by Mike Brunel | Feb 2, 2017 | Sales, Strategy
80%……….Of all sales are made after the fifth call
48%……….Of all sales people call once and quit
25%……….Call twice and quit
10%……….Keep on calling
These statistics is pretty close to the mark in all forms of selling be it a service or product sell.
I think that we all know…
SALES DON’T JUST HAPPEN.
I have created a diagram to illustrate the real time that your buyer is actually available to sell to.
Just email me at mikebrunel.com for a copy.
Why do many some sales people thrive when others do not, here are some ongoing practices I observe every day.
1. Always add to your pipeline.
Not continuously adding to your pipeline is often a mistake that salespeople make once they have established a strong ongoing sales funnel. If you continue to add to your sales pipeline then if that long established client decides that this month they will not buy, then it does not matter because you have more potential opportunities in your pipeline.
If you are always taking the position of helping and assisting your client then your pipeline will increase. If you are only filling up your pipeline when you are desperate then many clients will sense that and you will come across as desperate.
2. Never assume they need you.
I have noticed that many salespeople leave a message with a client or a voicemail and they think it ends there. They think that they have done what they had to do and then move on. Depending on the relationship you have with that client they may or may not call you back. If you do want to do business with them then you have to plan that call and decide the ongoing strategy to get the person to respond. Create a proactive message for them to call you back.
3. Sales potty training.
For those that may have had young children there was a time when you had to train them to go to the toilet. In my experience (a while ago) I always used to say “Pee or get off the pot”. In other words, make a decision.
There will be times when you have to make a decision to get off the pot. Some clients need to be let go. You need to figure out if a prospect is serious about working with you or not. A good pipeline is full of qualified prospects and not “tyre kickers”
All pipeline activities have to support your key messages and understanding actually who your client is and where they play is vital to successful sales.
Good selling
Mike
by Mike Brunel | Jan 26, 2017 | Sales, Strategy
Part of the reason people panic when they think about sales is that selling seems like a mysterious process.
We might just be able solve that mystery.
It’s our belief that selling is like any other journey: the territory you are covering may be new to you, but it has been travelled before, and there are certain steps you can take to clear the way. Each step you take along the way matters.
Let’s look more closely at the selling journey.
Building Up by Planning
Selling a product or service is, in many ways, like a building project.
I have been involved in two major renovations for both a home and a commercial building.
Here’s how the process unfolds:
- You speak with an architect who presents you with some plans, drawings, or visual examples of what your home or building might look like.
- Once you approve your plan, you seek a builder to do the construction.
- If you want to approach the build with confidence, you’ll also want to be involved in the builder’s plans and timelines. Using excellent project management tools is key.
- Still, even the best-laid plans sometimes change. You might go back and forth and change a few parts of the
- Even when you get started, you need to keep in mind the need to be flexible, adjust to shifting timelines, accommodate last-minute decisions, and possibly suffer some setbacks.
- You need to be nimble, but it’s hard, because there is a lot at stake, financially and emotionally.
- Soon enough, though you start to visualise the final product and then watch your home or building take shape. Finally, you see your completed project in front of your eyes. All of that planning has paid off.
Following a plan and actually building that home requires discipline and principles.
It’s the same with sales, which unfolds in similar stages.
With both types of projects, it is important to begin with the right mindset, so why don’t we do that when it comes to constructing a sale? Why don’t we plan the process that will let us get a result we want?
Most business owners jump in too quickly, assuming that their product is so magnificent that people should just buy it. Or, they don’t bother to plan.
Usually salespeople do not follow any particular steps or process on the way to the sale of that product. If you look at sales the way you look at building your home, though, you will see that there are certain processes you have to follow to get a good result.
It does not have to be a complicated process, but you do need a plan.
Knowing a few simple steps in the journey to your sales is all that is required. In my book Selling is not optional we have a 7 step process to help you understand the selling journey better.
If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?
Good selling
Mike
Here is an audio introduction on the preparing for the journey when it comes to selling.
by Mike Brunel | Jan 20, 2017 | Sales, Strategy
Things you could learn from Donald trump that you could use to make more sales.
