How are sales like jump-starting your car?

I hope it has been some time since you last had a dead battery. It's not a lot of fun, especially if it is pouring rain and you don't have a set of jumper cables.

Most people know a battery has a positive and a negative terminal. When jump-starting a car it is very important to know which is which. If you don't connect the negative terminal on one battery to the negative on the other, and then do the same with the positive connections, one can do serious damage to the battery and alternator. 

So what does this have to do with sales? Well if you think about it, those in sales have a negative and a positive. Instead of terminals, we call it attitude.

Unlike a car battery, everyone knows the difference between a positive attitude and a negative attitude ... or do they? You would think this question is a no-brainer. A recent encounter caused me to wonder how evident this fact is.

It is no secret to many in sales that those who maintain a positive mindset towards their daily tasks, their prospects and their clients will out perform those at the other end of the spectrum.

Have you ever come across someone who didn't realize they have a negative attitude? I encountered someone recently that if you looked up the word negative in the dictionary you would have found a picture of this person. Envision a person firmly closed to new ideas or different ways of thinking. He was sceptical about the impact of mindset on actions and behaviors. He believes established processes are more critical than creatively thinking through a solution. He was openly argumentative with his peers, challenged his manager, and discounted others results. His only defence, "I’ve always done it this way." He was fortunate in having established a sizable block of business contacts over the years; which helped him produce above the required corporate quota.

I was left to wonder what his true potential could be if were to flip the dial from negative to positive.

Those familiar with the pioneering work of psychologist Dr. Henry Murray will know he was one of the first to postulate a direct, observable link between thinking and behavior. In the 1960s and 70s, a Harvard professor, Dr. David McClelland extensively studied achievement motivation and concluded that successful individuals have a significantly stronger drive or motivation to succeed than do average or below average individuals. Building on these works, the late Dr. Clayton Lafferty noted that successful sales people were likely to engage in constructive thinking, while unsuccessful sales people were prone to think in counter-productive ways.

Top sales people learn to be effective thinkers. That is, they consciously maintain a positive mindset; they focus on the sale and have established an inner drive to succeed. They combine their strong relationship skills with a strong belief in their clients. If you want to see what they look like, look up the word success in the dictionary!

If you want to jump-start your sales performance - connect to the positive terminal.

Get them with a powerful sales letter!

The main reason why 95% of online businesses fail is because of poor sales letter. Write your sales letter with an Individual in mind; think as if you are writing personally to them. People love to read good stories, tell them stories that illustrate a point you are trying to make.
1.Heading.
Write attention grabbing & powerful heading. Remember you have 15 seconds or less to capture your visitors attention before they click away. Offer the best benefits or the biggest promise to your visitors. Increase their curiosity by showing them self-serving benefits. Your heading should immediately create a desire in the reader to want to know more.
2. Testimonials
One of the biggest problems on the internet is being believed. Testimonials are the best way to assure people that you are not a scam artist. People want to know what others are saying about the product. In fact, a good testimonial from respected well-known authorities within your targeted field will definitely build your credibility & boost sales. Try to include a testimonial as close to the top of your sales letter as you will get people immediately believing what you say even before they read your sales letter.
3. Build Interest.
Build interest in your reader by discussing a problem or telling a story. The first part of your sales letter should build interest in your readers and try to expand the benefits you got people excited about in your headings. People love to read stories, so tell them some exciting story of your past experience, but remember the story should be within your targeted field.
4. Bullets.
Bullets are one of the most powerful persuader in sales letter. People spend a lot of time reading bulleted list. Bullets arose the curiosity of your visitor, so use them to stress the benefits of your products or services and spell out exactly what is included in your offer. Make you bullets like a mini heading. Use them to narrate the benefits of your products in a step-by-step way.
5. Comparison.
To prove that your product or services is of a great value you need to show them what you are offering is much better them your competitors. Show them that others are charging much more for a less quality product then yours. Explain them that they are getting a better deal by ordering from you. This way you can prove your products or services are of a great value.
6. Bonuses
Make your offer different & valuable by adding some good products as bonuses. Do not give away outdated junk as a bonus it will damage the credibility of your main product. Your bonuses should be as good as they could sell on their own. Remember sometimes people buy the main product just because of the bonuses.
7. Guarantee.
If you have a good product then there is no need to worry about offering a strong guarantee. Make your guarantee look like a personal promise. Try to convince your visitors that they have nothing to lose all the burden is on you to deliver what you promised.
8. Demand Immediate Action
Include a deadline to create a sense of urgency in the mind of your customer. Nobody wants to make a decision, so let your customer know that they will be missing out on a great deal if they do not act now.
9. What to do next?
Do not make your customer guess what you want them to do next. Tell them clearly that “Click here” to order or get immediate access. Make this process as simple & understanding as you can.
10. P.S.
P.S. is very important part of your sales letter as most of your site visitors will immediately scroll down to the end of your page to find out how much it would cost.
A P.S. is a best place to summarize your product or services as visitor checking your price will also have a detailed description of what they will get if they order now.
Did you find this article useful? For more useful tips, hints, points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques, and insights pertaining to guides on sales letters, query letters, bylines, with solutions , do please browse for more information at our websites.

Explode Your Sales With Good Communication

These are simple and effective methods to increase your sales. You may think that you know what your customer wants, but do you really? Instead of assuming that you know, why not listen to the customer and ask questions to find out what it is that they REALLY want.

1. Give your customers benefits, not features. Your customers don't want to know the ins and outs immediately of your products, they want to know how it benefits them! Save the details of the product for a secondary page that's NOT on your home page. You can give some main selling points, but keep the minor details off the home page and just list benefits.

For example, let's say you've got a strategy to get your clients out of debt. Don't tell them step-by-step how it works on the front page, be vague and leave the small print for another page. Instead tell them how they can imagine a life with riches and being debt free! That's a benefit, not a feature!

2. Keep in communication with potential buyers. I read somewhere that it takes at least 7 views of your products to get interested parties to buy them. They're obviously interested if they've gotten to your site and requested information, why not keep them informed about your news and updates to the site? You just may have a future customer.

It's also a good practice to use a "bookmark this page" and "tell a friend about this page" tool so you can get potential buyers for the future. Even if they're immediately not buying it doesn't mean they won't be back!

3. Encourage your site visitors to ask questions. Some people may think they're bothering you or wasting your time to ask you a question. Extend your open arms to each and every surfer that comes into your site and encourage them to ask about your site!

However if you see the same question coming up over and over again, it will benefit you and the client both if you create a "Frequently Asked Questions" page. People usually want immediate answers to their questions and it saves you the tedious same responses over and over again.

4. Make the buying experience easier. Don't ask for information that you don't need. Instead, ask for the bare minimum information from the customer so they can "get in, and get out". And then later on, you can send them a quick thank you note and a follow up to see how they liked your website.

Don't make your customer jump through hoops to buy your products. They'll only get frustrated and put it off for later - and later may never come!

By keeping these lines of communication open with your site visitors and potential customers, you'll find you gain more trust and credibility with them and in turn, more sales!

Experts Increase Sales By 28% With Custom Vacation Certificates

Top-notch sales professionals and business owners consistently seek new and economical ways to increase sales. They might try a discount sale, or a buy one get one free sale or something else. But this can be a costly give away of valuable merchandise or time. A different and more affordable method is the vacation incentive.

