Entries Tagged 'Sales Planning' ↓

Although having a successful online business sounds great, it is not for everyone. Some people lack the necessary traits to run their own business. You don’t have to be particularly smart to have your own business, but you need certain other qualities. Following is a list of the 7 traits of success that most business owners possess.

photo credit: shlomp-a-plompa

1. Motivation.
You have to be motivated to be successful. Most successful individuals are driven to succeed and make money. They feel a need to do more and become better.

2. Competitive Nature.
Almost all successful entrepreneurs are competitive. They want to be among the biggest, best, and most successful. Being just average is not good enough.

3. Self starter.
There is no one standing over you with a whip when you have your own business. You have to work long hard hours, particularly when you are just starting out. Successful business owners know what has to be done and they do it, no matter how long it takes.

4. Decisive.
Most entrepreneurs will quickly analyze a situation, decide on a course of action, and get to work. They don’t have the time or patience to research a situation for weeks before making a decision.

5. Optimistic.
Most successful business owners are optimistic. They know the will succeed and make money; if not today, then tomorrow.

6. Bold.
It takes a certain boldness to forego that guaranteed weekly paycheck and strike out on your own.

7. Good at delegating.
You can’t do every thing all of the time. To be super successful, you need to delegate some of the less important tasks of your business to other qualified people. That frees you up to work on the more important items.

This is not an all-inclusive list. And there are certainly some individuals who possess none of the qualities above, yet are successful. But in general, most successful business owners possess the traits above.

Did I miss any?

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When you have a serious target to hit you need to use some serious sales techniques. My strategies are designed to be low cost and high return methods.

photo credit: guiguis

1) Qualify - they qualify again - so if you want to hit your targets make sure you qualify the price straight away - no point in going in to sell a $100,000 solution to a client with a $1,000 budget.

2) Find out what they want - don’t tell them what what you want to sell. The most frequent mistake is where a salesman is selling a system and talking about benefits that mean nothing to the prospect. If you find out what pushes their buttons before you start then you can tailor your presentation to exactly that. As an example if you are selling case management and that includes some time billing system but the client is not interested in time recoding at all then there is no point in focussing on it. If you are selling a system that includes an accounts function but you are presenting to someone that does not understand accounts then don’t show that part.

3) Be professional - your competitors are good, you are great - never slag off (bad mouth) competitors it makes you look as bad as them. As I said they are good you are great.

4) If you can talk from experience - I am at an advantage here in that we use our own software to run our own business. Our product keeps electronic files and manages them, I know the benefits so I talk like a user. Nothing like showing faith in your own products - if you can talk from experience then

5) Last but not least - don’t give anything away - no point in discounting - what every client wants is a good system implemented well. If you did number 1, then you are in budget anyway then that should be fine. IF YOU HAVE to lower the price trade this action with a date to get your order. After all if you simply lower your price then what’s to stop me asking you to do it again and again unless I place an order at the new agreed price?

6) Leave - something in the kitty bag - have a little more to show, a little something for them to crave, something to tip a deal -

I said 10 points didn’t I? Yes I did, however, I’ll trade you for the other 4 points, and they are killer points. When this article has 1000 reads and 10 comments I’ll put in the other 4 points!

Good luck, and stay positive!

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As important and essential is the implementation and use of Six Sigma to the livelihood of any business organization, the certification process for an individual to become Six Sigma qualified is rather obscure.

photo credit: gothick_matt

Basically, there is no formal list or specific amounts of training and knowledge that one must have in order to obtain the various levels of technical and organizational expertise.

However, there are three specific certification levels to Six Sigma leaders: Green belts, Black Belts and Master Black Belts.

Green Belts

Green Belts are proficiency team leaders that are capable of organizing and instructing six sigma teams and can easily manage projects from conception and beyond. Green Belt training is usually composed of a week of classroom training, which is often held in tandem with a company’s current six sigma projects.

Training usually covers different facilitation techniques, project and quality management tools, quality control, problem solving, and data analysis.

Black Belts

People who make excellent Black Belts are hi-tech individuals with advanced aptitudes for statistics and mathematics and are often role models for their colleagues. They should already be engaged in their company’s strategic organizational overhaul including business development processes. Black Belt candidates usually have varied backgrounds and are usually not formally trained in statistics.

