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Key #3
In this 10 Key article series, learn how to catapult your
career, your sales, and your life through learning superior
'Saleswoman-ship.' Key #3 is Create Daily Segments
Create Daily Segments
Why do we put so much stress on daily sales targets and daily
activity targets? It's because we've seen so many failures by
talented, hard working, well-meaning people who deserved to
succeed. No one ever sat them down and said, "Look, success
comes by doing the right number of activities day in and day
out."
Calculate
What is the right number? If we need one sale per day and we
have to see three prospects in order to convert one to a sale,
then we need three sales visits per day. That's if we can do
one-call closings, in that we only need to see each prospect
once. But what if we need to see each prospect twice on average?
And we need to make one sale per day. How many sales visits will
we need to do every day? Six.
We'll need time for making appointments, and following through
with promises we make during the appointments. Therefore, the
need for planning our targets and breaking them into daily
workloads is essential.
Is 'our best' a measure?
What if you didn't do the calculation? What if you just worked
The Sales Training Series: Listen to the CustomerBlessed with the gift of gab are you? That s nice. But true
sales professionals know that before they start gabbing to
customers about their product features or anything else, they
need to listen to what the customer has to say - and demonstrate
that they re paying attention.
Customers won t buy from you if they don t like you, trust you
or respect you. And they are far more likely to buy when you can
position your product or service as a solution to what they
perceive as an important need. Listening is the key sales skill
that allows you to earn customer s trust and uncover their ..
as hard as you could? What do you think the result would be?
For example. On one of my speaking engagements in Singapore a
journalist approached me and asked, "Why do you so often stress
the importance of daily targets? Isn't it enough for people to
just do their best?"
"Look at it this way," I suggested. "What if you were training
to be an Olympic champion runner?" Would you go out every day
and practice running any distance at any speed, just doing your
best? Or would you know exactly how far and at what speed you
had to run in order to meet your defined goal?"
"Oh yes, I see," she responded. It seemed to click for her. It's
painful for people to work hard and do their best, to have high
expectations and then be let down. However, with daily targets
set, you are able to work sharp and with purpose. With that
mindset, you won't fail by thinking sales will come to you
magically, suddenly or later.
Pitfalls for business owners too
New business owners have exactly the same problem, and we can
learn from them. Here's an example. Two very talented young
dress designers with their own shop asked advice for succeeding
in their business. They had a lot of loyal customers, but they
were afraid they wouldn't make enough money to stay in business.
Here are the questions that need answers:
How much money do we need to make?
The Sales Training Series: Sell By Agreeing On At Least 3 NeedsSalespeople know that they re supposed to sell to the customer s
needs. Here is the classic--and tragically wrong--way they
usually learn to do it: Uncover the first need. Begin a product
presentation, covering features and benefits, and then attempt
to uncover another need and then give more product talk, etc.
Research shows that sales presentations like this are 25 percent
less effective than those in which a thorough needs assessment
is followed by a summary of all of the customer s needs. You
will be far more successful if you begin by uncovering and
agreeing on at least three r ..
What are our expenses?
How many do we need to sell per year to cover all our expenses
and leave us with a profit?
How many is that per week?
What do we need to do in order to sell that many each week?
They hadn't thought about it that way. They were just going to
do the best they could. Were they unusual? No. That's the naive
approach you want to avoid regardless of your industry.
There are 10 Keys in the Great Sales Success for Women Series.
Visit http://great-sales-training.com for more information
About the author:
Business guru Christine Harvey is the author of 6 books sold in
24 languages by 48 publishers, including In Pursuit of Profit,
Successful Selling in a Week, Secrets of the World's Top Sales
Performers, Public Speaking and Leadership Building, and Can a
Girl Run for President? Harvey's high-energy books can be
considered the ultimate sales and marketing success guide. For
more information visit http://christineharvey.com/
Christine HarveySales Training-
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