When offering my business consulting services, owners are always looking for sales tips that help their in-house salespeople. I was recently shocked at some of the comments that business owners shared with me regarding their salespeople and the lack of follow-up.
My experience with the folks I lease my vehicle from made me reach the conclusion that businesses must lose countless sales each year because of this. What is so scary about following up? Years ago, I read a great book by Frank Bettger titled; How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success in Selling. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be successful in sales.
Sales Tips and Pointers
Here are a few sales pointers and sales tips to help you in the meantime:
- Never, never go home without at least one sale
- Never end your day without sending an email to the people who bought, those who you met, and those you did not meet but got their business cards.
- Always visit the businesses next door to the one you just sold, right after the sale
- Do not count a re-visit sale for your sale of the day
Weekly Timeline and More Sales Tips
Before we start I just want to mention once again how important it is to dedicate one day a week to refill your list of leads. Rule number 1 is all about this. Never come home without a sale. The reason I say that is, if you are going to go out, you may as well make it worth your time. Get as many business cards, introductions, referrals as possible while you are out there. This will refill your bucket of leads. You may change the days of the week, I just find these to work the best.
Monday
Make calls; call the prospects that you sent an email to the previous week. Contact the leads that you spoke to before about booking an appointment. Call the prospects that you did not get to see. Don’t forget to call the ones that you picked up their cards without them being there. Last but not least, call the ones that were referred to you. Contact everybody that you need to call, because, today, that is what you do.
The price of gas today is outrageous, the time that it takes to travel is consuming, and many don’t want to meet in person due to Covid-19. The telephone is your friend. Even though you traveled to meet someone in person, call someone while you are waiting. You can reach a lot more people, efficiently, and more cost-effectively by calling.
Tuesday
Book at least one in-person appointment and, no matter what happens, talk to the people in the vicinity. Here are some scenarios you may run into.
Scenario 1:
Scenario 2:
Scenario 3:
Wednesday
Every Wednesday is email day. Send emails to the people you just met, the ones from the week before and the ones you have in your groups. Let’s talk about your groups. One day, you realized that you had accumulated hundreds of business cards from all the visits you made, and you wondered what to do with them all, well here, it is.
Take the pile of cards and group them by category, i.e. service, products, or both. Next, take a look at those piles and see if you can further group them. Group them together based on categories like computer sales, electronics, gadgets. Another group might be plumbers, heating supply, cooling, and so on. Once you have these sorted out, create the groups you need, I use Outlook and make groups that contain 20, I find that this number works best when sending out-group mail. If you have more than 20, make a second group, i.e. plumbers 2 and so on.
Interesting Articles
During the course of your day, you will most likely come across some interesting articles. Always think about your groups and keep these articles for your bi-monthly emails. You found a great article on this new plumbing device that helps consumers unclog their drains. So, take the article, send it to the plumbing group, tell them you would like their opinion. Be sure to mention your company blog, site, FB pages, and whatever else you have in your signature block. And of course add a line like, I will give you a call next week to see if we can get together.
Thursday
Another appointment day. Repeat Tuesday.
Friday
Another appointment day. Try and schedule something in the morning. Most owners or managers go home early Friday afternoons, and they do not focus well on what you have to say.
Weekend Sales Tips
Read, clip, and prepare your group emails. If this is your own company or a career, you should always be thinking about these things. It’s not a job when you like what you do.I hope this series of sales tips will help your staff get on track. Next week, be sure to make use of new technology to be better prepared and productive.
