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Sales Information
The Importance of Good Sales Leads
An important part of your business plan should be to generate a steady stream of qualified leads. Making sure that leads flow into your "pipeline" will be one of the most vital aspects of your overall business. This will be particularly true if your business is network marketing. You need an abundance of leads constantly flowing in because sales and recruiting is mostly a "numbers game". There are plenty of ways to obtain new leads, depending on your time and resources. Perhaps the most simple method is to buy a list of leads that pertains to your niche. Many firms in fact provide this service, and you can acquire leads pertaining to nearly any topic under the sun, from pets to sports.
Buying Mortgage Leads - Three Things to Consider
The time comes for all mortgage brokers and loan officers to consider spending some of their hard earned money by testing the waters of mortgage leads.
The Never Ending Sale
Once you have added a new customer to your book of business, plan on keeping that customer until you have all of their business, and the business of their family and friends.
Value-added Selling?
"Value-added." That word is used so much it has become a cliché in business circles. There may not be a business in the world that doesn't claim to be a "value-added" seller.
What Not To Do With Your Leads
Anyone that works in sales knows just how important it is to have lead sources to keep your pipeline filled. But it is not only how we obtain the leads that is important, it?s what we do with them once we get them.
Get the Most Out of Your Current Customer
The customers you already have could be your biggest lead source, and you may not even realize it.
Mortgage Leads, Choosing the Best Option
When it comes to buying mortgage leads, there are many good companies out there for you to research, and many avenues to travel down when considering which lead type will work best for you.
People Buy People So Sell On Relationships
(Objection handling tips excerpted from Objections! Objections! Objections!)
What Are Car Boot Sales?
If you live in England then you will already be familiar with car boot sales but I will still offer some valuable tips on how you can make money or find a bargain. However, if you are a resident of any other country then you are unlikely to know what car boot sales are and I hope to enlighten you as to these weekly events.
Needs Based Selling
I am sure you are familiar with the phrase, ?I could sell ice cubes to an Eskimo.? First, allow me to personally congratulate anyone out there who has sold ice cubes to an Eskimo, for I believe this to be quite a difficult task to accomplish.
To Buy or Not to Buy? Motivating Your Customers to Take Action!
All customers have a choice to make. Sometimes that choice is between your product and your competitor?s, but sometimes it?s not. Often, the customer?s choice is simply whether to buy your product or nothing at all. If this is the actual choice your customer faces, it is important to determine this early in the conversation. Doing so will help you to use a tone and message that directly relates to your customer?s emotional reasons for considering your product.
Mindset Over Materials: The Secret Weapon of Sustainable Sales Success
Long-term sales success has less to do with skills or knowledge
than you might think. Nor are stunning brochures or excellent
products guaranteed to make one iota of impact over time. Unless
certain critical elements already exist in the salesperson,
providing training and tools in hopes of improving performance
does nothing more than giving a PGA golfer's best driver to an
amateur. The club itself can't make someone a pro.
Yet a pro can take a cheap driver and make a better shot than an
amateur with the best and biggest Big Bertha has to offer.
Likewise, you probably know one or two standouts who have
excelled without classic sales training, without flashy support
materials for their products, and even without a superior
product to represent.
Then what makes the difference? If it's not remarkable closing
ability, appealing brochures, outstanding product knowledge, or
relentless objection handling... if it's not talent or
brainpower or tools that create sustained success, what is it?
In more than twenty years studying the top performers in many
fields, I've discovered the mysterious X-factor is mindset: a
group of attitudes, understandings, beliefs, and resulting
behaviors. Whether you're talking about golf or sales or any
other pursuit, the same principle applies. Ultimately, the
mindset creates top performance, excellent production numbers,
and prosperity for both the salesperson and the company he or
she represents.
Creating a mindset of sustained success requires you to focus on
three key areas:
The beliefs you have about yourself;
The attitudes you have about your customers, product, and
industry;
The ownership you take of your own success.
