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Monday, 15 August 2011

Win More Sales by Returning to These 5 Basics With Flawless Execution

As a sales professional, would you like to win more sales? Have you attended seminars, read tons of sales books and yet your goal to increase sales is still not realized or where you believe it should be given all of your efforts? Maybe it is time to return to the basics with flawless execution.

Recently, I came across a story about legendary Coach Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers. This story shared how Coach Lombardi began each football training camp. He opened up the first day's practice sessions with this statement while holding a football in one hand: "Gentlemen, this is a football."

In further reading, the story explained how the Green Bay Packers under Lombardi's tutelage had only 5 offensive running plays. All the other teams knew these 5 plays. Yet, the Packers continued to win in spite of this perceived handicap because they executed these plays flawlessly. Through rigorous practice, each team member knew what to do almost instinctively because a strong habit had been developed.

Now think about this respective to your sales behaviors. If you executed the basics of sales with similar flawless execution, how many more sales could you win?

This leads to the question of what are those basics? And that is a great question.

Basic Sales Behavior #1

What would happen in you had no more than 5 basic plans or offensive plays? Each play would be dependent upon your target market and where the play was taking place? Within each plan, you would have the specific actions necessary to get the ball that being a sale closer to the goalpost.

Basic Sales Behavior #2

Another basic behavior would include effective communication. You need to be able to read the non-verbal communication coming from your potential customer or qualified potential customer. Failure to take the proper action may result in a fumble and a lost sale.

Basic Sales Behavior #3

Research of your target market, current market conditions, trends within the marketplace and general business acumen are just as necessary basics as they were 100 years ago. Lack of important facts can doom a sale even before the first contact is made.

Basic Sales Behavior #4

Having an open ended questions based upon your research and overall plays is another basic sales skill behavior. When you execute the questioning process flawlessly, you are building the relationship while discovering those issues that are important to your potential customer.

Basic Sales Behavior #5

This last behavior or sales skill is demonstrated at all times through the other behaviors and that is your authenticity specific to your values and ethics. Are you believable? Do you do what you say you will do? Without a clearly articulate values statement that is put into practice at all times, will leave you in the sea of sameness with all those other gray suits.

TAKE ACTION SALES COACHING TIP: You can win more sales through practice that leads to flawless execution. The only remaining question is: Are you willing to invest the time to realize your goal to increase sales? And only you can answer that question.

Take this free sales skills assessment to help you increase sales.

You probably do not want to be uncomfortable. Who does? Yet, you want to increase sales and to stop all those sleepless nights right before sales figures are due. Now is the time to give Leanne a call at 219.759.5601 to schedule a free business coaching training or sales coaching strategy session. Experience how being uncomfortable can actually help you increase sales.

P.S. Want to win more sales? Then how well do you flawlessly execute this first basic play or sales behavior of a sales plan?

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Thursday, 11 August 2011

Are Your Sales Lagging Because of These 7 Big Mistakes?

Selling is a skill that some have mastered brilliantly while others may need some help. Let's be honest, everyone is in sales, but not everyone gets direct compensation for their selling efforts. The people who get direct compensation are called salesmen, saleswomen, sales' associates, etc. Selling is a skill that some have mastered with brilliance while others may need some additional help.

Many times the reason for lagging sales is not just because of poor selling skills, but due to some other reasons that affect sales. After 30 years in sales, I have discovered that these are the top 7 mistakes for lagging sales.

Mistake #1 - Can't Do Attitudes

Negative attitudes evolve from a foundational belief system. This belief system is the total sum of all experiences. The negative conditioning from early childhood turn don't 5 year olds into can't 21 plus year olds. Can't do attitudes within the sales person can translate into the potential prospect or even referral. For example, I recently left a voice mail with someone who asked me to call and I heard the following "I will get back to you within 2 hours." Three days later, not receiving a returned phone call, has established within me a "Can't do attitude" about this person. Can't do attitudes are contagious. Would I refer this person given that she cannot fulfill her honoring her word? Honestly, no.

Mistake #2 - Confuse marketing with sales and sales with marketing

Marketing is the actions connected in getting your message out to your prospects, suspects and centers of influence. This may include website, elevator speech, position statement, paid advertisements, etc. Sales is a process that begins when you have identified a need, a decision maker and a budget. This reason supports the need for the creation of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to measure how many times a potential client has been touched by marketing and then to track the progress of the sales cycle.

Mistake #3 - Lack of a consistent sales process

Successful sales requires a consistent sales process so that when a sale fails to materialize, the failure can be analyzed specifically as to what part failed within the process. Analyzing requires measurement such as call or sales to close ratio. How many contacts did it take for me to secure a sale? Again, the CRM system is a tool to help manage the sales process.

