Volume 5, 2008

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Featured Topic: See the Sale

Inside This Issue

Visualize the Sale

Most companies have a sales process. Most initial steps include product and service knowledge, market research, and understanding the customer. After you do this homework, the next logical and essential step is to visualize the sale. Most sales people are familiar with the concept of begin with the end in mind that Stephen Covey discusses. Let’s begin here.

This step of visualizing is a process in itself. At TLC we teach our clients our 3-step visualization process. It is clear, simple, and most importantly, successful. Use this process during those times when your left hemisphere is shut down, such as the first or last thirty minutes of your day, while exercising, or when you are relaxed.

The first step in visualizing is to affirm the result you want in the end. Rules of affirming include using the first person (I), using present tense (make, not will make), and using only positive words. Examples of affirmations are:

I make the sale.

I close this deal.

I am successful in selling my product to ABC Company this month.

The second step in visualizing is to spend 15-20 minutes with your eyes closed and involving all of your senses. See the customer signing the contract. Feel her shaking your hand. Hear him saying how he is looking forward to doing business with you. Smell the coffee that is offered to you. Taste your favorite drink of celebration when you return home.

The third and final step is to attach a positive emotion while you are visualizing. Positive emotions include joy, satisfaction, relief, pride, confidence and others. You have felt these emotions in the past. While you are still visualizing, remember a time in the past when you experienced a positive emotion and that thought will automatically attach to your visualization.

What actually happens is your right hemisphere will believe that you have accomplished your goal. This builds your confidence. Think about it. If you do this every day, then your brain thinks you have made a successful sale daily! The practice also affords you to visualize in different situations. For instance, you can visualize handling different objections or answering a variety of difficult questions.

See the sale and it becomes your reality.

What Our Clients Are Saying

Out of all the training classes, the TLC class was the only training class that I still use today, and I also use it in everyday life. It has helped me communicate more efficiently with others. I have received a better response from people because now I understand why they respond the way they do since taking TLC training. You have been great, and I would not have enjoyed the class nearly as much if you had not been my teacher. Thank you for all of your help, and I know your training has made me a better person.

Paige Stout, Change Management, Atlanta, GA

Adapt to the Decision Maker

Know who the decision makers are. Ask the question rather than assume. If you have an internal coach within the customer’s company, find out how this person and/or group of people make decisions.

Extroverts make faster decisions than introverts. Be prepared to listen first and be ready to give only the information that they need. No need to go into detail with the extroverts unless they ask for it.

Introverts also want you to listen to them first followed by details, preferably in writing. Plan on several follow-up meetings. Leave them information and make sure you fulfill all promises.

Extroverts and introverts who are focused on people will tend to make decisions based somewhat on the relationship established. Don’t just hit the facts. Discuss the impact upon the people. Tell success stories of other customers.

Extroverts and introverts who are focused on facts will tend to make decisions based on the value of the data that you supply. Do your homework and be prepared with statistics and results-oriented data. No need to be a story teller here.

By adapting your selling style to the decision maker/s, you will connect to their process. That connection can seal the deal.

Excel the Sale

Vincent Ivan Phipps

In my youth, if I wanted something badly, I’d ask “pretty please?” I don’t recall what made my please pretty! If I really wanted it, I’d put a cherry on top! This may sound silly but I thought I was placing something of value on top of my adolescent begging.

As I mature, I understand that how we say things becomes more important. In sales, saying the right things, then offering some extra incentive (putting a cherry on top) can make things even sweeter!

When a client bought 50 of our books, I offered to drive 50 miles to hand deliver them. This prevented the client from having to wait two days or pay shipping costs. I had an opportunity to meet the people I would train. As a result of my face-to-face interaction, I was able to meet 10 new people and I scheduled another class.

A client bought a two-hour individual session that was to begin at 10 a.m. They arrived around 10:40 a.m. When we began, I told them I could take a later lunch and I’d stay until 12:40 p.m. They were so grateful that they took me to lunch. While eating, he recommended I work with three other members of his team!

In each occurrence, I put a cherry on top of what I was supposed to do. With sales, go beyond what’s expected. The more you can show your clients that you will be there for them, the more they will reciprocate by going beyond for you.

Go beyond what’s expected and what’s requested to excel the sale!

Dear TLC,

I’ve heard a lot about offices promoting inter-office contests to boost sales. I understand these are efforts to increase revenue and to help office morale. My concern is that I am a competitive person. Other members of my team are not. In fact, the notion of having our team compete against each other will scare some into complacency. I want more sales and our department needs them. Can I boost sales and morale without having my team compete against each other?

Driven with Caution

Dear Driven,

People are more concerned with losing than competing. To boost sales and morale, give each person an individual sales goal. For example, the person who has three kids may be unable to attend as many after-hours events as the single person. At these events a lot of contacts can be made to ultimately result in more sales. Give everyone a goal of improving 25% compared to their previous year. Let them know that rewards will be given to anyone surpassing their own goals. This way, everyone could accomplish his goals and everyone (especially your department) will win!

Batten Down the Hatches to Improve Your Sales!

