Archive for the ‘Business Lessons’ Category
18 Mistakes Sales Reps Make
By Ron LaVine, MBA and President of Accelerated Cold Call Training, Inc.
Cold Calling System for Sales Success – Live Cold Calling Training Workshops®
This is a list of 18 common mistakes sales reps make:
01. Talk too much.
02. Listen too little.
03. Ask the wrong types of questions at the wrong time.
04. Use close-ended questions instead of open-ended and vice versa.
05. Forget to ask permission to speak.
06. Talk over other people’s answers.
07. Call on the wrong people who have no authority to buy or influence the decision.
08. Speak to fast due to fear or because they feel uncomfortable.
09. Focus on their products rather than solutions.
10. Speak in a monotone or without enthusiasm or conviction.
11. Use a lot of wishy-washy words in a row like, could you possibly please, denoting a lack of confidence.
12. Don’t identify themselves, their company or what they do properly.
13. Leave their phone number only once and speak too fast.
14. Forget to spell and grammar check their writing.
15. Speak too slow sounding monotonous and boring.
16. Forget to ask for contact details (Name, Title, Email, Ext. Reports to, Boss’s boss and Assistant.
17. Forget to set up a time and date specific action step.
18. Forget to be polite to everyone including assistants.
You can eliminate these mistakes by seeking first to understand and then be understood.
You can use this content in your own publications.
Please include the following reprint permission…
This article is reprinted with permission from Ron LaVine’s “Sales Tips for Success” complementary e-Zine. Ron LaVine, MBA is President and Founder of Accelerated Cold Call Training, Inc., an Oak Park, CA live cold calling training company. Get two FREE Reports, plus the FREE e-Zine, Sales Tips for Success by clicking here. Learn more about Cold Calling for Sales Success On-site, Virtual, Individual or Group, Live Cold Calling Training Workshops® by calling me, Ron LaVine at +1-818-991-6487 by clicking here. Follow me on Twitter by clicking here.
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By Ron LaVine, MBA and President of Accelerated Cold Call Training, Inc.
Cold Calling System for Sales Success – Live Cold Calling Training Workshops®
The challenge is to reduce the gap between your actual performance (inside the comfort area) vs. your potential performance (outside the comfort area).
____________________________________________
Outside the “Comfort Area” – Potential Performance
____________________________________________
(Gap)
Inside the “Comfort Area” – Actual Performance
(Gap)
____________________________________________
Outside the “Comfort Area” – Potential Performance
____________________________________________
The Japanese have a term for this called “Kaizen” or the implementation of continuous incremental improvement. Simply put, this is doing what you are currently doing but learning new ways to expand your ability to do it better.
Applying this to yourself, you might look at the two of the basic skills for successfully conducting business over the phone. They are the Planning Arena and the Account Qualification Process. These skills have a number of components with room for incremental improvement once you decide to move out of your “Comfort Area.”
Areas for improvement in the Planning Arena might include looking at how you:
Set your call objectives,
Prepare yourself before beginning a call,
Maximize your energy during the day,
Determine the intervals between your calls,
See yourself achieving your goals,
Examine your current pattern of making calls,
Handle your weaknesses once they’ve been identified.
Account Qualification area improvements may include:
Examining what are the common characteristics of your most profitable or and “ideal prospect”,
Preparing questions to find these characteristics,
Planning how you can create a good first impression, build trust and credibility,
Expressing your confidence in a relaxed manner,
Matching and modeling the speed, volume and tone of what how your contact speaks,
Following the 80/20 rule of listening (this rule says we need to invest 80% of your time listening and only 20% speaking).
IMPROVING YOUR “COMFORT AREA” FUNDAMENTALS
“Comfort Area Fundamentals” include improving your:
Abilities,
Education & Knowledge,
Achievement Orientation.
An incremental increase in the “Comfort Area Fundamentals” allows you to expand the way you operate and will, if constantly put into practice, lead to greater performance. This is why it is important for you to consistently focus on and practice improving the “fundamentals” so it becomes easier when you find yourself outside your “Comfort Area.”
Abilities
Ability is defined as the power to do. Will your future be a series of goals you’ve set or a series of accidents? You are a problem solver not a peddler or a pusher. What I hear, I forget; What I see, I remember; What I do, Becomes a Part of Me. Being the best is not as important as doing your best.
Education and Knowledge
Napoleon Hill in his book Laws of Success (published by Success Unlimited in Chicago, IL. And available through ), defines Education as “the development from within, of the human mind, through unfoldment and use”. What are some specific ways to increase your Education & Knowledge? Setting aside time to read about your industry and your account’s industry has always been a wise investment. Paying attention to the news (the Sales Intelligence Report Email Newsletter is an excellent source of concise news ) and pointing out items that may have an impact on your client’s business shows you care about them and the challenges they are facing in their businesses.
Listening to audio cassettes and reading books by successful sales executives is a “sure-fire” way to strengthen your knowledge on how to use the “Comfort Area Fundamentals” to their greatest advantage. Attending user conferences, industry specific events and going through sales training classes on a regular basis also adds to your reservoir of knowledge.
Maintaining an Achievement Orientation
Maintaining an Achievement Orientation requires you remember that action follows thoughts so think great thoughts and focus on the positive. Think of yourself as successful and well thought of and doing more than you are asked to do. Help others as you have been helped and you will be rewarded with the success you deserve. You are what you think. Your attitude determines your altitude.