Vacation incentives have matured since the day of hidden sales meetings. Your customer no longer is forced to attend timeshare meetings, ruin their vacation or pay hidden fees. They get free hotel plus $500 in savings with no gimmicks. The best part is the sales professional or business owner only pays as low as twenty cents per customized vacation certificate and offers a high value for free to get customers in the door -- or make the sale. But does this really work?

According to USA Today, 93 percent of customers surveyed preferred travel over other incentives. Plus the “Incentive Travel Fact Book” states a whopping 58 percent of those surveyed say that travel is a more effective incentive than cash or merchandise.

"In a split marketing test, we sold 23.4% more copies of Instant Mortgage Letters when offering a free Las Vegas hotel and gambling package," says J.D. Zandt, Managing Director of RDULoans.com.

Mortgage companies aren't the only industry increasing their sales with vacation certificates. Other businesses include Timeshare Resorts, Vacation Clubs, Motels & Hotels, Auto Dealers, Apartment Management, Health Clubs, Newspapers, Banks, Carpet & Tile Stores, Boat Dealers, Furniture Stores, Home Improvers, Jewelry Stores, Tire Stores and more.

Customized vacation certificates are perfect to increase sales, generate web traffic, provide lead generation, build loyalty with customers plus motivate executives and top sales performers. Plus with a 30 year travel company completing the processing, fulfillment and arranging, merchants simply promote and distribute the vacation certificates for maximum benefit.

Enjoy Visiting Garage Sales

One of my all-time favorite ways to spend a Saturday morning is to visit garage sales, probably because I have so many great memories of going to garage sales with my mother and my grandmother. I remember waking up early and eating my breakfast as quickly as I could so that we could get out and explore the many garage sales that were held around our town during the spring and summer.

Now that I have become an interior designer, I love visiting garage sales even more. I know, it might sound like a strange place to pick up items for customers, but I have found some of the best and most unique pieces for many of my homes at garage sales. The things that some people find useless are a treasure to others.

If you are about to head out to garage sales, it is a great idea to make a list of the items you are looking for before you head out to shop. Having a list will help you to focus your searching and will make for a more enjoyable time. It is too easy to wind up with a car full of things you do not need after a day of going to garage sales. So prepare ahead and come up with the few things that you need and even think about a budget for those items.

Another great thing about heading out for garage sales is that you can do it with friends. I love spending a Saturday morning with my closest friends and their daughters. We grab muffins and coffee and then enjoy an entire day of garage sales together. So gather other friends that want to purchase great things for their homes and go! The wonders of garage sales await you.

If you are feeling like you have a little too much clutter in your own home, consider putting on a garage sale. There is no better way to simplify your life than to get rid of unnecessary stuff. Once a year I make every member of my family go through all of their belongings to see what they do and do not need. We then throw a weekend long garage sale to sell our items. My children are in the habit of living simply and having yearly garage sales has been a great way for us to work together on something as a family and to bond together.

So whether you are headed out to purchase new things at garage sales or if you are ready to throw one of your own, be encouraged that garage sales are great. They are one of the best ways to reuse great things.

Does Your Sales Training Program Address Your Sales Performance Issues?

Sales training programs encompass a variety of necessary components; things like company policies, sales paperwork, CRM/sales force automation orientation, sales processes, company services, sales skill training and product features and benefits.
But when I ask Sales executives and Sales trainers how their current sales training program is aligned with their sales performance issues I get the look of УNo speak EnglishТ.

LetТs first categorize СSales performance issuesТ. There are (4) distinct sales performance silos that will effect the overall outcome of any sales team, year in and year out. They are:

Х    % of Sales reps to Quota
Х    Average New-hire Ramp-to-Quota in months
Х    Sales Employee Turnover rate
Х    Time spent versus Result achieved

This is a good place to start in determining what sales skill training to implement to achieve a measurable return on investment. But hereТs what will set you apart when you walk the request up to the front office. Start out with the NUMBERS.
ThatТs right. Take a diagnostic view of your current sales performance silos, one by one.

LetТs look at a real sales performance issue example of СAverage New-hire Ramp-to-QuotaТ. I recently conducted a СSales Performance Improvement BlueprintТ web-cast for this sales organization.
The company was hiring 155 sales reps per year. The ultimate objective of any new-hire sales training program is to ramp the new sales rep to Quota. Simply, give them everything they need to effectively reach their monthly sales goal.

So how was this company doing? They were obtaining this ultimate sales training program objective in 7 months. So how does one determine if that training outcome is a СSales Performance IssueТ? LetТs take a look.

Step 1: СRun the NumbersТ for any realistic ROI opportunity

Х    Each new-hire rep had an ultimate quota of $3500
Х    Sales Cycle was 17 days
Х    Average customer term agreement of 36 months
Х    Average 'Sub-Quota' revenue per month during ramp of $1300 (This number reflects the average monthly revenue a new-hire achieves before they achieve quota attainment)

Step 2: СRun the NumbersТ hypothetically for a СSpecificТ improvement

In this case, I showed the sales management team what return on investment they would get by helping just 1 sales rep achieve full sales quota in 6 months versus 7 months. Based on their numbers my diagnostic X2 EvaluatorЩ system showed them a ROI of $79,200 just by trimming off 30 days. If they did that for all 155 of their annual new-hires, they could realize $12,276,000.
And that got their attention. So, is it now a worthy sales performance issue to attach pin-point sales training to? Not quite yet.

Step 3: СRun the NumbersТ for a СReality CheckТ

The most successful businesses Ч and certainly, sales departments Ч have identified their Key Performance Indicators (KPI); individual gateways that directly effect the outcome of a particular process. Then they measure the competency ratios in line with them.

A good KPI example in the sales process might be how many times you advance the first sales appointment to the next phase, whether thatТs a demonstration, a site visit, a survey or a proposal. Another KPI is how many times you gain a new customer once the first gateway is passed. And when you do gain a new customer, whatТs the average revenue you achieve? And how long does it take to gain a new customer on average; i.e. sales cycle? 
How about how long it takes you to gain 1 new sales appointment, defined by sales prospect СconversationТ? And as a by-product of all this, how many new appointments are needed each week?

We ran these numbers in the X2 EvaluatorЩ system to see Сif and whereТ there were some leaks in the СKPI shipТ. And hereТs what we discovered; not a leak, but a big Сole fire hose.

Two СKPI issuesТ were apparent. First, why does the ramp-to-quota for a new-hire take 7 months when the average sales cycle is 17 days? Second, they were only setting 3 new appointments per week when they needed to set 6, based on their other KPIs. So their sales appointment Сactivity barometerТ was only running at 50%. And that will dictate a longer ramp-to-quota.
Dig a bit deeper in the X2 EvaluatorЩ system and out popped a 6% conversation-to-appointment ratio; they had to conduct 15 prospect conversations to get 1 new appointment.

OK, back to the СReality CheckТ. Is it realistic to focus on reducing the new-hire ramp-to-quota from 7 months to 6 months for a sales training ROI of $12,276,000 or $79,200 per rep?
You bet it is. These folks needed to address the front-end of their sales process; setting targeted sales appointments. To do that, they needed (1) establish an activity standard to reach quota by month six and (2) develop a sales prospecting methodology and supporting X2 EvaluatorЩ system to spend less time in achieving it.
Then they needed to plug their sales prospecting СsystemТ into their current sales training program and work to a weekly sales appointment activity goal to assure a monthly revenue result by month 6.