But because Black Belts need to learn a large number of technical tools in a very short timeframe, candidates should be comfortable with advanced mathematical concepts and a working knowledge of quantitative analysis.

They will work to extract useful information from a business’s information . Successful Black Belt aspirant should be well-versed with several computer systems, spreadsheets, database tools and presentation programs, such as Microsoft PowerPoint.

As a component of their Black Belt training, all prospects should be required to be skilled in the use of several statistical analysis softwares, such as SPSS.

Master Black Belts

The Master Black Belt is the highest level of Six Sigma technical mastery. Because only Master Black Belts can and are required to facilitate the training of Black Belts, they have to know everything the black belts do. In addition, they need to understand how the theory of mathematics is linked with statistical methods.
Six Sigma Master Black Belts must be able to help their lower-level counterparts (Black and Green Belts) in applying the appropriate methods throughout the project process.

Generally speaking, training in statistical methods should be done solely by Master Black Belts. Due to the basis of the Master Black Belt’s work, communication skills, as well as the aptitude to teach, should be deemed just as important as technical skill when evaluating candidates.

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Being a better salesperson is more than learning new skills and techniques. Here are my top ten ways to become a better salesperson.

1. Smile and Walk Tall

Changing your physiology is a great way to feel better about everything going around you.

I want you to try an experiment. I want you to think and act as if you are totally depressed. Come on do this with me. Stand up and act like you’re totally depressed. Notice how you are standing. Your shoulders are slumped. Your head is down. Your face is sad and your breathing is shallow.

Feels pretty awful doesn’t it?

Photo credit: aloshbennett

Okay, Now I want you to imagine a time when you felt on top of the world, when everything was going your way, you couldn’t lose. How are you standing? Your shoulders are back, head is up, your breathing is deep and you’ve got a big smile on your face.

Feel the difference?

2. Surround Yourself With People Who Support You

One of the most important steps you can take in your life is to build relationships with people who genuinely care about you and will support you as you go through life.

I’m talking about people who will love you during hard times and celebrate with you during the good times. People who will be painfully honest and compassionately sympathetic. People who will make you laugh and motivate you and encourage you to be that person you were meant to be

3. Read Positive Books at Least 15 Minutes Every Day

There’s a wealth of information that has been written for you to absorb. What goes in your mind is what will come out. So fill it with good, positive information and good, positive things will happen in your life.

I suggest you start your own library. Go buy a book shelve and set a goal to fill it with books you’ve read. Set up an account at Amazon or another book store and invest in your education.

The UPS truck shows up regularly at my house with deliveries from Amazon.

If you don’t want to buy them, get a library card. There free!

What books should you read? Start with Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

4. Post Your Goals and Read Them Twice a Day

Post your goals where you’ll see them at different times during your day. Put them on the bathroom mirror, in your car, your office, near your computer. Write them on a 3 x 5 card and pull out the card every chance you get and read them.

Make two specific times when you take them out and read them. One is first thing in the morning before you do anything else. This will start your day focused on your goals and their achievement.

The second is right before you go to bed. This practice will give your subconscious mind something positive to work on during the night.

5. Be Grateful For The Little Things

Find time every day to be grateful for all you have. We all have something we can be grateful for. Some of these are little things that we take for granted like our health, our home, our friends, the food in the refrigerator. Focusing on what you’re grateful for will bring more of it in to your life.

I’m grateful every day when I wake up and my feet hit the floor.

6. Spend Time Doing What Matter Most

We waste too much time on things that bring little enjoyment into our lives. It’s time to spend our time doing the things that matter most.

Have dinner with your family. Attend your child’s play or baseball game. Help an elderly person cross the street. Take a walk and enjoy the view.

Some things are more important than money, status, power and prestige. Invest some of your time into those activities and see if it doesn’t change the way you feel.

7. Treat Stumbling Blocks as Stepping Stones

So what if you didn’t make that big sale, your girlfriend left you, your boss chewed you out or you made a big mistake.

Your life isn’t over. So keep your eyes on your goals.

What did you do right? What did you learn? How can you use this to make yourself better or stronger? What will you do different the next time?

Use it as a stepping stone to take you to the next level.

I’ve had some of my biggest periods of growth after major setbacks.

8. Help others to succeed

When you’re gone, nobody will be talking about how much money you made or how many awards you won, they will be talking about the lives you touched and the difference you made.

