Webinar Wednesday #90
Webinar Wednesday is a celebration of all things webinar. You will find upcoming webinars, links to recorded webinars for those who missed them on the first go-round, and occasional recaps of webinars I recently attended.
New Webinars:
"Sales Coaching for Improved Performance" (Thursday, May 23rd 2:00 pm ET) - hosted by Sales Readiness Group. Improve team performance through effective coaching.
"Trends Impacting the Future of Work" (Wednesday, May 29th 1:00 pm ET) - hosted by Citrix. Perfecting the virtual office.
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Selling Value
When your product or service is the cheapest one on the market (or the ONLY one) you won't hear a lot of price objections. But the vast majority of the time there will be at least one competitor out there with a similar product at a lower price. Which means you'll get questions from prospects about the price difference - and you'd better be ready to answer them.
Some prospects will only care about buying the absolute lowest priced version of whatever it is they're buying. Such prospects are usually far more trouble than they're worth, so send them along happily to plague your competitor. Most prospects, though, simply need to know that the product's value is equal or better than its price.
Selling When You're Not the Cheapest
Related Reading
Selling Value Over Price
Differentiating Your Product
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Good Sales Can Be Better Sales
The New Zealand Herald posted an interesting article recently, written by Graham McGregor. McGregor argues that if a competitor is selling a similar product and is doing better than you are, it means he has a better sales strategy. So the best thing you can do is find a way to improve your own strategy.
Although he doesn't mention it, the same applies to internal competition. If you're not the top seller on your sales team, then you don't have the best sales approach - and perhaps tweaking your presentation or your prospecting method is all it will take to rocket you to #1.
The 'better way strategy' to improve sales
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Webinar Wednesday #89
Webinar Wednesday is a celebration of all things webinar. You will find upcoming webinars, links to recorded webinars for those who missed them on the first go-round, and occasional recaps of webinars I recently attended.
New Webinars:
"Business Owners: Grow Your Sales with Online Video" (Thursday, May 16th 1:00 pm ET) - hosted by Jill Addison, Online Video Producer. Creating online videos that attract new customers.
"How to Overcome the Stall in Sales!" (Thursday, May 16th 3:00 pm ET) - hosted by Mike Brooks. Overcoming objections that slow down your sales process.
"New Insights on Helping Sales Reps Meet or Exceed Quota" (Wednesday, May 22nd 1:00 pm ET) - hosted by Selling Power. Improving sales results across the board.
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Email Prospecting
Your phone isn't the only prospecting tool at your disposal. A smart email prospecting plan can save you a lot of dialing, although it's unlikely to entirely replace cold calling. Some prospects just don't respond as well to email as to a phone call, so limiting yourself to email prospecting will cost you a lot of sales.
On the other hand, sticking to cold calling alone will limit your sales as well. Email has the major advantage of being much less time-consuming than a phone call. Once you come up with a workable template, you can personalize it in a few seconds and send it off to your prospect.
Email Prospecting That Gets Results
Related Reading
Alternatives to Cold Calling
5 Ways to Reach an Evasive Decision Maker
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The Sadly Common Sales Mistakes
Business 2 Community recently posted an article on seven common mistakes that even the most experienced salesperson steps in from time to time. Guha points out that everyone sells at various points in their lives - whether or not they realize it - yet even trained salespeople make certain serious errors.
Most of the errors on Guha's list have their root in laziness. For example, the first item on the list is an undisciplined leads process, which can be enough to kill anyone's pipeline. Salespeople literally can't afford to get sloppy, yet even experienced salespeople can get a bit lazy in flush markets. And they'll pay for that laziness when business slows down.
Why Do We Make Selling So Difficult? Seven Obvious Mistakes
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Buzzwords Are Killing Your Presentation
A salesperson's first instinct in a presentation is often to try to impress the prospect. After all, the better you and your company sound, the more likely he'll buy, right? And so these salespeople fill their presentations with marketing buzzwords and jaw-breaking technicalese.
The small problem with this approach is that prospects aren't dumb. When you spend ten minutes droning on in corporatese about how great your company is, they start to wonder why you're trying so hard to impress - and why you don't speak plain English but feel the need to hide behind a screen of buzzwords.
Related Reading
Diagnosing Your Prospects' Needs
The Benefits of Benefits Statements
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Webinar Wednesday #88
Webinar Wednesday is a celebration of all things webinar. You will find upcoming webinars, links to recorded webinars for those who missed them on the first go-round, and occasional recaps of webinars I recently attended.
New Webinars:
"Unleash Your Inner Sales Woman" (Thursday, May 9th 12:00 pm ET) - hosted by Liz Wendling. How women can gain confidence and become better salespeople.
"New Solutions for Sales Leaders: Delivering Results While Managing Dual Roles" (Thursday, May 9th 1:00 pm ET) - hosted by Selling Power. How sales managers can deliver results.
"New Insights on Helping Sales Reps Meet or Exceed Quota" (Wednesday, May 22nd 1:00 pm ET) - hosted by Selling Power. Improving sales results across the board.
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Sales Strategy
Not all salespeople are planners. There are quite a few (including some superstars) who prefer the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach. But it's a lot harder to sell unless you have some strategy in mind, even if it's just a general understanding of the market and your products.
The stronger your sales strategy is, the less you have to think on your feet. That's not to say that no one will ever take you by surprise again; there will always be circumstances you didn't consider. But if you've done some solid strategizing in advance, you'll at least be prepared for the most likely contingencies.
Related Reading
Setting Short-Term Goals
How to Set a Daily Schedule
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Webinar Wednesday #87
Webinar Wednesday is a celebration of all things webinar. You will find upcoming webinars, links to recorded webinars for those who missed them on the first go-round, and occasional recaps of webinars I recently attended.
New Webinars:
"New Solutions for Sales Leaders: Delivering Results While Managing Dual Roles" (Thursday, May 9th 1:00 pm ET) - hosted by Selling Power. How sales managers can deliver results.
"New Insights on Helping Sales Reps Meet or Exceed Quota" (Wednesday, May 22nd 1:00 pm ET) - hosted by Selling Power. Improving sales results across the board.
Recorded Webinars:
"The 3 Steps to Get Prospects to Contact YOU Ready to Say Yes! - hosted by Wendy Weiss.
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