Improve the Quality of Your Prospects and Increase Your Income Now!

When we talk about prospects we usually concentrate on increasing the quantity of prospects.  However, if you look at the Sales Success Formula I introduced on this blog a short time ago, you will see that most of the time spent by a salesperson is on the attempts made to contact a prospect.  If you increased the QUALITY of your prospect, meaning one that was interested in taking your call or meeting you, your time efficiency would increase immediately.  Again, when you look at the formula for sales success, the number of attempts you make (#A) in order to contact a prospect (#C) so that you can then make a presentation (#P) with the plan to close a sale (#S), takes a huge time investment.  So, if we decrease the number of attempts you have to make in order to contact a prospect the process becomes more profitable quickly.  I have witnessed many people leave the profession of selling because they spent all of their time concentrating on increasing the QUANTITY  of their prospects and improving their closing technique and no time on improving the QUALITY of their prospects and becoming a pro at making a presentation of their product to a customer.  

The highest QUALITY prospect is a referral.  This is a prospect that a current or former customer has referred to you.  The person who referred them to you, knows you and respects you and holds you in high regard or they wouldn't be sending them to you.  A referral business doesn't just happen.  It takes a strategy to accomplish.  

How do you build a referral business? 

(1) You start with knowing your product at a very high level. 

(2) You must understand exactly how, with specificity, it benefits a customer. 

(3) Then you must provide a tremendously high level of customer service.  

These 3 steps are vital to starting and sustaining a referral business.  In order to find out where you are in relation to these 3 very important steps, you need to take some time and be very honest with yourself. If you aren't going to answer the following questions honestly then you are wasting your time.  For you own success' sake be honest as you answer these questions about your business:

1)  How much time do you spend daily studying the product or service your provide? This time includes study of the industry and your competition.  You must have a deep understanding of what you do and if you are not spending time daily growing your competence then you are not serious about a long term career in the profession of selling.

2)  How much time do you spend daily talking, thinking and studying about how your product or service specifically benefits your customer? Are you practicing your presentation so that you talk directly to these benefits with your prospect?  Do  you know so much in this area that your empathy with the customer is impactful to them?  Again, if you are not spending time daily working on this you are not really serious about a long term career in the profession of selling.

3)  Do you spend time daily or at least weekly calling on your current customers? The purpose is to check on how they are and how your product or service is or has performed for them.  This is vital to your business.

4)  Do you always follow through and deliver on everything you have promised a customer?  You should be able to state that beyond a shadow of a doubt you deliver for your customer.  You should be able to say the you go above and beyond expectations 100% of the time.  If you don't follow through on your promises and commitments then you need to change that immediately, or get out of the professional of selling.  You are ruining the reputation we professionals are trying so hard to build and protect.

Spend whatever time is needed to honestly evaluate your business using these 3 questions.  If you can honestly answer these questions correctly then you have earned the right to ask for and expect your customers and people you know to send you prospects.  If you can't answer these correctly then your business is failing whether you know it or not and you will never be able to build a referral business.

If you seriously take this strategy on, your income will improve immediately.  

Expect to Win!

--Jim

Can You Improve Your Prospect Quality?

When a sales professional considers how to become more efficient with their time, the first area that they must look at is their mix of prospects.  If you are only cold calling and randomly choosing who you call on, then you are selecting the most inefficient prospecting strategy available.  You are not only having to introduce yourself, your company and your product, but you may be having to develop the need for your product or service as well.  This process is very time consuming.

The most efficient prospect is a referral.  This is a person or company that a current or former customer has referred to you.  In most cases this serves as a partial introduction to you and your company as well as your product.  The need for your product or service is normally addressed as well. This makes for a very efficient use of your time.  These prospects sometimes come from people that you know and that know what you do and may not do business with you.  The key is the introduction.

How do you build a referral business? 

(1) You start with knowing your product at a very high level. 

(2) You must understand exactly how, with specificity, it benefits a customer. 

(3) Then you must provide a tremendously high level of customer service.  

