by Bill Poole | Apr 16, 2019 | Sales
Consistent prospecting is essential for sales success. Without a steady stream of prospects, the funnel dries up. Then you end up taking desperation deals and flipping your base.
Effective prospecting requires a positive attitude. The challenge is that if there is one thing that can chip away at your attitude, it’s the rejection you get while prospecting. As a sales professional, you need a proactive plan to keep a positive attitude.
In today’s negative world, a positive attitude stands out. A positive attitude is contagious.
Don Hutson offers inspiration on the importance of a positive attitude in the first chapter of Selling Value:
“High performers are motivated and ready to make great things happen! If they get some motivation from their boss or significant other, or another source, that’s fine, but they understand that their PRIMARY source of motivation comes from within.”
Our responsibility as sales professionals, sales leaders, and business owners (all of us are in sales) is to maintain a positive attitude.
How can you cultivate a positive attitude to fuel your prospecting? Here are a few ideas! (more…)
by Bill Poole | Apr 2, 2019 | Sales
Imagine if you had 100 people lined up outside your business right now. What would you do? Certainly, you’d send someone out to greet them. You’d ask how you could help. You’d get the prospects involved in sales situations. You’d do your best to answer customer questions and send them to support if necessary.
100 people lining up outside your business sound like a dream? What if it happened every day? (more…)
by Bill Poole | Mar 26, 2019 | Sales
“People will accept the advice of insight sellers only to the extent that they trust them.” – Mike Schultz & John Doerr, Insight Selling
Trust is a critical component to sales success. In their buyer research, the authors of Insight Selling learned what we know instinctively: trust is one of the top 10 factors separating first place from first loser in the sales process. Lack of trust pretty much guarantees you’ll lose a deal. Low trust hurts client loyalty.
Companies and sales reps need trust. This means you need to be trustworthy. It also means you need to look trustworthy. Today, I want to assume you are a trustworthy salesperson working for a trustworthy company. Let’s turn our focus on the importance of looking trustworthy. (more…)
by Bill Poole | Mar 19, 2019 | Sales
Stephen Covey says that highly effective people put the “big rocks in first” because if you don’t do the important things first, they get crowded out by the smaller things.
The biggest rock for any sales professional is prospecting. It’s the #1 driver of success and the #1 thing that gets pushed to the bottom of the priority pile. Jeb Blount, the author of Fanatical Prospecting, famously said, “The #1 reason for an empty pipe is the failure to prospect!”
What’s The Annual Financial Impact?
What’s the annual impact of inconsistent prospecting? I think this is a worthy question for every sales professional, sales team leader, and company owner to consider.
To calculate the impact, let’s begin with some assumptions. (more…)
by Bill Poole | Mar 12, 2019 | Sales
Today is the 30th anniversary of the world wide web! Nothing has changed the sales profession more than this technology. As I reflect back over my 26 years in sales, allow me to offer some observations on how the internet has changed sales for good.
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by Bill Poole | Mar 5, 2019 | Sales
“Although discipline demands control and asceticism, it actually results in freedom.”
– Jocko Willink
Jocko provides helpful insight for sales professionals and leaders in the final chapter of Extreme Ownership : Discipline Equals Freedom.
If you want the freedom of excellent outcomes, you need discipline. In sales, this means that if you want financial freedom, you need to establish discipline.
The extent to which you embrace discipline will determine your level of financial freedom – avoid discipline and you’ll cause frustration.
Let’s explore some ways that sales professionals and teams can integrate discipline to improve their freedom. (more…)