Step 4: Set the Goal and СTrain to ItТ

A sales training ROI goal of $12,276,000 or $79,200 per rep is for sure a worthy one. And the diagnostic system showed us they would meet this goal just by setting 3 additional sales appointment per week per rep; 6 appointments versus 3.

Actually, I lied. The X2 Evaluator system showed an even brighter picture if the sales appointment activity standard of 6 new appointments per week was met. If they could support their new-hires with a sales prospecting system that could help them achieve 6 new sales appointments per week, they would actually cut their new-hire Ramp-to-Quota by 4 months; from the current 7 months down to 3 months.
And that sales training ROI would be $316,800 per rep or a whopping $49,104,000.

One of the reasons why sales training fails is a failure to define a useful objective. In this case, our diagnostic method has defined a single useful objective for them to train to. And this same diagnostic method can be utilized if you have a СSales Performance IssueТ of an unacceptable percentage of Sales reps reaching Quota each month.

In Part 2, we will take a look at (2) other sales performance issues, СSales Employee Turnover rateТ and СTime spent versus Result achievedТ with this same sales management team and see what our diagnostic method to sales performance improvement and ROI turns up.

Death of a Salesman? ItТs What Happens When the Customer Says УIТll Think It Over!

I was selling employment testing material that was based on the teachings of a well-known sales trainer. The question that brought the most conversation was about closing. How do you ask for an order? When someone says IТll think it over, do you become the nice customer service type that says Уfine, call me when youТre readyФ or do you go for the throat and say Уwhat is there to think about?Ф You know the first response is totally wrong and the second, which is the suggested answer, will probably turn the customer off. You try to say it nicely but at this point itТs likely heТs not going to say much more. What did I do? I said gently and with a smile in my voice, УMr. Customer, could you think out loud so I can hear you?Ф

I must tell you, I did not expect the response I got. He laughed heartily and said he could do that. He proceeded to tell me his reasoning and I proceeded to answer all his objections. We were both very relaxed; he purchased my product and congratulated me on my question and my closing.
ThereТs an old adage that says, УA smile given to another can make the difference in their day and yours too.Ф

Needless to say, I decided selling could be fun. I did not go back to boring bookkeeping and now that IТve retired, these words Сcould you think out loud so I can hear youТ are my present to you.

Cold Calling Executives in Brisbane Sales Training

Now, you don’t wanna miss out on use of a proven, effective sales tool. Do you? Of course not! Here’s What Sales Pros AttemptNow, this is interesting a recent client survey revealed that most sales professionals feel pressed to accomplish a lot during a prospecting call. With each executive-level cold call most professionals take a big breath and in one great big run on sentence try to establish rapport by being friendly, gain credibility by giving company history, learn about the prospect with probing questions, introduce and sell products/services all within the parameters of one brief make-it-or-break-it telephone call to the executive suite.You’ll Never See It Coming, Here’s WhyHere’s a news flash it can’t be done! Even bigger news this kind of approach actually signals executive assistants that you don’t belong in the executive’s office. The assistant will simply smile, refer you down to a lower level and you’ll never know why or how you got booted down the ladder so quickly.

So, let’s go to the heart of the matter, take a close look at the structure of the phone call itself. In the 35 to 90 seconds that you’ll have to spend on the telephone at the executive’s level you’ve gotta be prepared to take the call down the straight and very narrow path in which you want it to go. And there is one absolute, positive, no doubt about it purpose for your call. Any hint of a deviation from this purpose will result in fewer executive-level appointments. So here’s the secret ... cherish it and know it’s extremely valuable.

THE amazingly simple secret to successful cold calls to the offices of executives is to be certain that every single one of your prospecting calls has one crystal clear purpose and one purpose only. Each word you speak during your prospecting phone calls directs and redirects the conversation toward that one goal scheduling an executive-level sales call. It doesn’t matter whether you schedule a meeting in person, or schedule a phone meeting every word of the initial phone call must direct the conversation toward getting that meeting booked on the calendar. Period.

Write Down the Words of a Successful Call A technique that’ll catapult you forward is to write down the words exchanged during your cold call. Identify what words, statements and questions keep the conversation on track towards an appointment and what words cause you to lose the appointment. You’ll become consciously aware of the words that flow between you and your prospect and their impact. Won’t be long till you realize that your words either get you what you want or take your cold calls way off the path down some obscure rabbit trail. I guarantee your competition doesn’t have a single-minded focus on high level calls and is unwittingly forfeiting a whole lot of potentially lucrative business. Yet, they hold onto their ill-advised, accomplish-a-lot-in-a-little-bit-of-time approach to prospecting at the top. You on the other hand will find that keeping your prospecting calls on one laser-like focus will bring in more executive-level sales calls than you ever imagined possible. Now, go get ‘em.

Sales training available at Ziglar Australia in public sales training classes and private sales training classess across Brisbane and the Goldcoast.

Choosing A Direct Sales Opportunity

Direct sales can be a great way to start a home business, but how do you choose a company? Fortunately, it is not as difficult as it may appear on first glance.

The first thing you want to consider is what would you enjoy selling. It is possible to sell things for solely practical reasons, but it's much more fun and often more profitable to sell something you are enthusiastic about.

Do not join a program just because your best friend joined it and wants you in her downline. If you love the program too, then go for it, but otherwise think things through carefully. You aren't doing your friend a favor if you aren't really interested in the business. You might even waste her time.

Now it's time to consider the details of the program. First let's consider the legal aspects. It's the ugly side of things, and I like to get past it quickly.

Watch out for companies that practice "forced buying," no matter the name they may call it. Forced buying means that you must purchase a certain amount of product in order to receive commissions, and it is illegal. It can lead you to having a huge amount of excess stock in your house and cause you to lose large amounts of money.

Is the focus on recruitment or sales? You will want to read the article at ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/lotionalrt.htm on multilevel marketing, but the gist of it is that you want to watch out for programs that focus too much on recruitment and too little on sales, or you could be a part of a pyramid scheme. You can read more from the FTC here: ftc.gov/bcp/menu-fran.htm

Watch out for exaggerated claims, either for the product or your income potential. This is a huge red flag. Make sure all claims are substantiated with hard evidence and watch out for shills.

Phew! Done with that part.

Now take a look at the commissions. How much product will you have to sell to earn enough money for your needs? How realistic is it that you will be able to sell this much? This is one of those points you should go over carefully with your upline, and if they don't have the answer, but you really love the product line, see if they can find out. Support from your upline is vital in direct sales, and if you aren't getting it now, you won't later either.

What are the products? Will you be using them too? Once again, if you are excited about the products, they will be much easier to sell.

Is your local market saturated with reps? If the competition is all over the place in your area, you're going to have trouble selling.

Can you sell online? Can you design your own website or are you restricted to the one the company made for you? What does it cost?

Finally, beyond your upline, what sort of support does the company itself offer you? There will at some point be a problem where you will need the company to help you out, either with a customer's order or with your business. Make sure the company is going to be there for you.

Characteristics of a True Sales Leader

In the average sales organization, successful sales reps get promoted to managers. These "new" sales managers are suddenly tasked with leadership and training. In these situations, there is one common liability. The salesperson's biggest strength now becomes the sales manager's biggest weakness in leading a team. Typically, top sales reps don't diagnose and document their sales routines and processes; rather, they Уjust do itФ, as the sneaker commercial so aptly says. So, when they are asked to advance the same superior results in a large group, they can not do it. Why? Because these individuals are exceptional "drivers." Most of their past success was due to their personalities and individual abilities, which are not transferable to the masses.

