Entries from August 2007 ↓

Do you work hard?

It’s a simple question but one that can be deceiving.

But before you read further close your eyes and ask yourself that question: Do I work hard?

Got your answer? Good.

Well let me ask you one more question; are you making the kind of sales you deserve for the level of work that you do?

I’m asking these questions to point out a very common misperception; and that is if you work hard you will get lots of sales and all the “moolah” you deserve.

However, nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact…

Hard Work Means Nothing!

And this is absolutely the truth in sales and business. Hard to believe but let me explain it with a story.

Imagine you are on a small boat out on the ocean and it’s starting to sink. The boat is filling up with water at a fairly fast rate. On this boat you happen to have two friends.

Both of these friends don’t want to sink anymore than you do so they get to work to keep the small boat afloat.

Your first friend grabs his coffee cup and frantically starts scooping water out of the boat. He is working very hard to save your vessel and you can see he is putting a lot of effort and strain into his plan.

Your second friend sees this and just rolls his eyes. He knows that they’ll never be able to scoop out enough water fast enough to stay afloat. So he sits down and thinks about what to do.

Meanwhile your first friend is still at it with his coffee cup throwing the water over the side of the boat. Just as he is about to pass out from exhaustion he looks at your second friend and is shocked at his apparent “laziness.”

After a couple minutes friend number two stands up, grabs a pack of gum and starts chewing. He chews for a couple minutes until he has a big wad of sticky gum. He then reaches under the water and wedges the gum into the hole where all the water is spewing into the boat.

The leak is stopped, the boat stops sinking and you are all saved!

Now ask yourself; which friend was more VALUALBE to you in that situation?

Was it the hard worker friend, or the friend that got RESULTS and saved your hide from drowning?

In sales we don’t get paid for activity. We get paid for making sales.

The friend with the coffee cup could be seen as your average cold caller. Making cold call after cold call franticly trying to make a sale and seeing no progress. I’ve been there my friend and let me tell you it’s not easy work!

The second friend doesn’t work very hard (at least he doesn’t seem to) but he is far more valuable than the first. He doesn’t just do mindless activity hoping something will work out. He has a plan.

Do you have a plan?

If you are working harder than you’d like and you’re not making the sales you know you could be, then it’s time to start doing something different, anything different!

It’s Time to Sharpen Your Saw

Stephen Covey uses this analogy that makes very important point: “Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree.

‘What are you doing?’ you ask.
‘Can’t you see?’ comes the impatient reply. ‘I’m sawing down this tree.’
‘You look exhausted!’ you exclaim.
‘How long have you been at it?’
‘Over five hours,’ he returns, ‘and I’m beat! This is hard work.’
‘Well, why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw?’ you inquire. ‘I’m sure it would go a lot faster.’
‘I don’t have time to sharpen the saw,’ the man says emphatically. ‘I’m too busy sawing!’

So my one tip for you is to take a time out from your sales activity and sharpen your saw.

This could be anything from improving your selling skills, reading a book on sales, taking a class, talking to successful people in your industry, formulating a system to improve your sales, etc.

You need to improve your skills and change how you do things instead of just doing the same thing over and over again getting nothing but the same mediocre results.

So get to it, sharpen your saw!

Until next time friends…
Tyler
http://www.coldcallcrusher.com/thesystem.html

P.S. If you want a plan that has already been thought out for you in a step-by-step system then go to http://www.coldcallcrusher.com/thesystem.html right now. You can get the Cold Call Crusher system right now for free for 30 days! No more cold calling and lots more sales: http://www.coldcallcrusher.com/thesystem.html

A couple years into my sales career I realized something VERY profound that I want to share with you.

This one secret is responsible for making me (and hundreds of other salespeople) a lot of sales and I want it to start working for you too.

So here it is: The best salespeople aren’t perceived as salespeople. The best salespeople are seen as ADVISORS and EXPERTS in their field.

So before we talk about how to do this, let’s talk about why this is so.

Most people are not too keen to talking to salespeople for many reasons. And who can blame them right? There are so many ANNOYING salespeople!

How many times have you gone to a store and when the salesperson asked you if you needed help you just said “No thanks, I’m just looking.”? Even if you knew full well you had questions and were there to buy something.

I know I have!

The biggest reason why this is, is because nobody likes to be sold.

However we do all like to BUY.

So ask yourself: Are you selling to your prospects…or are you letting them buy from you?

If you’re letting them buy from you then you know how fun and rewarding a job in “sales” can be. But if you’re one of the many who try to SELL to your prospects you have probably felt how hard and discouraging a sales career can be.

I’ve been in both situations and let me tell you, letting people buy from you versus selling something to them is the better situation to be in.

So how do you avoid being seen as a salesperson?

Well the easiest way to do this is to make them come to you. And you know what that means: NO COLD CALLING!

When someone calls you randomly or shows up at your door trying to sell you something you will not see them as an expert or advisor. You see them as just another salesperson peddling their products.

