Category: Building Trust
Does Cold-Calling Still Work?
March 20, 2013
In my last article I ranked cold calling at the bottom of the list as far as prospecting activities were concerned.
This caused a number of comments which I felt needed to be addressed.
I define a cold call as “calling on someone who doesn’t know you and is not expecting your call or visit.”
Now most experienced [...]
What Are Your Key Prospecting Activities?
November 13, 2012
This is a question I always ask when meeting salespeople and sales managers.
The answer I often hear is “cold calling or managing referrals from existing clients.”
The next question I ask is “what processes do you have in place to maximise these opportunities?”
The answer is usually “none”!
Which leads me to the subject of this article which [...]
Prospecting Plan - Do You Have One?
August 1, 2012
People don’t deliberately plan to fail but often fail to plan.
In sales one of the most crucial elements is a prospecting plan.
A challenge for many salespeople is they do not have one and as a result spend the vast majority of their selling time with their “friendlies” (clients they get on well with), who may [...]
How Many Networking Opportunities Have You Wasted?
May 8, 2012
In this article I continue with the sins of networking theme from my last article.
The next sin is failing to establish a connection.
Effective networking means actively making a connection with the people you meet. Your goal is not to meet everyone at the event. You are better off having one or two meaningful conversations than [...]
How Effective Is Your Networking?
April 2, 2012
Everyone talks about networking to improve business; however I find it to be an overused word and underused strategy by many of the salespeople and business owners I meet at so called “networking events”.
Many people think of networking as going to a business event in search of business opportunities however it is much more than [...]
Which Type of Salesperson Are You?
January 24, 2012
There is an old quote which we can adapt that goes –
“There are three kinds of salespeople – those who make things happen, those that watch things happen and those who are wondering what happened.”
It’s an oldie but a goodie.
In fact there are generally two types of salespeople I come across in my business. The [...]
Are Great Salespeople Great Talkers
October 19, 2011
I was guest speaker at a meeting a few weeks ago and a chap I was chatting to was telling me that after 18 years of having 3 women in the house now that his daughters had left he was having to learn how to talk again!
My thought was he must have been a very [...]
Are There Natural Born Salespeople?
August 24, 2011
A question I am often asked is “Are there natural born salespeople that we should be looking for?”
My answer to this is there is no such thing as a natural born salesperson. There are salespeople with the “gift of the gab” who make good sales but they tend to lack consistency in their results.
Contrary to [...]
What Is Your Prospecting Plan?
May 17, 2011
We talked about “Farmers” and “Hunters” last time and how many salespeople fall into the comfortable role of farming their existing clients rather than bringing on new business.
This occurs largely due to a lack of a clear step by step plan on how to go about prospecting. Many salespeople make the excuse they are so [...]
How Many Sales Interviews Are Your Team Doing?
April 6, 2011
Recently I was questioning a sales manager about the number of new sales interviews each of her sales team did each week.
Her answer was that a week probably wasn’t the right duration – more like a month.
When I asked how many they were doing a month the answer was that they would be lucky to [...]