9 Tips That Will Bolster Your Sales Efforts

Many believe the sales game has changed drastically in the last few years thanks to the Internet and the collapse of the New Economy. While it is true that businesses and salespeople have a lot more tools at their disposal nowadays, there are certain sales practices that are timeless. These fundamentals are the skills that the very best salespeople strive to perfect, because at the end of the day a sales tool is only as good as the salesperson behind it.

Good Salespeople Succeed No Matter What The Economic Climate.

Now, more than ever, businesses need their salespeople to pound the pavement, to hit the ground running and reach out to prospects. Consider this your refresher course on sales-Sales 101. These 9 sales tips will never go out of style and will make you money.

9 Tips That Will Bolster Your Sales Efforts:

Tip #1. Know Your Product/Service - Salespeople cannot hope to sell their product or service if they do not know it top to bottom, inside and out. That is why the first thing any salesperson should do is learn their product or service completely. There is simply no excuse not to be an expert on what you are selling.

Tip #2. Know Your Prospects - Just as salespeople should be educated on their product or service, they should also be educated on their prospects. Salespeople should have a target niche they are selling to, and should be able to engage them on level footing. Knowing your prospects will provide the sort of insight that helps close a sale.

Tip #3. Learn About Your Competitors - "Tire Kickers" are a type of prospect notorious for shopping around, for testing the water. Tire Kickers are the most likely to ask a salesperson about the differences between their product or service and their competitors'. That is why it is crucial for salespeople to know these differences as well as they know their own product or service.

Tip #4. Be Proactive; Take The Initiative - Never wait for the phone to ring, for a prospect to call you. Business will not just "happen," it requires initiative. Great salespeople are constantly networking, making calls and following-up on marketing campaigns.

Tip #5. Remember Your Existing Clients - Sales is not always about prospects. Your existing clients, the people you have already won over, are still just as valuable as ever. Keep them in the loop about any new offers, specials, discounts or products/services that might be of interest to them.

Tip #6. Cross-Sell Your Products/Services - Cross-selling products or services is another area of sales commonly underleveraged. So long as an additional product or service is relevant to a client or prospect, they will appreciate that you are looking out for them, and may just take you up on a promising offer.

Tip #7. Keep Track Of Sales Progress - Tracking sales results and how those results are achieved is an excellent way of creating a factual roadmap that shows which sales techniques work and which do not. The easiest way to do this is by using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.

Tip #8. Always Follow-Up - Persistence is an essential trait for any salesperson. On average, prospects do not commit after the first phone call, e-mail or marketing touch. It takes multiple touches to nurture the seed of interest in a prospect's mind, and those multiple touches require follow-up.

Tip #9. Learn From Your Mistakes - Regardless of line of work, everyone should strive for improvement, including salespeople. One of the best ways to do this is to examine your past mistakes. Spend some time going over past sales efforts and exploring what went wrong and why in order to prevent repeating those mistakes in the future.

Executive Summary: Remember, bells and whistles and fancy technology are not the things that drive sales - it's the salesperson. Top producing salespeople continuously examined their sales skills and look for different angles to become successful. Ultimately, it is the disciplined salesperson who does the right things each day who wins the majority of sales.

The 10 Biggest Mistakes Made By Salespeople

In any work environment, mistakes are inevitable. But just because mistakes are unavoidable does not mean we should not strive for perfection. To that end, it is crucial to learn not only from our own mistakes, but also from the mistakes of others. This is especially true for salespeople as mistakes in a sales situation could result in the loss of sales revenue.

Many salespeople consistently make a handful of big mistakes - mistakes that could easily be avoided. So with that in mind, we put together the list below to help bolster your sales success.

The 10 Biggest Mistakes Made By Most Salespeople:

Mistake #1. Not Listening To A Prospect - This is easily the biggest mistake salespeople make when talking with a prospect. A great salesperson knows that sales is about listening and learning about a prospect's needs and wants. Solution: Ask a prospect a hard-hitting business question, then listen carefully to their response. If you don't understand it, have the person rephrase the question.

Mistake #2. Being On Autopilot When Selling - A salesperson who is on autopilot is an absolute turnoff to prospects - laying your sales pitch on too thick not only comes off as pushy and obnoxious but also insincere. Solution: Work on having a personalized conversation by asking business-related questions (see above). Do this and you will gain a greater understanding of their primary issues.

Mistake #3. Not Establishing Trust - Sales situations are a lot like dating; relationships need to be established by getting to know one another. Solution: Work on building a strong rapport with a person so they feel comfortable sharing critical sales data about their needs. Once done, a salesperson can gain a better understanding of how to position their product to solve their pain.

Mistake #4. Lack Of Preparation - When a prospect speaks with a salesperson, they expect him or her to be an expert on their product or service. Solution: Salespeople need to do their homework and come to every sales situation thoroughly prepared, knowing their product or service as well as their competition.