Sadly, most superior sales performers, when promoted to leadership positions, are unable to truly lead. They have trouble analyzing and teaching their personal sales processes in such a way that their sales teams can properly digest. Solo reps who move into the management sphere tend to manage people versus coaching critical competencies and behaviors, which hurts the bottom line. To be effective, sales leaders must understand and know how to integrate knowledge of sales systems and processes to their staff. They need the majority of their salespeople to accept it, own it and benefit from it.

Going one step further, it is crucial for sales leaders to have experience in identifying and measuring critical core competencies and essential performance metrics. Sales leaders should understand that there are a finite number of scenarios in any selling process. If you identify, train to and measure each one of them, you are on your way to excellence. True sales leaders shine a light on the most critical competencies, enabling the highest percentage of their sales force to routinely win. Sales leaders train to each one of these competencies, but they do so by priority. They understand that training to multiple missions at once will achieve minimal results.

The importance of sales training comes into play for sales leaders, who must consider results-oriented training as a process versus an isolated event. They don't just talk about it at sales meetings, or attend seminars that superficially touch on it; instead, they extract the most important critical competency, such as creating new opportunities, and peel back every element that comprises it. They break apart the elements into single scenarios and attach powerful routines to each scenario. Sales leaders, like great business leaders, spend time developing systematic approaches to essential competencies. And they do it so that their people can outperform the standard.

Sales training campaigns should be setup to improve the ratios of success in each core competency. Operational effectiveness equals better competency routines. Better than whose, you ask? Your competitors', of course. With the right systems in place, good sales leaders understand their essential competency ratios and performance numbers, and are able to relate them to revenue objectives. It is important to set realistic goals that are in line with performance ratios, then set "benchmarks" for each competency and train specifically to those benchmarks.

Jim Tressel, head football coach for the Ohio State Buckeyes, gave a preseason interview the year after winning the 2002 National Football Championship. He said, "We decided to identify a number of important performance benchmarks, and effect training to meet them each week. For instance, we found that over the last 15 years, when we gained at least 200 rushing yards in a game, we won the game 98% of the time. So we are training to routines that will help us get better at the competency of running the football on the ground in order to reach that particular benchmark more often."

Sales leaders believe that sales reps will be accountable to results, provided that leadership:
(1) Identifies the important competencies required for success; (2) Supplies targeted training with appropriate structures for learning and application; and,
(3) Measures the degree of improvement.

Sales leaders are dedicated to transforming "C" players into "B" players, and "B" players into "A" players. They hold themselves accountable to develop or invest in relevant training systems, learning structures and support tools. They want most of their people to routinely meet or exceed company revenue goals, as well as personal career objectives. They know that they must provide the setting and the tools that foster this kind of achievement.

While their seat-of-the-pants skill sets are excellent, the natural sales rep, when thrust into the role of sales manager, must learn how to convert these skills into transferable processes and routines that focus on essential competencies. Thereafter, it comes down to how effectively they can train, motivate and support their staff towards maximizing core competencies, which ultimately increases the odds of exceeding revenue targets.

Building A Financial Services Sales Culture

A growing number of community banks are recognizing that new and more aggressive competitors are taking new business they “believed” they would or “should” have. To help combat this they no longer accept the practice of “business as usual.” They are taking the time-proven actions it takes to train, coach and reward their key business development team members to get them out on the street. Program results are showing ROI’s of up to 30—to-1!

This isn’t easy, to say the least. A major culture change is required for most community banks when it comes to selling. Bankers have long been of the mindset that banking is a business built when prospects come to the bank and request the service they want. Unfortunately the consumer has developed a slightly different mindset lately.

“Yes, my banker and I have a good relationship but that doesn’t mean I will only consult them for financial needs and services. There are lots of other options. ” Friends are friends but when money is involved there is a different emotion involved……greed.

The CEO of First Bank in Ketchikan, Alaska, Bill Moran, decided something new must be tried when he started planning for this new year. “I realized that to meet our growth goals we must be more aggressive about taking business from our competition and improve our “unfair share” of our market. There wasn’t sufficient  market expansion to maintain our historical growth and profit levels.”

First Bank launched its’ new effort with a 120-day action plan in January 2006 for its’ six branches. The intended focus was to be solely on gaining new customers and establishing new relationships.

“Some of the participating officers found it very difficult to break away from the familiar clients to concentrate only on prospects that had no prior relationship, “said Eric Bjella, VP and Program Manger.

The first step was to assess the sales strengths of each team member. It was important to know who were likely to make calls and build relationships easily (Hunters) and those with good processing and service-related skills but less confidence in their abilities to communicate with prospects (Farmers).  This was followed with a professional sales skills training session which included each member identifying from 5-10 prospects.

“The individual assessments and audience reactions to the training were very informative,” said Bjella. “Some of our people felt they never could be successful at making cold calls to strangers. But were they surprised!”

The training showed how to: qualify prospects, make impossible appointments, start building respect and trust from the first appointment, getting to real pains/needs and overcoming objections for desired actions.

The First Bank team met every 10 days in groups of 12 to report progress against their specific targets. While slow at first, calling activity grew and success was gradually achieved. Through coaching and confidence built on successful experiences, sales meetings progressed from a reluctance to report to lively dialogues between members, sharing helpful prospect insights with each other.

One member reported being devastated on her first call, to the point of tears. Executive Vice President Jack Vaughn reported this prospect had also called him to complain, only to contact him later, inviting him to attend a competitor’s bank sponsored business owners meeting. ”Wonders never cease to amaze me, Jack said. I didn’t think we would ever get any where with this prospect and then she did a complete turnaround.”

At the end of the 120 days First Bank captured several new customers, representing over $300,000 in new income to the bank’s bottom line. Less the training expenses that gave a 30-to-1 ROI, income vs. expenses. Other contacts made during this period are expected to move to First Bank in a few months through continued follow-up activities.

A different success story comes from a bank holding company in Iowa. Bank Iowa Corporation felt it was time for a sales culture to be started within at each of its 6 independently chartered banks, serving 17 communities. 

“We never had any sales training in our Company’s history, said Michael Thompson, VP and Program Leader. Our CEO, Stan Honken, challenged our presidents to have an officer calling program in place by year-end. I contacted some firms who might help us start a sales culture. After reviewing four, we selected Wemmers Consulting Group from Atlanta. Their program impressed us with its’ accountability factors, experience in bank training and real world application following the skills training.”

Bank Iowa’s Calling Teams intermingled Hunters and Farmers and all branch locations. Their program’s primary goal was to get Bank Iowa folks from behind their desks and out calling on prospects. Sales progress meetings were held every two weeks. A sales progress report, prepared by Amy Armitage, was updated and dispersed to all concerned. 

“As Rick had alerted us, calling activity was slow at first but picked up as calling frustrations and excuses were addressed and resolved in the weekly meetings. “We all learned a lot about the process of business development. This will be quite helpful as we continue forward with this program,” Michael said.

It is estimated that Bank Iowa’s 60-day effort helped bring in some $13 million in new business or about $400,000 in new income. Subtracting the sales program expenses this resulted in a 23% ROI.

Boost Your Sales Through Sales Trainings

Many people regard sales as the most effective way of earning unlimited income. In fact, 7 out of 10 salespeople who were interviewed why they preferred sales as their job, they have contended that in sales, they can earn income on tap. This goes to show that they can either earn more or earn less.

