This is a guest post by Paul Archer

If you’re like most sales people at the moment you might be having to work much harder to get the business in to achieve your targets. There are more steps now to sales, longer processes and additional people to see to reach the results we want.

As a result we’re finding our time management under scrutiny more than ever before and we may need to tighten up on this vital skill if we want to succeed during this recession. I’ve also heard of salespeople and sales coaches losing their valuable support teams as companies make cutbacks which creates even more work to do in the same time available.

Here’s a really neat life changing tip that’ll make a difference to the way you handle your time.

It’s called reducing your collection points.

I’m referring to the places where communication and information enters your life. The more we have, the less productive we are. Let me give you some examples of what I mean.

Email inboxes, postal letter boxes, mobile phone voicemails, office landline voicemails, home phone voicemails, paper in-tray, kitchen table, desk, car seat, car glove compartment, top pocket, text message inbox, briefcase, paper diary, conscious memory, partner.s memory, faxes, to do lists, second mobile voice mail.…..and so on.

And I’m sure you can add some more.

The time management secret is to reduce the number you have so information isn’t scattered everywhere and pulls us all over the place just collecting this information let alone dealing with it.

Read on and I.ll tell you how I reduced my collection points from 22 to just 4. Boy was it hard work but an incredible time saver.

Here are my 4 and the assorted collection points they replaced.

Paper pending file

This has become the home for all paper that enters my life before the paper is processed. My family have been instructed to deposit all post in here addressed to me and not the kitchen table. Receipts, ideas that I’ve jotted down on paper, article ideas, mind-maps, train tickets, parking tickets, phone messages taken for me. They all find their way into this file. And the best bit which I learnt years ago is to have it out of view i.e. in your filing draw, not in a plastic tray on my desk. And I also have a mobile paper in-tray that fits into my briefcase when on the move.

Microsoft Outlook Category

None

Possibly like you , I use Outlook extensively and use the task list feature which is an essential time saver. I’ve categorized each task to help time management but have one called “Category None”. Quite simply when I type in something into tasks it appears in this category which acts as a holding bay.

So the Category None becomes a collection point for loads of things that used to get written down on pieces of paper, in paper diaries, on the back of newspapers, on paper to do lists, Paul’s memory, top pocket of my jacket. And because I carry around a Smartphone which synchronises to Outlook, I can type these in where ever I am and then forget about them until I next synchronise.

Mobile voice mail

Untouched and I’ve also diverted the home phone to my mobile when we’re not in as I’ve finally got over this unnecessary yearning to

keep home separated from work. We live and work in the 21st Century – home and work have combined into one.

My mobile messages come through as text messages so I don’t even have to dial 901 to see if I have any messages.

Email inbox

Pretty much untouched except so much more finds its way to this valuable collection point. I have a PA service which directs phone land line messages to my email inbox. I have a fax to email service which transforms incoming faxes into emails (really useful this one). I even have my brainwaves, ideas, to do’s that I can’t write down, turn up in my email inbox when I’m on the move.

I do this using a brilliant free service called www.dial2do.co.uk which operates here in the UK. All you do is phone a number and speak into the phone whatever it is you need to remember. They then cleverly turn this into text and email you. I have the number set up as a voice speed dial on my mobile phone so even if I am in the car I can still note down my ideas. And the best news is that I can then forget it, concentrate on my driving because I know that my email inbox will get the idea delivered when I next log on to email.

There’s nothing worse than trying to remember lots of things in your head.

So you can see that I’ve cut down all my collection points into just 4. This means I don’t spend huge amounts of time just checking collection points, trying to remember things, worrying about paper getting lost, dialing 901 or 1571 on various phones, sieving through the kitchen table for important post, panicking about the amount of paper I have to deal with.

And now to achieve my sales targets, the fun part.

Paul Archer is an international sales speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK. He specializes in rapport selling and rapport coaching and can ignite his audiences large or small. For more information on Paul and his training courses, visit www.archertraining.co.uk or his sales  blog at www.paularcher.com

This is a guest post by Jill Konrath

I was recently asked, “If you were mentoring a new salesperson, what would be your top five sales tips and how did you learn those?”

Good question! It really got me thinking. There are so many things I’d like to tell a new seller. But what are the most important? What things could I recommend that would have the highest impact on success?

After serious deliberation, here are my thoughts …

1. Focus on making a difference.

Nobody cares about your product, service or solution. That’s the hardest thing for sellers to realize. All they care about is the difference you can make for their organization.