Once  you master these 3 key areas of professionalism, then you can ask for referrals and expect your customers to send people to you.  It takes a concerted effort to master these 3 areas.  Some salespeople ask for referrals without earning the right to ask someone to send the people they know to do business with them..  You got to earn the right to ask.  If you master these 3 areas, people want to send people to you.  They will feel like they are benefiting their family or friend more than they do you.  When that happens you will definetly have success with referrals.

Expect to Win!

--Jim

Commitment to Success

Are you committed to your own success?  How much time did you spend this week developing your skills?  If  you aren't growing and getting better then are you really serious about your own success? 

We are about ready to start a new month and it is a great time to begin some new habits.

First thing, complete the Sales Success Formula that I have detailed in this blog, in order to come up with your daily target for attempts.  Then commit to your attempt number.

2.  Read a non fiction book related to the sales profession or personal growth, for 30 minutes each day. 

3.  Find someone you know that is successful doing what you are doing and spend some meaningful quality time with them.  Find out what has been effective for them.  What is their daily routine and what habits have they developed that have contributed to their success.

4.  Everyday begin the day with a review of your income goal and your gameplan for hitting your attempt number for the day.  Review the previous days activities and indentify opportunities.

5.  Identify one skill you are going to work on this month.  Research industry information to help you improve that skill.

Commit to these 5 things and you will notice immediate progress on your quest to get better.  

Expect to Win!

--Jim

Success is a choice: Hard Right or Easy Wrong?

In his book, Take the Stairs: 7 steps to achieving true success, Rory Vaden writes:  "It’s the habit that’s important. Success is often not the result of our major decisions, but more deceptively it is the aggregate sum total of all our small and seemingly insignificant ones. Success comes down to choosing the hard right over the easy wrong. Consistently."
This excerpt from this great book reminds me that all of my decisions count.  Whether they are small or large, it is the aggregate sum total of the decisions I make that lead to success or failure.  What do you focus on each day? The hard right or the easy wrong?  Do you avoid negative conversations with colleagues or do you just jump in because it is easy and there is no pressure?  Do you work on your people skills by engaging a stranger or do you just go ahead and stay with those colleagues and discuss all that is wrong with management?  Do you focus on hitting your attempt number for the day (#A)? Or, do you blow off part of the day and get back to it tomorrow?
So, the question today is "hard right" or "easy wrong"?  Your success hangs in the balance waiting for your answer, not just today but every day.

Expect to win!

--Jim

Feeling Their Pain

Everybody is different. We all feel differently about events going on in our lives and in the world.  We all react differently to situations in our families and organizations.  Everyone of us handle triumphs as well as tragedies differently.  So, how do sales professionals navigate dealing with people who are so drastically different?  The answer is empathy.

Empathy is " the ability to understand and share the feelings of another".
This is a skill developed over time that allows us to adapt to another person with a very different viewpoint from us and our other prospects and clients.  We develop this skill by asking good questions.  If I am working with a prospect on the replacement of a current product or service and I want to understand what they are trying to accomplish then I must ask specific questions.  "What do you like about your current product or service?" Then expand on that answer by asking, "tell me more about that and why you like that specific feature.". The next question is " What do you want to change about your current product or service?" Then again, based on your closely listening, "tell me more about your experience and how changing this specific feature would benefit you.".  You must be engaged and then you must engage them.  As you ask these questions you begin to empathize with them and that allows you to help them expand on their answer.  This is when the magic of empathy begins to show it self. When you make a product or service recommendation based on them and their needs and not based on what is on sale or what you have a bonus on, then they feel your sincerity and professionalism.  They know you listened.  Do you think they will go to anyone besides you ever again for the product or service you provide?  No, because you are different and that's because you care.  All this because you possess and practice the skill of empathy.

Expect to Win!

--Jim

People Skills

Do you consider yourself a "people person"? Have you ever heard that phrase before? What is a people person? I know that to be a professional salesperson you must have some people skills but I am not sure that makes you a people person. 
Continuing on the theme of getting better let's focus on people skills.  People skills consist of the ability to build rapport with someone and to instill trust and confidence in you to take care of them. People skills include your instinct to really care about others.  A sincere compassion for another person's plight in life may not be considered a skill but it is definitely a trait that a professional salesperson should have and can improve upon.  The ability to communicate cares and concerns to others is certainly a skill. 
The improvement starts with awareness.  Are you aware of how comfortable and effective your are :

1) building rapport with someone
2) do you find yourself sincerely caring about someone when they are telling you there situation?
3) do you communicate with ease and effectively with others?

