Category Archives: Sales

Get That Hard To Make Appointment – Get Noticed And Stand Out!

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Every sales person has been there. That one prospect that is very difficult to get an appointment with. Utilizing creative ways to break through that wall will not only get you that appointment, it will also get you noticed and make you stand out from the rest. Here are a few stealth tactics that I have used many times that have proven to be very effective. Send a deck of cards to your prospect that you can never get that appointment with.

  1. Take 2 cards from the deck! In the package put a note in it with just your phone number and email address. The note is simple, let them know two cards have been removed from the deck. If they can call you or email you and tell you which two cards are missing from the deck, you will buy lunch! Two great things can come from this, first off if they took the time to go through the remaining 50 cards along with memorizing which ones are there and which ones are not you absolutely have their attention. When they respond to claim their winnings, lunch. Now you have finally gotten the appointment that you could not get! If you think your service or product can save them 15% annually as an example, take out the 7 and 8 card when they ask why those cards were chosen, tell them that is the amount you could save them by doing business with you.
  2. Another tactic I have used successfully is the pizza delivery. Send that hard to get an appointment with prospect a pizza for lunch at their office, make sure it arrives no later than 11:40am before lunch time. two things must be done for this to be effective. Make sure the pizza you are sending is from the area’s most well know pizza place that has fantastic pizza. then have the restaurant spell out CALL ME and your PHONE NUMBER in sausage on the pizza. That’s it! No name, just your phone number. Chances are you will get a phone call because they want to know who sent them that Delicious pizza. Get noticed, Get the appointment, Get the sale!
Jim “Biggie” McGuire is a semi retired veteran of the self-employed world of serial entrepreneurship, with 32 years of experience in start-ups and daily operations management of 18 companies he has founded during his tenure. Jim knows the ins and outs of getting past the screening procedure, along with getting your business noticed.
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3 Ways To Outsell Your Competitors

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Here are 3 ways to outsell your competitors. The one thing you never want to do is exactly what the competition is doing because it does nothing to differentiate you.

1. Know more! Don’t under-estimate the importance of this one. You’ll definitely outsell your competitors if you know more than they do.

You need to know more about your sales prospects and customers – you can do this with Google’s help – using Google news alerts.

You need to know more about your company, and you obviously need to know more about your products.

You also need to know more about business. Reading the Wall Street Journal is a good way to do this. You also need to know more about salesmanship or the art of selling.

Go to your personal library, I hope you have one, and count up the number of books you own on the subject of “Selling.”

Sure, I know you’re already overloaded with things to do, and finding time to learn more about some of these things just doesn’t seem practical or even possible to you.

But remember this. We’re drowning in information and starving for knowledge, according to Rutherford D. Rogers.

Invest 15 minutes every day acquiring knowledge.

2. Work harder! Look, I’m a great believer in the concept of simplicity works best.

Yes I’m encouraging you to work harder, but I want you to do it in a smart way.

For example, just make one additional quality sales call every week. When you make 50 additional sales calls a year it will have a positive and high impact on your selling results.

When you’re preparing a sales proposal for a big deal, do everything you can to make it the best sales proposal you ever prepared. How do you do this? Work harder and ask “How can I do it better?”

You keep asking, “How can I do it better” every day and guess what happens? Yup, you’ll start doing everything better.

Manage your time the way you manage your checkbook.

3. Emphasize benefits! I just leased a new car. During the last 60 days I visited five different auto dealerships.

Here’s what I like most about that experience. I liked it when the auto salespeople told me, “This is what I like.”

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How to Capture More Leads Thru An Automated Sales Funnel

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Have you ever wondered how some small businesses are able to drive so much traffic and generate leads like rain in Seattle? Years and years ago I learned that the more leads (prospects) that you have the better because it gives you an edge. This edge is described as not being afraid to lose a lead or prospect because you have a full or even overflowing sales funnel. Some would call this fear of loss. This might seem like a simple concept to you, but to many it seems quite complicated. Actually it’s not that complicated and you can take advantage of building a sales funnel with the use of technology, unlike years ago when it was pen, paper, ruler, typewriters and binders.

If you’ve been searching for ways to increase your lead capture processes and get the funnel to bust at the seems, then consider these steps to get you on your way:

  1. Find a lead and capture it through the use of technology – web forms and auto-responders work best to automate and track your leads.
  2. Cultivate and connect with the lead through personal interaction – you pick which one works best for you – email and/or phone.
  3. Use web and email surveys to determine what your lead(prospect) needs, wants and desires.
  4. Fill the need and then close the sale, making sure to add value along the way.
  5. Grow the relationship and take it to the next level by adding bonuses and incentives.
  6. Ask for referrals by following through and thanking the referee with a gift
  7. Collect Testimonials – utilize these in all your marketing endeavors.
  8. Systematize everything you do to ensure a rinse and repeat method.

Simple enough to accomplish or are you still scratching your head? Ok, if you are scratching your head then look at it this way; if you’ll just take each step one at a time, learn how the technology works and then work it into your daily and weekly schedule, I think you’ll find that it’s not that difficult.

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What’s the Difference Between Consulting and Consultative Selling?

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How Do You Close a Consultative Sales Conversation?

I asked that question the other day on LinkedIn.com under the category of small business development.

I was looking for an exchange of ideas about sales skills. Unexpectedly, I heard from a number of consultants (not sales consultants) saying they would never “close” in a consultative conversation at all. Some sounded offended that I would suggest it. To them, “closing” meant proposing that a client purchase a particular brand. The implication was that a consultant stays above brand identification in order to stay independent.

I agree 100% that a consultant should stay independent. That’s exactly how I would consult…recommending a particular brand only if I thought it was the best solution, and offering multiple brands if all other things were equal.

So how, then, does someone sell consultatively?

Selling consultatively resembles consulting in some regards, but ends with presenting a single brand as the best solution. (This is somewhat different from the original Consultative Selling, as coined in the early 1970′s by Mack Hanan–in a book well worth reading.)

Selling consultatively, like consulting, involves diagnosing the prospect’s situation to discover what his problems are, what he’s already tried to do to solve the problems, what is at the root of the problems, what is holding the problems in place, etc. It’s using skilled and intelligent influence to help the prospect view his situation through new eyes. It’s asking the right questions at the right time to move the thought process forward to new insights and inspiration.

Not Selling Consultatively

Selling consultatively does not mean merely “educating” or “giving the prospect information so the prospect can make an informed decision,” or “finding out what the prospect needs so you can pitch your solution using their words.” Good consultative sales DOES all these things, but usually much later in the sales conversation than most salespeople think.

Openhanded Selling

Think of the sale as an hourglass. While the sand is at the top of the hourglass, be a consultant. Spend enough time exploring their situation so that they’ve fully developed the problem and told you how and why the problem exists. Understand the flow of the conversation so you can ask questions that help them think about their problem from your expert perspective. Notice how this process dissolves concerns and objections. Don’t leap on opportunities to present a solution. Mentally catalog such opportunities and set them aside for now.

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