For example, today I sell sales training. If I’d call a VP of Sales and mention that, they’ll tell me their not interested. However, once I changed my focus to the tangible outcomes they’d get from using my sales training, the door opened wide. After all, they were extremely interested in shortening their sales cycle, reducing the ramp up time for new hire sales reps and driving revenue growth.

2. Slow down to speed up your sales.

This was one of the hardest things for me to learn. When I first started selling, I was so eager to be successful. I tried to wow my prospects with my great product knowledge. I closed often and early. But the more I tried to rush things, the more resistant to moving forward my prospects became. They’d throw out obstacles and objections that I couldn’t overcome. When I learned to slow down, parcel information out over multiple meetings, and simply advance the sales process one step at a time, suddenly my sales increased.

When you’re scared about not getting the business, your prospects can intuitively sense your fear. One of the major symptoms is rushing the sales process.

3. Pay the price of admission. Do precall research!

To get into big companies, you can’t make a 100 cold calls saying the same thing to everyone. Several years ago corporate decision makers stopped answering their phones and rolled all calls to voicemail. They delete most message within seconds because they sound like salespeople making their pitch.

I discovered that the only way to capture the attention of these corporate decision makers was to create a very personalized message based on in-depth research in their firm. Once I started doing this, I started setting up meetings.

4. Create an account entry campaign.

It takes 7-10 contacts to crack into a corporate accounts these days. Most sellers give up after 3-5 attempts. If you want to set up a meeting with a corporate decision maker, plan multiple touches from the onset. It takes a while to break through their busy-ness and register on their Richter Scale, but it can be done.

You can use multiple formats in your campaign too: voicemail, email, direct mail, invitations to teleseminars, and more.

5. Analyze your sales approach from your customer’s shoes.

It’s not important what you say. The only thing that matters is what your customer’s hear. For example, when I was trying to reach a decision maker a while back, I decided to leave the message on my own voicemail first to see how I sounded. When I listened to my message, I was appalled. I sounded pathetic! So I worked on scripting my message and kept calling myself over and over till I finally created something I would respond to if I were the prospect.

Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She’s a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings, kick-off events and professional conferences. For timely and provocative sales advice, visit www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com

This is a guest post by Paul Archer.

On holiday in France last year we spent many an evening in the local cafes sucking up the atmosphere enjoying everything that is France. Next to us on one evening was a charming British couple and, as you do, we got chatting. The chap talked about life back at home and mentioned excitedly about coaching his local mini rugby team.

Now that’s exactly what I do on a Sunday morning so I began to tell him, with equal enthusiasm, all about my coaching. I told him all about it, never stopped, talked over him and dominated the conversation.

That’s not empathy and rapport building…I blew it.

They didn’t stay in the café very long making their excuses and disappeared into the night. Afterwards I realized what I’d done and knew that if I’d listened to him and allowed him to talk openly about his hobby…we would have got on better. Instead I just got talking about the same subject.

It’s easy to do this when the other person mentions something that you can say a lot about as well. Sometimes we all fall into this trap. I know, I did.

This is useful in sales, coaching and any communication situation where you need rapport and a trust before you can do your job.

Do people a favour and just let them talk.

Paul Archer is an international sales speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK. He specializes in rapport selling and rapport coaching and can ignite his audiences large or small. For more information on Paul and his training courses, visit www.archertraining.co.uk or his sales  blog at www.paularcher.com

This is a guest post by Paul Archer

Everyone knows that in selling or coaching, it’s extremely dangerous to make assumptions about your customer or the person you’re coaching. It’s one of those principles that.s drummed into sales people on day one of their induction sales training. But we’re all guilty of making assumptions from time to time – I know I am. Read on to see how dangerous these can be.

Over Christmas I was talking to my three children about a fearful incident when I was about their age. The story shocked them at the time and they still don’t believe it was true. But I assure you it was.

My first pet was a cute golden hamster that I named Hammy – original I know. Now we didn’t live in a big house so I shared a room with Hammy and my two brothers who I hated passionately. We were constantly caught bashing the life out of each other, as brothers do.

It came to a head one evening when Hammy, being a nocturnal creature, kept us all up with his squealing exercise wheel. It was incessant. It was excruciatingly painful. Nothing we could do would stop him or fix the squeak. And the fighting with my brothers got even worse.

He had to go. The next day Hammy found his way into the garden shed. What a relief, at last we could get some sleep. We had solved the problem but only until that fateful morning.

