“How can I increase sales?”

If only I had a pound for everytime someone asked me that question!

You see, there are a billion answers that I could come out with in order for you to increase sales.

Let me give you a couple to go on with though!

1. Learn how to ask the right questions

Open questions, closed questions – I really don’t care what type of questions you ask as long as they MTD!

They should either Move the sale forward, develop Trust or Develop the relationship.

Questions will unearth current and future needs.

So you need to develop awesome questioning skills.

2. Understand your numbers

If you don’t understand the science of sellling then I would imagine that you are missing out on between 10 and 20% more sales right away.

What do I mean by this?

Well, in order to increase sales, you need to know what areas you need to improve upon?

For example, is it your prospecting skills, the questions you ask, getting a decision maker on the phone etc

You only know this if you know and understand your numbers.

How many cold calls do you need to make to set up 1 appointment?

How many appointments per sale?

What’s your average deal size?

You need to know all of these stats and more if you are going to be a serious player and only then can you identify which areas you need to focus on to increase sales.

You know I could go on all night about this but we have both got sales to make!

So, please take what I said and do something about it today.

Happy selling

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training

Telephone:
0800 849 6732

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Develop your Entrepreneurial Skills – that’s a key activity that you need to develop if you’re going to sell more product or service to the sophisticated and sales savvy buyer of today.

When I say that you need to improve entrepreneurial skills, I mean that you need to start viewing your planning, your prospecting, your sales process, in fact everything you do you need to run it as though you are running your own business.

Any decent business has systems in place, they have a vision and a plan, the have a research and department, they constantly learn, they innovate and so on.

The most successful businesses have flair and are unique.

So, in your entrepreneurial efforts I would recommend that you start to read all about entrepreneurs and what they do and what their mindset is. Apply what they do to the way that you sell.

Here are 5 top tips to improve your entrepreneurial skills:

1. Have a personal vision and a mission – what do you want to achieve in your role?

2. What sets you apart from the other sales people who are trying to eat your lunch?

3. Innovate – entrepreneurs make up the rules. How can you become more innovative in all all that you do?

4. Systems – set up systems to get the best out of your time and efforts

5. Positioning – position yourself as an expert rather than as a sales person – what can you do to become a trusted advisor?

So, improve your entrepreneurial skills and watch your sales soar!

Happy Selling

Sean

PS Please CLICK HERE for more entrepreneurial tips

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training

Telephone:
0800 849 6732

Looking for sales management training?

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

Hi there – something a little lighter for you…

This clip is funny!

The Truth In Ad Sales is a spoof set of ad sales, the buzz words and what staff are really thinking!

So you’ll want to watch this ASAP to make sure you get an ROI, OK? – You’ll see what I mean when you watch it!

Is this like your office?

If I had a pound for everytime I’ve seen this kind of thing…

Happy Selling!

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training

Telephone:
0800 849 6732

Looking for sales training? Try MTD!

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

I received a great question from a Sales Manager last week. Here’s what it said:

“From the standpoint of a Sales Manager, what’s the best, most useful tip, or simply the first tip to give a New Salesperson just starting out in my company?”

Here are my thoughts:

This is a great question, and this answer, like many of my answers may not be what some might expect. The first thing to do is to SELL the sales person. I mean sell them the product as if you were asking for a cheque. And if it’s something which they qualify as prospects—I would actually sell it.

One of the biggest mistakes management makes is to assume that sales people are sold on the product because they joined the team, but that’s not so. Usually, a sales person answers the ad because of how much money they think they can earn. But you have to sell the sales person on the product or service, the company and the mission. Sell them to understand and believe that their customers get the biggest benefit when they sell.

The next thing to do is to teach a new sales person about the Science of Selling (SOS). It does not matter if they are brand new to the selling profession or if they have 20 years experience. If they are new to my firm, they first learn SOS.

With SOS, of course I am not talking about the old numbers game or the preverbal law of averages. I mean they learn exactly HOW the profession works; exactly how they are paid, and how much they earn on every single sales activity.