The Inner Game of Sales
You have to see yourself as successful in the inner game in
order to be successful in the outer game. When you give that
"command" to the unconscious mind -- when you imagine how
you'll feel, look and sound when you are producing at the level
you desire -- the mind thinks it's already occurred and calls
for an encore performance in the real world.
The first step to changing your own "mental programming" is to
recognize it. Think about it. Think about why you don't do what
you know intellectually you should. Then start thinking about
what's behind it. What do you have to believe about yourself,
your world, your product, your industry, to cause this behavior
to occur?
Some common underlying beliefs that regulate salespeople's
performance are
"I need more training and skills before I can succeed."
"I'm not worthy of earning more than..."
"I am not good at cold calling."
"I'm not able to talk to (or get to) the decision makers at
the top."
Once the underlying belief is uncovered, a new belief must be
chosen. The new belief can be the opposite or an "antidote" to
the old one, such as "I have unlimited life knowledge and
experience." New beliefs must then be "installed."
Specifically, the new belief must be supported by both evidence
and habit.
Start by answering a simple question: What will I have to see,
hear, and feel to cement this belief? Then begin vividly
visualizing these results at least twice a day. (Note: the mind
is most open to suggestion first thing in the morning just after
waking and the last thing at night before sleep.) Many people
think that results build belief, and in some cases this is true,
but it's more often the inverse. Remember the chain:
thought/word-image-emotion-action-result. You must be able to
see yourself already in possession of the outcome of the new
belief.
Champions in any field create an unbending belief in themselves,
program themselves to continually find evidence to support its
truth, then consistently and vividly see themselves in
possession of the desired goal. William James, the father of
modern psychology, said, "Your belief creates the fact."
Now Forget Sales, and Focus on Your
Customers
Once you've visualized yourself achieving your goals and removed
any psychological obstacles, it's time to put those goals aside
and focus on the customer. Again, this all happens in your mind,
but it has a profound impact on the way you affect your outer
world.
Today's customers and clients require a new attitude, one that
offers something rather than asks for something. In a high-tech
society, high touch is highly valuable. The new-school
salesperson focuses on giving instead of getting, on service
instead of sales. Always a man ahead of his time, Henry Ford
captured this mindset eloquently: "Wealth will never be
achieved when sought after directly; it only comes as a
by-product of providing useful service."
This level of service takes some guts. Sometimes you have to
tell people what they don't want to hear. Sometimes, you even
have to say, "Maybe I'm not the best for you... I'd like to
send you to someone who will be." Service means that you're no
longer willing to do whatever it takes for the sale. Now you'll
do whatever it takes for the customer -- because it's the
customer who makes or breaks your business, not an isolated
transaction.
Old Hat, New Head: Take Ownership of Your
Success
Have you heard these ideas before? Are you utilizing them as you
should? If not, why not? Likewise, are there other, obvious
principles of business success you've overlooked?
Sales success grows out of a fundamental mindset, based on some
ideas that may be "old hat" but require a "new head" to fit
you. I operate from the premise that you know what you need to
do, and you have what you need to create a six- or seven-figure
income. Most salespeople have heard all the "magic bullet"
ideas and pitches. But until you begin to think in new ways, you
will never apply these time-tested principles. The distinction
between short-term flashes in the pan and sustained success is
simply doing what may seem obvious to you right now. We might
say, "If the hat fits, wear it."
Aikido and The Art of Cold Calling
Imagine being in a crowded concert or bar. All of a sudden, a
fight breaks out between two men who?ve had too much to drink.
Three Ways to Get More Referrals
When you are in the business of sales, among the many key ingredients to your success is receiving referrals from as many sources as possible.
Picture Yourself a Winner
In the work place, the amount of good things that happen to a person during the day far out number the amount of bad things that happen, so why do we spend so much time stressing over the bad things when we should be smiling about the good things.
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