It was freezing and pitch black at 6am. On my way to my paper-round, I popped my head around the shed door to look up on Hammy. I stared into his cage with a torch, he was motionless. I was devastated – my only true friend was dead and it was my entire fault evicting him to the bitter, murky shed.

Ignoring my paper round, I picked him up and took him indoors. This 12 year old boy was distraught and overwhelmed by it all. So I laid him on the kitchen table and went upstairs to cry my little heart out. Gradually the house woke up and I heard a banshee like shriek from the kitchen. My Mum had found a stone cold hamster on the kitchen table. Not that I could see at the time what the problem was, after all it was dead but maybe that was the point.

“Take it out immediately” screamed mum, so I grabbed Hammy and ran outside to bury him. As I took my old friend outside I laid him down on the earth next to the shovel ready to dig his grave, but then I saw his foot twitch. I thought I was seeing things so I dried my eyes and looked again. There it went again. It had moved and it wasn’t a muscle spasm. He was alive.

I rushed indoors and plopped him on the storage heater. With careful nursing and stroking, slowly and bit by bit he came back to life and I was the happiest little boy on the planet.

Hammy went on to live a normal life. I found out years later that he had merely hibernated that cold night. I still think it was a miracle. And he was within 5 feet of a living grave. So you see that making assumptions can critically damage your health – well maybe your pet hamster. Not assuming can literally save lives.

Seriously though, the next time you find yourself about to make an assumption about the needs of a customer, because you’ve heard it all before dozens of times or you think everyone wants the price to be lower or you assume the recession will gobble you up….just remember that devoted 12 year old boy bringing back to life his pet hamster, Hammy.

Paul Archer is an international sales speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK. He specializes in rapport selling and rapport coaching and can ignite his audiences large or small. For more information on Paul and his training courses, visit www.archertraining.co.uk or his sales  blog at www.paularcher.com

This is a guest post by Paul Archer

For anyone who has had building work done, you know what the aftermath looks like. Ours is no different – outside of the new conference room, it looks like the Somme battlefield on steroids. Builder’s rubble in every nook and cranny, old bricks, cement, plasterboard, tangled metal. A sight for sore eyes it is.

But following a 2 hour blizzard, the mess had all disappeared. The field looks brand new as though construction had never happened. It looks beautiful with the white snow glistening in the sunshine.

And it struck me then that in life, we all have set-backs which beat us backwards and these issues can affect us all. Some dwell on them – some move on. We need a way to cover them up and move on otherwise our self motivation will take a battering. We could do with snow to cover them up for us.

Whether you’re in sales or sales coaching, we have to be self motivated to succeed in what we do. Yes, we can be motivated externally with targets, rewards, success and recognition but these don’t happen continuously so we have to have inner self motivation to pull off our goals.

We all have knock-backs, we all make mistakes. The trick is to learn from them. Extract what you learnt so you don’t repeat it, jot it down somewhere. I have a pocket diary where I jot down all my learnings and ideas when they crop up. If I make a mistake, I note down what I learnt from it and then try to wipe out the memory so I can move forward.

Now that’s the hard part.

So when we make a mistake, remove what you learnt, note it down, cover up the mistake with a snow blizzard, pick yourself up and move on. Don’t let previous mistakes bug you as this serves no value. That way your self motivation will carry on unhindered.

And if you do drift back to the mistake, imagine a beautiful white snow blizzard rolling in from the east which will cover up any blemishes on the landscape with minutes. But be quick as snow will melt to reveal the builder’s rubble once again.

Looking outside now, the snow’s gone reminds me to order a skip, and spend a weekend getting rid of the rubbish permanently. And with the warm weather on us, I bet Claire is just waiting to ask me too. Can’t wait!

Paul Archer is an international sales speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK. He specializes in rapport selling and rapport coaching and can ignite his audiences large or small. For more information on Paul and his training courses, visit www.archertraining.co.uk or his sales  blog at www.paularcher.com

The following is a Guest post by Mike Brooks, AKA Mr. Inside Sales.

One of the most applied and long-standing cover-ups in the book is the, “I need to think about it” objection. A lot of salespeople struggle with this because they think that the potential client isn’t saying no, and so they don’t know how to react to it.

Unfortunately, what many of you have found out is that your prospect actually is saying no – they’re just saying it in a way that makes it difficult for you to handle it. Well that will end for you today. By using the scripts below, you’ll see if your prospect really does need to think about it, or if he/she is blowing you off. Believe me, you want to know now so you can save yourself weeks of chasing and begging a deal that will never close.

