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In this article, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston explains what the successful sales leaders and salespeople are implementing right now to make sure they have a great year this year!….
The New Year is always an interesting time for salespeople and sales teams. Plenty of people make New Years’ Resolutions at this time of year, and some people will have included within them ‘resolutions’ for their sales figures, their career or for their business.
I thought it would be useful therefore, to give you an idea what I’m working on with the sales leaders and salespeople I work with regularly, to help them make great sales this year – so that you can implement the same things to get great results as well!
Here are my suggestions for the Top Ten New Years’ Resolutions for your sales team……
(If you want the full article, then go to http://www.andypreston.com/contact-us/ and request the ‘resolutions article’ – and I’ll send it to you with my compliments).
Sales Resolution No 10 – Increase Your Prospecting Activity
If your ‘goal’ or ‘outcome’ for this year is to increase your sales, or that of your team, one of the things to look at is to increase your prospecting activities.
Most salespeople tend not to have enough prospects, and therefore rely on most of their ‘deals’ coming off, in order to hit their targets. That’s a recipe for failure.
Take a look at whatever prospecting activities you’ve been doing (that have been working for you, of course) and look at how you can increase them. You might also want to increase the ‘range’ of activities as well.
Whether your prospecting activities include networking, cold calling, referrals, cold canvassing or anything else, simply upping the activity will generate better results. Once you’ve done this, it’s now time for the second step…..
Sales Resolution No 9 – ‘Filter’ Your Prospects Better
You can only do this step, when you have a lot of prospects (hence my recommendation in ‘Resolution 10’, above), so if you haven’t got enough prospects yet, go back to that step until you have!
One you have enough prospects, the next step is to ‘filter’ them. What I mean by that is to look at which prospects are better for you. So how on earth do you judge which are better than others?
If you’ve already ‘profiled’ your prospects, then you’ll already know what I mean. If you haven’t, here are some quick tips. From experience either you or your manager will have an idea which of your prospects are most likely to convert, which will do so faster than others, and which will be worth the most money.
This might be based on their industry, the level of decision maker you’re talking to (or not!), their buying motivation (you have found that out, haven’t you?) size of project, approval process and impending deadlines etc.
Based on the results of your ‘filtering’, you can now work out which prospects you need to focus on, and which ones require you to qualify them a little harder. Please note, if the thought of doing this makes you hesitant or concerned that you might ‘lose’ a prospect or two, then you probably haven’t got enough prospects in the first place – go back to Resolution 10!
Sales Resolution No 8 – Improve Your ‘Pipeline’ Control
Pretty much EVERY sales leader I speak to, wishes their salespeople were better at controlling their sales pipeline!
Most salespeople have deals in their pipeline that actually have no hope of coming off, yet they often don’t realise it! Also, when I ask salespeople to talk me though their pipeline, it quickly becomes apparent that they’re not ‘on top’ of it, they don’t know where they stand in relation to others in their deals, and often don’t have a concrete plan for bringing that piece of business in, rather than losing it to a competitor.
That needs addressing, right now! Every salesperson should be on top of their sales pipeline. They should know where they stand in relation to their competitors in every deal. They should know the buying motivation of the client, who they need to influence, and what timescales are at work as a minimum. They should also know what actions they need to take (and by when) in order to win the business, rather than lose it to a competitor.
If you’re not on top of your pipeline, it might be time to look at your qualification of prospects, or your ability to get the ‘deeper needs’ from the client earlier in the sales process. Or it could be down to your failure to ‘stand out’ from the competition right at the start of the process. Find out which one it is and do something about it, now!
Sales Resolution No 7 – Improve Your Online Prescence
For those of you that read my articles regularly, or have seen me speak at one of my events, you’ll know I’m a big fan of salespeople using online networking to win more business.
However, I say that only when it’s used in the right way! Social Media and Online Networking can be the biggest waste of time in the world when done badly, or a great contributor to your ‘new business’ activities when done well.
As you’ll know, the network I most recommend (and has proven so far to get the best return-on-effort for salespeople is LinkedIn. If you’re not on there yet, go to www.linkedin.com now! If you are, connect with me on there – and I can then give you some more tips on getting the best out of it.
As far as I’m concerned, the results I’ve seen from showing clients how to use it effectively as a sales tool have been nothing short of astounding! When I run courses on how to get the best sales results from it, delegates often see extra sales very quickly – so if you’re not on there yet, you can bet your competitors are already doing business from it.
If you’d like a copy of my article ‘The 10 Biggest Sales Mistakes Most People Make On LinkedIn’, then go to http://www.andypreston.com/contact-us/ and request the ‘linkedin article’ – and I’ll send it to you with my compliments.
Sales Resolution No 6 – Develop ‘Consistent’ Focus
When I’m working with Sales Leaders all over the world, many ask me how they can keep their sales team focused on a more consistent basis. They’re often finding that their salespeople are distracted by other things, they lose their focus and they fall into ‘habit’, of doing the same things over and over again, and don’t generate the sales results that they should.
One of the things I work on with my clients is developing a ‘monthly’ focus. It can be difficult for anyone to maintain focus on a consistent basis over a long period. By making it a ‘monthly’ focus instead, it makes it much simpler, and by changing the focus every month, it’s kept ‘fresh’ and interesting for the team.
All you have to do is make the ‘focus’ for that month relevant to the goals of the Sales Leader, or the company – and looking at what behaviour you want to encourage from within the team itself.
One of the biggest barriers to improved sales results is changing the ‘everyday’ sales behaviour of the team. They’ve got results (at some level) so far by doing what they’ve done, so many doing see the point in changing it! Or even worse – they’re resistant to changing it because they haven’t got much else apart from it!
By implementing some simple things within their EXISTING sales behaviour you can see some small changes have an impact on their sales results almost immediately. Drop me a line if you’re struggling for some ideas….
(If you’d like the 2nd part of this article, then go to http://www.andypreston.com/contact-us/ and request the ‘resolutions article’ – and I’ll send it to you with my compliments).
This article is copyright Andy Preston 2011-2019. To copy or syndicate this or any part of this article contact Andy Preston for guidelines.
Andy Preston
Named as one of the World's Top Sales Gurus, Andy creates 'Stand Out Salespeople' worldwide, with his revolutionary 'Stand Out Selling' Sales System. 'Stand Out Selling' helps salespeople stand out from their competition, win more business, and do so at higher prices!
Previously a trained Professional Buyer, then the Top Salesperson in the UK, Andy Preston has now trained more than 130,000 Salespeople, in more than 40 countries, on 6 continents, since 2004!
Andy is best known for his work in 5 specific areas...
1) Prospecting/Cold Calling/Business Development
2) Converting Incoming Sales Leads
3) Consultative Selling and Pipeline Management
4) Standing Out From The Competition
5) Helping Salespeople Close More Deals!
With more testimonials than any other Sales Expert online (330+ on LinkedIn alone), Andy's work is recognised worldwide.
You can contact Andy here for more information, and how he may be able to help you!
Andy's Recent Accolades.......
* The World's Top Recommended Sales Expert
* Ranked UK's Top Sales Trainer - LinkedIn
* #2 In The Top 20 UK Sales Blogs - Lolly.co
* Top Sales Expert - Geniecast
* Top Sales Influencer - WittyParrott
* Top Sales Experts To Follow On Twitter - Evan Carmichael
* 10 Sales Experts Every Salesperson Should Follow On Twitter - Etail Insights
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