6. Check your appearance. Shoes shined, clothes clean and pressed, dressed to the same level as your client? What about your breath? Mints not gum! Hair well kempt?
7. Prepared? Do you have all necessary paperwork? Do you know what this company does in their business? Do you know the title of the person you are dealing with?
8. Is there anything in the room or office that will help you build rapport? The same hobbies, interests or mutual acquaintances? Find commonality.
9. Do you know what questions you are going to ask? Are you listening for underlying dissatisfaction or concerns? Are you tailoring your next question to the response to your last question? Listen, Listen, Listen.
10. What one thing would this customer change about his current pest control service? Make him think of a negative. If it comes quick that tells you one thing, if it comes slowly it may mean that the relationship is strong.
26. Shortcuts- Set goals and methodically go after them every day. Make a plan to succeed and don’t deviate from it unless the alternative is better and more rewarding toward your goal. Failure to do cold calls, faxing a proposal instead of having a face to face meeting or prequalifying a lead are all shortcuts. Don’t let the customer dictate your proposal or closing techniques, be adamant about having time to present your case and all findings. This is what he asked or agreed to in the beginning. Don’t let fear force you into cutting corners. Remember, Everything is difficult just before it becomes easy.
27. Cost- Success has a cost. Every major crossroad in life has tradeoffs. When a man puts limits on what he will do, he has put a limit on what he can do. When was the last time you invested in your future? Read a book on sales, attended a seminar or watched a motivational tape. Be willing to invest in yourself. Don’t sit around waiting on the company to do it, pay the cost. Is there any more worthwhile cause to invest your money in than yourself and your family?
28. Procrastination- The #1 time waster in a sales persons life is procrastination. Think of the ways you waste time every day, talking, gossiping, extra cup of coffee, emails, errands, etc. Take a week and write down everything you do everyday and see how much time is actually spent productively. Here are 4 ways to reduce your procrastination:
32. Get rested. A sharp mind helps fight against daydreaming.The best way to predict the future is to create it. The Hunt “Success each day should be judged by the seeds sown not by the harvest reaped” John Maxwell “You’re going to spend the rest of your life getting up one more time than you are knocked down, so you’d better start getting use to it.”John Wayne in The Train RobbersEach day should be a progression toward your ultimate goal of sales success. The things you do everyday should work toward that goal. If it doesn’t, DON’T DO IT. Each day will be filled with failures, dead ends and restarts. Starting in one direction before being redirected in another. Going in one direction before realizing that the direction you are going is a fruitless journey. But each dead end or failure eliminates a possibility and readjusts your aim. A soldier once told of watching his Vietnamese enemies take aim at him with mortar fire. As the first shell fell short and the next shell flew long he knew they had his position and vacated his foxhole as they lobbed the next shell where he had been only moments before. Taking aim at a customer or industry can be aggravating as you try to judge how to make contact and break through the roadblocks constructed before you. What tools can we use to chart the course or lay the plans for achieving our plan? What information do you need to know before you start your hunt? Spend more time with better prospects! Specialization- Become the industry expert. Read to know all you can about the industry that you will specialize in and then work the contacts you have to increase your penetration into the market. Differentiation- Set your self apart. Good salesmen go the extra mile. Be an indispensable part of their team. Segmentation- Sort your market. Go after those that you know need our service and the differences between them. Concentrate- Fish for whales not for minnows. Go after the customers that bring value, fill in with low hanging fruit and the smaller customers. “Never mistake motion for action” Hemingway