Mistake #4 - Confuse motion with progress and activity with results

Many sales people are busy, but are not making progress within the sales process. This business generates activity, but lacks measurable results. An example would be a general networking where there is a lot of motion, but not necessarily progress and a lot of activity with no to little results. (Collecting business cards is an activity.) Compare a general networking event to a quality networking event where there is progress in securing actual cards from pre-determined prospects and setting appointments which is a result.

Mistake #5 - Selling ain't telling

So many sales people are so anxious to tell what they do that they fail to sell what they do. No on loves to be sold, but everyone loves to buy. This reason addresses the sales training skills necessary to be an effective sales professional. The result of this mistake is no relationship with the prospect and potentially creating can't do attitudes within the prospect. See Mistake #1

Mistake #6 - Ignoring the value of referrals

Research suggests that up to 80% of all new business comes from referrals. However, many sales professionals ignore this valuable resource when looking to reverse the trend of lagging sales. Additionally, an effective CRM is critical tool to keep touching past customers and tracking new referrals.

Mistake #7 - Failure to Ask

Failing to ask to business, for opportunities, for referrals is a common mistake. This is the culmination of all previous mistakes. As one of my mentors has shared with me. We drive by more business than we will ever have. Until we develop the habit of asking for business, our sales will continue to lag.

These 7 mistakes are big, broad mistakes. In future articles, each mistake will be explored with some proactive solutions in how to correct the mistake. Until then, hopefully, these mistakes will begin to help you discover and correct why you are experiencing lagging sales.

Free sales skills assessment by Results Sales Coach Leanne Hoagland-Smith who helps with sales coaching, leadership to sales management development.

Get sales success with this sales book, Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, the Keys to Unlocking Sales Success.

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Wednesday, 6 July 2011

Emily Dickinson and "these modern literati"

Emily Dickinson and "these modern literati" - latimes.com p.content-nav { margin:-15px 0px 0px 0px; }#commentsArchive { display: none; visibility: hidden; }#archiveShow, #fbShow { cursor:pointer; } body {background-color:#ffffff !important;}ul#root li.navLink a {padding-top:17px; padding-right:4px; padding-bottom:16px; padding-left: 5px;} Subscribe/Manage Account Place Ad LAT Store Jobs Cars Real Estate Rentals Classifieds Custom Publishing latimes.com

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Emily Dickinson and "these modern literati"July 1, 2011 | 8:01am

Emilydickinson_ltrs "Emily Dickinson's Letters" is a charming, 4-inch by six-inch pocket book from Everyman's Library with a shiny golden ribbon placeholder. The book doesn't bother itself with completism -- her letters are excerpted -- nor does it get bogged down with heavy historical footnotes.

Instead, it gives a sense of Dickinson, a poet reputed to be socially withdrawn and something of a recluse, as being engaged, lively and jocular -- at least with her family and other friends with whom she corresponded. That's because her letters provide snapshots of her day-to-day life at home, at school and then at home again.

Among the discussion of gardens and her pleasure at being an aunt, she at one point moves from the everyday to the literary.

Dear Austin, the 23-year-old Dickinson wrote to her brother in the spring of 1854:

Father was very severe to me; he thought I'd been trifling with you, so he gave me quite a trimming about "Uncle Tom" and "Charles Dickens" and these "modern literati" who, he says, are nothing, compared to past generations who flourished when he was a boy. Then he said there were "somebody's rev-e-ries," he didn't know whose they were, that he thought were very ridiculous -- so I'm quite in disgrace at present....

"These modern literati," of course, are writers who were producing what we now think of as classics. But at the time, they appeared -- at least to Dickinson's father -- as brash newcomers. Harriet Beecher Stowe published "Uncle Tom's Cabin" just two years before, in 1852. Charles Dickens was well-established, but still only in the middle of his career -- which was singularly long and successful (more than 150 years later, his books are still in print). He'd already published "The Pickwick Papers," "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" and "A Christmas Carol" but hadn't yet written "A Tale of Two Cities" or "Great Expectations."

It looks silly to us that Dickinson's father teased her about her fondness for "these 'modern literati,'" as if they were mere flashes in the pan. They weren't -- and Dickinson, whose handfuls of published poems might have looked like not much in compared with past generations, wasn't either. In fact, her work has become as well-remembered as Dickens, Stowe and the other "modern literati" her father scoffed at in 1854.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

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Monday, 4 July 2011

Make Money on Facebook With These 12 Free Applications

Making money with Facebook! If you are a Facebook user or have been around social networking sites for a while, you probably have heard that. But, is it really possible to make money with Facebook? How would you go about making money on Facebook?

Well, thanks to some very useful and user friendly applications, today almost anyone who has a Facebook page, can make money in verity of ways. With one simple installation, you can be on your way to make money on Facebook. Of course like any other methods of making money, specifically making money online, it takes hard work and persistence to be able to make a decent amount of money on Facebook. Although these applications make it very easy to get on the path of making money with face book, its the strategy and a well thought out plan, combined with persistence and hard work, that ultimately factors in your success or failure in making money with Facebook. Here are 12 applications you can use to make money on Facebook.