You see, as soon as that new person hits the streets, their first goal of course is to start making some sales and the pressure is on. The goal is to get out there and make a sale as fast as possible. However, I am not concerned with them closing a sale. That is, I do not worry abut the end result end result. I am more concerned with the new person’s work ethic and consistency. I know that if he or she does a certain amount of cold calls, or sends out a certain amount of literature, of knocks of a certain amount of doors, and they do in everyday, with machine-like consistency, I know for a fact that the sale will follow! I don’t worry about them making sales—but more about them concentrating on completing the sales activities that lead up to sales.

Frankly, one of the worst things that can happen to a new sales person, is they get out there and hit a home run very early. They make a nice sale or several sales as soon as they hit the ground. The problem this often causes is this person develops a false sense of “what it takes.” Then, when the numbers catch up and those slow times come (and you know they will) that guy or that gal is history. I don’t mind people getting off to a fast start, but I make sure it is behind the understanding of the foundational work involved.

Start sales people out with a firm understanding of the work ethic and consistency required for success. Put more emphasis on the importance of making a set amount of calls, or presentations every single day, than you do on the end result.

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training

Telephone:
0800 849 6732

Looking to improve your sales process?

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

1 minute, 22 seconds!

That’s how long a voicemail message was for me that I picked up last Friday!

And yes it was from a sales person too.

“Hi Mr McPheat, this is Jo Smith from ABC. Sean, we offer…”

And the sales call went on and on and on.

It ended something like “Sean, so if you’re interested please call me back on…”

Yeah right!

This is awful prospecting.

You see, when you make a telesales call and get through to voicemail you’ve got two options:

1. To hang up
or
2. Leave a message

Now if you leave a message all you should be doing is to “SELL THE CALLBACK”

You should not be going into a long winded “We do this, I called for that” etc

Instead, you should just “SELL THE CALLBACK”

So, how do you do this?

Well, my favourite is to say something like this:

“Hi Sean, this is Jo from ABC. Could you give me a quick call please with reference to XYZ Industries? My number is 33333333. Thanks a lot Sean”

Now, XYZ is a company that ABC would be familiar with or do business with or that you do business with – it must have some sort of connection.

When they call back you say “Thanks for returning my call Sean. XYZ have just taken out a full page ad with us and I just wanted to give you a call to see if there were any synergies between our companies too?”

Notice I have not used the words “Would you be interested in advertising etc”

You’ll get the majority of your voicemails returned if you use this approach.

Hope this is useful to you? Remember, there has to be a company connection if you’re going to use this approach.

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training

Telephone:
0800 849 6732

PS
As well as sales training for your staff we also offer sales coaching and sales management training too!

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

“We all have what we call our “Rules of Sales” such as “follow the law of averages” or “People buy people”. Sean, what would be your definitive list of the rules of sales?”

That was a recent question that I received from a Sales Manager. Here are my thoughts:

I do have a firm set of sales rules and you will see how they match with the above advice. The rules are ‘BASIC’. Just follow them. I don’t have room to get into too much detail, but here’s a brief idea.

B.A.S.I.C.

If you’re willing to demonstrate each of the following principles every working day, you will succeed.

B – Believe, A – Ask, S – S.O.S, I – I.T., C – Care

B – Believe: First you have to completely and passionately believe in what you sell. You have to believe enough to be able to sell your product to your mother or other loved ones. Insist they buy, sell it to them at full price and feel good about making the full commission. Number one-totally believes.

A – Ask: Ask for the order with strength and conviction and be consistent. As you can see you can only really do this if you completely believe.

S – SOS (The Science of Selling): S.O.S. Is about understanding the mathematics of your profession: the numbers, the equations. You have to know how you are paid. By that, I don’t mean what your pay or commission is, what I’m referring to is how you actually EARN it in the first place. What is your time worth! You must understand your closing average, your average sales and your average earnings. You need to be able to attach an exact monetary figure to every sales call and activity you undertake. You need to know not only how much you earn when you make a sale, but what you earn when you’re NOT selling.

I – I.T.: In today’s marketplace, a sales professional must become an expert with industry specific technology. You have to become an expert with a good CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Software Tools, Time Management Tools and more. You have to be a skilled user of Productivity Enhancement Technology too.

C – Care: You must care deeply about what you do and how you do it. You must care for your customers. When customer’s can see that you are pushing them and that your persistence is due to the fact that you do care it will all come together.

Just follow the BASIC’s

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training

Looking for sales training or sales management training?
Call 0800 849 6732

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…