First, let me apologize for the gap in my blog posting. Two seasons hit my household in the last two weeks; the Holiday Season and the cold and flu season! I hope your Christmas was a very merry one!
Now, on to those resolutions....and we are going to keep this short and sweet. Only three little resolutions. But don't be fooled, they will take enough of your time, effort and focus to really improve your sales results in 2015. Commit to these three areas in your sales development and you will have a great sales year in 2015!
All Salutary Sales Professionals should already be thinking about what they intend to accomplish in 2015. Let's set some really big, hairy, audacious goals for 2015, shall we? Let's start with...
1.) Removing the word "closing" from our sales vocabulary. I have always gotten a kick out of this word and find those that believe in the phrase "always be closing" even more comical. Why don't we change this phrase to "always be connecting" for a great change of pace? If you are closing something, you are putting it away, sealing it up, putting it out of sight. Is that what you want to do with your customers and clients? I thought not. But, what about connecting? Connecting on a professional level, personal level, service level and human level. Forget about "closing" anything. Open up and learn more about your clients.
2.) Listen More...Sell Less. What? Sell less? Yes, as long as you listen more to your customers, about what they need, their business challenges, their kids sporting triumphs, their latest customer service nightmare and griping about their mother-in-law, you will be able to simply sell less. Get it? As Salutary Sales Professionals we are trained in the art of persuasion. Sometimes I think we believe that means "to do all the talking." How many of us have had formal training in sales approaches, including what to say and when? At some point, probably all of us. How many of us have had formal, official training on how to listen? That's what I thought. When I say listen more, I mean to listen as if your prospect were royalty. Listen to what is being said, what is not being said and really look for the emotion in their words. Listen with your ears and your eyes. What is their body language telling you? Learn more about listening skills and watch not only your sales climb, but improvement in your personal relationships as well. And speaking of training...
3.) Learn or improve on three sales skills this year. How are your questioning skills? Can you improve them? Are you asking questions of your prospects that make them re-frame the way they see their situation? How about prospecting? Are you scheduling time every week for this all important task or are you prospecting "when I have time." How is your focus? I know that I struggle with this one. With the phone calls, emails, sales calls, etc. it can be hard to keep focus, but this is a skill you want to focus on! How about your rapport building skills. I don't know if there is a skill that will help you in sales more than this skill, with the exception of...your story telling ability. Do you know how to construct and tell a great story? You should have three stories that are well thought out and can be told in time frames ranging from 90 seconds to 15 minutes. Those three are your Who Am I story, Who I represent story and your go-to Who I have helped story.
So, there you have it. Three little Salutary Sales Professional resolutions for 2015. No, nothing you probably haven't thought of or heard before and in parts worked on in the past. That being said, were these areas of improvement really goals or simply positive thoughts? It really is easy to fall back into old habits. Starting new habits is not easy. It takes time, dedication and the willingness to get out of your comfort zone. But remember, growth does not take place in our comfort zone, it takes place in our learning zone. Get into your learning zone in 2015 and have a great year!
Good Selling!
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