1. RadicalBuy This is almost like a Facebook made eBay. You can sell anything on your Facebook page using this unique app. List an item and have it visible to all Facebook users instantly. Now, the cool think is that you can offer commission to others who will sell your items on their Facebook page, allowing you to reach more potential buyers. Of course that means, even if you don't have any item for sale, you can show other peoples item on your Facebook page and make money with the commission you get for selling there stuff.

2. MyMerchStore Zazzel allows you to create and design any product on their site(which is free), and sell them on your face book. Think about the potential buyer base for customized t-shirts and hats and etc, specially if you have a lot of Facebook friends. You can also sell product created by other artists and earn a commission on those. So, even if you don't want to deal with designing, you have a way to make money on face book using Zazzle.

3. CafePress It's the same idea as Zazzle, but with a much bigger and well known online store. Cafepress lets you easily sell any product from anti Obama Shirts to pro Obama Shirts, on your Facebook and make money, whether it was created by you or someone else.

4. Ether Ether is a website that you can make money on by giving advice to people over the phone or by chatting. But now, you can use their new application on Facebook to make money while giving advice to people over the phone. If you're good at giving advice, this may be the way for you to make some extra money on Facebook. Also if you know a second language, this app makes it easy to teach others and make money. You set the rates and Ether provides a number that individuals can call. The call will then be forwarded to your personal telephone number.

5. MusicBlaster With MusicBlaster you can put a simple little music store on your Facebook, and sell music from BlastMyMusic.com. You earn 5% for each song sold. The cool think about this app is the fact that you can help your favorite band or singer to sell their music while you make money, as well as helping them to gain more exposure.

6. GarageSale The name says it all, its the good old Garage Sale, but a "Facebooky" Garage Sale. Simply add Garage Sale to your profile page and list every thing you want to sell. When someone buys something, Garage Sale automatically bills the buyer's credit card and lets you when to ship the item. Your money is deposited directly into your Pay Pal account, or you can request payment by check. However they charge a 5% commission on the total sales price, but that's all. No other fee for setup or anything like that.

7. Shopit Shopit is a free Social Commerce Network that gives users the ability to buy, sell or trade any product or service. Simply add a free store to your Facebook and sell anything you like. Another easy way to make money on Facebook.

8. FlameTunes FT was founded in 2007 by an Iranian-American named Nima Khakpour. This app is more for the artists to sell their music. So, if you are an artist, FlameTunes enables you to sell your music on your Facebook. You can also use it to sell music on myspace.

9. Lemonade Remember when you setup your first lemonade stand in your community? Well, this app allows you to use the same concept, combining commerce and community, and have a lemonade stand in a digital (Facebook) neighborhood. Basically you add what you want to sell to a lemonade stand, and put it on your Facebook. It's free and easy.

10. eBay Who knew that was coming? Yep, you guessed it. Now you can have your ebay on Facebook. This application allows you to add eBay auction listings to your Profile. Sell things to your Facebook friends from crafts, jewelry to diary pages, undies and dinner dates or just whatever you're selling on eBay! You also have the option to add a charity auction that you support, on your Facebook profile. I think it's a very smart way to combine eBay and Facebook, and you don't even need an eBay Account!

11. Lending Club It's almost like prosper, where you land money to others and make money with the interest you make from the loan. Not to worry though, lending club has all the detail covered. So, it's completely safe, and the whole legal and trust issues are taking cared by lending club. If you can use it safley, it can be a good way to make money with your Facebook.

12. e3buy Auction Buy, sell or trade anything. Auction your used or new stuff. With e3buy you can open a customizes store, upload your logo and start selling things. Unlike ebay, there is no commission or fee to be paid. it's completely free to use. It is also fully integrated with paypal, so you can get paid fast.

These are just some of the great Facebook money making ideas. But, I am sure as the social networking sites become more popular, there will be more and more of such ideas and applications, not only for Facebook, but for many other social networking sites as well. There you have it, 12 Free applications that you can take advantage of to make money on Facebook.

Struggling to make money with this or any other method? Tired of wasting time and money and not making a dime? Want to learn the secrets of making money online? Visit my blog to learn this and many other ways to make money online in a matter of hours.

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Indicate

Monday, 15 August 2011

Win More Sales by Returning to These 5 Basics With Flawless Execution

Thursday, 11 August 2011

Are Your Sales Lagging Because of These 7 Big Mistakes?

Wednesday, 6 July 2011

Emily Dickinson and "these modern literati"

Monday, 4 July 2011

Make Money on Facebook With These 12 Free Applications

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