Getting Ready for Selling

If you are involved in field sales, here are some guidelines when preparing your day, your week, your month and your year.

Remember – Its How Hard You Work, How Smart You Work, You Dedicated You are, Combined with your Self Belief that will determine your ultimate success.

When approaching a customer for the first time:

Do research on the customer, on their business, on their competitors business and on the customers they serve – What problem can you solve for them, what value will you bring to their business, why will they want to do business with you and why will they want to meet you again?

If you are researching the company and you cannot find the person you are visiting on any directory, on linkedin, on the company website – do you think you are really meeting a key decision maker. Will they have the authority to make a decision? It is important to meet with the decision maker – if you fail to do this, your destiny will be other peoples hands. Its not easy but equally it is not impossible – That’s where your creativity comes in.

Remember, if you are in sales, your biggest competition can often be apathy – thats right – the customer cannot be bothered to change even though your price is better and your product (in your eyes) is better. If you find that this is the case – take a good look in the mirror – Your customer is selling you on a no and you are taking that to the bank – where you cannot lodge it.

If your competition is apathy, you have not given them a compelling enough reason to switch and this is your responsibility?

How well did you prepare your questions, did you uncover any reason why they should move, did you monetise this reason. You can prepare your questions by doing a very thorough research – no a quick browse on the internet.

Preparing for sales is something that is not taught in school (oh – actually it is – its often a reflection on how well you did your homework)

Maybe you need to revisit this area of your sales profession and get to work on your proper preparation. Your wealth depends on it.

Sales professionals often forget about the lifetime value of a customer. While the initial sale may not amount to a huge value, the ongoing sales will build as the relationship builds and trust is developed. Too many sales people forget this and they only associate the initial sales value to the prospective customer and prepare accordingly – think lifetime value when planning your sales.