Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Atricle Dump - The Lost Art of Salesmanship
If you’ve ever been to a professional conference, then you’ve probably received one of those lovely little goodies known as conference bags. If you’re an attendee, they seem simple enough – and are one of nice perks of attending a conference. In general, conference bags are tote bags or rucksacks printed with the name of the conference and the sponsoring organizations. Inside, you’ll find all the material you need for the conference, including your name tags, your schedule, speakers biographies, the conference program and other materials concerning the conference. Inside, you’ll also find an assortment of promotional items and materials from various sponsors who have contributed money to the organizer
My definition of companion calls, or "shadow calls" to some is to be at the sales call with the sales rep who is in front of the client to observe the sales call first hand. If the sales rep stumbles during the presentation you're there to get it back on track and demonstrate how to do it correctly. An honest critique of what went right and wrong during the sales call also needs to be carried out after the call is made, and needs to be done in private. My critiques were usually carried out in the car as we were off to our next call. It's very important to teach your sales reps "how to do it" in a real world situation and in my opinion that means in front of a customer.
<Large companies with big marketing budgets are always trying to find ways to push their products out to consumers. Pepsi is a perfect example of a company that aimed to market their product uniquely. To get this done, Pepsi enlisted the help of the popular fashion designer Nigo from Japan. This merging of urban design and Pepsi was bound to have great impact on the marketing side of the Pepsi product, but also increase sales and customer awareness to both brands.Fashion designer Nigo, is the designer of the popular urban clothing wear, Bathing Apes, in Japan. His style and use of limited edition for his clothes has created a cult like following in Japan. It was a brilliant marketing idea for Pe
“The purpose of a sales representative is to close the sale. It’s the only reason why the job exists.”
Without this truth, the job of salesperson cannot be justified.
Before you can lead or coach anyone to become better, stronger and more successful in sales, as a sales leader you need to recognize these 3 realities about the selling process:
Selling is a system. You have to follow the system for it to work, but more importantly you have to know the system before you can follow it.
There’s always the baseball analogy; if you hit .300 in baseball you’re considered a success, which means you’ve failed 70% of the time. But let me take it a step further. Good hitters succeed because they know how to read the pitcher, how to read the game situation, how to recognize the pitch as it’s coming at them, and know how to swing the bat differently to effectively hit each pitch. Good sales reps have the techniques to be able to do the same in a selling context. In short, good sales reps are able to think on their feet.
Selling is a competitive process. People who embrace competition and enjoy competing do well in sales. Like the marathon runner who has learned to ignore the voice that says “quit running”, the star salesperson has learned to turn off the negative association with the word “NO” and has put it in the right “it's just business” context.
Salesmanship is a pattern of behaviors. It’s an oversimplification to suggest that knowing the selling system itself will make you successful at sales. It's sad to say that many people have followed the system to the letter only to fail miserably at selling. This happens because selling systems fail to get to the heart of salesmanship. Salesmanship depends upon interpersonal behavior, which rely upon attitudes, assumptions, and conduct, but not formulas.
In the world of sales this translates into spending time with your salespeople so they learn the art of salesmanship from you. Not in team meetings, not with “hallway atta boys”, but spending one-on-one time with them where the action is. You need to be right there when they’re reacting, responding, and relating to a client during a live “as it happens” sales call.
Are You Demonstrating Good Salesmanship to Your Crew?
In my years of sales management, when the going became tough as we were challenged with a large goal I likened the role of a sales manager to the elder in a pre-modern time village.
A lion had been terrifying the camp, eating the normal hunt that surrounded the village that they counted on for food and making the villagers fearful that they’re next on the lion’s menu. It was up to the leaders of the village to go out, kill the lion and bring the head back on a stick to show everyone that it was dead so life could go on. It was a matter of survival between the villagers and the lion.
The analogy in sales leadership is that we have to kill the lions that have some of our salespeople scared.
Disbelief that people will buy today, low confidence in closing the deal, call reluctance. These are the lions that terrify a sales team. Especially with newer sales people who are asking for bigger dollars than they’re used to. It’s up to the leadership of the sales department to take on those “lions” in the form of companion calls and companion closes.
My definition of companion calls, or "shadow calls" to some is to be at the sales call with the sales rep who is in front of the client to observe the sales call first hand. If the sales rep stumbles during the presentation you're there to get it back on track and demonstrate how to do it correctly. An honest critique of what went right and wrong during the sales call also needs to be carried out after the call is made, and needs to be done in private. My critiques were usually carried out in the car as we were off to our next call. It's very important to teach your sales reps "how to do it" in a real world situation and in my opinion that means in front of a customer.
