(By Loyd Ford) It’s easy to find someone to talk about how tough sales is or how times have changed or buyers have changed. So what?! Boring!
It’s just this simple. “Learn to control where your attention goes. Place your attention on ways you can increase your sales and your sales will grow.”
- Focus on being super-useful. Stop being the radio person and become the problem-solver who asks questions and brings ideas to local business owners to solve their problems consistently.
- Go look up, learn and really practice DISC profiles. This will allow you to sharpen how well you understand prospects before you even get to know them. The results can be amazing, but you won’t be surprised that the better you can anticipate what you’re dealing with….the better you will perform with prospects.
- Always be looking for undiscovered business owners not yet using radio. You’ll find them if you’re always looking and it will help you grow your revenue pie. You think you know all the clients who will use radio? You’re missing some of them. Keep looking.
- Get rolling before everyone else every day. This is an old trick that is still powerful (maybe more so than ever). The best business owners are working early and your opportunity to sell rises significantly in the morning. So, get out there early and make a difference every day.
- Eliminate seeing a “NO!” as a roadblock to your success. See it as an important and expected checkmark on the way to yes and never take it personally. After all, when you get that rejection, you haven’t even begun really working on their problem. And they have problems that require help. I promise.
- Use humor and purposeful storytelling. Abraham Lincoln used to tell stories with purpose. That means he did a lot of number 7 below before he saw his target. Learn how to tell brief jokes and compelling stories that relate directly to important points you want to make with potential clients and clients. This will separate you from the pack.
- Prepare, prepare, prepare. You simply cannot prepare too much before you see a client. The more you are prepared, the more likely you are to get a new client, grow an existing client and deepen your relationship with a prospect or client in a meaningful way for current and/or future sales. Both are valuable.
- Learn how to effectively help business owners with content on important social media platforms. That’s right. Give it away. I don’t see this enough in our business. Sellers should think about how to effectively position themselves as THE problem-solver in their market and THE person to call when businesspeople have problems attracting enough customers. This can be enhanced across time through becoming an expert in social media. If you have reasonable skills, start a weekly small business blog on increasing local customers for local business owners. Share it in your social media.
- See more prospects, but don’t focus on how many you see. Focus on how many you present specific and significant proposals to each week. Your goals should be higher than the goals your sales manager has for you and placing significant focus on the number of significant proposals you present each week will elevate your sales. It places the focus on consistent behavior to increase your sales and it works.
Bonus: Making coming in contact with you fun will explode your retention of clients. It’s more than being fun. Of course, you should have a strategy that focuses on solutions for clients. But if you also have a strategy that gives clients ‘fun benefits,’ clients will not want to give those benefits up. This will allow your growth in sales to be more pure growth and not simply making up for losses. You’ve heard many times that people buy from those they like. I promise you that if your clients feel you are a good time and access to you means additional good times and consistent benefits for them in addition to results for their business, they will not want to release their hands from your relationship. Welcome to more retention of customers.
I have some advice for you. Stop listening to people who are limited in what they think you can do. Make it a habit to eliminate listening to any negative reason you supposedly can’t perform. Stop listening to yourself when you talk negative talk about selling. We don’t get paid for that. We get paid for surprising people with how effective we can be helping others.
It’s hard enough to be in sales. “Learn to control where your attention goes. Place your attention on ways you can increase your sales and your sales will grow.”
Loyd Ford is president and chief strategic officer at Rainmaker Pathway Consulting Works (RPC). Reach him anytime at 864.448.4169 or [email protected].
