Tips from the Top
Expert advice to help you on the road to success
It is March 19th, 2019 and I’m making cold calls, sending emails, thinking creatively, and looking for new ways to capture a business’s interest in the services my company offers. This task is not hard to do, but it is the response rate that is the challenge. Statistics show that 270 calls need to be made in order to get one sale!
So how to stay focused, current, persistent, in line with process, day after day, without getting burned out? We must do all the things I’ve discussed here, but we must also create balance in our lives. Without leading a healthy lifestyle, it’s virtually impossible to keep up the pace, maintain the energy, and sustain the positive attitude required to reach out to new contacts over and over, call after call.
After 14 years of working for the Department of the Navy, I was excited to be heading to the other side. Yes, I was venturing off to work with companies such as IBM and Perot Systems. These were excellent companies, and I was lucky, and my timing was good. I happen to like doing what most people run away from. Yes, I was the ultimate cold caller.
Resolutions and promises are hard to keep, even for some of the most sincere people. Business Insider reports that 80% of New Year's resolutions fail by February! YIKES! Given these alarming statistics, it’s no surprise that most employees find it difficult to comply with corporate directives. As much as they promise to see procedures through to the end, it is astounding how many fail to keep that commitment, day to day.
Companies regularly hire salespeople to do the job without giving them proper training and guidance. Depending on your background, you may very well have a decent amount of sales experience and probably even some training, but chances are that you haven’t been trained specifically for the job you were hired for in your particular company, and you are just treading water.
Are you wondering why your well-educated, well-qualified sales staff are not producing buyers? Take a closer look. Are your sales people like the three monkeys? -Not seeing, not hearing and not speaking in a way that resonates with your potential clients? Sales is a relationship business, first and foremost, and connections can not be made without proper communication skills.
