Five Mistakes Made By Salespeople

Like most of us, sales people are no different in the fact that they make mistakes too. When mistakes are made in the selling environment, rarely do they get a second opportunity. These common mistakes made by sales people can be avoided and sales success can be achieved.

Here are some of the mistakes often made by ineffective sales people:

Mistake #1 - Pre-call Preparation

Does little or no research prior to the contact.

Sales people should use all available resources (Internet, Facebook, Google, Linkedin, etc) to research information on the company or specific contact. People appreciate other people who show an interest in their well-being and not just themselves. Don’t fail to educate yourself on your perspective client or contact.

Mistake #2 - Presentation Skills

Uses an inflexible sales process that is robotic in nature.

Sounding like a recording is a real turnoff to prospects. It does not demonstrate an interest in the person and makes them feel like they are treated like everyone else. Customize your presentation and allow for specific questions based on your research to make the customer feel like they and they alone are special and you took extra time and effort to talk to them.

Mistake #3 - The Closer

Lacks an effective close.
Listening throughout the sales presentation is the key factor in enabling the sales person to close the sale. Establishing the need must be completed before a trial close can even be made. Needs satisfaction is the best principle to use when determining the need to close and what close to use. A close can only occur when the need of the customer has been satisfied by the features and benefits of your product.

Mistake #4 - Relationship Building

Does not establish trust.
Trust is the common dominator to establishing a sale. Gaining favorable attention and establishing rapport are the two key ingredients to the start of a presentation. Both enable you to get the customer to elaborate on the specific need for which your solution is appropriate. Rapport building is also a component of understanding the behavioral style of the buyer to insure a better relationship.

Mistake #5 - Post call activity

Does not follow-up with client hn a timely manner.
Most sales people fail to follow-up in a timely manner. Focus your follow-up correspondence (Letter, e-Mail, Text, or Fax) on the benefits that will be demonstrated once the solution is in place. Your product or service is just that solution. Even if the customer doesn’t buy today, make sure you use a CRM system to follow-up periodically. Testimonials and product or service success stories make a great follow-up.

Executive Summary: Sales people must understand their own selling styles and preferences and also recognize and understand Customer Buying Styles. Sales is all about building relationships. Relationship Selling allows you to adapt to your customer’s Buying Style so that a better connection between sales person and customer can be achieved. People who connect better to customers in a shorter period of time close more sales.

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Innovative Leadership helps companies grow, one employee at a time! Can you imagine your customer asking you permission to buy something from you? This program teaches you how behavioral understanding, trust, and emotions can be integrated to produce the desired results. Click to learn more: http://www.innovativeleadershipdv.com/workshops.asp#sales or call 609.390.2830 to see how this series can help your business grow, one employee at a time.

Ten Steps To Goal Getting

1. Make the commitment to reach your goal. "One person with a commitment is worth a hundred who only have an interest." - Mary Crowley.

2. Commit yourself to detailed accountability. Record your progress toward your goals every night, and list the six most important things you need to do the next day. Daily discipline is the key to reaching your goals. Remember, it is right to eat the elephant in small bites.

3. Build your life on a sold foundation of honesty, character, integrity, trust, love, and loyalty. This foundation will give you an honest shot at reaching any goal you have set properly.

4. Break your intermediate and long-range goals into increments. Make small strides to great success.

5. Be prepared to change. You can't control the weather, inflation, interest rates, Wall Street, etc. Change your decision to move toward a goal carefully--but be willing to change your direction to get there as conditions and circumstances demand.

6. Share your "give-up" goals (i.e., give up smoking, being rude, procrastinating, being late, eating too much, etc.) with many people. Chances are excellent they're going to encourage you.

7. Become a team player. Remember: You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.

8. Visualize the achievement or outcome. In your imagination see yourself receiving that diploma, getting that job or promotion, making that speech, moving into the home of your dreams, achieving that weight-loss goal, etc.

9. Each time you reach a goal your confidence will grow so that you can do bigger and better things. After accomplishing any goal, record it in your journal, Weekly Planner, Phone, Blackberry, or iPad.

