Tips & articles on selling
Rating prospects helps you project new business, and indicates where you should focus your efforts. This article is an overview of what does not work well, followed by what does. We begin with this advice: Detach rating prospects from your pipeline. […]
Do not rate prospects you’re marketing to, keep these in a prospecting bucket. Do not rate prospects who have only scheduled the first sales conversation. Only rate prospects with whom you’ve had at least one actual sales conversation. Apply points as you uncover information and/or as things change. This lets you rate prospects throughout the process. [...]
A call, chat or email comes in. Prospect asks, “Do you have…?” or "How much?" We think, "it depends" and "we offer so much more." We think, "sell on price, lose on price." In other words, we want to have a different conversation than the prospect does. Here are tips for doing that, starting with some [...]
Percentage, schmercentage… Are you using percentages to indicate likelihood of closing? Here’s why to stop: […]
“Personality” assessments have been positioned as business tools for many years. From Myers-Briggs, to DiSC, to the recently popular Colors, these supposedly help us better understand and communicate with others—including sell to them. Before covering why such tools are often counterproductive in selling, I want to address their unintended darker side. […]
Benefit statements are a staple of sales and customer service. This article focuses on some of the nuances, including tips for teaching others to create their own benefit statements. Reminder: There are myriad ways to express benefits but they fall into just six categories: convenience, save money, increase money or value, peace of mind, appeal to [...]
