You do not wake up one morning with the idea for an excellent product or service and automatically know the skills required for equally exciting sales and marketing techniques. Like anything else in your life, it is a learning process; one of the best learning tools come from the experiences of already successful business people. For example, experience has told other sales and marketing experts what eight habits will help you reach success in sales and marketing.
First, you must believe in yourself and what you have to offer. If you have doubts, how can you expect your customers or clients to put their trust in you, give you business, and open their wallets? Conversely, if you are confident in your business, your sales and marketing techniques will reflect you confidence and belief in yourself.
Second, have a plan for your success. You can believe in yourself all you want, but if you are ill-prepared, with no plan for the future, you may not have a future in your business. From the short-term goals to the long-term expectation, write down your plan. Write down what you want to accomplish and how you plan to achieve your expectations. Then, stick to the plan. Your business map will help you remember where you are going and exactly how you want to get there.
Third, you must make a good impression. You only have one chance to wow the customer. If your customer's first impression is anything other than stellar, you are likely to be stuck in the rut of damage control.
Fourth, do not rest on your laurels. You can never learn too much. Invest in yourself and keep learning. New strategies and new ideas are always being implemented. Stay current and grow with your business.
Fifth, a good habit is to develop good communication skills. Learn to listen, as well as speak. Take time to understand what the customer or client desires, then effectively articulate why you product or service will be the answer to a want or need.
Sixth, always use your time wisely. For many people, even in sales and marketing, it can be very difficult to keep your mind on the activities at hand. Before you know it, the workday is gone, and you will have little to show for your labor. Starting a business is often difficult and time consuming under the best of circumstances. Thus, time is at a premium, and you must use it wisely.
Seven, your brain is the best tool you have for good sales and marketing techniques. As technology advances, individuals have become increasingly dependent on the computer and other modern conveniences. What happens if the electricity goes off? Do not be so stuck on technology that your forget to use good, old-fashioned common sense.
Finally, genuinely care about your customers. When you are implementing sales and service for the sole purpose of fattening your coffers, you clients and customers know. Yet, if you genuinely show care and concern for the people who are your business, you will be effective at sales and marketing, while prospering.
In conclusion, if you follow these tried and tested habits for successful personal and professional business practices, you will also find the key to good salesmanship and marketing. Keep learning, keep growing, and keep caring about your clientele. Then, you will be successful.Any day in the week, several gray suits enter the marketplace selling their products and services. Gray suits are those sales professional who act and, therefore, sell like everyone else. Their sales to earn ratios (sales to close for those gray suits who still believe in closing the sale) range from 5% to 25%.
Now imagine being a Red Suit in the Sea of Gray Suits where your sales to earn ratio jumps over 50% and averages near 75% to 80%. What would that mean for your business, your view of yourself and let's not forget your piggy bank?
First, let's examine a couple of established beliefs that must be changed.
The first belief of traditional sales based marketing (SBM) focuses on establishing a monetary reward as quickly as possible so that the next reward can take place. Given that most sales (80%) are completed between the 5th and 12th contacts, this belief of quickly is somewhat in error. (Source: National Sales Executives Association).
The second belief is giving anything away for free is wrong because the goal is a sale hence the name sales based marketing. Professional sales people must be compensated for their efforts ASAP! Unfortunately, the 21st century technology driven global economy has changed the marketplace forever because free information is readily available through the Internet.
Second, let's look as the role of the professional sales person in this new 21st Century technology driven marketplace. The role has not changed from years ago because today as in yesterday, the role is to become the trusted advisor.
Now the question is what behaviors does a trusted advisor demonstrate?
Sharing of information
Knowing who does what within the local business community
Being a sounding board for the customer or client
Simply speaking, the sales professional of the 21st century is an educator. To educate from its Latin's origins means to "lead out." As sales professionals are you not leading your customers out of the darkness and into the light?
This is a great time to establish a new way of thinking about your sales to earn ratio as the time from entering a tunnel to the time of existing a tunnel. Your task to keep the light burning bright enough so that your potential qualified customers who entered the tunnel with you will stay during the entire journey through the tunnel. Sales Coaching Tip: Abandon the concept of a funnel as it does not provide the same visual as the tunnel. Remember, people hear words, but think in pictures.
Now, the trick is to not lose anyone during the trip through the tunnel. How you do that is by developing and embracing education based marketing. After all, are you not the educator? Should you not be actively sharing your information?
Education based marketing is where you educate the potential qualified customer while simultaneously showing your value as that trusted advisor without charge. Sales Coaching Tip: This marketing strategy also helps to disqualify potential customers who are not a good fit.
For example, when ending a conversation with "if you need anything, please call," what would happen if you ended the conversation with "Let me send you a white paper, article, etc. that may help you." Of course, the document must provide worthwhile information and not be sales based marketing in disguise.
Websites are a great place to begin to educate potential customers. Writing articles and driving them to your website helps to separate the potential from just the usual suspects.
Using auto-responders that promise a free report, free assessment or free white paper are great examples of education based marketing. Requesting specific information from your website visitors helps to further identify potential qualified customers from the potential customers. Sales Coaching Tip: Use the phrase potential customer instead of prospect because this builds an image of you potentially working with this individual or company.
Education based marketing has been around for many years. Successful sales professionals have been engaged in this behavior of leading out their customers. Only in the last couple of years, has this term gained ground especially within the professional services industries.
Take action sales coaching tip: If you want to increase sales, to create customer loyalty and to become the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, then now is the time to throw out the traditional Sales Based Marketing strategies and embrace Education Based Marketing. Watch your sales to earn conversions double and your bank account grow.