You can use this content in your own publications.
Please include the following reprint permission…
This article is reprinted with permission from Ron LaVine’s “Sales Tips for Success” complementary e-Zine. Ron LaVine, MBA is President and Founder of Accelerated Cold Call Training, Inc., an Oak Park, CA live cold calling training company. Get two FREE Reports, plus the FREE e-Zine, Sales Tips for Success by clicking here. Learn more about Cold Calling for Sales Success On-site, Virtual, Individual or Group, Live Cold Calling Training Workshops® by calling me, Ron LaVine at +1-818-991-6487 by clicking here. Follow me on Twitter by clicking here.
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE COLD CALLING TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS
HOME PAGE // SITE MAP // STORE // WORKSHOPS // REINFORCEMENT // CLIENTS
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By Ron LaVine, MBA and President of Accelerated Cold Call Training, Inc.
Cold Calling System for Sales Success – Live Cold Calling Training Workshops®
As Dennis Miller would say, “Now, I don’t want to get off on a rant” but why have corporations and businesses made it so hard to do business with them? Are they trying to drive business away? In an age where customer loyalty is a prized plum, it never ceases to amaze me to what lengths corporations will go through to aggravate and alienate their customer base.
As I say in class over and over, it is not always the big things that make the difference. In fact, quite often, it is the little things you do or say or how your company operates that sets you apart from the competition and wins you the big deals. It maybe better service, friendlier people, attention to detail, greater accessibility or a better attitude.
Ease of use ranks high on my list when doing business with someone. When companies make it hard or un-enjoyable for me to do business with them, my first thought is “Where else can I take my business?”Where else will my hard-earned dollars will be appreciated and I won’t have to go through a war zone to get simple things done?”
For example, the bank I currently use allows you to bank online. I enjoy using the electronic bill pay feature. I can pay my bills from anywhere in the world. Here’s the catch. I have a business account and a personal account however they cannot access each other (this bank actually has a separate web site for each). This means for me to pay bills using each account, I would need to pay for two bill-paying services. Does this make sense? Of course not and yet it occurs.
Example number two. There is a next-day shipping company whose service I really enjoy. What happened? I closed one credit card account and opened another. The billing department automatically charged me $10 Declined Credit Card charge without notifying me rather than contacting me and asking why my credit card was not working; I called up customer service (at least three times) and explained the situation. I gave the person a new credit card number and requested that they make notes in their customer service system. They did and they told everything was fine and taken care of. Wait a minute, I just opened my mail and there’s another
REPRINT OF ORIGINAL statement showing the same charges and that the bill is now overdue. To cut to the chase, I ended up calling the headquarters and explaining that because the people in billing could not access the notes from the people in customer service, his company nearly lost my account over $10.
Ron you’re saying, $10 is no big deal. You’re right however if you calculate the lifetime value of a client and then multiply by the number of clients you maybe losing due to what I call disconnects within a company’s product and service delivery system, the potential dollars lost rises dramatically. The person at corporate was smart (probably why he was working in the executive offices). He simply asked, “What do we need to do to fix the problem?”
I replied, “Reverse the charge, take down my new credit card number and say I’m sorry. That’s it. That’s all. Nothing fancy.” I also mentioned that if this is happening to me, I wonder how many other clients are being affected by the same situation. He said he’d make a point to check on their notification and CRM systems.
Do you know why I went to all this trouble to bring my business back to a company whom by all rights and means did not deserve it? It is because of the guy who picks up and drops off my packages. He always has a friendly smile and a happy hello. I like people like that and enjoy doing business with companies who employ people like that. He doesn’t know it but it is his behavior that saved his company at least one client and possibly many more.
In closing, as a sales rep or any member of a company large or small, ask yourself every once in while, “How easy is it to do business with your company?” “Are there disconnects in your company’s product and service delivery system (this includes a review of all departments, not one or two)?” “How easy is it to return something?” “When’s the last time Sales asked Marketing for some data and it fell through the cracks or vice versa?” “How well do your departments share information internally?”
Sharing internal information is a very important issue in corporations and maybe why Customer Relationship Management has become such a hot topic that is being looked at very seriously. Studies show over and over again, it can cost 7 to 8 times more to get a new client as it does to keep an existing one. So keep your existing clients happy by making their experiences or points of contact with your company as enjoyable as possible.
You can use this content in your own publications.
Please include the following reprint permission…
This article is reprinted with permission from Ron LaVine’s “Sales Tips for Success” complementary e-Zine. Ron LaVine, MBA is President and Founder of Accelerated Cold Call Training, Inc., an Oak Park, CA live cold calling training company. Get two FREE Reports, plus the FREE e-Zine, Sales Tips for Success by clicking here. Learn more about Cold Calling for Sales Success On-site, Virtual, Individual or Group, Live Cold Calling Training Workshops® by calling me, Ron LaVine at +1-818-991-6487 by clicking here. Follow me on Twitter by clicking here.
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE COLD CALLING TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS
HOME PAGE // SITE MAP // STORE // WORKSHOPS // REINFORCEMENT // CLIENTS
TESTIMONIAL LETTERS // MORE TESTIMONIAL LETTERS // QUOTES FROM CLIENTS
ORGANIZATIONS CALLED // FREE SALES TIPS // FREE RESOURCES // FREE ARTICLES
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