Category: Sales Tips

Spectacular Summer Sale!

by mike

Summer kind of slow?

Top pros are using this time to sharpen their sales skills so they can make a killing in the fourth quarter.

They’re using the summer to learn better ways of responding to the objections that hurt them in the first part of the year.

Why not invest a little money and time so YOU can finish the year strong, too?

For a proven way to make more money, with less rejection, and a way to become more confident and make more sales, take advantage of our Summer Sale!

Save 20% on our already discounted, Bestselling CD Series: “How to Double Your Income Selling Over the Phone.” 

Only $79 with Free Shipping (domestic only for physical CDs) This Week Only! (July 20th to July 26th, midnight)

Click Here to read about the program

Click this special link to make a purchase

This powerful CD (or MP3 Download) will instantly improve your ability to:

• Get past gatekeepers

• Connect with decision makers easier

• Qualify prospects better and learn their buying motives

• Give better demos and presentations

• Overcoming objections easier

You do want to do that, don’t you?

Click this special link to purchase!

Need More Proven Responses to the Selling Situations You Face Every Day?

ON DEMAND SALES TRAINING THAT GETS RESULTS!

If your team is struggling with call reluctance and is tired of the endless rejection they face, then get instant access to our On Demand training today. We provide the exact talk tracks, templates, and proven tools your team will be motivated to apply, all structured around an award winning comprehensive inside sales approach that gives your team the confidence to succeed in every selling situation they face today.

Unlimited License: One to 100 reps can attend for one low price!

Perfect for reps dealing with the following issues:

  • Reps struggling with call reluctance
  • Getting screened out by the gatekeeper
  • Overcoming blow off objections like, “Just email me something”
  • Identifying decision makers
  • Qualifying prospects
  • Setting call back appointments that stick
  • Giving successful presentations and dealing with objections
  • Staying motivated
Get Access Today

One Question to Determine Buyers

by mike

How would you like to have just one question that will almost always positively identify a buyer?

Believe it or not, there is such a question, and it’s an easy question, but very few sales reps have ever thought to ask it.

Or, if they do know what that question is, they are afraid to ask it.

Why? Because it also identifies who is not a buyer—and they don’t want to hear no….

Okay: here’s the question:

“When are you looking to make this decision?”

OR

“When are you looking to get (your product or service)?”

Yep! That’s it.

Buyers know when they are going to move, while shoppers don’t. Shoppers don’t have a timeline, and without a timeline, there is zero urgency.

Which means: you aren’t closing that deal anytime soon.

Regardless of your industry, you can ask this question and identify a buyer.

In fact, spend some time right now to work this, “And when are you looking to make this decision?” OR “And when are you looking to move on this?” into your list of qualifying questions.

And, by the way, this is also a great question to open a close with!

Try it this week and watch your number of sales go up—while the time you spend with unqualified, non-qualified buyers, go down!

Need More Proven Responses to the Selling Situations You Face Every Day?

ON DEMAND SALES TRAINING THAT GETS RESULTS!

If your team is struggling with call reluctance and is tired of the endless rejection they face, then get instant access to our On Demand training today. We provide the exact talk tracks, templates, and proven tools your team will be motivated to apply, all structured around an award winning comprehensive inside sales approach that gives your team the confidence to succeed in every selling situation they face today.

Unlimited License: One to 100 reps can attend for one low price!

Perfect for reps dealing with the following issues:

  • Reps struggling with call reluctance
  • Getting screened out by the gatekeeper
  • Overcoming blow off objections like, “Just email me something”
  • Identifying decision makers
  • Qualifying prospects
  • Setting call back appointments that stick
  • Giving successful presentations and dealing with objections
  • Staying motivated
Get Access Today

How to Pitch Multiple Products

by mike

Rookie mistake: You’ve got several products or services you can offer a prospect, and you start by offering the first, or main one, then hear an opening for another one so pivot to that one, and describe another—and then another.

Result? Stalled sale. “Let me think about these and get back with you.”

Sound familiar?

Luckily, there is a best practice around this and it is:

Stick with your main product or service, close that deal first, then circle back around and pitch the ancillary product/service. You can use the intel you got from your initial pitch to open up the upsell.

Something like, “You know, {first name}, the last time we spoke, you mentioned you had trouble with your XYZ. We have other clients in your situation, and they found our…very helpful. Can I ask you how you’re handling….”

And off you go!