From this point of view, salespeople view their success based on the kind of sales training that they have. Of course, no one could instantly exert expertise without the proper training that he needs in his career.

Hence, many salespeople are more than willing to submit their selves to sales training. They know that it would be one of the best ways to earn and achieve success.

So for those who cannot understand why sales training is important in a salesperson's career, here are some of the advantages of engaging into such sales booster activity.

1. It is a great help

Based on its basic concept, sales trainings are especially created to help the salespeople hone their skills and improve their craft. Their ability to create more sales is improved through the acquisition of advanced marketing strategies.

2. Molds better attitude

Another best thing about sales trainings is that they do not mainly focus on improving the skills and abilities of the salesperson as far as selling are concerned. Through these trainings, the attitude and behavior of the salesperson towards sales are improved.

Sales trainings teach them how to deal with the clients properly, how to handle objections, and how to persuade people. These things are not commonly taught on ordinary training programs.

3. Teaches good interaction

Through sales training, the seller will be able to identify the right strategy in dealing with his clients. It provides the right combination of language, perception, attitude, and the art of selling in order to interact with the client in the most favorable method.

The focus of this activity is to make the seller realize that selling should never be hard, or what most salespeople believe as hard selling. The point here is that with proper interaction, selling becomes an art, where the words and emotions are interlaced so as to lure the client to buy the product.

The Upshots

If sales training had been effective and was properly explained, chances are, sales will grow. But if it was done otherwise, more than a few unconstructive results may happen.

One of which is the lack of communication or miscommunication. Without proper orientation on the job and proper comprehension of the nature of the job, both the management and the employees might have difficulty in communicating the correct ideas and concepts.

Also, without sales trainings, salespeople will be less confident in distributing their products. This is because they are not fully aware on how to face their clients and how to persuade them into buying.

And last, without proper sales trainings, the people will not be enticed to do their job and advanced on a higher level of enthusiasm. This is because they are not aware of the possible compensation they will get ever they have performed better.

Indeed, sales trainings are not just any ordinary program and not just like any other training program designed just for the sake of having it. It has its purpose, and its results will definitely reap more income.

A Tickler File For Sales And Networking

If you are involved in sales, fundraising or just an active networker, you have probably tried a variety of tools to manage your contact list and remind yourself to stay in touch with all of the prospects and people you meet. This tickler file is designed to be an inexpensive, effective, tool that can be used by salespeople in a variety of different types of organizations.

This tickler file uses inexpensive index cards and a simple file box. You will need the following items to create your own index card sales tool. I found everything I needed at my local office supply store. The total cost was around $25.00.

- A box to store the index cards
- Monthly 3" by 5" index tabs
- Daily (1-31) 3" by 5" index tabs
- Alphabetical 3" by 5" index tabs
- A ton of white ruled 3" by 5" index cards (you don't need a photo, right?)
- A bunch of colored 3" by 5" index cards (pick your favorite color)
- A small case to carry your in your pocket

Once you have purchased the required supplies, you can organize your 3X5. For the sake of simplicity, let's assume that you are assembling your 3X5 on January 1st. If this is the case you would first organize your tabs in the order below (front to back):

- January tab
- Daily tabs 1-31
- February - December monthly tabs
- A-Z alphabetical tabs
- Blank index cards - white and your favorite color

All of your cards should now be in the file box and the first thing you should see is the January tab.

Next, you should start creating cards for your leads. In the beginning, this is going to take some time (assuming you have a lot of leads). You might choose to use one color card for prospects, one color for customers, another for personal contacts, etc. If you are not going to organize your contacts by color, you will only need white cards. Nonetheless, you can either copy your contacts information onto the cards or simply staple their business card to one of the index cards.

The system works like this.

Let's imagine it is January 1st. and you attend a networking event where you meet a potential client. You get this lead's business card at the event and you want to contact him/her on the 2nd., so when you get to your office, you staple the leads business card to a white index card and drop it behind the "2" tab and then go home for the day. After all, it is new years day and you have been working hard to create your new sales system and you attended a networking event.

So, you arrive at work on January 2nd. and open up your tickler file. The first thing you should do is move the "1" tab back behind the February tab. You will always be rolling the system forward like this, so that the first tab you see in the box represents the most current month, then the most current day.
Now, you go to the tab for today (Jan 2nd.) and find the card for the lead that you met at the networking event yesterday. You call the lead and learn that he/she is out of town until January 6th. so you make a note which says, "1/2/05 - Mr. Lead is on vacation till 1/6". Now you drop the card behind the "6" tab for the month of January.

You will continue to roll this lead forward in the system, making notes at each step, until the lead either turns into a customer or asks you to leave them alone.

When the lead turns into a customer, I staple their business card to a colored card and place it behind the appropriate alphabetical tab. If their is another opportunity with this client, I move the colored card back to the dated section and move them through the process again.

Of course, as you add more people to your pipeline, you might not get to contact everyone on the day you have them slotted for. Just move them to the next day's slot at the end of the current day so you contact them tomorrow.

You will not want to carry around a huge metal box full of index cards, which is why you want to have a small index card wallet or box, so if you are going to be on the road or out of the office, you can simply grab your cards for the day and go.
Not just for salespeople.

While the system is great for salespeople, it also is a great tool for those of us who are focusing on networking. I actually use three different colored cards and use white for leads, blue for clients and red for my networking contacts (patriotic, I know). On the red cards, I write either 7, 14, 30, 45, 60, etc in the upper right hand corner of the index card to remind myself how frequently I want to contact the person, so I simply move the card forward based on the number on the card. If I want to contact someone every seven days, I move the card ahead a week after I make contact.

A Sales Resume Is Your Ultimate Sale, Your Skills and Experience Are Your Pitch

The toughest of all resumes to write is a sales resume. Basically, the employer is looking for a person who can sell himself through the resume first.

Every employer is looking for that specific set of skilled sales executives who will determine their next quarter sales and drive their growth. As a candidate you will want to win the employers' heart just with your resume. Minute details can be exaggerated or big failures can be hidden by a good sales person. Also, any employer will be expecting a sales executive to possess reasonable learnability and good convincing skills. A good sales resume will convey these messages directly or indirectly.

Basically, your resume should include the following information:

A clear cut career and job objective which shows your sense of direction to the employer.

Your resume should have the names of each of your employers and your corresponding job titles.

Give a brief description about the employer like what they are doing, if they are not well known.

As a sales person, include your sales results and targets in a highlighted manner.

The number of staff that you manage in your team or company in general.

Include your overall roles and responsibilities in planning and budgetary matters in your department or company in general.

Include your sales responsibilities with some description of what you sell and the markets in which you sell your products or the concepts and the type of clients that you targeted.

If you had budgetary responsibilities, specify some of the important projects that you have worked on and whether you completed the projects on budget and on time.

Include, if you have introduced new sales procedures, practices and techniques which helped or enhanced in improving sales.

Mention how you improved the efficiency and productivity within your department or the organization in general.

Mention how you have reduced costs and saved money in your department or the organization in general.

Highlight any other achievements that have benefited your department and obviously your organization.

Adopt the ‘T’ Method to Sales Performance Improvement

What’s your approach to sales training? Do you have a process that defines which sales performance competency to train to and what impact it will have on selected performance silos if the training objective is successfully met? Or do you rely on ‘field feedback’ not associated with actual performance numbers and related ROI to decide where to put your training dollars?
Here’s a simple blueprint to gain more revenue in less time while maintaining fiscal accountability to the ‘Top-floor’.

