Sales- “To Stay or Not to Stay”
By Paul Montelongo
Remember the famous Shakespearean saying, “To be or not to be, --that is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to…” Well, you know the rest.
What are you doing to make your sales a work of Shakespearean art? My guess is “Not much.” Most sales folks get too wrapped up in the business of sales rather than looking for the art in sales. They are too busy setting appointments, calling leads, looking for referrals, meeting with prospects, worrying about prices, submitting proposals and looking to overcome objections.
A true sales professional is always pondering the Shakespearean Sales question, “To stay or not to stay?” A sale is an art form. I meet so many people who are fairly successful in their business, but they say they just don’t like to sell. The fact is that you are always selling. You are not only selling your products and services; you are selling your ideas, your motivation, your company and yourself. It just depends on whether or not you see it as a work of art.
Very simply, ask yourself the question, “To stay or not to stay?” What do I mean? Do you want to stay complacent and boring or do you want to spice up your sales life?
Begin to examine everything that you do when selling. First, don’t look at it as selling. Look at it as caring. Caring about other people and their needs will immediately put you in an artistic state of mind. What does your prospect really want from you? Do they want service, the relationship, security and peace of mind or trust and confidence?
"They only want a good price”. Slap yourself. That just isn’t the case. Leonardo da Vinci would never have painted the Mona Lisa with a six-inch house painters brush. Don’t paint the “cheap price” picture either. People want so much more than a cheap price. They want an experience, especially if you are selling a product or service that requires a sizable investment.
Here are five key areas in which you should begin to question your sales process. When answering these questions, look at the art of the process. How can you spice up your selling process? How can you make it more enjoyable for yourself and especially for your prospect?
1. Have an open mind. Are you open to all of the possibilities? I mean, all of the possibilities to increase your sales. That means advanced education no matter how many decades you have been selling or how much success you think you have achieved. You might want to take a novice, a rookie, or a “wet behind the ears” sales person with you to your next sales call and get their opinion of your process. Fresh eyes and ears can give you valuable feedback that you would otherwise never know.
2. Look at your presentation style. Are you to rigid, too serious, too plain vanilla? Are you too much of a jokester? Somewhere between these two extremes lies a really successful sales professional. Do you need to smile more, grin less, make better eye contact, listen more intently, or be friendlier? Do you need to connect with your prospect quicker or are you displaying how nervous you are? You customer sees and feels things with you, about which you don’t even have a clue. Get real and examine your style.
3. Look at your work schedule. When do you meet with your prospects and clients? Are you fixed on meeting them when they are in their optimal money making time zone? If you are only willing to meet with them when it is convenient for you, then you may be losing sales. What about meeting them for an early morning breakfast, before the workday gets started? Could you meet them for a late lunch when the frenzy and hustle bustle of going out to lunch has passed? How about making that next sales appointment at the racquetball club or on the tennis court? Your work schedule may be too rigid and this makes your sales style too rigid. Art is not rigid. It flows freely.
4. Question your marketing and promotional material. Take a black Sharpie marker and sit down with your marketing packet or your company brochure. Everything that is not “client focused” should be slashed out. My guess is that you have your mission statement, your customer service policy, your business history or your price list in the first paragraph of your marketing material. If this stuff is anywhere near the front of your material, X it out NOW! Your customer doesn’t give a rat’s bottom about your stuff or how great you think you are. They want to know what is in it for them first. Be bold and tell them. After they understand what benefits they get, then they will ask you for information about you. Use your business history and biographical information as support only, not the primary focus.
5. What value do you offer? I don’t mean your great customer service or your low-ball prices or even your friendly disposition. I mean the real value of who you are and what you stand for. People still deal with people they trust. Do your high moral values and personal ethics ring out so loud that your customers are magnetized to you? When all the dust settles and your customer has to make a decision to buy, can they look at you and say, “that is an honest, first class individual.” Your ethics and values are exhibited throughout the entire sales process. The real truth is that your values and ethics precede your arrival and they linger for years after you have left the project.
Your sales process can be boring and common. It can be routine and regimented. If I have to choose, I want my sales process to be an enjoyable work of art, a stroke of genius. What about you?
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