The dangers with offering too many choices are you’ll often talk past the close. Not only will the prospect be confused, but you will be, too. Once you get to the end of your presentation, your offer will be muddled, and that will make it difficult for your prospect to make a decision.

In addition, often times other products or services bump up the dollar amount, and this often slows down decision making as well.

Note: There are two exceptions to this:

  1. While this rule applies in a general way (80% of the time), there are times when you should pivot and offer something that is more in alignment with what your prospect needs/wants. I’m sure you know when this happens.
  2. When a prospect is totally in and buying anything you’re offering. At that time, load them up! They are in “the ether” as we used to call it and the old adage, “strike while the iron is hot” applies here.

Your best practice, however, is to secure the deal on the product or service you’re pitching, then circle around for the upsell.

Another note: The best time to do that is right after they buy—don’t wait too long, as they’ll cool off and want to “see how it goes.”

So, simplify your offer, make it easy for your prospect to say yes, then circle back around with any upsells using the intel you gathered during your pitch.

Happy selling!

Need More Proven Responses to the Selling Situations You Face Every Day?

ON DEMAND SALES TRAINING THAT GETS RESULTS!

If your team is struggling with call reluctance and is tired of the endless rejection they face, then get instant access to our On Demand training today. We provide the exact talk tracks, templates, and proven tools your team will be motivated to apply, all structured around an award winning comprehensive inside sales approach that gives your team the confidence to succeed in every selling situation they face today.

Unlimited License: One to 100 reps can attend for one low price!

Perfect for reps dealing with the following issues:

  • Reps struggling with call reluctance
  • Getting screened out by the gatekeeper
  • Overcoming blow off objections like, “Just email me something”
  • Identifying decision makers
  • Qualifying prospects
  • Setting call back appointments that stick
  • Giving successful presentations and dealing with objections
  • Staying motivated
Get Access Today

This is the Secret of Sales

by mike

Imagine if there was a secret to successful selling.

Imagine if there was one concept, one rule you could learn and follow, and if you learned and applied this rule, then you would successfully be able to sell any product or service you chose to.

And not only would you be able to sell these products or services, but—if you learned and applied this secret—you would sell more than anyone in your company or in your industry.

In addition, you would also be able to sell more with less stress, less rejection, and sales would actually become, dare I say it?—easy.

As you know, selling and easy rather occur in the same sentence, but by learning and applying this secret, they will.

And here is the secret:

Sales is nothing more than a set of recurring selling situations that you encounter over and over again.

You get the same brush offs when prospecting, the same objections when closing, the same ghosting when following up.

Let me prove it to you: regardless of your product, service, or industry, do any of these selling situations sound familiar?

When prospecting, has a decision maker or influencer or office manager ever told you:

  • “Just email me some information.”
  • “We’re happy with who we’re using.”
  • “We aren’t interested.”
  • “I’ll have to check with my boss.”

And when closing a sale or presenting your product or service, how many times do you run into:

  • “That’s a bit more than we want to spend.”
  • “It’s just not the right time for us.”
  • “Let me think about it and get back to you.”
  • “I’m going to need to talk to the committee/boss/my partner, etc.”
  • “Can you email me more information?”

Now, I’ve never met many of you reading this right now, and I don’t know what you’re selling, but I’ll bet these cover 80% of the objections you get, right?

And that’s because selling is a set of recurring situations that contain the same objections, stalls, and you get them over and over again.

And therein lies the secret to successful selling:

Learn exactly what to say—in advance—of getting these recurring objections.

Now this may sound like a “duh!” moment but let me share another secret with you: 90% of sales reps don’t do this. Instead, they ad-lib, make things up, and use poor responses over and over again.

Poor responses that don’t work!

The answer?

Script out—in advance—two or three “best practice” responses to the recurring selling situations you get into all the time.

Practice, drill, rehearse these responses until they become your automatic way of responding.

Doing this will change your sales results, your day-to-day experience in selling, and ultimately your career and your life.

Your choice really comes down to: Struggle and underperform, or sell easily, confidently, and make more money than 90% of your competition.

If you choose the latter, then you can start with over 500 proven scripts you can adapt to fit all the selling situations you run into.

Get it here.

And start learning and practicing the secret to successful selling.

Need More Proven Responses to the Selling Situations You Face Every Day?

ON DEMAND SALES TRAINING THAT GETS RESULTS!

If your team is struggling with call reluctance and is tired of the endless rejection they face, then get instant access to our On Demand training today. We provide the exact talk tracks, templates, and proven tools your team will be motivated to apply, all structured around an award winning comprehensive inside sales approach that gives your team the confidence to succeed in every selling situation they face today.