Pretty harsh eh?

So the first step is to make them come to you. And once you learn how to do that you will see your sales increase substantially.

The next step once you have them coming to you is providing VALUE to them.

Do you provide value to your prospects? Can you give them information that they need to improve their lives?

If you have a viable product or service (and I don’t care what it is) you have the ability to provide valuable information that people desperately want.

All you have to do is give it to them!

Once you get qualified prospects coming to you and you provide valuable information that puts you in the role of an advisor, you won’t be selling anymore because you won’t need to. People will just start buying from you.

It’s a pretty nice situation to be in if I do say so myself.

So remember, stop selling and start letting people buy!

Talk to you later.
Tyler
http://www.coldcallcrusher.com/thesystem.html

P.S. If you don’t have the Cold Call Crusher training course yet and you want a PROVEN SYSTEM for making qualified prospects come to you, begging to buy your product or service, click here: http://www.coldcallcrusher.com/thesystem.html to get it for free for 30 days.

You also get a 120 day 100% guarantee so there’s absolutely no risk to you.

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Let me ask you two very important questions…

1. DO YOU SELL ON PRICE?

I’m not asking if you THINK you do or not, I’m asking if you actually sell with your product’s or service’s benefits, or if you sell with it’s price.

2. ARE YOU SCARED TO BRING UP PRICE?

Have you been trained NOT to bring up price until your customer does? Are you nervous and timid when it’s time to talk about the “moolah” side of things?

If you’ve been in sales for very long I bet you’ve received some sort of training on how to deal with price and how you present it to your customers.

And let me tell you that training was probably based on bad principles.

BUT HANG ON A MINUTE

Think about this: Why as salespeople are we constantly being taught how to handle price with our customers?

Well the most obvious answer to most of us is because most of our\ customers don’t want to give away their hard earned money and would rather pay less, no matter what the price.

But let me tell you, it’s not true.

If you sell to them correctly your customers will gladly pay you whatever you ask and will often opt for the premium service.

How is this so?

Before we talk about that think about this: Why do your customers think they have the ability to talk down your price and negotiate? And why as salespeople are we always so scared to bring up price?

SELL ON PRICE AND YOU’VE ALREADY LOST

Remember in the last email I sent you where I talked about POWER in selling?

Well when it comes to how you deal with price, power has a lot to do with it.

If you’ve cold called your prospect and have been chasing them ever since, then you my friend have NO POWER!

No wonder most salespeople are so concerned about price. They have such a weak foundation because they started out the sales cycle in a place of complete neediness.

MAKE THEM COME TO YOU

I remember when I was selling door-to-door. I would go out all day and knock on so many doors that my knuckles literally hurt.

And when I was knocking I had a very difficult time making sales. In fact some days I would come home with NOTHING after knocking on a hundred doors and walking mile after mile.

It was horrible!

And price was a very big sticking point for me.

I had THE most expensive service among my competitors and I remember EVERYONE trying to haggle me on price and many people would end the conversation when they found out how much my service was.

I was getting nowhere…and fast.

But every once in awhile I would get a call from my company asking me to call a prospect who had called into the office wanting more information.

I loved these calls!

They were like freebies.

When prospects would call into the office wanting information and I would call them back, I was now the person in control.

I was no longer a salesperson. I was an expert HELPING them.

It was great because before I called them I knew that they NEEDED my service and they WANTED to deal with me.

I had the power.

I would consistently close over 90% of those prospects over the phone on the very first call.

I didn’t have to find them, I didn’t have to go meet with them and TRY to sell them, and I definitely didn’t have to chase them.

Nothing beats that.

NOW BACK TO PRICE

So ask yourself: Is price a concern of yours because you have no power in the relationship?

It probably is if you think about it.

It’s time to stop worrying about price and start selling!

If you don’t have your customers and clients COMING TO YOU, you are really shooting yourself in the foot.

When you put the principle of power in your selling you will see results immediately.

For example, I sell VERY expensive and VERY specialized legal services and will close almost 80% of the people I talk to. And I’m talking three thousand to fifteen thousand dollar
services.

How do I do it? Easy, I make people come to me and I have the power in the relationship.

It has NOTHING to do with me.

Let me repeat that. It has NOTHING to do with me or my selling skills.

To be honest I don’t even consider myself a very good salesperson compared to some of my other past coworkers.

I just learned how to use power in my selling.

So if you’re not seeing the results that you want then please don’t worry. Don’t give up on selling!

You just need to start gaining more power and work a system to bring people to you.

It’s easy once you learn how.

Now get out there and start selling!
Tyler

http://www.coldcallcrusher.com/thesystem.html

P.S. If you want the system that I use to attract people to me and to sell with power, then go immediately to http://www.coldcallcrusher.com/thesystem.html and get it for free for 30 days! You only pay shipping and you get to try out the training
course absolutely free for 30 days. Check it out:
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