Actual for You - Business

Conferences to Change Attitudes
We may not be too far form a time when there is very little point in holding a conference for large numbers of delegates simply to relay information, because data will be disseminated in a variety of other ways on personal communication systems. There will be no need to have a conference to exchange information.Now the third millennium is here, we might legitimately ask ourselves how we should best communicate with large numbers of people if data can be sent so cheaply and easily around the world. There are still vast conference centers being built both by governments and commercia

e most insightful statements he made was…"

If the prospect shows interest, end the visit by asking: "Would you like for me to make you a copy of his handout?"

Avoid saying something like, "Tell you what I’ll do, I’ll make you a copy of his handout and bring it by."

If you put your offer in the form of a question, and the prospect answers, yes, you’re then in a position to in essence to do him a favor.

Discover opportunities. While on prospect calls, keep your eyes and ears open. You never know when you’ll discover an opportunity to supply a special need the prospect’s current supplier is not able to fulfill.

At one of my seminars recently, a salesperson told me that while on a prospect call the prospect asked him, "Do

What are Your Employees Doing Behind Your Back?
As a supervisor, your primary responsibility is to make sure your employees are performing as expected. But supervising takes time, which you may not have in abundance. So what do you do?Communicate.Yes, talk with your employees, both individually and as a group. That may not sound like a time-saving method, but I guarantee you that early communication can eliminate or lessen the need for much more time spent down the road.If you make it a habit to communicate frequently, you'll discover it takes less and less time. I have found it's best to have one-on-one meetings for 10-1

There’s perhaps nothing in the selling profession that is more rewarding and personally fulfilling than to take a customer away from the competition. And in addition to the way picking up a new customer makes you feel, it doesn’t hurt your pocketbook, either.

So if prospecting can be so much fun, why don’t salespeople these days do more of it? Why are so many of even veteran salespeople so firmly stuck in an existing customer rut?

I believe the answer is partly because the effort to professionally prospect for new business is darn difficult and time consuming and partly because too many salespeople are content with their current income levels.

But I believe that there is another reason: Sales managers don’t require their sales forces to prospect. I believe a certain amount of prospecting should be a condition of employment for every sales force.

BENEFITS OF PROSPECTING

1. Market intelligence: There’s no better way to find out the intimate details of competitors’ service levels than to call on your competitors’ customers.

So on every prospect call ask one or two key questions to find out how your company stacks up against the competition. Over the years, I have learned a lot about the art of asking good questions from Art Sobczak, author of the popular monthly newsletter, Telephone Selling Report (800-326-7721). Sobczak describes The Fundamentals of Question Types:

Open-Ended

These get feelings, ideas and emotions -- not one or two-word answers. Often begin questions with "how," "what," "why."

For example: "How do you like to schedule deliveries?"

Or, "What do you do when…?"

Closed

These elicit one or two-word answers. Their best use is to get specific information. Not recommended for frequent use since they’re conversation-killers.

"What is the size of one of your typical orders?"

Add-On/Layering Questions

Responding to what the prospect said with other questions designed to prompt them to continue speaking. For example:

"Oh?"

"Then what happened?"

Parrot Questions

Repeating, as a question, what he or she just said.

"You’re having a problem getting on time deliveries? How do you mean exactly?"

Instructional Statements

You’re not asking for information, you’re telling them to give it to you.

"Tell me more,"

"Give me some idea of…"

"Please tell me…"

"Please explain…"

When you use these questions, make sure that you know where you’ll go when you get answers.

Building professional relationships. I know of no better way to establish a professional relationship with prospects you are not currently selling than to make prospecting calls on them. One of the main keys is to a successful prospect call is bringing your prospects some information that will help them be more successful.

An example: "I attended a conference last weekend and heard an expert present an economic forecast for this market. One of the most insightful statements he made was…"

If the prospect shows interest, end the visit by asking: "Would you like for me to make you a copy of his handout?"

Avoid saying something like, "Tell you what I’ll do, I’ll make you a copy of his handout and bring it by."

If you put your offer in the form of a question, and the prospect answers, yes, you’re then in a position to in essence to do him a favor.

At one of my seminars recently, a salesperson told me that while on a prospect call the prospect asked him, "Do y

NLP and Selling - How To Achieve Better Sales Relationships
It has long been accepted that “people buy people – not things”. If that is so, then do you want to be able to build the strongest possible selling relationships? We’ll show you how. Values, Positioning & Selling When you apply NLP in selling you will increase your customer satisfaction rating and your repeat business. The approach enables you to ensure that you match your products or services to your customer's precise needs... ...and ensure that your customer is aware of how carefully you are attending to their

rces to prospect. I believe a certain amount of prospecting should be a condition of employment for every sales force.

BENEFITS OF PROSPECTING

1. Market intelligence: There’s no better way to find out the intimate details of competitors’ service levels than to call on your competitors’ customers.

Open-Ended

These get feelings, ideas and emotions -- not one or two-word answers. Often begin questions with "how," "what," "why."

For example: "How do you like to schedule deliveries?"

Or, "What do you do when…?"

Closed

These elicit one or two-word answers. Their best use is to get specific information. Not recommended for frequent use since they’re conversation-killers.

"What is the size of one of your typical orders?"

Add-On/Layering Questions

Responding to what the prospect said with other questions designed to prompt them to continue speaking. For example:

"Oh?"

"Then what happened?"

Parrot Questions

Repeating, as a question, what he or she just said.

"You’re having a problem getting on time deliveries? How do you mean exactly?"

Instructional Statements

You’re not asking for information, you’re telling them to give it to you.

"Tell me more,"

"Give me some idea of…"

"Please tell me…"

"Please explain…"

When you use these questions, make sure that you know where you’ll go when you get answers.

