Sales Gladiator

Top 10 Sales Mistakes

Avoid These Common Blunders

Sales can be a tough game even in the best of times. And with the recent economic downturn, it has been tougher than ever to get your foot in the door with sales prospects.

Every salesperson, regardless of his or her industry, product, or skill level, makes mistakes from time to time. To keep from missing out on profits, avoid these basic sales blunders -- and follow our tips for selling more and creating happier, more satisfied customers.

via www.allbusiness.com

Never stop learning.We retain only about 7% of what we are exposed to in formal educaitonal situations. Review and RepReview is always useful. No salesman is too good to skip a sales class (but planning to minimize critical time away from the field is also an important consideration for those planning sales training).

Seven Steps to Achieving Your Sales Goals | Sales & Marketing > Sales from AllBusiness.com

Chart the Pathway to Sales Success

Keith Rosen, an executive sales coach and author of Time Management for Sales Professionals, believes it is essential for salespeople to begin each year by creating "a personal navigation system." "It encompasses your vision, goals, and routine, providing you with a clear sense of purpose and direction," he says. "Having the end result clarified in your mind and on paper will make the process of reaching bigger goals easier and more enjoyable."

Here we present seven vital strategies for setting and achieving your sales goals.

via www.allbusiness.com

I ran across this article while reseaching a ost for another weblog regarding an entirely different topic. It is not a real big hoopty-doo, but it goos practical advice.
I concur with most of it, with a caveat about number three. I don't necesarily advocate making your sales goals public. Not really. Most sales managers will require you to submit your sales goals, which they will put up on a board and use it to cook your goose and beat you up. Be realistic, not overly optimistic when it comes to these too-be-publicized goals.
It is always better to excede your public projections. So don't blow smoke when it comes to these.
Another reason to not make your REAL goals public is that you do not necessarily want other people, salesmen, managers, owners, to know your business. The reality is that many of these people regard you as competition or, unfortunately, even an expense. They secretly want you to fail.
So keep the private numbers that express your true ambitions to yurself. Of course, accountability does indeed help a person to stay on track. The article expresses that it is easy to break commitments to yourself. I disagree, but i will not make a federal case of this point. I will merely say to share your true goals to those whom you trust explicitly--your wife, father, brother, best friend, golfing partner--away from work--someone who will hold your feet to the fire, but who will not have any reason to use this information against you.

Cold Calling | Cold Calling Is A Waste Of Time

"Over 80% of decision makers absolutely will not buy from a cold call."

-Kenan Flagler Business School
University of North Carolina

Despite this hard truth, most salespeople today continue to waste valuable time and effort cold calling, usually because they don't know what else to do. Cold calling is all they've been taught.

Never cold call again. I'm going to share with you my cutting-edge, information age lead generation strategies that will bring you an endless supply of hot, qualified leads, without ever cold calling again!

via www.nevercoldcall.com

I like some of this guys stuff. Unfortunately, his basic premise is just nor correct--at several levels. I won't beat this topic to death, but number one--it depends on what kind of sales, products, services, or ideas you are selling. Cold-calling works better with some things over others.
Number two--today, most salesmen absolutely do not, will not, cannot, and don't know how to cold-call. In a sense they have been spoiled by being too dependent upon other "easier" means for generating sales leads.
And three--while may possibly be true that somewhere approaching the 80% stat quoted by Kenan Plager Business School of North Carolina--is a good number, I doubt it beause as I cited in point one, there are too many variations in types of sales and products being sold to make such a generalization, I trurly doubt that it IS a good number.
In fact, there are some fields within the field of sales, wherein the only way allowed to contact the principle decision-makers is to make unannounced cold calls. These segments accept the process and it has proven over time that it is the absolute best method to use--if not the ONLY method.
Moreover, good lead-generation must not rely on just one means of reaching potential customers. This is often the part of sales that becomes indistinguishable from marketing. The most successful salespersons whom I have ever known, including myself, have not necessariloy been the best "salesmen". They've been good salesmen, but they have also been creative marketers.
So I will defer to a marketing concept known as "marketing mix". It means that you combine many different methods of getting the word out and preparing potential consumers to receive your salesmen or sales efforts. This concet is equally applicable to the acrtual sales effort itself.
I once had a salesman who decided to short-circuit my proposed sales mix by using only one of the sales/marketing methodws that I required of my sales force. I knew what worked and only wanted to teach what would be the most effective mix of ideas in order to reap the most reward for the total effort.
Upon his dogged insistence, I allowed his to play out his desired lopsided methodology. Unfortunately, he didn't make it in sales. It is a shame because I saw w great deal of potential in him.
With all that said, I acknowledge the merit of using the ideas presented by the methods presnted in the system touted above. The header is largely designed to catch the attention of salesmen in order to ure them in to reading farther. In the minds of some salesmen, the absolutely most terrifying thing that thye can think of is making cold calls.
Done correc5tly, cold calls is an art. I am not even sure that it can be taught entirely, but the skills requried can be greatly honed with explanation and practice.
If you are interested in hwo to make cold calls--so a search within this blog as I have made several posts that treat it fairly in depth. I also answer question posted here.

Hotmail - [email protected] - Windows Live

Hi Papad,

I hope you are having a great day.

In this e-letter, I want you to try something
for yourself and see how powerful it is...

It's one little thing to do differently, that makes all the
difference in the world...

But first, let me tell you about a drunk man whose story is not
unrelated to what I am about to tell you...

I am talking about the drunk who was desperately looking for his
car key under the light in the parking lot, late at night.

A passerby asked what he was looking for. The drunk said:

"I am looking for the key I lost in that dark alley across from the
parking lot".

When the passerby asked why he was looking for it here then, he
replied: "Because there's more light here!"

Sometimes, it's not the effort we put in our search but how we
inquire that makes all the difference...

When faced with obstacles, some people ask others or themselves
questions with a certain theme... for example:

"Why is it that every time I want to..., I run into this problem?"
"Why is it that some people are like this?"
And so on...

You can see the theme here, right?

The theme is always something like this:
"Why is it that ...(something negative)...?"

You see Papad, we are always looking for the
right answer...

We ask a question, and spend a huge amount of time or even a
lifetime looking for the answer...

We hardly doubt the question itself...

We assume there are right and wrong answers, but rarely suspect
that there are right and wrong questions too...

Throughout history, those who accomplished great things were

the ones who asked the right questions...

Asking the right question is by far more important than searching
for the answer...

So, whenever you keep searching for an answer to a question to no avail...
try questioning the question!

Sometimes, if you change the question a little, you can find the answer...

Human brain is very powerful, but the key to unlocking that power
is the "right question"...

No matter how powerful a computer, unless you use the right password,
you cannot access its great power.

Remember from the previous e-letters, how rephrasing a question could
switch negativity to positivity, quickly and easily?

Your subconscious mind knows the answer to many of your problems
if not all...

After all, it has been collecting and storing information all
your life, whether you are conscious about it or not...

But,

To access this huge storage of solutions, you need to use the right
question...

Yes, Ask "The Right Question", and you shall receive "The Answer"...

But HOW can you change your questions to get your answers?

I want you to think about it for a while... before I tell you how, in the next e-letters...

Learning how to rephrase your questions can be one of the greatest things
that can help you change your life.

via co106w.col106.mail.live.com

This is worthwhile. It is an enewsletter for promoting self-help material. But It usually has some useful mojive of itself. Take aread.