Building rapport is simply asking questions, listening intently and engaging the person.  Rapport is certainly a result of someone feeling that you care. I've found that the first step to improvement in this area is to intentionally be aware of listening when someone is talking to you.  Don't let your mind wonder.  Realize how important it is to that person that you "hear" what they have to say. Concentrate on asking questions related to their personal situation and that involve solutions rather than commiserating or gossiping about their problems. To improve in these areas you need to practice this with everyone not just your prospects.  Practice with your spouse and children, your friends and acquaintances.  How much would your relationships improve if you became a better listener and became more engaged? 
If you improve your people skills there is no doubt that your income will increase.  You will become better at approaching prospects and making presentations.  You will improve your question asking and ability to communicate different ways of thinking about things.  You will begin to ask for the business with ease.

Expect to Win!
--Jim

Skills and Income

When I decided to enter the field of professional selling 30 years ago, it was because of one fact.  The fact was that I controlled my own success and my income.  If I wanted a raise in income I didn't need to ask for it, I just had to make a decision to work harder and get better. After coming out of the banking industry where hard work was not necessarily rewarded and making more money was more about who you knew than how you perform, this new freedom to control my own destiny was more exciting than I can describe.
That same fact is true today.  I am going to take the next several days and look at areas of the Secret Formula for Sales Success and identify areas that you can improve your skills and in turn raise your income. 
The first area is getting the prospect to attempt to contact.  There are many methods used for acquiring prospects.
1). Cold calling - telephone or in person calls to lightly qualified prospects
2). Referrals - acquired from customers and people you know.
3). Friends & Family -  letting everybody you know know what you do.
4). Purchase leads - direct mail, web, email etc
5). Targeted campaigns - using specific lists with preapproach letters

These are just 5 common areas used when prospecting.  It is very important to identify your strategy for prospecting .  Then work hard to improve.  Any of these strategies include an approach.  Your approach should come from something that has proven to be effective.  Once you have the approach then you must drill, train and rehearse it until it is second nature to you.  This skill is a vital one to work on continually.  If you can effectively reduce your attempts to contact and your contacts to presentation you will consistently increase your income.  This is without spending any more time doing what you do.  That is EXCITING!

Expect to Win!

--Jim

Secret Formula for Sales Success Part VI

I / $S= #S
#S X #P/S = #P
#P X #C /P = #C
#C X #A /C= #A 
#A / WORKING DAYS = #A/DAY
I / #A = VALUE OF EACH A

You are now to the step that determines the number that guides and directs your days. It is the number that requires moment to moment decision making. The decision that says I am going to hit my number no matter what.
You have determined how many sales contacts you need to make in order to make the required number of presentations necessary to close the number of sales required to hit your income goal. The question is how many attempts to make contact with a prospect is required in order to make that contact.  How many dials or texts or emails or facebook messages does it take to make one contact.  Do not count email blasts, text campaigns or attempts that are not targeted at a specific prospect in this number.  You must know this number and your manager will not be able to help you.  You need to live with a sheet that has 4 column headings: Dials, Emails, Text messages, Other. The rows are the working days.  You will make a mark for every dial, email, text message and any other contact method used.  At the end of each day you total your attempts.  If you have 40 attempts in a day & you made 10 contacts then you know that it takes you 4 attempts to make 1 contact. The best number to use is your rolling 30 day total of attempts and contacts.  This keeps you with a large enough and current set of results to make your number work.
Attempts require effort and a lot of attempts require a lot of effort.  This is where we begin to pay the price for success or as Zig Ziglar said "We enjoy the price of success!". Our two last calculations make this manageable and puts motivation behind the attempts.  Take the number of attempts required to make the contacts needed.  Now, divide that number by the working days in the time frame you are working with.  If it is monthly then the typical number we would use for working days is 20.  Take the total number of attempts (#A) and divide it by 20, if you are working on a monthly time frame, that gives you one of the 2 most important numbers in your formula. This is the number of attempts you must make every day to reach your goal. This is your number, it may be 20, 50 or 100 but it is your number. You didn't pull it out of the air it was statistically calculated with your income goal as the target.  This number will change as your numbers change and as you improve.  It could be that you raise your income goal and because you are improving your skills you won't need to increase your daily attempt number.
The second most important number in the formula is determined by taking your income goal and dividing it by the number of contacts required for that period of time.  The best way to do this is to break down your income goal to a monthly income goal. Then take your daily attempt number x the number if working days in the month.  Take your income goal and divide it by the number of attempts required in that month. This gives you the value of each attempt to contact you make. This boils it down to the fact that every effective attempt to contact that you make is worth $10, $20, $50 whatever your number is.  Don't waste your time or you will be losing money.
Use these 2 numbers to fuel your success. Success is about creating daily habits that work.  You now know exactly how many attempts you must make every day to have the success that you desire. No more blowing in the wind or floundering without direction.  You also know exactly how much every attempt is worth to you in dollars and cents.  What are you waiting on ? Make it happen NOW!!