At JDH Group, our go-to-market strategy is to understand a sales organization’s revenue goals and define what key results are needed in performance improvement. To illustrate it, we produce diagnostic performance solution ‘Blueprints’ for sales organizations that utilize the ‘T’ method; both vertical and horizontal.
Horizontally, we look at each KPI and help companies understand how to identify, train to, improve and measure competencies in each of the critical performance indicators.

The ‘T’ method of training evaluation is a process that utilizes both a horizontal approach to key sales performance indicators (KPI) and a vertical examination to calculate the impact, or ‘Return on Training Investment’ (ROTI). Aligning the two will not only give you the path of least resistance to your overall revenue objective but will point to performance silos that will produce more revenue and/or recover unnecessary costs from sub-par sales performance.

Horizontal Examination
Here’s an example of sales organization KPI’s that sells business solutions to small and medium size companies:

•    1st Appointment to Proposal ratio (60%)
•    Closing ratio (40%)
•    Average Revenue per Sale ($3500)
•    Sales cycle (38 Days)
•    Revenue goal ($25,000)
•    Average New appointments generated per rep (5)

This model represents a sales team that statistically has an opportunity to reach 67% of their revenue goal. So let’s take a closer look at which KPI performance training could achieve the required result the quickest.

One way would be to focus on front-end activity. Improving the average appointment generation to 7 new appointments would achieve the revenue goal, all other factors remaining the same.

Option 1: Establish a Prospecting Methodology; a single, documented and agreed upon prospecting method across all sales regions. The training objective should be to spend less time to gain more ‘Targeted’ business appointments to initiate your current sales process.

Another choice might be to evaluate your current sales methodology to understand if there is any room for improvement in your current closing ratio of 40%. As an example, improving this KPI to 60% would secure the monthly revenue target with no other KPI changes. Or splitting the difference; improving the 1st appointment to proposal ratio by 10% and the closing ratio by 10% would achieve the same result while maintaining the necessary new appointments at (5).

Option 2: Initially, choose a ‘Top-down’ approach versus a bottom up; target and initiate your sales process with a fiscal level of authority. Develop a diagnostic sales process that points to the prospect company’s business objectives parallel to you product/service solution. Speak in terms of Return on Investment, Soft and Hard Dollar recovery and Investment Payback Period. Sell the diagnostic parts to your process in line with the prospect’s annual business objectives; don’t rely on ‘Features & benefits’. Then customize your proposal as a hypothetical case study with measurable results.

Vertical Sales Performance ‘Impact Silo’ Examination
Whether you are initiating sales performance training internally or outsourcing a niche training organization, most folks sitting on the ‘Top-floor’ now require accountability in line with budget expenditures.
Another way to say it is the CFO knows he’s wasting half the sales training budget, he just doesn’t know which half.
Approaching sales training expenditures with a Vertical ‘Silo’ inspection will help score points to the fiscal authorities within your own organization.

Let’s take a look at this same sales organization’s vertical performance silos:

•    Average New-hire Ramp-to-Quota (5 months) (35 hires per year)
•    Sales employee Turnover due to low appointment activity (30)
•    Percent of sales reps at or above Quota (70%)

First, calculate your ‘sub-par’ average revenue. This number reflects the average monthly revenue a new-hire achieves before they achieve quota attainment.
As an example, if your current Average Ramp-to-Quota is 5 months, take the average total Revenue sold in the first 4 months of a new hires routine and divide it by 4. That will give you the average 'Sub-Quota' Revenue per Month during Ramp.
In this example, we will use $8,000 as the average ‘sub-par’ revenue.

One of the overall training objectives could be to improve the New-hire Ramp-to-Quota. So you consider the training result and impact as it relates to revenue recovery by selecting a ramp-to-quota goal that’s more efficient than the ‘status quo’ of 5 months. In this case a 1 month ramp-to-quota reduction would recover $595,000 in additional new sales. That equates to $17,000 per new-hire. And if you have determined that the performance training Cost-per-head is $2500, there’s your internal training ROI; 680%.
And we’re not done yet.

You have defined that 30 sales reps per year go out the door directly related to low activity, not setting enough new business appointments to justify the required revenue result.

Let’s take a closer look at it pertains to related costs and potential recovery. Here are your expense breakdowns relating to a new-hire sales rep:

•    Average Salary: $28,000
•    Recruiting Costs: $1,200
•    Training Costs per Rep: $2500
•    Monthly Sales Quota: $25,000

If the focused KPI training initiative reduces your sales rep turnover by 50% (15 reps), that recovers $1,953,500 in measurable dollars, something everyone can actually put their finger on.
That’s over $130,000 of real return for every rep that learns how to effectively set new business appointments.

Considering this cause and circumstance versus the realistic training benefit as a ROI factor, you choose Option 1 to establish a Prospecting Methodology across all sales regions. And in this case, that also justifies the training investment to the “Top-floor’.

In the 3rd Vertical Sales Performance ‘Impact Silo’ we determined that an average of 70% of the sales reps are achieving quota per month. And the average month ‘sub-quota’ revenue achieved for the 30% of reps not reaching quota is found to be $16,000.
We also determined the average new appointments generated per week is (5), but
by improving the 1st appointment to proposal ratio by 10% and the closing ratio by 10% we would achieve Quota consistently.
Next, let’s determine our Return on Training Investment if we meet our training objective of improving the 70% team Quota ‘water-mark’ up to 90%.

•    1st Appointment to Proposal ratio (Improve to 70%)
•    Closing ratio (Improve to 50%)
•    Average Revenue per Sale ($3500)
•    Sales cycle (38 Days)
•    Average New appointments generated (5)
•    100 sales reps

Implementing a focused performance improvement system to advance our middle KPI’s in supporting an additional 20 sales reps per month to achieve Quota would increase our monthly revenue results by $180,000.
That’s an annual return of $2,160,000 or a training ROI of 864% based on a $2500 cost-per-head training investment. And with a 38-day sales cycle, the training investment ‘break-even’ point would be approximately 80 days.

Because of this cause and circumstance versus the realistic training benefit as a ROI factor, you choose Option 2 to establish a ‘Business acumen’ sales methodology, develop supporting diagnostic tools to establish financial business metrics parallel to your prospect’s initiatives and your product/service solution.

Adopting this ‘T’ method to sales performance training will allow you to determine the shortest path to your revenue goals, determine and implement ‘Best Practice’ sales performance training and justify the training investment to the “Top-floor’.

Because at the end of the day  it’s all about Return on Investment.

7 Ways to Stay Sharp in Sales ... or how to catch your first monkey

One of my very good friends leads a top performing sales organization selling financial services out of Boise Idaho. His team is consistently rated as the top producing office in North America for his company. We are always exchanging ideas on selling, challenging each other on philosophies and suffice it to say, his past performance has always caused me to listen intently to what he has to say.

I have no idea if the story he told me is true or not. He has played a practical joke or two in his day. Short of travelling to Africa, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Even if there is a bit of embellishment to the story, it is a great tell with an insightful message.

In Africa, as Charles tells it, the natives have a clever way to catch monkeys. They take a coconut shell, cut a small hole in one end, and hollow it out. The hole is just big enough to allow a monkey's hand to enter.

