SalesHQ

When Jack Welch was chairman of General Electric, he would regularly ask the top managers in the company's 14 major businesses a series of questions about the global competition. These questions are worth sharing. What are your global market dynamics today, and where will they be over the next several years? What actions have your competitors taken in the last three ...

    There was a customer I had that was known throughout the industry for her one word comment. Busy. I was told of this woman before I ever walked into the account. She was a wile and knowledgeable purchasing agent. She knew her stuff and more than held her own with salespeople.   Each time I called on her ...

        Just think how much better off all of us would be in life if we listened more, no, make that just plain listened. How many times during a conversation did you miss out on some important points because you were formulating a reply to something you just heard and missed everything said after that.Happens a lot. ...

Prospecting rejection hurts. Some targets are gentler with their rejection than others, but the message is the same – “NO”. Once rejected, you'll be annoying if you keep pushing which could burn a future opportunity. Oh, there are those that attest to their tenacity in turning rejection into a sale. Unfortunately those instances are rare - ½% - 1%. Prospecting rejection ...

We hate to admit it, because we personally feel that clothes shouldn't matter. In a perfect world, a person would be judged at their workplace based solely on the caliber of their work. Unfortunately, that's not how the world works. How you choose to dress each morning *reflects how you feel about your job* – that you take your position seriously, ...

Mistake #1: Not earning the buyer’s trust. If your prospect doesn’t trust you, 98% of the time, you won’t make the sale. There are two important things to remember about trust. First, trust extends from you. If you begin the sales process by building rapport so that the prospect starts to like you, they will soon begin to trust you ...

Last week I was speaking with a new prospect who had called in to inquire about one of my inside sales training programs. I went over her needs, matched up my training to fit those needs, gave her the price options and then closed on dates. And that’s when I got the old stall, “Well, let me run this by my ...

Customer service is built on the bedrock of a positive attitude. Without the positive attitude all of the attempts to "train" customer service will fail. Picture this; a man, Mr Jones, walks up to the front desk of an hotel at the beginning of a holiday. He has just completed a twelve hour flight in economy class overnight to reach his ...

Let’s face it, lots of prospects see your sales call as an interruption from the important things they want to (or feel they ought to) be doing. A salesperson is often viewed as an intruder, a money-grabber, and sometimes even a beggar. At best, many polite prospects tend to see themselves as being nice to a fellow human, or actually doing ...

Virtually every professional has learned that generating referrals from clients and prospects is a key to success, yet surveys of thousands of attendees of my referral training seminars indicate that less than 15% of all salespeople and professionals generate enough referrals to impact their business. Traditional referral trainers have taught us to “do a good job and ask for referrals.” Using ...

2. Think Like Your Potential Client Once you have identified your target client, you need to switch roles and put yourself in his shoes. What pain does he have that you can solve? Does he realize he has this pain? It could be that you are a training consultant and you provide communications training. HR professionals, for example, are probably concerned ...

Most of us dread our days of making cold calls. We take a deep breath, pump ourselves up, and prepare to talk with a perfect stranger. Is there any wonder a gray cloud sometimes hangs over our desk? It really doesn't have to be this way. Cold calling can be an interesting, intriguing, fulfilling adventure. How do you do it? You ...

Buzz words annoy me. When words become labels which people use without thinking, they become worthless. People give the appearance of buzzwords actually shaping their thinking. How sad can we get? Here is an array of the most often used marketing buzzwords and their definition. Learn them. Even if they are annoying, you want more marketing tools under your belt and ...

Have you noticed that the old "tried and true" cold calling techniques which were once successful have completely lost their effectiveness over the years? They just don't work anymore. Nevertheless, many salespeople are still use them because that's all they know. They're working from that old, ineffective cold calling mindset. And they're making the same mistakes over and over again. These ...

Whether you're going to the bank for a loan or to the local auto shop for an oil change, you should look the part. While it's nice to think appearances don't matter, they usually do. I'm not talking about dressing up or staying in fashion (although I highly suggest it), and this is not a diatribe on how casual Fridays and ...

What happens when a potential customer finds your website, only to realize your company does not sell what there looking for?  Do you leave them with a good feeling? Probably not, if there looking for something else, you have just wasted there time. The customer then leaves with a “bad taste” remembering that when they visited your store front on-line, they did ...

There is ultimately no better way to start networking than to try it for real. The easiest way to do this to commence with the people you already know, rather than to find new ones. One highly beneficial task you can undertake at the outset is to map or chart your contacts. This mapping can be done in a number of ...

When you are entertaining clients, knowing the proper gratuity for a service or meal is critical. If you are noticeably unsure of yourself, you may come off as unsophisticated, and if you are inaccurate you may come off as a cheapskate. You need to make sure you are comfortable with these simple financial transactions, since you are aspiring to be transacting ...

                           HOW TO GET A SALES POSITION WITH NO EXPERIENCE   Sales can be a very rewarding career. It can be a very lucrative career. It can also be a very tough career. The truth first.  80% of sales people struggle and are broke. Wow! That sounds like the odds are stacked against you. Trust when I say THEY ARE NOT! ...

    People will buy even the most expensive items if you satisfy their needs and prove the items' worth. You must show the prospect how the product or service will benefit them and is worth the higher cost. Notice I said cost not price. Price has a sharper sound connected to it from the consumers' point of view. Psychologically ...