What does FICA stand for?FICA stands for the Federal Insurance Contributions Act. The history of the act reverts back to the year 1935, when the government implemented the social security program. A provision to include social security taxes was included in this act. However, due to concerns over the constitutionality of the 1935 act, there were amendments made and the provision for collecting social security taxes was moved to the Internal Revenue Code in 1939. At this time it was renamed the Federal Insurance Contributions Act.What is FICA exactly?The Federal Insurance Contributions Act authorizes the IRS to collect taxes for the benefit of the social security program. In
Selling is a competitive process. People who embrace competition and enjoy competing do well in sales. Like the marathon runner who has learned to ignore the voice that says “quit running”, the star salesperson has learned to turn off the negative association with the word “NO” and has put it in the right “it's just business” context.
Salesmanship is a pattern of behaviors. It’s an oversimplification to suggest that knowing the selling system itself will make you successful at sales. It's sad to say that many people have followed the system to the letter only to fail miserably at selling. This happens because selling systems fail to get to the heart of salesmanship. Salesmanship depends upon interpersonal behavior, which rely upon attitudes, assumptions, and conduct, but not formulas.
In the world of sales this translates into spending time with your salespeople so they learn the art of salesmanship from you. Not in team meetings, not with “hallway atta boys”, but spending one-on-one time with them where the action is. You need to be right there when they’re reacting, responding, and relating to a client during a live “as it happens” sales call.
Are You Demonstrating Good Salesmanship to Your Crew?
In my years of sales management, when the going became tough as we were challenged with a large goal I likened the role of a sales manager to the elder in a pre-modern time village.
A lion had been terrifying the camp, eating the normal hunt that surrounded the village that they counted on for food and making the villagers fearful that they’re next on the lion’s menu. It was up to the leaders of the village to go out, kill the lion and bring the head back on a stick to show everyone that it was dead so life could go on. It was a matter of survival between the villagers and the lion.
The analogy in sales leadership is that we have to kill the lions that have some of our salespeople scared.
Disbelief that people will buy today, low confidence in closing the deal, call reluctance. These are the lions that terrify a sales team. Especially with newer sales people who are asking for bigger dollars than they’re used to. It’s up to the leadership of the sales department to take on those “lions” in the form of companion calls and companion closes.
My definition of companion calls, or "shadow calls" to some is to be at the sales call with the sales rep who is in front of the client to observe the sales call first hand. If the sales rep stumbles during the presentation you're there to get it back on track and demonstrate how to do it correctly. An honest critique of what went right and wrong during the sales call also needs to be carried out after the call is made, and needs to be done in private. My critiques were usually carried out in the car as we were off to our next call. It's very important to teach your sales reps "how to do it" in a real world situation and in my opinion that means in front of a customer.
<Did you go through the goal setting exercise outlined in the August '05 Dose of Reality™? [see the end of this article for subscription information and back issues] If you did, fabulous! With your goals written down, you’re lightyears ahead of your peers. Get a load of this: A study was conducted a few years ago of graduates from a business school. Only three percent of grads had clearly articulated and written goals...but those grads earned ten times more than the 83% who had no goals at all. Even those grads who had some sense of their goals, but had not written them down, earned three times as much as those who hadn’t given goals a second thought. How’s that for motivation to get this
In the world of sales this translates into spending time with your salespeople so they learn the art of salesmanship from you. Not in team meetings, not with “hallway atta boys”, but spending one-on-one time with them where the action is. You need to be right there when they’re reacting, responding, and relating to a client during a live “as it happens” sales call.
Are You Demonstrating Good Salesmanship to Your Crew?
In my years of sales management, when the going became tough as we were challenged with a large goal I likened the role of a sales manager to the elder in a pre-modern time village.
A lion had been terrifying the camp, eating the normal hunt that surrounded the village that they counted on for food and making the villagers fearful that they’re next on the lion’s menu. It was up to the leaders of the village to go out, kill the lion and bring the head back on a stick to show everyone that it was dead so life could go on. It was a matter of survival between the villagers and the lion.
The analogy in sales leadership is that we have to kill the lions that have some of our salespeople scared.
Disbelief that people will buy today, low confidence in closing the deal, call reluctance. These are the lions that terrify a sales team. Especially with newer sales people who are asking for bigger dollars than they’re used to. It’s up to the leadership of the sales department to take on those “lions” in the form of companion calls and companion closes.
