you can to stay upbeat and on track. Listen to and read motivational information, surround yourself with positive people, refuse to listen to the negatives. Do whatever it takes and remember, if you stay positive, there's a good chance things will work out just fine but, if you get negative, you're practically guaranteeing failure.
When the economy is questionable and people get scared, they immediately squeeze their wallets tighter. Many take a short term focus and decide to save money now, and spend it later when things look better. As a result, it becomes much easier for prospects and customers to commoditize whatever it is you're selling. In other words, "Okay, it's all the same, so who has the lowest price?"
At times like these you need to get some sales training with regard to the price objection and building value versus dropping price. Even if you're really good at the price objection, you can always get better.
The three areas to focus on are: You, Your Product, and Your Company.
If people like and trust you, you're way ahead of the game. Next, what benefits does your product offer over the competition, and finally, what does your company bring to the table that the competition does not?
Also, keep in mind that an up-front higher price, usually means a long-term lower price.
The bottom line: Right now, people are conscious of price more than anything else. Make sure you're over prepared for the price objection, and focused on creating overwhelming value.
Sales training teaches us what to say and do, but usually has little to do with our mental state or the mental obstacles, such as fear, that get in our way. I saw a video yesterday about a man named Clay Dyer. The clip is very inspirational and motivational. In fact, if you've been letting something hold you back, you need to see this.
You see many of us know we should be doing more prospecting, or we know we should be doing a better job with follow up, or we should get more sales training, but something stops us from doing what we know we should do.
The Bottom Line: Watch the Clay Dyer video for some inspiration and motivation. Simply click on "you tube" below. When you're done watching ask yourself, "What's my excuse?" Oh, and by the way, if you're wondering, Clay Dyer has no arms, and no legs, just a small apendage where his right arm should be. And, that's right, he's a professional fisherman! This may be the best film clip you've ever seen. Enjoy!
youtube- Clay Dyer
John Chapin www.completeselling.com
Okay, right now the stock market is crazy, the economy is up in the air, and a lot of people are freaking out. It's time for you to be different.
Yes it's true that more millionaires were made per capita during the Great Depression, but guess what? They weren't standing in soup lines and they weren't panicking. There is an opportunity right now, perhaps a big one.
It's time for you to remain calm, cool, and collected, and to look for the opportunities here. Low real estate prices, low stock prices, commodities cheap. Question: when do you want to buy things? At the highest price possible when things look great, or would you like to get them on sale? Well, if you answered "on sale" guess what? It's time to get some bargains. Also, look to alternative energy and green companies. These are the ones that will be huge payoffs in 10 or 20 years.
The bottom line: Stay calm and help your clients stay calm. Look for the opportunities for both you and your customers and take advantage of them.
Okay, it's Monday morning, and if you're a sports fan, depending upon where you live, you may have been up late last night. For some people Mondays already seem to carry some extra weight as we try to get going, add to that a late night, or some other mental or physical baggage, and you may feel like going back to bed. So what can you do?
First, when you're really stuck, do anything. There's power in momentum, so if you can get yourself moving, that usually helps.
Second, give yourself an artificial boost. In other words, it might be time to down a cup of coffee or two, if you haven't already.
Third, challenge yourself. Try to look at this as a game, a challenge in which either you or the bad guys will win. Try to have some fun with it.
Forth, realize this state is temporary. Just do what you can to fight through it and you'll usually find that your mood will change quickly.
The bottom line: When you are feeling tired, down, or otherwise unmotivated, do your best to hang in there and get something done. Getting yourself to act will change your focus and make you feel better. Also, this will become a habit, the more you do it, the better you'll get at it, and the less down times you'll have.
This will be short because the idea is simple and yet, a lot of people miss it. You need to surround yourself with positive, upbeat people who are going places in their lives.
If you hang out with negative people, this can destroy any positive progress you would have otherwise made. Negative people will pull you down, tell you why it can't be done, and do everything to smash your hopes and dreams.
Do you have to replace everyone immediately? No. Let people know the path you are on. Ask them if they would like to come along on the journey and become better or at least hold you accountable and support you. If they laugh and tell you you're crazy, you may want to look for someone else to hang out with.
If the negative people are your family, make more of an effort at letting them know where you're going and encouraging them to come along. If they continue to tell you "it can't be done", just accept them the way they are and try not to spend too much time with them. Be social on holidays and the like, but don't surround yourself with these people often.
Also, if you don't have a lot of positive people around you now, go find some. Join business groups, join groups such as Toastmasters. Volunteer. Look for good, positive, upbeat people and become friends with them.
Bottom line: The level of success of the people around you usually matches your own level of success. If you aren't already, get around positive people who have goals and a direction in life. It will be one of the most important things you ever do.
The other day we talked about your sales beliefs that may be holding you back. Today we will look at other personal beliefs that may be holding you back.
Do you believe you need 8 hours of sleep a night? Do you believe you're good with numbers but not with names? Do you believe that it takes you a while to learn new things?
Remember: whatever you believe to be true, for the most part, will be. Whatever your beliefs are, I challenge you to look at them if see if any may be holding you back.
For example, I used to believe I needed about 9 hours of sleep. I also believed that I was not good with names. What I discovered was that I only need about 7 hours of sleep and I am now great with names. The benefits? 14 hours more a week and no more embarrassing moments when I forget someone's name. Those are just 2 benefits, I'm sure we could come up with others.
So what should you do with your limiting beliefs? Question them, put them to the test, and get educated about them.
For example, I learned some strategies for remembering names such as name association and saying the name to myself a few times. With regard to sleeping, I took the clock out of my bedroom and got up when I woke up and felt pretty good. Obviously I wouldn't get up if it was still dark out. :I
Also, where did this belief come from? Do you know it is absolutely true? Is it true in ALL cases? Does everyone have this belief?
One other strategy is to adopt a new, empowering belief and decide to believe it, while refusing to believe the old belief.
The bottom line: You are what you believe you are. We all have beliefs which hold us back. Question yours, challenge them, get rid of them and replace them with new empowering beliefs.
