Here's a simple, but highly effective sales strategy with a big payback for you. The first time I ever did it was very early in my career. My boss instructed me to go on a sales call with Alice -- a trainee who’d stumbled onto a big opportunity -- and teach her how to beat the competitors.
Want to engage crazy-busy prospects?
These 45 quick tips from my book Snap Selling will give you fresh ideas you can start implementing today to increase sales. It's a super fast read because I know you're crazy-busy too!
Selling to Big Companies has just been selected as one of the "Top 10 "How to Sell" Books of All Time" by Inc. magazine. Writer Geoffrey James says that "These classic sales books should be in every business library."
I was just a kid when I discovered the truth about being lucky. According to the Irish, all I needed to do was find a 4-leaf clover. Because I felt it was doable, I walked over to the grassy meadow across from my house and plopped down on the ground.
I don't know about you, but when I was first told that I needed to call on senior-level executives, I was terrified. What would I talk with them about? They were so far above me -- so much smarter than me about things like finance, overall strategy -- you name it. Yes, you do need to have a different conversation with these people. But, what I'm here to talk about today is the fear of selling to those big wigs.
What are the best sales closing techniques? Let me share a story with you to answer that question. In my first year of sales at Xerox, I was having pretty good success. I'll never forget the time that Vern, an experienced sales pro blocked me from leaving my office. "All right, honey," he said. "What secret techniques you're using to close all those sales?"
Recognizing and acting on these 7 paradoxical sales principles is critical to your long-term success.
1. To win more sales, stop selling.
When people feel like they're being sold, they react negatively and put up barriers. Focus on helping your prospects achieve their business, professional and personal objectives – not making a sale.
I’ve been collecting women sales experts for almost a decade. However, unlike Mr. Romney, no one handed me a binder full of them. I’ve found them through their excellent books, blogs, newsletters, websites & tweets.
Today I’m giving you a peek into my Women Sales Authors binder. (I hope you don’t mind if I start with myself!) If you pick up any one of the books below, you’ll learn a lot. I guarantee it!
I owe it all to teenage angst. That's right. I wanted to be popular and have a boyfriend. But it wasn't my natural style to be a big flirt. I'd much rather have been immersed in a good book. Fortunately, I found my salvation in ...
Seventeen magazine. I read it religiously to find out how to get a guy to really like me. (Starting to see the sales connection? And guys -- pay attention here. You never learned this stuff.)
According to Seventeen, the key to dating success boiled down to a girl's ability to get the guy talking about himself. And that meant, she needed to ask good questions.
What an Alcatraz inmate taught me about sales.
Recently, while speaking at a conference in San Francisco, I took a side trip with my daughter to visit Alcatraz, the infamous, non-escapable prison in the middle of the bay.
By sheer luck, we arrived just in time to hear a special guest give a talk on his years as a former inmate. He told us about arriving as a brash, angry young man who blamed the world for everything that was wrong with his life. He'd mouth off to anyone he didn't like -- and that was just about everyone.