The following scripts were taken from my Brand New Book of Phone Scripts due out in about 6 weeks. These are seven out of ten in the book (there are 20+ NEW scripts on how to handle the money objection alone! You’ll want to pick up a copy as soon as it’s released, so stand by…)

In the meantime, enjoy these and send me an email and let me know how they work for you!!

Response #1:

“_________, whenever I tell someone I need to think about it, I usually mean one of three things: 1 – I’m not going to be a deal for whatever reason and I just want to get them off the phone, 2 – I kind of like the idea but I’m going to have to find the money or talk to my partner, or something else is holding me back, and 3 – I really like the idea and I just have to move something around before I say yes.

Be honest with me; which one of those things is it for you right now?”

Response #2:

“__________, I may have given you too much information on the warranty (or pick another part of your product or service here), is that what you need to think about?”

(Now use your mute button and let them tell you what they are going to really think about)

Response #3:

“You know _________, if this isn’t for you, I’d rather have a no right now

- believe me, you won’t hurt my feelings. Is that where you’re leaning right now?”

(It is always better to get this objection out of them early.)

Response #4:

“__________, let’s face it – you’ve already been thinking about this for a long time. You know you have to make a change or nothing else will change with (your operating system, your results, etc.). Thinking about it more won’t fix things for you – only making a decision will. You like this; you’ve already told me it would work for you. So let’s do this – go ahead and put me/this solution to work for you now and if you change your mind later you will still get the benefit that you’ve acknowledged you need.

Here’s what we need to do to get you started…”

Response #5:

“__________, the only thing more costly than making a bad decision is not making one at all. If you don’t change things then things won’t get better for you. Now, you’ve already admitted that this has the best chance to make a positive impact in your production, right?

Then do what my other clients do and put me and my company to work for you. Once you see the positive results we both know are possible here, you’ll be back to expand our coverage for you. And that’s going to be a win/win for us both, isn’t it?

Then here’s what we need to do…”

Response #6:

“___________, since we both agree this has a great chance to work for you, let me do this. While we’re on the phone right now, I’m going to email you three customer testimonials – companies just like yours who were hesitant as well – and when you read about how successful they were with us, I’ll put together an introductory offer that you won’t be able to pass up. Once you see for yourself how this works, then we can talk about further involvement, is that fair?”

Response #7:

“__________, what I’m hearing from you is essentially a no – and that’s alright. As a sales rep, I hear that all the time and it doesn’t bother me. It just means I haven’t yet explained the value proposition right.

Tell me, what would it take to convince you that this would be a good idea to move forward with – and please be honest with me.”

Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, works with business owners and inside sales reps nationwide teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of top 20% performance.  If you’re looking to catapult your sales, or create a sales team that actually makes their monthly revenues, then learn how by visiting: http://www.MrInsideSales.com

This is a Guest post by Art Sobzcak.

When I review opening statements for seminar attendees, clients at in-house training sessions, or for buyers of my Opening Statement Teleseminar on CD, I hear lots of openings that need assistance. Most of them, actually. And don’t even get me started about the openings that I hear when sales reps call me to sell. Many of these openings are destined to create resistance.

I am very picky about openings. That’s because we have so little time to create interest. Yet, most openings flat out elicit resistance, or don’t move towards interest fast enough, therefore giving the listener time to let the resistance build.

And the little things can do it. A couple of words here or there. Perhaps a question that doesn’t belong…too many unnecessary words that ramble like a congressman on C-SPAN late at night.

Sad part is, some of the things I hear are actually taught by sales “gurus” in seminars, books, tapes, e-books …whatever. I have to wonder if some of these experts have ever actually been on the phone.

I’ve decided to not be shy about dispelling some of the myths and bad suggestions being perpetuated out there—things that are causing salespeople to run into brick walls. I’ve been a bit hesitant to focus on this stuff too much, since occasionally I’ll get an email saying, “Don’t write about negative things. Don’t tell us about what to avoid. Tell us what to do.”

Well, I feel that one of the best ways to improve is to first cut out the mistakes. Let’s take this one: Finally getting a decision maker on the phone and then starting a prospecting call with,

“Hi, I’m Pat Seller with ABC Company. Are you the person there who would handle the decisions regarding your____?” Or, “…and I understand you are the person there who…”

I can hear the reactions now from some readers: “So what’s wrong with that?”

Here’s what’s wrong: You might as well start off the call with,

“I’m selling something. Are you the person I should be pitching it to?”