Every day I ask one simple question of my clients? What motivates your client to buy off you and not the other guy?
In a recent editorial from the US editor of the Week Magazine* he made some underlining observations about the motivations that drove Donald Trump to run for the presidency. Take some time to read his thoughts.
You certainly do not have to share his motivation but it’s often at the core of every decision that your clients make about your product or service which I will talk to later.
#Article Reprint THE WEEK, July 2016
Editor’s Letter
Throughout life, Donald Trump has been disrespected. The son of a real estate developer who build cheap rental housing in Brooklyn and Queens, Trump was sneered at when he crossed the east river to make his name in Manhattan by building glitzy hotels and condominiums. Even after he had success, sophisticates dismissed him as a “short- fingered vulgarian” and headline hungry tabloid whore, and the derisive laughter rang in his ears when Trump Airlines and his garish Atlantic City casinos went bust.
Nobody took him seriously when he repeatedly mused out loud over the past 30 years that the country was poorly led by weak mean and that he had toughness and negotiating skills were just what America needed in a president. In a compelling profile in buzzfeed.com this week political writer McKay Coppins argues that it was to the stain of the elites, intellectuals, and insiders that drove Trump to make this improbable run. President Obama may have delivered the pivotal insult at the White House correspondence dinner in 2011 when he got revenge for Trumps “birther” campaign by ridiculing him as a conspiracy theorist, and reality TV buffoon as 2,500 insiders roared with laughter. “Trump just sat there” Coppins says “stone-faced stunned simmering- Carrie at the prom covered in pigs blood”
It’s sometimes said that Trump has no core political views no grasp of policy no position that he won’t reverse 15 minutes later. He’s changed party registration at least seven times. But as both Coppins and Trumps biographer Michael D’Antonio have concluded, there is a central driving force in Trumps life and his presidential campaign: shame. He intuitively grasps and channels the rage and resentment that millions of Americans feel about being shut out and left behind, and offering them his hunger for revenge. This is the platform on which he is running. You think you’re better than us?
We’ll show you
William Falk
Editor in Chief.
When I read this article I was compelled to write that the very driver for Donald Trump might just manifest in your clients in some form.
He knows what keeps his voters up at night, he know who they are frustrated with, and he is pretty clear who they despise, hate even. That was why he won.
When I work with clients I get them to fill out a through questionnaire on some of the key motivations why their clients buy their product.
It is quite revealing and, often for the first time, aligns them to what the real motivations of their clients are.
Most of us have suffered as that BS salesperson who tells us every time with their superior product knowledge that his or her product is right for me, ignoring the very principle of selling in this age, of “if you want to sell me more- know me more”.
In other words, instead of knowing if you want to sell me more of your stuff know me more- not about what the other guys is selling (your competition) but me- the client, the guy that is sitting in front of you.
In my book Selling is not optional there is a specific exercise I ask you to do that unlocks the power of asking good questions to find out your client’s motivations.
Good selling.
Mike
*This publication covers the Week’s news and editorial commentary from global media to provide readers with multiple political viewpoints
# reference to article from NO BS Newsletter
by Mike Brunel | Nov 3, 2016 | Strategy
Every year I receive a calendar in the mail from one of my coaches who I have worked with for several years, his name is Dan Kennedy.
“A calendar you might say, what they still send out calendars!”
A bit old fashioned don’t you think? I have a phone for that.
His calendar is not like the one you receive from your insurance agent with nice scenes of places that you have never seen.
His has great ideas on every page for every month for you to think about.
This month I flipped over the month of November and this is what I found.
A question…
“If I could just…………………….”
Four words that could change your sales life overnight.
Try this…
If you want to know and identify what the key problem your client may have fill in the blank as if the client was asking this question
“If I could just……………………..”
How does your customer finish that sentence?
If you know that, that will give you a tremendous leverage and advantage and it allows you to construct an offer that is almost irresistible to you client.
