Three Ways to Drive Your Sales

Sales trainers do not have drive-thru windows. Our offerings take time and, quite frankly, are worth the wait. Everyone, however, is in a rush. So, to serve those of you who want sales success, but want it RIGHT NOW, I offer the following three menu-of-ideas items for building some sales volume.

1. Connect—Your fastest sale is with the client you already have. When is the last time you did an account review? If you are assuming you already have that customer locked up, you might want to start looking for its replacement because that thought process is deadly.

Why not research your existing accounts and see where they are going. Sign up for a Google Alert and keep informed of what they are up to.

What about making May the, “I’m going to make sure everyone knows I sell > so that I never have to hear the six most feared words —‘I didn’t know you did that!’— again.”

Finally, speaking of assumptions, why not check on customer reorders and call them instead of waiting for them to call you. Reexamine the assumptions that made that particular solution the best one and remind the client why they buy from you.

2. Reconnect—Any account that you have not heard from in, say, six months should be considered “dead” and therefore worthy of a phone call. The number one reason why we lose a customer is neglect. A related thought (and the subject of next week’s sales tip) is to check on lost bids.

OK, sure, you didn’t get that order in January, but how did it go? What an extraordinary phone call to make: “Hi, I was just checking to see how that run went. Were you completely satisfied with your choice? Can we talk about a better solution?”