Written by Jerry Dean S on 28 September 2011
If you are really interested in getting into sales, your first product needs to be you.
Guess what, you may not be the best product on the market, but if you want the job you will have to make yourself look good.
Here are 9 things to do.
- Do a SWOT analysis of your self, what are your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity and Threats.
- Do some home work on your customer (potential employer) what do you have that fits with there need, what is the company Mission and Vision and how might you support this. Quoting the company line durring and interview may be cheesy but you should know it and be able to articulate things about your product (you) that can support this company line. Mentioning it once lets them know you have done your home work, just don’t dwell on the tag line, it can be a little silly if you bring it up too often.
- Be prepared to spend lots off time following up with your customer, you want your product to be on top of the stack of resumes most of the time.
- Make sure you cover one of the most important parts off a sale, a trial close, this is something like “do you see anything about me that concerns you” or “do you have any concerns about my ability to do this job”.
- Ask for the job, you would be amazed how often this is missed, if you are going to be in sales you have to ask for the sale.
- Find out what the next steps will be and ask for permission to follow up with the customer.
- If you fail at the first opportunity or first 10 opportunity’s, and can’t get up and go at it again, sales may not be your thing. Sales reps get told no way more often than they get told yes. As an out sider trying to get in to sales you should expect it to take awhile to find some one willing to take a chance.
- Improve your product, this is something that most sales people can’t do, they have to sell what they have. When you are selling your self, you are also the development engineer, start reading, there is a ton of info on sales and sales process out there.
- The old story about how you get to Carnegie Hall is to “Practice”, “Practice”, “Practice”, the same applies in sales, get out there and practice your sales pitch for your product, “You”.
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Written by Jerry Dean S on 15 August 2011
We have all seen the co-workers that seem to be the real power brokers at work, these are the folks that make the decisions, talk to the CEO or some how always end up in the right place at the right time, don’t you just hate them?
Instead of hating them, start taking a look at what they do and why they are the power brokers, I bet you have had opportunity’s to become a power broker in the past and just did not recognize it.
Power Brokers, never miss the opportunity to step up and Take The Power, recently while solving a pay issue with one of my folks I gained some visibility within the organization and was asked to make a recommendation on next years pay plan. I could ask what my boss wanted this to look like. then move forward with a safe plan that matched his idea’s.
Or I could look at this as an opportunity to design the pay plan that I think makes sense, that will drive my sales staff to do the things that will make them and me look good next year. I have cart blanch to make a recommendation then go sell it.
The Door Is Open
What do you think I am going to do, step through and look around, or charge through with a guns blazing?
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Written by Jerry Dean S on 08 May 2011
Most of us would agree that negative people are toxic and will drag you down, so is Positivity also contagious?
The real question might be what does it matter to me? There are a million self help books and gurus out there that will talk about how you draw what you are to yourself, what you put out into the universe is reflected back at you. You can read all of the books in the world but most of us just have to experience this for our selves for it to really take hold.
My Story
About 3 months ago I went in for an MRI on my back, this was the second time I had done it, the first was about a year and a half ago. This time I was ready to go under the knife and fix this ruptured disk once and for all. It seemed no matter what I did it would not get back to 100% I could live with it, but it was holding me back.
After the MRI I meet with PA, this should have tipped me off right away, the Dr. was not even going to waste any more time on me. She told me that the ruptured disk had regressed to the point that it was no longer surgical, “great” you say, not so much. This basically said “Suck It Up and Live With It” not the answer I was looking for, I wanted a 100% fix, not a band aid.
So after a few weeks letting the sting of this prognosis sink in, I decided to start believing that I had no pain. Not easy as it was still nagging me, not usually a 10 but often a 2 or 3 on the pain index.
I changed my attitude, no longer even telling people that it was “pretty good” or “tolerable”, I just said it was “great” or “doing much better”. So what have I concluded 3 months later, damned if it isn’t getting better, in fact the more I say it the better it gets, having a positive attitude really does make a difference. This should not surprise us, think about the little extra bounce you have in your step after hearing “Welcome to Wal-Mart” from the cheerful senior at the door.
We can not always decide what life is going to send our way but we can control our attitude about it, and I am confident that what your attitude is will make all the difference in the world about what people think of you and how far you will go in life.
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Written by Jerry Dean S on 14 April 2011
Many people will tell you that you have to earn the respect of your peers and those that you work for, I disagree, I think you have to take the respect. Yes, your actions have to warrant the respect of others but if you do not step up and take the respect that is presented, you will never have it.
Many of us have watched the 20 something anointed one move quickly through the ranks of the corporate world, wondering all the time what they have that is making it happen for them. A big part of it is that they step up and take the respect, often times before it is presented. This took me a long time to recognize, we often do things that others see as good work or a great job, that is the time to step up on that pedestal and accept the praise, the trick is to recognizing that it was there. If you wait for the official awards ceremony you will miss 99% of these opportunities, and continue to watch that other person move through the ranks. This is the big difference between those shooting stars and everyone else.
When I worked as the equipment repair manager at a local hospital I had the authority to sign a purchase order for up to $5,000 just like all of the other managers. Over time I began to push this limit, a repair might cost $6,500 dollar, I could go and ask permission, that I knew I would get, or I could just sign the PO and apologize later if I was called on it. Over time I pushed this limit again and again until I was signing PO’s for over $85,000, no one ever asked me about it and so I was seen as having that authority.
This transfers to most aspects of life, when you earn the respect of others the praise may be barely perceivable but if you wait for the red carpet you will have missed the opportunity to step up.
People that move through the ranks in an organization quickly, are usually pushing the limits. Start looking for the opportunities to push outside of the box and then accept the respect that is given to you and learn to “Take The Power”, if you wait for it you will always be left behind.
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Written by Jerry Dean S on 08 October 2010
Sales is really all about making the call, that’s right the dreaded Cold Call, not once not twice but over and over and over and over again. Sales is a numbers game sure you have to be able to close the deal but more important you have to be able to find the opportunity’s and the only way to do that is using the Cold Call.
Sales people that find many ups and downs in their month to month business are not consistent about making cold calls. If you focus on the current deals and all of the daily needs of your existing customers you will not have any opportunity’s in your funnel for the future.
This does not have to be a painful process, you should do it so often that it is second nature. A cold call does not have to be to complete strangers, it can be calling everyone that you know and checking in. This means calling people that have said no 10 times in the past and just seeing if they might be willing to sit down and have a meeting with you.
I spoke to one of my top sales reps a few years ago and asked “how many cold calls do you make a week”, what do you think the answer was, 5, 20, 50? You guessed it 50 and that is in a mature territory, when it was brand new she was making 200 per week.
Yesterday one of my newer sales reps gave me a call after re-reading a book I had sent last year, “Red Hot Cold Call Selling”. She had picked up the phone and started calling customers from competitive accounts. One of the folks she finally got a hold of had said she was not interested many times in the past, but today she had a need and we had a product that could fill the need, so a meeting has now been set. This takes time and numbers, you should expect to call 10 customers to get one appointment and you may have to go to 10 appointments to get one sale.
To be successful at sales you have to master the Cold Call and you have to put it on your to do list every week. Don’t wast time thinking about the best time to call a customer, just do it.
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