Unlimited License: One to 100 reps can attend for one low price!

Perfect for reps dealing with the following issues:

  • Reps struggling with call reluctance
  • Getting screened out by the gatekeeper
  • Overcoming blow off objections like, “Just email me something”
  • Identifying decision makers
  • Qualifying prospects
  • Setting call back appointments that stick
  • Giving successful presentations and dealing with objections
  • Staying motivated
Get Access Today

One Mistake to Avoid When Pitching

by mike

Here’s a mistake I hear over and over again when listening to sales reps pitching or presenting their services over the phone: when they hear a possible objection or something negative from their prospect, they go into pitch mode.

It’s as if they think they just need to tell the prospect more, or list endless benefits and that at some point the prospect will say, “Ah, yes! That’s what I needed to hear!”

Sadly, pitching more when you hear a possible negative is exactly the wrong thing to so.

The right thing?

Stop and begin asking questions. Get curious. Dive into the possible problem area and find out why it’s a problem. How much of a problem it is. And, most importantly, learn how to deal with it—that is, if it’s even something that can be overcome.

Here’s the thing: the average closing rate is two or three deals out of ten prospects pitched. That means seven people aren’t buying!

So, if you’re talking over or past objections, then you aren’t learning how to deal with them. You’re certainly not learning how to overcome them. Instead, you’re practicing poor sales skills over and over again.

And that’s not how to get better.

You’ve heard that saying: “Practice makes perfect?”

That’s totally wrong.

Practice only makes permanent.

If you’re practicing poor selling skills day in day out, you’ll get really good at being…well…being a poor sales person!

Quickest way to get better: next time you get an objection or negative response, stop. Ask questions. And ask yourself is this is one of the seven prospects who aren’t buying. Or is it one of the three who will buy?

And then ask yourself what you need to say to sell them. And you’ll only learn that by being curious and asking questions.

Not pitching…

Need More Proven Responses to the Selling Situations You Face Every Day?

ON DEMAND SALES TRAINING THAT GETS RESULTS!

If your team is struggling with call reluctance and is tired of the endless rejection they face, then get instant access to our On Demand training today. We provide the exact talk tracks, templates, and proven tools your team will be motivated to apply, all structured around an award winning comprehensive inside sales approach that gives your team the confidence to succeed in every selling situation they face today.

Unlimited License: One to 100 reps can attend for one low price!

Perfect for reps dealing with the following issues:

  • Reps struggling with call reluctance
  • Getting screened out by the gatekeeper
  • Overcoming blow off objections like, “Just email me something”
  • Identifying decision makers
  • Qualifying prospects
  • Setting call back appointments that stick
  • Giving successful presentations and dealing with objections
  • Staying motivated
Get Access Today

Less is More in Sales

by mike

Sales people like to talk; if you don’t believe me, just listen to a recording of one of your reps (or of yourself!).

This is a problem.

And that’s because when your mouth is open, your ears are closed.

And when your ears are closed, you learn nothing about your prospect’s buying motives, their possible objections, or whether or not they are buying into your pitch.

The solution is simple:

  • Cut your pitch in half (or a quarter)
  • Learn to use current, non-salesy tie downs
  • Ask questions frequently of your prospect
  • Find and use the MUTE button to fully listen to their responses

Also, learn to use layering questions when you get answers you either don’t fully understand, or when you get an answer that makes you want to know more about their process, decision making, budget, etc.

Why do sales reps talk so much? Many reasons: nervousness, not wanting to hear no, lack of training, etc.,

What’s the solution? A good, tight, non-salesy script.

And not only a script—but one that you and your team adheres to.

A good script—and script playbook—changes companies and careers.

On the other hand, if you continue to ad-lib and make your pitch up, then you will continue to struggle, talk past the close, introduce objections, and, worse, keep talking…and talking…and talking.

In sales, less talking and more questioning and more listening is the key to success.

This week, look at the script your company gave you when you began working there.

Rewrite it.

Shorten it.

Intersperse it with tons of questions and tie-downs and opportunities to engage and learn more about your prospects.

Doing so will not only make your job easier, but it will make you more successful as well.

Need More Proven Responses to the Selling Situations You Face Every Day?

ON DEMAND SALES TRAINING THAT GETS RESULTS!

