Lessons in Selling – The Land Of The Salesman
America was discovered by a salesman. Columbus was looking for India, missed it by 12,000 miles and still went home reporting he had “found it,” so he obviously wasn’t a navigator. But was he really a salesman? Consider this: He had only one prospect to call on, and if he had missed the sale, he […]
4 Bad Communication Habits to Avoid
Our communication skills are the single biggest factor in defining us as professionals. They project our intellect, judgement, commitment and respect, all of which define our overall “professionalism.” Read the common communication faux paus below, and consider whether any could be undermining your effectiveness: Listening without intent. Whether in person or on the phone, the […]
4 Tips to Make the Most of Your Failures
Read the biography of any business icon and you will find that failure played a defining role in his/her ultimate success. Were these individuals successful in spite of their failures or because of them? Or maybe it’s their response to failure that establishes them as leaders and separates them from the pack. “Failure,” in the […]
Are You Composing Effective Emails?
For many of us, email has become our primary mode of communication with internal team members and customers alike. That being the case, we need to be sure we are composing emails for maximum impact and benefit, and also with a degree of quality that boosts our professional image. In his recent HBR blog, Write […]
What Do Football & Sales Have in Common?
Technically, sales isn’t a sport; it’s a complex and rewarding profession. But since customer contact is in many ways the life blood of sales, we should periodically reflect on the quality of our own customer contact efforts and whether we are optimizing them to achieve the best possible results. Consider your customer contact habits in […]
What Makes for a Bright Future?
I have seen the future of sales and it is very BRIGHT! For one week this spring, the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Houston became the center of the sales universe for over six hundred collegiate Pi Sigma Epsilon (PSE) members, as they held their annual national convention and Pro-Am Sell-A-Thon® competition. PSE is the only […]
What is a Dimensional Question? Here are Examples…
In Dimensions of Professional Selling (DPS) sales training, we identify five types of questions in the Exploratory process – Overview, Focusing, Realization, Closing and Dimensional – each with a specific purpose. Dimensional questions allow us to engage our customers who are “fully satisfied” and open our customers’ minds to the possibility of improvement beyond what […]
Tips to Gain Support for Your New Ideas
Why is getting support for new ideas such a challenge? By nature, human beings are not fond of change; we are suspect of new things about which we know nothing and new initiatives in which we had no input. The following tips serve as guidance to help us understand these basic human characteristics, minimize their […]
5 Tips to Create Your Own Luck
In his recent HBR blog, Why the Best Salespeople Get So Lucky, author Joel Le Bon asserts that there are tangible benefits to sales professionals believing in the role of “luck” in their sales success. Even more valuable than a belief in the power of luck are the specific behaviors he identifies for creating one’s […]
Is Insight Enough to Win the Sale?
Recently there has been a great deal of attention placed on the importance of offering new insights to customers to win their business. Insight is a critical element of sales, but only as one piece of a holistic sales process. Insight alone is nothing more than data, and it certainly isn’t enough to win new […]