A Summer Check List for Savvy Sales Professionals

Summer is upon us and with clients on vacation and sales slowing down, savvy sales professionals like you know it's important to take advantage of any down time and use it to build your sales skills.

Here are the Top 5 Things You Should Aim to Accomplish This Summer:

1. Engage with prospects using LinkedIn, and get at least one meeting with someone you met through the social media site.

2. Focus on one area where more expertise would get you more sales. For example, become an expert on one cross-media solution. Read all the articles, whitepapers and case studies you can, talk to colleagues and attend in-town workshops and seminars.

3. Update your elevator speech so it's relevant and will help you sell today.

4. Resurrect at least one customer you thought was dead.

5. Attempt to cross-sell/up-sell to at least three customers.

Great information like this can be found in our free monthly newsletter Self-Taught Sales. To sign up, email melissa@thoughttransformation.com.

Uh-Oh...Now What?

Did you or your company make a mistake? Everyone does time and again, but how you correct the problem is essential to keeping your client happy and buying from you. If something went wrong, create an Executive Summary to explain exactly what happened and how you'll stop that same problem from happening again in the future.

The Executive Summary is one to three pages long, and when using it to address problems, it has four sections and a title page.


Section I: State why you are preparing the summary. List the objective in number order and try and keep it to three objectives or less.
Section II: Recap the current situation. No blaming allowed! Just state the facts.
Section III: Explain what will be done to fix the problem in the future.
Section IV: Wrap it up. Tell the client you value their business and want their feedback.

After you type the Executive Summary up, read it out loud. Keep sentences short, simple and to the point. Cut unnecessary words and make sure it looks professional.

Constructing Your Value Proposition

To construct your value proposition, a good place to start is by writing out the features, advantages and benefits of your offering.

Feature: A specific characteristic of a product or service. This is what the customer gets when they make a purchase.
Advantage: What your product or service does better than the competition. Advantages describe comparative value.
Benefit: What the customer gets from choosing this product or service. This is the "What's in it for me?"

Once you construct your value proposition, conduct this test:
If your customer heard it would they say, "So What?" OR "TELL ME MORE!"

Value

What determines the worth of a product or service? Your answer comes from how your customers answer these questions:

What's in it for me?
What does it cost?
How does your product compare to the competitor's product?

People buy products because of the benefits they deliver. In its most basic form, a value proposition says, "We can do this for you because we're great in this specific way." Value propositions connect a customer's desired benefits to your core competencies. For best selling results, be sure your value proposition appeals to your customers' strongest decision drivers!

Smart Questions That Get Real Information

Be a salesperson with a questioning attitude. It takes you a long way down the road to sales success.  Here are a few examples of smart questions that will get you real information:

• What is your typical day like?
• What changes do you expect in your company over the next year?
• How do marketing and purchasing work together on projects?
• What should I know that we haven't covered?
• What was your best experience with your previous sales representative?
• What was your worst experience with your previous sales representative?
• What should I bring the next time we meet?
• What do you think sales representatives like me do that "un-sells" us?

Body Language Part 2

Here are a few more body language tips to ensure you have an effective conversation.

1. Beam - be the first to smile.
2. Say "hi" and attach your name to it. "Hi, I'm Linda." Extend you hand and try to say their name, so you can store it in your memory. "Good to meet you, Bob."
3. Lean in a little.

Body Language

I think Nicholas Boothman's book, "How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less," should be required reading for every sales person. He says that the first few seconds are critical to create the perception that you are sincere, safe and trustworthy. He outlines five steps to an effective introduction.

1. Start with a positive attitude. Check your body language to make sure that's what you convey. Keep your heart aimed at the person you're meeting. Whenever possible, unbotton your jacket or coat.
2. Be first with eye contact. Look this new person directly in the eye. Use your eyes to reflect your positive attitude. Look at the other person long enough to see the color of the person's eyes.

Check the blog on Friday for more great tips!