Then they attach a string to the other end of the coconut shell, place some peanuts inside, put the shell in the middle of a clearing and hide themselves behind a tree until a monkey comes.

The monkey smells the peanuts inside the shell ... it reaches in to grab the peanuts ... but when it does, its fist, full with peanuts, is too large to pull back through the hole.

The natives start pulling on the string and reel the silly monkey in. Why, because the monkey will not let go of those peanuts to save his life. All the monkey would have to do is let go of the peanuts. He doesn't, as he has to have the peanuts.

I'm thinking there may be some truth to his story. I did a Google search "catch a monkey using a coconut" and found one hit on a bladder cancer website that included an article on relaxation that references an African legend, where they do they catch monkeys using coconuts with a banana inside. Seriously!

So let's assume this monkey catching technique works. Chances are if you're like me, you'll never get a chance to try it out. I don't recommend you doing this at your local zoo!

So why tell the story? Do you find yourself grasping a fist full of peanuts? Do you ever get hold of something and not let go? Do you want the peanuts so badly that you fail to consider other alternatives to achieve your goal? Are you flexible and effective in your thinking? Are you prepared to try other methodologies and techniques? Do you seek out others for advice? Do you use your power of observation on those who are successful?

I believe one of Charles' greatest strengths is his ability to make things simple. Once he has done this, he shares the basics for success with his team. He then walks the talk and leads by example. He believes in his people, they believe in him. He's the type of leader that wouldn't use coconuts to capture monkeys, he'd sit down with them, and using his big smile and power of persuasion, have them convinced they should simply follow him home. They probably would!

Charles goes on to offer some simple advice on how to "get the peanuts." I wonder if this is the basics of sales success.

1.Always be prospecting. "Everyone is an opportunity for new business or a referral."
2.Keep the calendar full of appointments. "A body in motion stays in motion, a body at rest stays at rest."
3.Be proficient in your presentation skills. "Confidence sells."
4.Your customers are a gold mine for future business. "Treat them right and they will take care of you."
5.Set stretch goals. "Great things happen to those who make things happen."
6.Hard work is just that. "Honest intelligent effort is always rewarded."
7.Have fun. "Enjoy what you do and you'll be good at it."

Great advice Charles, thanks for sharing. Wishing you continued success!

5 Ways To Beef Up Sales Immediately

Last week, one of my clients—we'll call him Rick—had a demo scheduled with a prospect. The standard "show up and throw up" they typically did early in the sales cycle.

Trying to shorten the sales cycle, I asked naively, "Why does the customer want to buy? What are they trying to accomplish?" Rick couldn't tell me. I asked if he thought the salespeople knew. He said no. I gave him an assignment: he had to find out "Why," "Why now," and "What's it worth." Otherwise no demo.

In other words, no compelling reason to buy...No demo.

So Rick took a risk, and is rapidly moving to a fully-paid trial implementation.

Sure, long-term objectives and plans still matter, but I've been getting more and more inquiries focused on "what to do now." Entrepreneurs and executives alike are demanding help on how to improve revenues and profits right away.

How do you make the quickest difference? Focus the bulk of your energy on revenue generation. In other words, sales! And don't do it the same old way either, because -- as you may have noticed -- it isn't working that well.

Here are five ways for your sales force to bring in more business in short order. There are no magic bullets, but just last week I taught one of these techniques to a client (#2) and he used it to close a deal the following day! Use one or use them all. Each technique will have its own effect, and each will multiply the power of the others.

1. Sell return on investment, and sell it to the CFO.

Sales people are complaining that while the pipeline may be full, the deals are taking too long to close. Perhaps that's why the pipe is so full! What are the reasons for this? Companies have money, and in many cases they have needs. But many people are so scared THEIR customers aren't going to buy THEIR wares, they are loath to spend any money themselves. The result? They are only willing to spend money when they absolutely see near-term financial payback, and the CFO is killing many deals.

The solution? Sell the return on investment. Sell the payback. And sell it to the CFO. Arm your salespeople with two things: A series of case studies that document the returns from using your product, and a well-defined ROI process worksheet. Work with the CFO to build the ROI case so that he or she owns it. This is the only way they come to believe it. Make it their idea and instead of killing your deal, they will help you close it.

2. Forget USP. Determine your Usage Cases

Instead of focusing on why your product is the latest and greatest, clarify the ways in which potential customers will use your product to solve specific problems and produce tangible results. Then, instead of touting the "benefits" of your product--which often fall on deaf ears, anyway--engage your prospects in conversations about what costly and quantifiable problems they now have, and how they might use your product or service to alleviate those.

And, as sales guru Mike Bosworth says, don't tell them your offering IS the solution. You're a sales "guy" and they won't believe you. Instead, ask them if your possible solution might help them. If they believe it does, they have accepted your solution as truth. Then get them to tell you, in real dollar terms, what fixing that problem is worth.

3. Increase Sales Training. Use the 10% solution.

But don't expect any one salesperson--even your superstars--to be 100% at every part of your sales process. They almost never are. But there is a way you can raise the level of every person in your sales organization—immediately.

Use this process adopted from W. Edwards Demming's principle of optimization. Break your sales process into as many discrete--but meaningful--steps as you can.. Cold calling. Letter writing. Setting appointments. Identifying pain. Writing proposals. Presenting. And so on. Find out who in your organization excels at each step, and have those reps explain their methods and mindset to the rest of your sales force. Do all the steps at once in a marathon session, or one step at a time. Either way, the results will be amazing.

4. Use the 80/20 Rule. And get rid of the bottom 20.

There's no room in today's world for mediocre producers. Hold each member of your team accountable for reaching two kinds of performance benchmarks: results measurements, which include not only revenue, but perhaps new accounts and repeat business, and action measurements, which might include prospecting calls, appointments, and new contacts.

Not every sales person will be a superstar, but every one should pay their own way--and then some. Salespeople who aren't producing not only cost you money, they drag down the performance of your whole organization. You may not pay them very much, but why pay them anything? I suggest you do both yourself and them a favor, and let them go. Don't worry about having an empty desk: that warm chair was an expense your company doesn't need.

If you feel it isn't fair to "dump" them, or if your sales cycle is too long to measure short-term revenue results, give the problem reps a 30-day plan to increase their level of activity in specific ways. That's long enough to see an improvement if there's going to be one.

5. Track your results and work harder

Most entrepreneurial sales organizations fail to analyze their efforts. They have no idea how much effort--or money--it takes to create a new customer. The only indication they have of whether salespeople are "doing enough" is based on the revenue numbers. The answer? Track both activity and results, and use the statistics your garner to quickly raise performance. Break your sales process into a series of meaningful steps, counting each time a rep completes one. Calculate averages and set a benchmark. And while you're at it, analyze the percentage of deals that close whenever you complete that step. That knowledge can dramatically improve your sales forecasts.

Once you establish benchmarks--this one's a no-brainer--RAISE THE BAR. Yes, that's right, because the fact is, revenue isn't coming in fast enough. Do everything discussed above to improve your sales effectiveness--then do more of it. Just working smarter isn't going to cut it. You're going to have to work harder as well. And anyone who doesn't want to? See number 4 above.

I've developed a unique Sales Audit Process based on the work of W. Edwards Demming. This program is guaranteed to produce an immediate 10-25% improvement in your company's sales, or more. If you'd like to find out more about how you can increase sales right away, call me at 858-951-3055, or visit paullemberg contact.html and send an email with details about your company's sales situation.

