Skills blog

If you’re like most people, you target your sales efforts on the relevant departmental manager: head of IT, head of manufacturing, head of finance. However, if one of these managers has a proposal that requires funding, who is their only source of funds?

Successful sales managers know that the sales person who masters follow-up, masters selling. Just like a golf or tennis shot, the power is in the follow-through.

Focused leaders set high goals and are intolerant of shortfalls. That’s normal. However beware the trap of everyone feeling pressured and no longer enjoying themselves.

How we say things is often more important than what we say. Communication and energy cannot be separated. Communication is an inside-out process.

People who procrastinate miss things; they may be late for an appointment, they may miss a train, but more importantly they may miss an opportunity that could change their lives for the better.

Many salespeople still regard objection handling as vital. If only they had better answers to objections their results would quickly improve. This emphasis is misplaced. It doesn’t matter how brilliantly an objection is answered, it has still created a gap between buyer and seller at the end of the presentation.

‘A premium return to the customer is all the justification you need to require a premium investment’ says Mack Hanan in Key Account Selling.

Consider this dialog: John’s lawnmower packs up one Sunday afternoon, so he goes around to his neighbour to ask if he can borrow his.

Leaders think progress. Believe in progress. Push for progress. Everything around us is growing. We can’t stand still, we can either move forwards with it or drop back. It is impossible to be in business today, use yesterday’s skills and expect to be in front tomorrow.