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PLEASE VISIT www.titansalesandmarketing.com/blog THIS IS THE NEW ADDRESS
This blog is all about sales strategy, marketing and what works and what doesn't.
PLEASE VISIT www.titansalesandmarketing.com/blog THIS IS THE NEW ADDRESS
Posted by Eric at 11:52 AM 1 comments
Nobody wants to lose a customer but it happens. For one reason or another customers choose to go somewhere else to do business. If we treat our customers properly we won't lose many. Sure some will leave for a cheaper product or service but you get what you pay for. Sometimes a customer leaving is just not within our control.
Here are some things that are in your control:
Great customer service
Consistent follow up
Fast response to problems or issues
Great products and services
Excellent relationship building
Posted by Eric at 1:14 PM 5 comments
Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.
- Victor Kiam
Posted by Eric at 11:35 AM 0 comments
No sale is really complete until the product is worn out, and the customer is satisfied.
- L.L. Bean American Businessman, Founder of L.L Bean's
Posted by Eric at 6:05 AM 0 comments
There is a high rate of burnout in sales. It happens for different reasons. Some are avoidable and some are not. Here are five reasons why burnout occurs in sales people...
Posted by Eric at 6:16 AM 0 comments
Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself.
-Paul Bryant
Posted by Eric at 6:10 AM 0 comments
One of the most important steps in a sales cycle comes after the sale is completed. Following up on your customers after the sale will ensure the long term success of your sales career. The vast majority of salespeople out there don't even look in their rear view mirror after making a sale. They just move on to the next victim... I mean customer. When you don't care about your post sale responsibilities, customers can feel like victims of a hit and run. The worst part is that most sales people don't realize the customer feels that way. They walk into the same account four years later expecting to get the next sale and the customer has moved on. People like follow up. They like to know that the sales person actually cares about the post sale relationship.
Posted by Eric at 6:28 AM 0 comments
Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
- Confucius
Posted by Eric at 6:26 AM 0 comments
Posted by Eric at 11:09 AM 0 comments
Sales is a hard fought profession. It is a competitive and sometimes dog eat dog world. There are many obstacles to tackle and many objections to overcome. So don't make it any harder on yourself. A lot of us make it harder on ourselves because we assume too many things about our sales cycle or our customer. We tell ourselves things like: "They will never pay that much for this solution." "They don't need this feature so I won't bring it up." or "This company probably isn't going to see the value in my product or service." You are defeated before you make the call. You can't expect your customer to buy into what you are selling them if you don't believe in the product or service yourself. Customers do not buy from people who do not believe in themselves or the product or services they represent. Our confidence is one of our biggest selling tools. We are fooling ourselves if we think our customers can't tell when we are not confident in what we are selling.
Posted by Eric at 11:58 AM 0 comments
"Lack of will power has caused more failure than lack of intelligence or ability."
-Flower A. Newhouse
Posted by Eric at 8:53 AM 0 comments
We should all know sales is the lifeblood of most any organization. I know it is in my business. A solid sales force, whether outsourced or in house, can put an organization on the map. It can exponentially grow revenue and cement a business' success. I came across these facts/statements on http://www.bizcommunity.com/ and wanted to share them. Take a look...
Posted by Eric at 10:12 AM 2 comments
The true measure of "mental fitness" is how optimistic you are about yourself and your life.
- Brian Tracy
Posted by Eric at 8:46 AM 0 comments
After 11 years in sales I can say that I have encountered my fair share of ruts. Many times we don't realize we are in a rut until long after we've been in one. I can guarantee I am not the only one! Sales people are prone to ruts. In fact, if you claim you've never been in one you're probably doing a really good job fooling yourself. Ruts range from a small impact on your numbers (when caught quickly) to near catastrophic impact if left to run their course. The faster we realize we are in a rut the more likely we will be to survive unscathed.
Posted by Eric at 10:33 AM 0 comments
Companies big and small make buying decisions everyday. Obviously the big ones usually make bigger purchases than the small ones. To the everyday sales rep who wants to make commission, it would make sense to dream big and go for the big fish. Bigger sales mean bigger commission. However, Sales people can get too caught up in a big deal and forget about everything else. They are very susceptible to what I like to call... BIGDEALITIS (yes I know it's cheesy)... it is a nasty condition with terrible symptoms. Those symptoms include: loss of prospecting motivation, loss of focus on customers in the small to medium sized category, lack of follow up on some sales cycles and an inability to focus on anything other than the one big deal.
Posted by Eric at 5:27 AM 0 comments
Posted by Eric at 6:23 AM 1 comments
Labels: (photo is from freefoto.com)
Posted by Eric at 7:48 AM 0 comments
What makes a sale a good one? Is it how much profit? How about the length of contract? Maybe it's how many units of something were sold... Everyone has their own criteria for what makes a sale great. Each sale we make adds to our bottom line. It feeds our business and helps us succeed. We need sales to survive. So, I guess it would be fair to say every sale is a good sale... right? No. The trouble is that we focus so much on our revenue that we forget our customers in the process. Our sales people are so focused on making their budgets that they are cramming sales in to meet target. We are in some cases shoving square pegs into round holes.
We can't be in such a rush to make sales that we neglect to do our homework on our customers. We need to understand what they need in order to generate a good sale. Good sales come from proper needs assessment, proper treatment of the customer and the ability to sell yourself as well as the product. Bad sales (yes they do exist) consist of poor assessment of the customers needs. They won't come back to you when you sold them the wrong solution. Congratulations... you are now a one hit wonder! The same goes for the sales person that pressures a customer into a sale... All the customer will remember is how much they disliked the sales process. Sales managers and business owners can be as much at fault for this as the sales people themselves. We as managers can put so much pressure on our sales people that they make decisions that they would not normally make. The will push too hard or sell the wrong product just because they need to get it in for the month.
There are more bad sales out there. Sales that at first glance look great. They are the sales that could have been so much more. When a proper assessment is not done we miss things. Things that could have brought more value to the customer and more money in our pockets. When we don't do our homework we are doing ourselves and the customer a great disservice. With a proper assessment of the customers needs we can find more places for our products and services. Maximizing revenue while enhancing the customer experience.
We won't differentiate ourselves unless we make sure our sales are all "good sales". This is what separates the flash in the pan business or sales person from the businesses and sales people who stand the test of time. At the end of the day, our customers have to be happy and we cannot have left anything on the table.
Posted by Eric at 9:41 AM 1 comments