An example: "I attended a conference last weekend and heard an expert present an economic forecast for this market. One of the most insightful statements he made was…"

If the prospect shows interest, end the visit by asking: "Would you like for me to make you a copy of his handout?"

Avoid saying something like, "Tell you what I’ll do, I’ll make you a copy of his handout and bring it by."

If you put your offer in the form of a question, and the prospect answers, yes, you’re then in a position to in essence to do him a favor.

At one of my seminars recently, a salesperson told me that while on a prospect call the prospect asked him, "Do

Upgrading Your IT Data Center Affordably
Your IT data center is the heart and nervous system of your business. Almost every transaction depends on having reliable, supportable technology. Servers, storage devices, routers, switches, cabling, telecom systems, even the simple KVM switch all play important and mission critical roles in making sure your business can run like a well oiled machine.All businesses with data centers are constantly juggling the competing demands of price and functionality. How can you provide a stable, secure, and robust IT infrastructure while not spending too much money? Finding affordable solutions

ers. Often begin questions with "how," "what," "why."

For example: "How do you like to schedule deliveries?"

Or, "What do you do when…?"

Closed

These elicit one or two-word answers. Their best use is to get specific information. Not recommended for frequent use since they’re conversation-killers.

"What is the size of one of your typical orders?"

Add-On/Layering Questions

Responding to what the prospect said with other questions designed to prompt them to continue speaking. For example:

"Oh?"

"Then what happened?"

Parrot Questions

Repeating, as a question, what he or she just said.

"You’re having a problem getting on time deliveries? How do you mean exactly?"

Instructional Statements

You’re not asking for information, you’re telling them to give it to you.

"Tell me more,"

"Give me some idea of…"

"Please tell me…"

"Please explain…"

When you use these questions, make sure that you know where you’ll go when you get answers.

An example: "I attended a conference last weekend and heard an expert present an economic forecast for this market. One of the most insightful statements he made was…"

If the prospect shows interest, end the visit by asking: "Would you like for me to make you a copy of his handout?"

Avoid saying something like, "Tell you what I’ll do, I’ll make you a copy of his handout and bring it by."

If you put your offer in the form of a question, and the prospect answers, yes, you’re then in a position to in essence to do him a favor.

At one of my seminars recently, a salesperson told me that while on a prospect call the prospect asked him, "Do

Small Business Marketing Secrets - Educate Customers to Make More Sales
We now live in an information-rich economy where consumers expect to be well informed before they make a buying decision.In the past, we could throw simple feature-based messages at people and they'd respond. Whether the messenger was mass media, direct mail or a salesperson, didn't matter. The message was simple and uncluttered.Unfortunately, things got cluttered.Marketing became entertainment. Much of the product message got lost because marketers felt the need to entertain people simply to get them to stop and notice them. This took place both in mass media marketing as w

onal Statements

You’re not asking for information, you’re telling them to give it to you.

"Tell me more,"

"Give me some idea of…"

"Please tell me…"

"Please explain…"

When you use these questions, make sure that you know where you’ll go when you get answers.

An example: "I attended a conference last weekend and heard an expert present an economic forecast for this market. One of the most insightful statements he made was…"

If the prospect shows interest, end the visit by asking: "Would you like for me to make you a copy of his handout?"

Avoid saying something like, "Tell you what I’ll do, I’ll make you a copy of his handout and bring it by."

If you put your offer in the form of a question, and the prospect answers, yes, you’re then in a position to in essence to do him a favor.

At one of my seminars recently, a salesperson told me that while on a prospect call the prospect asked him, "Do

Building a Brand with a Thousand Songs
You know you need a brand. But do you know that one of the most effective ways to grow your business is to build on that brand?In a world of short attention spans and rapidly changing technology, building your brand is crucial to your survival. The most successful companies understand its importance. Here’s one brand building success story:Music to Our EarsDo you have an iPod? It seems everywhere you look today, someone is plugged into Apple’s portable digital music player. The company knows its audience and shrewdly builds its brand around it. As a result, Apple has

e most insightful statements he made was…"

If the prospect shows interest, end the visit by asking: "Would you like for me to make you a copy of his handout?"

Avoid saying something like, "Tell you what I’ll do, I’ll make you a copy of his handout and bring it by."

If you put your offer in the form of a question, and the prospect answers, yes, you’re then in a position to in essence to do him a favor.

At one of my seminars recently, a salesperson told me that while on a prospect call the prospect asked him, "Do you guys have a special order department? I’m having a heck of a hard time finding a reliable supplier."

New business: Perhaps the best reason to insist that your salespeople make prospect calls is to make sure that your company is in control of its destiny. When one or more exiting customers slow down, have their credit suspended or go out of business, it’s awfully nice to have already built a strong relationship with a prospect to keep your sales moving forward.

Try this: Sit down with your sales force and identify several creditworthy prospects and assign them to your salespeople and agree on a game plan. Then follow up with them each month and check on the progress each salesperson is making. This process will make you a better sales manager and your salespeople will become better.

For more information on Bill Lee's Gross Margin book and his newest book, 30 Ways Managers Shoot Themselves in the Foot, go to www.BillLeeOnLine.com. Or call 800-808-0534 to order via voice mail.

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What separates a professional motivational speaker from an ordinary guy? Mostly it’s just studying the basics and practicing the established techniques of an established, successful professional motivational speaker.

Online background checks can be a great tool for employers or people wanting to know the background on significant others.

A strategic approach is not limited to National or Major Accounts only. Unless your sales are 100% opportunistic, a strategy is still key to managing your team, and for each member of the team looking to succeed not only on an account level but their whole territory.

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