All Entries Tagged With: "sales cycle"
8 Follow-Up Strategies to Keep Your Prospect Engaged
How do you follow-up with your prospects after your first conversation or after your first appointment? Sometimes we get so tired of chasing people down that we lose focus and take the lazy approach of “calling to touch base,” or “calling to check-in,” both of which bring little value.
Here are 8 follow-up strategies you can use to bring constant value and keep your prospect moving forward through the buying cycle. As you work through each of these, keep asking for the business!
3 Steps to Accurate Sales Projections
Sales projections are among the most common challenges for sales people and their managers.
Why? What causes these forecasts to be so far off the mark?
Here is a list of 3 steps I take to ensure my projections are accurate…
Compelling Argument Against Cold Calling
By Jeremy Miller
Cold calling is described in heroic terms: beating a path to the prized customer; crossing the many obstacles and walls of protection to find the elusive buyer; wrangling and competing against the many other sales people pursuing the same prize. After breathless battle and hard work the sales person wins his customer. His cold calling has paid off. He is a hero. Too bad it doesn’t work that way.
What Would Happen If…
I have had a recurring thought over the last several months. What if all sales jobs were commission only? It is a question that generates a variety of cause & effect ideas and implications. I knew it was time to share this discussion with our readers when I received the email…
The Effectiveness of Cold Calling… On Foot?
Reader Q & A: I recently received a question about cold calling on foot…
So tell me Doyle, what do you think about cold canvassing/good old fashioned door knocking businesses… any hints and tips for improving-new strategies/thoughts for this style of presentation?
Appointment Prep School – Part 2
by John Plato
Despite good discovery efforts, sales teams miss the mark come presentation time. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen reps go through the discovery exercise and then show up with… you guessed it… the standard sales presentation and demo.
Perfect Selling
Interview with Linda Richardson
I have always been a big believer in following a systematic approach to achieve success. Figure out what works and then do it over and over again! In her book Perfect Selling, Linda Richardson provides an easy to follow, step-by-step system for opening doors and closing deals. I recently spoke with Linda about her latest best seller!
Software Demo Q & A
In most cases software applications are large, complex, and have robust capabilities. I’ve seen sales professionals who take a three step sales approach…
A,B,Cs of Business Development: Strategy for the Non-Complex Sale
Does your product or service allow for a simple, non-complex sales approach? I am going to introduce you to a technique I call the A,B,Cs of Business Development.
Want Long-Term Success? Build Your Pipeline!
Most sales are not made on the first call. Often it takes six or seven attempts to even get your foot in the door. The key to sales success is in the follow-up! The best sales professionals master the art of managing their leads through a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Many sales reps will tell you that they are organized and that they have “their own” system, but look at their work-space and you’ll find that they have paper lists and sticky notes spread all across their desk!