Expect to Win!
--Jim

Secret Formula for Sales Success Part V

I / $S= #S
#S X #P/S = #P
#P X #C /P = #C
#C X #A /C= #A 
#A / WORKING DAYS = #A/DAY
I / #A = VALUE OF EACH A

In the last 4 steps of the Secret Formula for Sales Success you have established your Income Goal (I), the number of sales you need to reach that income goal (#S), and the number of presentations you need to make to reach your sales number and income goal (#P). The next step is to determine how many sales contacts you must make in order to make one presentation (#C/P). This then allows you to solve for the total number of contacts you need to make to reach your presentation and sales numbers and ultimately your income goal.
First, let's define exactly what a contact is and how you should be tracking them.  A sales contact is :
1). Face to face contact with someone where what you sell is discussed.
2).  Telephone contact with someone where what you sell is discussed.
3).  Email conversation with someone where what you sell is discussed.
4).  Text message conversation with someone where what you sell is discussed.
5).  Social Media conversation with someone where what you sell is discussed.
The source of these contacts varies by industry and salesperson.  They could be a referral, lead, previous customer, call in to your business, walk in to your business, inquiry from your website, message or comment on a social media site etc. The typical outcome of these contacts is an appointment to make a presentation.  However, it could be a face to face contact  or telephone contact that leads directly into a presentation.  For example, at a car dealership a sales person greets a person on the lot for the first time and this leads directly to a walk around presentation, demo ride, write up and sale.  This scenario acheived 1 contact to 1 presentation to 1 sale. 
What we want to determine is how many of these contacts does it take to get to a presentation which includes telling them how they can own your product or in other words asking for the deal right now.  Again, you must know your numbers.  It is vital to your success that you document on paper or electronically how many people you are making contact with and how many presentations you are making.  Go back through your calendar for the last 90 days if possible and total the number of contacts you have made from the 5 sources above.  Then total the number of presentations you made in that same timeframe. Then divide your number of contacts by your number of presentations (#C/P). This gives your number of contacts needed for 1 presentation and then we take that number of contacts X our presentation number (#P) that we established yesterday.  This gives you your contact number (#C) required to reach your numbers and ultimately your income goal.
If you don't know your contact and presentation numbers, consult with your management.  But, I cannot stress enough that you must know your numbers.  The numbers don't lie!
Now that you have your (#C) you can move onto the next step.

Expect to Win!