Want to increase sales? Batten down the hatches gives you a good start. So how do hatches and battening them down improve sales?

We’ve battened down the hatches here at TLC to find out. Batten down the hatches is used today to represent any action taken that prepares for an emergency or important event. The expression is a nautical term first used around the early 1800’s. It explains a safety procedure for ships during rough waters. A batten was a small but thick piece of wood. A hatch was an opening or a door on the ship. The hatches had heavy doors that could fly open and cause serious injuries.

To batten down the hatches literally meant to stick in a piece of wood or batten to lock the hatch or door in place. If bad weather was imminent, the order was given to batten down the hatches to make the journey through the dangerous waters safer.

Improve your sales by battening down the hatches and plan now for the rough waters ahead by:

Looking for current market trends.

Aligning what you offer with current needs.

Updating your approaches by using new or appropriate technology.

Happy Birthday!

TLC wishes a very Happy May Birthday to the following clients:

The End Is the Beginning

The completion of the sale is the beginning of the next sale. Yes, your company must deliver what was promised. Do not rely on your manufacturing, logistic, or service department to meet this need alone. Continue to nurture the customer.

Staying in regular contact is essential to repeat sales. Rather than waiting until a new order is needed, strategic selling (which is reselling to the same customer) is a journey, not a destination. You are never there; you are getting there.

Survey their satisfaction along the way. Be a personal contact for them. In our world of automation, people are craving personal contact. If they know you care and are taking the time to partner with them, the next sale will be much easier.

Businesses do not do business with other businesses. People do business with other people. Be the type of person who is valued as an external team member. Stay in touch and touch the gold.

Featured Service: S.O.S.

Therese Padgett

S.O.S. - Success Over Sales

“S.O.S – Success Over Sales” is one of the most exciting services that TLC offers because it combines the best of everything we teach! Before I tell you more about this month’s featured service, please allow me to diverge into the world of semantics, one of my favorite studies.

“Success” is the accomplishment of something desired, planned or attempted. It is the after effect of effort and it implies an adversary, in this case, “sales.” The word, “over,” is an adverb, adding to the adversarial sound of the phrase, while at the same time emphasizing the superiority of the subject. We could substitute any number of words for “sales” (i.e. fear, alcoholism, etc.) without altering the importance of the accomplishment and its preceding efforts.

TLC believes that to be successful one must draw upon and cultivate a number of tools. In our training program, “Success Over Sales,” we help you put together a toolbox full of strategies that will serve you well, no matter what you want to succeed over. In this course, we keep the focus on sales. We start with the assumption that you desire to be a good salesperson and we teach you to see yourself as that successful person. We show you how to get to know yourself better and how to build upon the strengths you already possess. We show you how to identify the needs of your customer (read body language and communication styles) and what you can do to improve the ways in which you communicate with him or her. In your toolbox, you will find your voice and all its variations and appropriate uses. And, yes! There will be questions: questions to keep the conversation moving toward the sale, questions to bring the customer back on track, and even the ultimate questions that close the sale and guarantee your customer will stay happy with you, returning for more purchases and sending referrals your way.

Success requires effort and effort implies resistance. If you or your sales’ team are ready to break through the barriers of resistance and to succeed over sales, contact TLC today to arrange for this exciting training, “S.O.S. – Success Over Sales.” Call 423-622-8255 or 1-888-BECAUSE.

CEO Corner, Chief Executive’s Opinion

Beverly Inman-Ebel

Say “No” to Some Sales

As a small business owner, I realize the importance of making sales. It is the life-blood of not only success, but survival. In our pursuit of sales, there are times to walk away.

If a potential sale seems too good to be true, it just may be. This spring TLC had a potential customer that initially raised my inner warning buttons. Something just wasn’t right. The deal got closed in my absence during one of my business trips and unfortunately, my first instinct was indeed correct. We lost money, time, and it was an emotional drain on staff.

Those inner messages that we get are not hocus-pocus. Rather, they are a collection of memories, experiences, and lessons that link a new situation to a previous one. I have found that I need to stop and listen to my inner signals rather than to be solely focused on getting more sales.

A common error that many make is to sell a large order that requires extensive resources to fill, only to have the customer not re-order or request that a lower price be paid on new orders when you are in debt for the resources invested. This happens to all sizes of companies.

The sale that you see has to fit. It is fine to stretch, just don’t let it break you. It can be tough to be everything to everyone. Focus on your target market and build your brand within that market.

I agree that it is important to see the sale. It is important because it builds confidence. Most of us could use an extra dose of belief in ourselves when we are negotiating the sale. I have also learned from experience that the sale must sail. If it doesn’t feel right or the numbers just don’t crunch the way you want them to, walk away. The good news is that there are always new “sails” on the horizon. And some of them are truly good fits for you and your company. When you close on one of them, you live your dreams!

TLC establishes long-term relationships with our clients. If we have helped you or if you believe our approach to change would work for someone you know, please request a proposal or phone 1-888-232-2873. We work with individuals and groups on the following subject areas: attitude, listening, body language, voice, leadership, compliments and corrections, behavioral style, teamwork, effective meetings, public speaking, accent reduction and much more!.

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