If your team is struggling with call reluctance and is tired of the endless rejection they face, then get instant access to our On Demand training today. We provide the exact talk tracks, templates, and proven tools your team will be motivated to apply, all structured around an award winning comprehensive inside sales approach that gives your team the confidence to succeed in every selling situation they face today.

Unlimited License: One to 100 reps can attend for one low price!

Perfect for reps dealing with the following issues:

  • Reps struggling with call reluctance
  • Getting screened out by the gatekeeper
  • Overcoming blow off objections like, “Just email me something”
  • Identifying decision makers
  • Qualifying prospects
  • Setting call back appointments that stick
  • Giving successful presentations and dealing with objections
  • Staying motivated
Get Access Today

Qualifying: Before or After Your Presentation?

by mike

I was working with a new client this week, and I listened to a recording of their presentation and it went like this:

  1. Hello, how are you doing—brief rapport building
  2. Deep dive into their presentation—including features and benefits
  3. Qualifying to see what the client was most interested in.

How does this sound to you?

Is this the way your presentations go?

After we went through the call, I suggested it would be much more effective for the rep to know the client’s buying motives (his needs, wants, and wishes) before giving the presentation.

Here’s why:

  1. By knowing the buying motives before your pitch, you’ll be in a much better position to “speak to those buying motives” during your presentation.
  2. While tailoring your pitch to your prospect’s specific buying motives, you’ll also be able to stop after making a point, and, using tie-downs, check in to see how your presentation is going.
  3. Near the end of your presentation—right before discussing pricing—you’ll be able to use a trial close to see if your prospect is bought in. Something along the lines of: “So, based on what you’ve seen so far, does this sound like the solution you’ve been looking for?”

If you want to immediately improve your conversion rates, then make sure you understand—in advance—what your prospect’s buying motives (and potential objections) are.

Then, spend your presentation targeting those needs, and checking in often to see if you’re meeting them!

Need More Proven Responses to the Selling Situations You Face Every Day?

ON DEMAND SALES TRAINING THAT GETS RESULTS!

If your team is struggling with call reluctance and is tired of the endless rejection they face, then get instant access to our On Demand training today. We provide the exact talk tracks, templates, and proven tools your team will be motivated to apply, all structured around an award winning comprehensive inside sales approach that gives your team the confidence to succeed in every selling situation they face today.

Unlimited License: One to 100 reps can attend for one low price!

Perfect for reps dealing with the following issues:

  • Reps struggling with call reluctance
  • Getting screened out by the gatekeeper
  • Overcoming blow off objections like, “Just email me something”
  • Identifying decision makers
  • Qualifying prospects
  • Setting call back appointments that stick
  • Giving successful presentations and dealing with objections
  • Staying motivated
Get Access Today

Bigger Goals = Bigger Results

by mike

What do you expect to accomplish this year?

Think carefully, because nothing (in my experience) is more predictive of results than mindset.

Mindset determines the actions you take, how you deal with adversity, how much you use good selling skills (and how much you invest in them), and how you adapt to the changing conditions around you.

And a lot more!

Example: I’m working with a coaching/consulting organization right now that has many related companies in their portfolio. Each company is engaged in the same business, uses the same model of attracting and getting clients, and all have the same goal: to maximize their portfolio of clients and grow their business.

One of the companies does it the best, and it’s no secret why:

  • They aggressively market across all appropriate and available opportunities;
  • They have the largest staff of inside sales appointment setters (while the majority of the other companies don’t have any!);
  • They have specific, aggressive goals for the acquisition of business (and I mean, really big target revenue goals);
  • They invest in sales training for their team.

This top producing company has drilled into every employee at their firm the expectation of greatness, and they aggressively pursue that goal—and they attain it.

In other words: They think BIG, and they act BIG.

This week, review your own thoughts, feelings, expectations and goals. Compare them with what you would ideally like to accomplish.

Then think bigger.

Invest in books or audio books on goal setting, visualization, and the law of attraction. The Secret is a good place to start if you haven’t read it.

But know this: Thinking determines your results. If you haven’t yet achieved what you desire, then it’s up to you to change your thinking first.

Need More Proven Responses to the Selling Situations You Face Every Day?

ON DEMAND SALES TRAINING THAT GETS RESULTS!

If your team is struggling with call reluctance and is tired of the endless rejection they face, then get instant access to our On Demand training today. We provide the exact talk tracks, templates, and proven tools your team will be motivated to apply, all structured around an award winning comprehensive inside sales approach that gives your team the confidence to succeed in every selling situation they face today.

