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Sales Pros Don't Cold Call.
Although
you reach many people with cold calling, few of them are qualified
prospects. Also, cold calling implies that the salesperson is
desperate to make a sale. Also, cold calling destroys your status as
business equal or business superior.
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Sales Pro Get and Keep the Power in a Negotiation.
The
person who has the power in a negotiation (the person who can fulfill
a need) will lead that negotiation to his desired end. They act like
a true professional and communicate with their body and voice that
they are the person in power.
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sales pros Don't Go to Networking Clubs.
The
people you meet at networking clubs are not the people who make the
decisions, but who are eager to sell themselves. You can benefit from
these clubs however, by offering to speak at networking events. By
being the speaker at an event, you establish yourself as the expert.
Many events need free speakers, so this is a win-win situation.
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Sales Pros Get Hot Referrals.
Start
up a referral program and offer other salespeople a commission for
each purchase made by people they refer. Even better: Print on your
business cards and marketing materials that you only work by
referral. This will make you appear extremely successful and provide
you with referrals.
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Sales Pros are Competent Public Speakers.
To
learn to speak in public, join a public speaking class or
Toastmasters. You will be better understandable and appear more
confident.
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Sales Pros Think Like Business Owners.
Salespeople
try to appeal to their clients, especially when these clients are
business owners. However, they often do not understand what really
matters to business owners. Their key business goals are:
To
increase revenues.
To
decrease expenses.
To
increase efficiency.
Be
careful with decreasing expenses: A more expensive product may lead
to less expenses in the end. A common pitfall is cost justification.
Business owners do not only wish to recover from their purchase but
to earn money with it. The right word is profit justification.
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Sales Pros are Recognized Experts.
Besides
dressing professionally and having public speaking skills, the
ability to show news stories and press releases that quote you as an
expert in your field will establish you as an expert. There are free
ways to get your name in in the news.
Article
Marketing. Write articles with content relevant to your industry
and post them on a site like EzineArticles.com.
Press
Releases. With the help of
media outlets you will be able to get your story in Yahoo! News,
Google News and others.
News
Query Services. Reporters use
news query services to get quotes from experts for their news
stories.
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Sales Pro Get and Use Free PR.
A
top sales pro realizes that they must promote themselves apart from
the company or the product they represent. The products will then
come to you, because of your expert status, independently of the
company you work for. A great way to get free PR is by writing your
own books. Being an author will give a boost to your expert status.
Writing a book does not need to be hard. Ebooks are very easy to
write, and to sell on Amazon. You can even compile an ebook of
articles you've previously written.
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Sales Pros are Internet-Savvy.
The
internet has the power to lead a massive amount of prospects to you.
Using the internet begins with having a web site of your own. This
site must promote you as a salesperson and not your company. The two
main goals of your web site are
To
provide information such as testimonials, links to your press
releases, etc.
To
capture the prospect's name and e-mail address.
The
last point can be achieved by having people sign up for your
newsletter and get a free ebook (not a sales pitch) in return. The
newsletter will allow you to keep contact with the prospect after he
or she left your website.
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Sales Pros Give First and Get Later.
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Sales Pros provide value to their prospects. Value is what you
deliver without any expectation of payment or compensation
whatsoever. Value is in extremely high demand, and if you deliver
value, you will be in extremely high demand as well.
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Sales Pros Build Communities of Prospects.
Members
of communities can brainstorm, share ideas, and help other members.
Also, in communities that consist of both existing and prospective
customers make it easy for word-of-mouth to begin to spread. You can
build a community through online discussion forums, conference and
web conference calls, and in-person get-togethers. Also, build an
exclusive network for your customer's only.
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Sales Pros Automate.
Spend
your time on what you are best at, and outsource the rest to people
who are better at those jobs.
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Sales Pros Build and Use Systems.
Systems
take all of your individual tactics and techniques and put them
together in an order and in such a way that they work together
harmoniously to maximize your results.
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Sales Pros Don't Use Closes.
When
you deliver value to your prospects, they will buy from you, and you
won't need any closing techniques.