And again, I know that most of you see the problem with that, but yet someone might still be asking,
OK, we ARE trying to sell something and we want to be sure that this is the person we should be talking to, right?”

Right. But that IS NOT the way to do it. Here’s why:

• people would rather not talk to salespeople they don’t know. It’s natural, like the way we typically avoid the salespeople in retail stores who stalk after us and ask, “May I help you?” People like to buy, but don’t want to be sold. This announces your sales intentions, triggering the defensive posture.

• you have about five seconds to move a person into a positive, receptive frame of mind on a prospecting call. If you’re not doing that, they’re creeping into a negative frame of mind, moving into the mode of “How do I get rid of this salesperson?” Again the question about  “Are you the person…?” solidifies that before you have even begun to create interest.

• you should already KNOW that they are the decision maker for what you sell, BEFORE you ever hear their voice. That comes with good preparation and asking questions of other people within the organization. Even if you don’t know for sure, after delivering your opening—without this question— if you’re not in the right spot, they’ll let you know. And if you are in the right place, you haven’t jeopardized the success of what you want to accomplish: getting them into a positive frame of mind, and moving them to the questions.

OK, so what should you do? When the decision maker answers, go directly into your opening:

“Hi Pat, I’m ___with _____. We work with ____,  helping them ___. I understand that you’re now in the process of ____, and there’s a possibility we may have an option that could help you to ____. I’d like to ask a few questions to see if we should talk further.”

That’s very generic, and I always suggest that you tailor and customize your opening with information you collect before the call, and on the phone by speaking with others in their company so that you touch on results they would have interest in. And you can see that after that opening example, if you indeed were not in the right spot, they’d let you know.

Plus, if you still want to ask, “Am I in the right spot for what I just explained?”, you could do it after you’ve piqued their curiosity, since you’ve presented a possible benefit.

Sure, we need to find out if they are a decision maker. We just do not ask THEM in the opening.

Art Sobczak has helped sales pros say the right things by phone for over 27 years.  Get a free ebook of tips at http://www.BusinessByPhone.com, and see more free sales and prospecting tips, hear recorded calls, and watch videos at http://www.TelesalesBlog.com

This is a Guest post by Jill Konrath of Selling To Big Companies.

Doesn’t it bug you when potential clients stop returning your call? It’s especially difficult when they have been showing interest in moving forward with you just a few weeks before.

In the beginning, you assume that their lack of receptiveness is a condition that will immediately self-correct. But after constant unsuccessful efforts to connect, you begin to question your own sanity.

As a salesperson, it is vital to determine why this is happening prior to doing something. Based from experience, the following are the common reasons why prospects disappear into “the black hole.”

1. They’re pre-occupied with other things.

No doubt this is the most common reason. In all companies today, people are too busy with appointments and tasks, and barely have enough time to accomplish everything.

2. Change of priorities.

This can happen suddenly. A change in market conditions, poor third quarter sales, and new management can influence people in changing their priorities. When something like this happens, it is impossible to regain your momentum in a short period of time.

3. Lack of importance.

Salespeople often misunderstand a potential client’s interest level with a need to take action today. And because of this, they tend to divulge all the amazing details about their offering instead of establishing a business case for instant change.

4. Column fodder.

Sometimes, providing comparative bids/ pricing to potential clients can justify their decision to go with another company.

5. The prospects feel they know everything.

When clients feel that they have everything they need, all the details, information, and facts, they won’t be interested in speaking with you anymore.

Different causes call for different measures. Prevention is better than cure. You can prevent some of these causes by doing things differently in your customer interactions.

Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She’s a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings, kick-off events and professional conferences. For timely and provocative sales advice, visit www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com.

This is a Guest Post from Julian Blee, of Fat Cat Ideas.

I love the old sales joke about two salesmen taking a cigarette break outside their office. One turns to the other and says, “What a morning I have had, I must have done over 12 sales presentations, I have had loads of positive calls, people are just loving me today.” The other salesman turns to him and says, “I’ve not sold anything either”.

The above joke refers to the myth of mistaking being busy for being productive. The same goes for the compliment, “You’re a Great Sales Person.”   A lot of sales people will attribute positive connotations to certain things when in fact they are not.

I have actually heard telesales people boast that they were called a great telemarketing professionals by the prospect that they just pitched. Notice I said ‘prospect they just pitched’ and not ‘client they just closed.’  The reason that I say this is that the so called compliment, “you’re a good sales person” is usually followed by “I’ll think about it” and a lost deal. The ‘no sale’ is the natural conclusion to that type of comment.

Read the full story