--Jim

Secret Formula for Sales Success Part IV

I / $S= #S
#S X #P/S = #P
#P X #C /P = #C
#C X #A /C= #A 
#A / WORKING DAYS = #A/DAY
I / #A = VALUE OF EACH A

You now have determined what your I (Income goal) is and you have calculated your earnings per sale.  When you divide your income goal by your average earnings per sale you get the total number of sales required to achieve your goal for income for the year or month(#S), whatever period of time you used. This is clear and established in fact.  No winging it or floundering.  You know without a doubt that if you want to earn the income that motivates and excited you and your family, you must commit to making the number of sales identified in Your Formula for Sales Success.
The next step in the formula is to solve for #P (number of presentations required to reach your income goal).  In order to solve for this you must determine how many product presentations you make for every sale you close (#P/S).  Every product or industry has a different "closing ratio".  This should be your average and it means you must, without any question, know your numbers. Let's look back to last week. First of all, how many sales did you make? Next, how many presentations did you make last week? Divide the number of presentations by the number of sales and you have your #P. If you are just starting in this profession or this is a new position, you should get with management and get the staff's number of presentations made in order to close a sale.  
Presentations could include the writeup of an offer or not.  A Presentation is typically proceeded by a meet and greet of the prospect and a qualification step.  But, what you need here is the number of times that you make a thorough and complete presentation of your product and tell the customer what it takes to own it.
Once you calculate and get the #P/S, then divide your I by #P/S you will get your personal #P. This number is extremely important to your success. If you want to earn the income that you spent time and effort to determine, you must hit your #P. This is an area that you can target for improvement as well.  You want to make more money?  You want to make more money without working any harder or longer? Get better at your presentation!  We will discuss this at length in future posts.
Calculate your personal #P and then you can move on to the next step.

Expect to Win!
--Jim

Secret Formula for Sales Success Part III

I / $S= #S
#S X #P/S = #P
#P X #C /P = #C
#C X #A /C= #A 
#A / WORKING DAYS = #A/DAY
I / #A = VALUE OF EACH A

The next step is calculating the $S in order to determine the #S.  You must know your average commission or earnings per sale ($S).  If this is a varying number, in other words you are paid a commission and the amount of the sale is different from customer to customer then you need to do at least a 90 day look back and come up with your average earnings per sale. The best way to do this is to take your total earnings over the last 90 days.  Include commission, bonuses, renewal income and any other income generated by selling your product. Divide this total income number by the total number of sales made during this 90 day period.  This gives you your true average earnings per sale.  If you are paid a flat amount for every new sale then this calculation is easy.  If you are new to the profession of selling or you are new to your current position, ask management to give you a average earnings per sale for the entire sales staff for the last 90 days. I'm fact, this is a good number to have even if you are not  new to the profession or have been in your position for awhile. It would allow you to compare and gauge how you are doing against "average".   Do you need to step it up? Are you under achieving? 

Your average earnings per sale or $S then allows you to determine in your formula how many sales you need to make in order to achieve your income goal.  Take your income goal and divide it by the $S and that will give you the number of sales you need in order to reach your income goal (#S).

Once you have the #S (number of sales needed to reach your income goal) you can move on to the next step.

Expect to win!

--Jim

Secret Formula for Sales Success Part II

I / $S= #S
#S X #P/S = #P
#P X #C /P = #C
#C X #A /C= #A
#A / WORKING DAYS = #A/DAY
I / #A = VALUE OF EACH A

Let's begin at the beginning. Your Income Goal is where the formula starts.  Establishing your income goal is not a thoughtless task done with little planning.  I have witnessed many sales people just throw a figure out there in order to complete the formula.  I feel strongly that if your attitude towards the profession of selling is that flippant you should find something else to do.  Your income goal is the fuel behind your self motivation, self discipline and enthusiasm.
It is vital to your sales success to follow these 3 principles when setting your income goal.
1.  Include everything and everybody
     Consider all aspects of your financial life.  Your monthly bills, your               investment plan, your dreams and all that is involved in these areas should be considered when establishing your income goal.
Who is effected or involved in your financial life? Some of you have spouses or partners in life, others are single and it will not be necessary to communicate with anyone during this process.  However, if you do have someone that is effected by your income goal, you should at the very minimum explain the process and what is involved in the goal. It is very important that you allow this person to also use your income goal as their fuel for motivation and enthusiasm for your success.
2.  Stretch yourself
      It is extremely important that your income goal be exciting to consider.  It may be an amount that you have never considered to be possible.  It should be a goal that you will have to work hard for.  That you will have to grow and intentionally get better to achieve.  It should give you pride in what you do, your business, your profession.  Scare yourself, stretch yourself, make a statement to yourself, make a forever impact on your financial future.
3.  Take ownership of YOUR income goal
       This is your goal.  This is your income and your financial plan.  You say I just want to get by.  I say look at principles 1 and 2 and if you can't embrace those... never mind.  This is a goal that you never never never give up on.  If life happens and challenges come your way, you adjust and do whatever necessary but you never never never give up on achieving this goal.  The income goal is the fuel that gets you up early and stay late.  It is the motivation to do what others won't!  It is the discipline to hit your numbers.  But you have to take ownership of it first.
Embrace these 3 principles and go to work to establish your income goal.  Set it annually or monthly it doesn't matter.  Once you finish this vital first step then you can move onto step 2.

