Sales Tips from the Golf Guy
A lot of
sales trainers will teach salesmen that it takes 100 calls
to get 10 meetings to make one sale. If that is true, then
one good customer relationship is 100 times more important
than 99 casual encounters. Yet many people will treat that
precious resource with neglect, spending endless time making
still another 100 calls. Good relationships are rare, very
precious. Once you have one, your top priority must be to
nurture, grow and protect it
My
suggestions for increasing sales and building a great sales
team include the following:
1.
MAKE THEM
LAUGH – LAUGHTER OPENS MINDS – Good moods can enhance a
customer’s ability to think flexibly and with more
complexity, thus making it easier to find solutions to
problems. This suggests that one way to help someone think
through a problem is to tell them a joke. Laughing, like
elation, seems to help people think more broadly and
associate more freely, noticing relationships that might
have eluded otherwise. The memory is “state-specific.” Your
customers will remember you better if they associate the
memory with a good mood. Start every meeting with a story to
loosen up the crowd. Ronald Reagan was famous for it. Teach
your salesmen that laughter sells! It is a physiological
fact. A little laughter goes along way in relaxing people,
releasing favorable chemicals in their brains and opening up
the creative pathways in people’s minds.
2.
RECRUIT
OPTIMISTS – The first thing your firm needs to do is build a
great sales team that can sell. The number one indicator
that someone will succeed in sales is a happy disposition.
Hire Optimists!
Real Optimists! Optimist sell 37% more insurance for
MetLife than pessimists. Optimists will sell better and make
more money for everyone of you. Sales people face rejection
every day. If you are not an optimist you will not be
successful in sales.
3.
TEACH THE
HABIT OF WINNING- Find your people doing things right. Take
them with you to meet your very best customers and let them
start with warm friendly contacts. Let them feel good about
themselves to start. That feeling of Winning will grow
within them and they will be better salesmen. Let new sales
people get the taste of winning in their mouths and
reinforce that taste as needed. My job for my clients is to
help them develop winners. That means coaching, mentoring,
and supporting your sales team.
4.
FEELINGS
ARE CONTAGIOUS – Optimism is contagious. My basic job as a
business development consultant is to invigorate and lift
the spirits of your team. Salesmen want to work where there
is hope, pride, dignity, and optimism. Work should provide
good friends, good vibes, and supportive leadership. It
doesn’t have to be a rock concert, or the final four. But
the shared feelings in your office should be upbeat and
optimistic. You are a leader. Your emotions are most
important to your team. If you are upbeat, your people will
follow. If you are sour, your team won’t stand a chance. My
role in working with my clients is to provide you a chance
to vent without having a lasting negative effect on your
sales team. This is particularly true if CFO type
individuals versus marketing types run your firm.
MY ROLE
IN THE SALES PROCESS IS TO MAKE YOUR PROSPECT’S FEEL GOOD
ABOUT YOUR FIRM, EVERY TIME WITH EVERY PERSON I COME IN
CONTACT WITH ON YOUR BEHALF.
As a
salesman, your mission statement is: When I walk out of a
prospect’s door, his or her conscious and unconscious mind
must say “Good guy: Glad he stopped by. Added to my day. Got
me thinking. I feel a little better now than before he
showed up. Keep knocking on that good vibe door. Soon the
guard dog inside will step aside and once you are in, you
and your newfound friend can take the relationship wherever
you mutually want to go. Many of my clients are now great
personal friends. And by the way, you might just be able to
sell something while you are at it!
Every
morning, when I wake up, my mission for the day is so clear!
The happier I can make myself, the happier I can make other
people. The happier I can make other people, the more I get
paid.