5 Surefire Ways to Increase Sales

The Internet has changed how people do their business. Even small business owners are able to reach global market inexpensively nowadays, selling anything from apparel, collectibles, to computer software, service and coaching.

The core of every business is sales. Many of the strategies to increase sales offline are applicable online, but not all of them. On the Internet, everybody can effort to fail fast and learn from it. Better still, after years of testing and tracking what works online, people can just learn from other people's experience and cut the learning curve tremendously.

Here are 5 of the surefire ways to increase sales:

1. Establish a sound affiliate program

If it is just another affiliate program, then don't expect to have different results. Focus on building a sound affiliate program, with the tools and materials to support affiliates to promote a program easily. After all, affiliates work like clockwork and should be seen as a team. Provide them with the right promotion tools and they will more likely promote the program.

Give the customers an option to join the affiliate program after purchase. Satisfied customers are one of the best marketing for any business. Spread the good words through word of mouth. Best of all, they are paid just for doing that.

2. Follow-up after first purchase

The hardest task in any business is acquiring the first sale. Make sure that capturing customers' name and email addresses are the least information gathered from a sale. With that information in hand, follow-up with existing customers, probably through an automated mechanism like timely autoresponder.

This effort has been proven to decrease refund on products and increase customers' satisfaction. Every once in a while, mention a related product that might be of interest to the customers. Write a review and provide real results. Such promotion is extremely inexpensive, but very effective in practice. The product can be anything, including an affiliate program.

3. Use up-sell technique

Just before a customer check out to the payment gateway, prompt for optional upgrade to the better, bigger, or nicer product for a fairly steep discount, preferably not available elsewhere.

A certain number of customers will choose the option, which translates into additional sales, almost without additional effort.

4. Provide discount coupons

Coupons urge customers to come back and shop. Promotional coupons work for both advertising and some forms of joint venture. Customers love to know that they get lower price for what they buy. Coupons make it so real and tangible.

5. Cross-promote with other related products

There is no limit as to how this could be accomplished. Joint venture with other business or even competitors is feasible as long as it brings a win-win situation.

One example would be to give away sample of other product or service as part of the whole package. As long as the sample is relevant to the customer, this promotion could only be seen as an added value instead of pure advertising.

There are many other tactics to increase sales but above tips have been proven to work again and again. Choose one at a time and take action. Good luck.

5 Keys to Building a Dynamic Self-Management Sales System

1) Identify Your Essential Competencies and Performance Metrics

If I asked you to list all the essential competencies that YOU are in control of - the ones that are absolutely critical for you to be successful in your sales positionЕcould you do it?

For exampleЕ

Essential Competency or not?

" Converting conversations to appointments? (yes it is)
" What about filling out paperwork? No! (That's a related task)
" What about closing ratio? (Sure it is.)
" Degree of success in turning a first appointment into an opportunity? (absolutely)

Get the picture?

Now, if you truly want to adopt a self-management system that will work FOR you - not against you, you first have to "access" what is an essential competency and what's merely a related competency.

To do this, sit down and list any sales metrics and performance numbers inter-related to your competency numbers and your desired revenue results. (Hint: "Sales Cycle" and "Average Revenue" per sale are two.)

2) Diagnose Your Business on a Single Sheet of Paper

If I ran into you on a train or in an elevator, would you be prepared to tell me what you do (and how it benefits me or those I know) - in under 1 minuteЕ

That's called your 30-second commercial. Most people don't have one, yet everybody needs one.

One way to understand more of the obvious benefits your products and services bring to the table is to start to view and diagnose your business more scientifically. You will also see how the numbers work and which areas are most important to your short and long-term success.

Ask yourselfЕWhat happens if your closing ratio reduces by 30% and your average revenue per sale increases by $2500? How does that affect your desired results?

Write your competency measurements and sales metrics on a sheet of paper. Calculate ratios in line with competencies and average numbers in line with your sales metrics. Assign your revenue object or quota. Play with the numbers and ratios to see how they are inter-related and how they affect each other.

3) Calculate your 'Magic Number'

"Not setting enough new appointments on a routine basis" is like a malignant cancerous growth slowly eating away at the heart of most sales organizations - - Jeff Hardesty.

The reason for this is because most of us do not identify how many new appointments are needed on a weekly basis based on individual competency numbers and performance metrics.

That's like diagnosing with blindfolds on.

Every one is different; we all have a 'Magic Number'. And it's personal to only you. If you routinely achieve it, you will routinely meet your desired results. Since it is a dynamic number that changes from week to week, it's important to understand how it is inter-related with other competency ratios, performance metrics and desired revenue results.

It's important to include your 'Magic Number' in your self-management system.

4) Train to the 'Napkin Rule'

The 'Napkin Rule' simple means, putting aside all those sales automation systems for 30 days and keep track of your essential competency and performance metrics on a single napkin.

Compute updates daily. Store the napkin in your pocket. When the napkin fills up, transfer it to a legal pad to show month to date. Have nothing else on the legal pad except your essential competency ratios and sales performance metrics. After 30 business days, transpose the legal pad metrics to your favorite computer software spreadsheet, and track it for 90 days.

This simple but powerful "Napkin Rule" will help you become the CEO of your business.

5) Run Your Numbers, Don't Run after Quota

Concentrate on your numbers NOT your quota so you can diagnose performance trends before a revenue crisis. Then you have the power to institute strategies and tactics for immediate recovery.

Here's why.

Reaching and exceeding sales quotas consistently has very little to do with product, pricing and competition. But it has everything to do with 'Process'.

Identify the core competencies that are necessary to be successful in your sales routine. Then train to Powerful Routines to increase your ratios of effectiveness. Document these meaningful business metrics and review them weekly. Build a simple but dynamic self-management system and outperform your peers and competition while assuring your revenue success.

4 Ways to Use Auto-Responders to Build Sales

Auto-responders, email systems which are built to deliver multi-step messages over time, will add value to your business in four ways: auto-responders can educate customers about your products and services, auto-responders can build rapport with your prospects, and auto-responders can carry much of your customer support and customer training load. These systems are always working for you delivering important and valuable information. Please see several ideas on how to do this below:

1. Communicate with Customers: Enter company data and product information into a series of auto-responders. Messages should be informative for your customers and should include an offer of value which the recipient can respond to. The auto-responder cycle can add value by making your company information more accessible to your clients.

2. Increase New Business Sales: Put a lead management system in place with auto-responder functionality. This will solve a common problem. Sales people will work a lead list, and burn a lead if it does not respond. The multi-step auto-responder system keep your company in your prospects's mind. The AR system spark a low fire into the mind of your prospect and build mind-share touch by touch.

3. Distribute Training: Training is critical to customer adoption and customer retention. Training is expensive and can eat up valuable sales and operation time. Distribute training to customers, new and existing, with an AR. The messages can range from the "Welcome on-board" basics and can evolve to advanced learning. Why not create advanced usage streaming videos and content and load up a 7 or a 10 message AR and put this Advanced Training offer to your customers for a fee?

4. Distribute Support: Set-up an auto-responder with Frequently Asked Questions. Determine what customer queries are asked and put a series of answers into your auto-responder. Put your AR to work for you by distributing your FAQ to your customers and your trial users.

The auto-responder sequences are fluid: work always to improve your messages and your offers. Your auto-responders can differentiate your business by optimizing customer communication and getting the most from your lead generation and marketing systems.