Expect to win!
--Jim

Life is good ... Live it up!

Secret Formula for Sales Success Part I

When you ask a typical salesperson what there plan is today ... The answer usually is "sell something, duh". Its amazing that they cannot give you a formula or plan to get that done.

Here is the secret formula to sales success:

I / $ PER SALE = # SALES
# SALES X # P/WU PER SALE = # P/WU
# P/WU X #C PER P/WU = #C
#C X #A PER C = #A
#A / WORKING DAYS = #A PER DAY
I / #A = VALUE OF EACH A

It doesn't appear to be simple but I assure you it is very simple.  It allows you to boil your success down to a very simple and basic formula.  It helps you to devise a very simple daily game plan to achieve whatever level of success you desire.
Here is the detailed description of this formula:

Income goal / $$ earned per sale = # of sales needed
# sales needed x # presentations / write ups needed to make 1 sale = # presentations / write ups required to reach income goal
# presentations/ write ups  required x contacts required to make 1 presentation / writeup = # of contacts needed to reach income goal
# of contacts needed x # attempts to contact needed to make a contact = # attempts needed to reach income goal
If your income goal is annual!, monthly or weekly - determine how many working days are that time frame.  Divide the total number of attempts by working days.  Also, take your income goal & divide it by the total number of required attempts. That gives you 1) how many attempts to contact you should make EVERY working day 2) how much each attempt is worth to you.

The first step is to determine your Income Goal. Annual, monthly or weekly it doesn't matter.  What do you need, want and desire?  How much do you want to give or invest? How much are your bills each month?  You do the calculation.  Spend the time and make sure you take ownership of this number and commit to your income goal.  We will then plug it in and get started on your formula.

Expect to Win!

--JW

Never Forget

God Bless Us All!!

I WILL hit my number!

Following up on yesterday's post about decisions ... Salespeople make many each day. The 1st is the most important.  I learned and now teach the sales process that doesn't begin with a greeting but with prospecting. Before making a first impression you have got to go and get a prospect. 

The decision that needs to be made involves determining how many people you need to talk to about your product or service to meet your goals.  The strategy should involve a daily number of contacts needed.  The decision then is moment to moment taking actions that lead to reaching that daily contact number.  You must determine what things you do during the day that help you hit the number and the things you do that keep your from hitting your number.  In sales we deal with rejection every day which we don't like.  The fact about our dislike for rejection leads to inaction in many cases.  That inaction comes from a decision to avoid rejection rather than make a decision to hit our number.  This decision comes about moment to moment throughout every day of every week of the month and year.  The habit of making the right decision to take action to hit your number every day is the catalyst behind success in sales.

Expect to Win!

--JW

Decisions & Consequences

I have felt the immersion of the news about Former Baltimore Raven running back Ray Rice over the last 24 hours.  I had always believed that Rice was an upstanding individual and a guy that young boys can look up to.  However, what he did is disgusting.

 Is there anything for us to take from this other than a renewed sense of disdain for men that hit women?  He may be a good guy but he made a very bad decision to react to whatever was going on to brutally punch his wife.  Now, due to that decision, the consequences are that he has lost his once in a lifetime job and commentators are discussing whether or not he will ever play again.  I make many decisions every day and each one has consequences. Good decisions gain momentum and allow us to easily make more good decisions resulting in favorable consequences.  Developing the habit of continually making good decisions is like working a muscle to strengthen it to lift or run etc.  if you work the muscle you get stronger and faster but if you get out of the habit of strengthening that muscle you slow down and get weak.  You can not ride the fence when making decisions.  You either develop the muscle or habit to make good decisions or you let the muscle get lax and you develop the habit of making bad decisions. 

Life in business is controlled daily by the decisions we make no matter how small or monumental.  Therefore, it is vital to success that we develop the habit of making good decisions.

Expect to win!!

JW