10. Remember, what you get by reaching your destination isn't nearly as important as what you become by reaching your goals--what you will become is the winner you were born to be!

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Innovative Leadership helps companies grow, one employee at a time! They integrate business consultation, training and development, and coaching with Leadership and Strategic/Forward Thinking to enhance organizational effectiveness, employee engagement and people development. InnovativeLeadershipDV.com

How to Make Choices as a Team

On a trip to a specific destination, a driver can look for certain landmarks to be sure of taking the correct road. A team also has “landmarks” to evaluate whether or not it is on the path to excellence. Several components determine the success of a winning team. These elements include decision making, creative problem solving, collaboration, and facilitative leadership.

Making choices

• Standards for making decisions - Decisions are always made with reference to certain standards or values. The organizational counterpart to a leader’s strong self-image is a well-defined organizational plan of action that serves as a blueprint for decisions. Identification of priorities among the various organizational goals provides an index to their relative importance to the organization.
  
  Do all you can to help team members make wise decisions. The more competent they become in making decisions, the bigger contribution they make to the achievement of organizational goals.
  
  
• Responsibility - Determining who will make a particular decision is another important consideration. Even the most effective leaders must repeatedly judge whether to make a decision themselves, refer it to someone else, or delegate it. As a general rule, decisions should be made at the lowest organizational level consistent with quality. Appropriate delegation of decision making to team members strengthens them, enhances the quality of decisions, prevents morale problems, and maximizes your time effectiveness.
  
  
• Personal accountability - Although you delegate authority and assign responsibility for a decision, you are still personally accountable to the organization for the outcome.
  
  Good judgment in the type of decisions you delegate makes it unlikely that such action will be necessary very often. In the event that you are ever forced to reverse or modify a decision, be sure to explain fully to everyone involved. Do all you can to help team members make wise decisions. The more competent they become in making decisions, the bigger contribution they make to the achievement of organizational goals.

Next Month: How to Solve Problems as a Team. Sign up here to get Monthly Coaching Emails.

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Innovative Leadership helps companies grow, one employee at a time! They integrate business consultation, training and development, and coaching with Leadership and Strategic/Forward Thinking to enhance organizational effectiveness, employee engagement and people development. InnovativeLeadershipDV.com

The Value of Coaching

I just celebrated my tenth year of Coaching. When I was asked by an executive over ten years ago the following question, “Are you a Coach?” My first response was “in what sport”? I coached almost every sport known to man since I had three very active children so I immediately told him that baseball was my favorite and softball was a close second. He then said that Coaching was now one of the growing professions in business and I should look into it.

I researched the profession and found that there was formal training for Coaching. I ended up choosing an online program called Coach U because the focus of the program was on business application, rather than a life coach, which complimented my business consulting firm. I spent the next 18 months learning the competencies, skill-sets, and practices that would make me a great executive coach and officially became a Certified Business Coach. Later on in my career, I took certification programs in Performance and Small Business Owner Coaching since I was dealing with small business owners and top producers in industries that required immediate results.

I find that Coaching is much more well known today than it was ten years ago, but the term continues to be applied more frequently as a verb and not a noun. Coaching is not the same as mentoring, counseling, or managing. Business Coaching appears to have replaced the term business consulting but I still find the two totally separate. Business Consultation focuses on the effectiveness of the organization and Business Coaching focuses on the individual, whether it be an executive, manager or future leader.

Read: How to Make Choices as a Team

Top Ten Must Do's to Increase Employee Engagement

1. Create Career Pathing – people development
2. Establish Performance Management Benchmarks
3. Create an enthusiastic energetic work environment
4. Demonstrate the value of the role to the overall success of the organization
5. Focus on people’s strengths and not their shortcomings
6. Communicate this point in time and forward think
7. Promote recognition and the use of public praise
8. Achievement is results-orientation
9. Manage and build relationships
10. Integrate the beliefs of your people with the vision of your organization

Innovative Leadership helps companies grow, one employee at a time! They integrate business consultation, training and development, and coaching with Leadership and Strategic/Forward Thinking to enhance organizational effectiveness, employee engagement and people development. InnovativeLeadershipDV.com