My definition of companion calls, or "shadow calls" to some is to be at the sales call with the sales rep who is in front of the client to observe the sales call first hand. If the sales rep stumbles during the presentation you're there to get it back on track and demonstrate how to do it correctly. An honest critique of what went right and wrong during the sales call also needs to be carried out after the call is made, and needs to be done in private. My critiques were usually carried out in the car as we were off to our next call. It's very important to teach your sales reps "how to do it" in a real world situation and in my opinion that means in front of a customer.
<Recently I facilitated a strategic planning day with one of my clients. During the course of the day we reviewed the progress they had made since the last major planning day we had the year before. As we were reflecting on their achievements before planning the future, one of the partners made the comment on how crucial their weekly team meetings were.Originally when I first suggested they have regular weekly meetings with their team, the same partner thought it was a waste of time as he was focussed on how much time it cost to have everyone stop work for that hour. Being an accountant he was always focussed on chargeable hours and if they are all in a meeting for an hour they are potentiall
A lion had been terrifying the camp, eating the normal hunt that surrounded the village that they counted on for food and making the villagers fearful that they’re next on the lion’s menu. It was up to the leaders of the village to go out, kill the lion and bring the head back on a stick to show everyone that it was dead so life could go on. It was a matter of survival between the villagers and the lion.
The analogy in sales leadership is that we have to kill the lions that have some of our salespeople scared.
Disbelief that people will buy today, low confidence in closing the deal, call reluctance. These are the lions that terrify a sales team. Especially with newer sales people who are asking for bigger dollars than they’re used to. It’s up to the leadership of the sales department to take on those “lions” in the form of companion calls and companion closes.
My definition of companion calls, or "shadow calls" to some is to be at the sales call with the sales rep who is in front of the client to observe the sales call first hand. If the sales rep stumbles during the presentation you're there to get it back on track and demonstrate how to do it correctly. An honest critique of what went right and wrong during the sales call also needs to be carried out after the call is made, and needs to be done in private. My critiques were usually carried out in the car as we were off to our next call. It's very important to teach your sales reps "how to do it" in a real world situation and in my opinion that means in front of a customer.
<In today’s fast-paced and rapidly changing business climate, it is critical that organizations maintain flexibility, fast response time, customer focus and agility. The vital ingredient necessary to accomplish all of these is creative, imaginative, loyal, productive, motivated and well-trained employees.This rapid pace puts a great deal on the average manager’s plate, which often prevents him from spending adequate time coaching and training both long-term and new employees. Therefore, the rank and file employee must learn, interpret and understand corporate direction, organizational goals, priorities and challenges on his own without ample upper management influence, guidance and feedback.
My definition of companion calls, or "shadow calls" to some is to be at the sales call with the sales rep who is in front of the client to observe the sales call first hand. If the sales rep stumbles during the presentation you're there to get it back on track and demonstrate how to do it correctly. An honest critique of what went right and wrong during the sales call also needs to be carried out after the call is made, and needs to be done in private. My critiques were usually carried out in the car as we were off to our next call. It's very important to teach your sales reps "how to do it" in a real world situation and in my opinion that means in front of a customer.
Fear of failure, rejection, or just not doing it right is as big as a lion if you’re a new salesperson. With companion calls you'll hunt down the fear and inexperience that many new salespeople have. Sales leadership can show first hand how it can be done and the way that it is done successfully. A new salesperson or a veteran stuck in a rut who brings back a big order due to a companion call is the same as bringing back the head of the lion to the camp. “Look, the lion is gone. Just do like we did here with all your calls and you’ll close more sales, guaranteed.”
Given the choice between hunting an actual lion and making companion calls, companion calls win every time. Less dangerous and more profitable. Just as it is a matter of survival, a matter of who gets eaten first the lion or the villagers can still be analogized in sales.
Many sales representatives have failed because they were eaten by their own fears. Hands-on leadership could have saved them.
Bring back the lion’s head with a companion call and you’ll show each salesperson that you’re not just sitting on the sidelines. They will see you as demonstrably involved, and interested in their professional success.
It's the best way to demonstrate good salesmanship yourself. Hands-on and directly from the person who expects the same.
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.articledump.net/article/38344/articledump-The-Lost-Art-of-Salesmanship.html">The Lost Art of Salesmanship</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.articledump.net/article/38344/articledump-The-Lost-Art-of-Salesmanship.html]The Lost Art of Salesmanship[/url]
Related Articles:
Branding Your Company From The Top Down
How To Handle A Bad Job Reference
Public Relations for a Cause; Consider It
Bookmark it:
|