Unlimited License: One to 100 reps can attend for one low price!

Perfect for reps dealing with the following issues:

  • Reps struggling with call reluctance
  • Getting screened out by the gatekeeper
  • Overcoming blow off objections like, “Just email me something”
  • Identifying decision makers
  • Qualifying prospects
  • Setting call back appointments that stick
  • Giving successful presentations and dealing with objections
  • Staying motivated
Get Access Today

One Great Close You Should Be Using

by mike

How do you handle the following two big objections?

“Your price is too high.”

“I can get a better deal/rate/price using XYZ”

Arguably, these may be the two most frustrating objections sales reps get, and interestingly, there is one technique that works amazingly well—but few sales reps use it.

Instead, the vast majority of reps stumble when they get these objections, or worse: they lower their prices to try to compete.

The best way to handle this is to…

Isolate it! Just like you should do with most objections.

Here is the easiest way to do this:

Whenever you get either of the two objections above, simply respond with:

“In addition to price, what else is important to you?”

OR

“In addition to price, what else is holding you back today?”

Then hit that oh-so-important MUTE button, and let your prospect tell you how to sell them.

That’s it!

For those of you thinking this is too easy, I challenge you to use it for the next month each time you get this objection.

You’ll be amazed at what you hear—and how much further you can take your prospects…

Need More Proven Responses to the Selling Situations You Face Every Day?

ON DEMAND SALES TRAINING THAT GETS RESULTS!

If your team is struggling with call reluctance and is tired of the endless rejection they face, then get instant access to our On Demand training today. We provide the exact talk tracks, templates, and proven tools your team will be motivated to apply, all structured around an award winning comprehensive inside sales approach that gives your team the confidence to succeed in every selling situation they face today.

Unlimited License: One to 100 reps can attend for one low price!

Perfect for reps dealing with the following issues:

  • Reps struggling with call reluctance
  • Getting screened out by the gatekeeper
  • Overcoming blow off objections like, “Just email me something”
  • Identifying decision makers
  • Qualifying prospects
  • Setting call back appointments that stick
  • Giving successful presentations and dealing with objections
  • Staying motivated
Get Access Today

Ask for More to Get More

by mike

My sales numbers when through the roof when I changed one simple thing:

I asked for double or even triple the deal size at the end of each presentation.

Before this, I used to give my presentation and automatically default to the lowest deal size and be happy if I got it.

In fact, it was so bad that I even dropped the price to half the minimum amount, and I was happy if I got that!

What I didn’t realize at the time is that prospect’s often have a lot more budget than I think they do. In fact, once I started asking for larger deals—and companies and individuals started buying more—I was blown away by how easy it was!

In addition to getting larger deals, I also found it was easier to drop a prospect to a lower amount if I started high. Also, the amount I dropped them to was usually twice as much as I had been used to asking for to begin with!

It was a huge win/win.

As I coach sales reps these days and listen to how they ask for the sale, I’m reminded of myself because guess what? Most of them ask for the minimum amount, or the lowest priced package, or worse—they go below the lowest priced package and are happy when they get it.

The biggest problem with this way of selling isn’t just that they are taking thousands of dollars out of their company’s—and their own—pockets, but the worst thing is that they condition themselves to ask for, and get smaller sales.

And they do.

Take it from me (and all the top reps selling these days): The fastest way to double or triple your sales is to ask for more in the very beginning.

And the sooner you do, the sooner you’ll find prospects who say yes.

Do yourself a favor this month and starting at the top—rather than at the bottom—of your pricing sheet.

And watch as your income goes to the top as well!

Need More Proven Responses to the Selling Situations You Face Every Day?

ON DEMAND SALES TRAINING THAT GETS RESULTS!

If your team is struggling with call reluctance and is tired of the endless rejection they face, then get instant access to our On Demand training today. We provide the exact talk tracks, templates, and proven tools your team will be motivated to apply, all structured around an award winning comprehensive inside sales approach that gives your team the confidence to succeed in every selling situation they face today.

Unlimited License: One to 100 reps can attend for one low price!

Perfect for reps dealing with the following issues:

  • Reps struggling with call reluctance
  • Getting screened out by the gatekeeper
  • Overcoming blow off objections like, “Just email me something”
  • Identifying decision makers
  • Qualifying prospects
  • Setting call back appointments that stick
  • Giving successful presentations and dealing with objections
  • Staying motivated
Get Access Today