Success In Sales

By Mark P.D. Wheatley

Committed To Your Business Success

Everyone is in sales; we all have to sell our company’s products or services; accountant’s solicitors and bank managers all are in sales, even funeral directors are in sales!!

Sales are the life blood of the company, without sales people, the accountants have got little to count.

Improving the sales performance can significantly increase the value of your business, without much investment.

A change in the closing ratio and what’s offered can make a massive difference to the profitability and the value of a business.

I took one of my clients closing percentage up from 16% to 60% through coaching and changes to the process (I can validate this for you).

What does this mean to you?

What I’d like you to do is find some time and calculate how many prospects you see a month and how many sales you make a month. Compute your closing percentage, then compute just a 10% shift in the percentage, then recalculate your annual sales and profits when you have increased the percentage just by 10%.

Clearly if the percentage is low there is a greater upside potential

I was consulting recently with a lady who sold utility services (gas electric etc), her problem was; she had to see the client twice to make a sale, she was inundated with leads. So by changing her processes, gathering more information before the call, she was able to double her sales.

I’m happy to spend some time with you looking at your figures to identify precisely how much difference could be made (subject to my commitments).

Part of the services I offer are sales consulting, and training, recently, I was putting some new material together recently for a sales course; and it occurred to me that you might like these ‘success in sales rules’ for your own business.

Have a look at the rules and mark yourself 1-5, then draw up an action plan to make improvements where you have a low score.

Rules For Success In Sales

1. Know your products and services inside out, back to front etc
2. Know where your competitors weaknesses are
3. Have a positive attitude
4. Put your clients/customers interest in front of your own
5. Have a real interest in what their problems and challenges are
6. Be enthusiastic
7. Don’t use BS; always tell the truth
8. Don’t promise anything you cannot live up to
9. Keep your council and don’t get involved in work politics be everyone’s friend
10. Know your numbers and set yourself goals (appointments closing ratio etc)
11. Work hard and smart
12. Plan your time
13. Build specific time to stay in contact, prospect and follow up, follow up (if you don’t stay in touch why should they care about you?)
14. Always arrive on time to appointments in person or on the phone
15. Be tidy and neat in appearance
16. Be friendly and genuine
17. Use appropriate humour
18. Have a script book and know your lines
19. Use benefits more than features
20. Use tie downs
21. Reset the buying criteria
22. Don’t knock the competition
23. Ask many questions before you offer a solution
24. Listen for buying signals (God gave you two ears and one month, listen twice as much as talking)
25. Find out what the value is to them, by having your product or service
26. Make sure the prospect is qualified before you offer a solution
27. Anticipate objections and have prepared responses
28. Have different closing techniques
29. Always shut up after you’ve asked for an order
30. Continually educate yourself in sales
31. Develop checklists to ensure you cover everything
32. Record your calls and presentations (with permission)
33. Debrief yourself after a call
34. Become an effective networker
35. Obtain testimonials
36. Build your future sales on referrals
37. You don’t have to sell to everyone (some deals aren’t worth doing)
38. Comply with your company policies and procedures
    If you don’t you’ll give sales people a bad name and upset your boss!
39. Your reputation is your greatest asset (the most important rule)
40. Follow these rules

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article, if you want to know more about the subject or have any questions relating to growing your business, you can call me on 01623 720022 during normal business hours or click this link to let me know when it’s a good time to talk.

How successful do you want to be?

Sincerely

Mark Wheatley

P.S. I offer a genuine free consultation for anyone wanting to find out how I can help them.

P.P.S. If you have a few additional rules for success in sales of your own, please send them to me and I’ll circulate them.

Mark Wheatley is a business growth and marketing expert who specialises in growing small to medium sized businesses through low risk marketing strategies and improving sales skills.