Success is so sweet when you can share your knowledge and caring with others. Give of yourself. It will make the people you touch feel good and I know how it will make you feel.

The sad part is when people come to the end of their lives and think about all the things they wish they’d done.

9. Reward yourself

When you sell that big account or reach a goal you set, reward yourself. Go buy something you’ve always wanted, take a trip, go out for an expensive dinner. Do something nice for you. You deserve it.

10. Tomorrow is a New Day

No matter what happened today, good or bad. You can go to sleep tonight knowing that tomorrow the slate is wiped clean. You get a fresh new 24 hours to accomplish any thing you want.

http://www.fromtheheartsalestraining.com

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Does that title sound like a gimmick? It’s not. It’s about the numbers. If you truly want to double your sales, you simply need to double a key aspect of your sales performance, asserts Stephan Schiffman, sales trainer and prolific author, in his newest book, Sales Essentials (Adams Media, 2008). His advice is rooted in the theory that when you measure and focus on a certain area, you’ll see improvement in that area. Here, he says, are five ways you can double your sales: Continue reading →

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I come from a high-tech background and though that industry is enormous, finding qualified leads are still difficult. There are older industries out there that are much larger and the lead pools are just as hard to swim through. From telecommunications to construction and even networking equipment. If you are a sales professional in any of these areas you need a qualified list of growing companies that have some money to spend on your products.

This brings me to Sales Leads Inc. who has been specializing in providing businesses leads in these areas and more since 1959.

SALES LEADS, Inc. was founded by John Beecher and his wife, LaVerne, in their Westport , Connecticut home office in 1959. What started out as a few typewritten pages covering the New York City metropolitan area has mushroomed to over 400 leads per month for the continental U.S. and Canada delivered via the Internet as well as traditional first class mail. The company’s offices moved to Palm Beach County , Florida in 1977 and are now located in Lake Park , Florida , a suburb of West Palm Beach .

About Sales Leads’ 45+ years in business, Michael Beecher says, “the reason for our longevity and success is simple. We know that sales people would rather be out selling than digging for qualified prospects. We do the digging for them, saving them countless hours of work and giving them more opportunities to be successful in their work. Find me someone who excels in sales to industry and odds are good they’re one of our customers.”

In the sales profession you have a couple choices about how to find new prospects to engage with. You can pick up a phone book and start at A and work your way through Z and see what opportunities come up. (Some companies still do this.) The better approach is to talk with a company like Sales Leads Inc. that specializes in your industry and get the names of the growing businesses that you can start conversations with.

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It’s Q1 and if you’re in sales you are starting with a clean slate. Well unless you were that bad in 2007 then you need to make up for a bad Q4. For most of us though January is a great time of the year and when all the stress for the year comes back to a mild simmer. Sales executives take the first couple of weeks to put together the annual plans for the group and you should be trying to close out all the opportunities that slipped from December.

Start Selling

When all is said and done you really should be putting together a sales plan for yourself. Getting self motivated is a whole lot better than waiting for your manager to get all over your ass for not hitting you goals. Most of your buddies in the sales teams will be taking it easy for the first couple of weeks. Making a few calls and ‘getting ready’ for the year. That’s hogwash. Start sending out the emails, making the calls and lining up your target accounts for the next year. What prospects will you hold yourself to closing in the next 12 months? What needs to be done to get there? These are the questions you should be thinking about.

Build some campaigns

Your CRM system be it SalesForce, NetSuite or some other system should have the functionality to build some campaigns. You think this is something for marketing to manage? Wrong again. You are a professional and you need to manage your sales destiny. Start setting the tasks and blocking time in your calendar to make the goals you want completed. Start automating some of your mundane tasks like emails by creating templates that allow for quick email responses to typical questions you get. For example, in my current role I locate and recruit VARs into our reseller program. I have templates for general information, different partner levels and technical data. Since most of my calls end up with another email being sent one of my templates usually fits the bill after some minor modifications. This way I don’t have to write the entire email every time I need to send something. Set dates for email blasts to the contacts that seem to always be out off reach and create a template for new customers you bring on board explaining how much you appreciate their business.

Reap the rewards

You will see the fruits of your labor well before your coworkers. By saving yourself time and starting to get the momentum rolling now, you are bound to hit your targets easier in 2008.

What are you doing to get ready for sales in 2008? 

Here is another site you should look at that has some great information.

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