Mistake #5. Not Researching A Prospect - Just as a salesperson should educate themselves on their product or service, they also need to educate themselves on the prospect. Solution: One of the fastest ways to research a prospect is to go to their website before you make the call.

Mistake #6. Prejudging A Prospective Buyer - Prejudging a prospect is a surefire way to miss a sales opportunity or to start a sales call on a bad note. If you do, eventually it will get in the way of making a sale. One of the biggest mistakes people make is prejudging a person before they know their title or their relationship to someone who has decision-making authority. Solution: Assume everyone you talk with is an owner of the company or related to the person who does own the company.

Mistake #7. Going Off Topic - There is a fine line between being conversational, friendly and approachable and being an excessive chatterbox. The latter will not only eat-up valuable selling time, but will also give you a less-than-professional image. Solution: If you find yourself in a situation where someone is talking a lot about "non-business" issues, it is best to bring them back on track by saying, "So back to business for a minute..."

Mistake #8. Not Proactively Following-up - Not proactively following-up with a prospective buyer is one of the biggest mistakes many salespeople make these days. Solution: Do two things: (1) Invest in a marketing system for your business and (2) call your list of prospective buyers every 75 to 90 days - even it is just to say hello.

Mistake #9. Not Being Able To Close A Sale - It would be a huge mistake not to close a sale after going through all the trouble of courting a prospect and educating him or her on the value of your product or service. Solution: If a prospect seems sufficiently interested in your product or service, do not hesitate to ask them this: "When are you ready to get started with __________?"

Mistake #10. Not Actively Prospecting - There is no such thing as having too many prospects. Salespeople always need to be expanding their database of prospects, which requires devoting time to prospecting. If your database is not growing, sales will eventually plateau or even begin to dwindle. Solution: Make the time. It's as simple as that.

Executive Summary: As you can see, there is much more to sales than picking up the phone and telling people you offer competitive prices, great customer service or that you are a local or national resource. In fact, if that is what your sales approach is, you probably are not having much luck selling what you are selling. Today's economy has forced people to buy on the value you bring to their business. If you show every prospect you talk with today the value your products or services bring to their business, you will drastically improve your sales success.

10 Tips for Managing Your Boss (Part 2 of 2)

Managing Your Boss Will Improve Your Work Life.

As mentioned in Part 1, the hardest part about managing your boss is warming up to the idea. Since it goes against everything we have been taught about job boundaries, the idea of managing management can be uncomfortable. However, as the Harvard Business Review points out, the benefits to your work life make managing your boss a worthwhile endeavor.

10 Tips for Managing Your Boss (Tips 6-10):

Tip #6. Don't Make Assumptions - Your boss is not a mind reader. Whenever you turn to them for input, paint a complete picture of whatever it is you are presenting. Do so as if telling a story - start at the beginning, moving forward clearly and articulately while making sure not to leave out any details. Effective employer/employee interdependence hinges on effective communication.

Tip #7. Don't Be Afraid To Test The Waters - Obviously you should keep your boss in the loop, but most bosses do not want to be asked about every little detail. This is why management tends to be impressed when an employee shows initiative. Taking initiative (within reason, of course) helps alleviate some of your boss' workload while simultaneously showing independence and leadership skills.

Tip #8. Never Make A Promise You Cannot Keep - If you promise to deliver, you better step up to the plate. Trust is thin and delicate - hard to build up but easy to break. Sometimes you need to be open and honest about limitations. If too much is asked of you, inform your boss; sit down with them to work out priorities and details before proceeding.

Tip #9. Understand Different Work Cultures - There are four profiles commonly found in the work environment:

• People who like to control things
• People more concerned with people
• People more concerned with getting things done
• People more concerned with ideas

Knowing which of these profiles best fits your boss will go a long way in helping manage them.

Tip #10. Finalize Everything You Turn In - Treat everything you turn in to your boss as the final version. For starters, you cannot assume that your boss will check your work (facts, figures, data, spelling, etc.). So if an error does turn up, responsibility rests on your shoulders no matter what. There is also the matter of your boss' trust in your reliability, which you do not want to compromise.

Executive Summary:

In today's business world, smaller and more efficient business environments necessitate a new kind of team dynamic. While the roles remain the same, the relationship between a boss and an employee should be based more on sharing the decision making responsibilities. Helping your boss with his or her workload, especially those with a Type A personality, will help alleviate everyone's work stress. After all, happier management makes for happier employees.

10 Tips for Managing Your Boss (Part 1 of 2)

The modern office structure is no longer the rigid hierarchical structure it once was. Nowadays, there is a much stronger emphasis on the interdependence between employees and management. In other words, employees are expected - and encouraged - to be part of the decision making process with their boss.

Managing Your Boss Will Improve Your Work Life.

The hardest part about managing your boss is developing the right frame of mind to manage them. So many of us will find this unnatural at first as it goes against everything we were taught in the past. But once you do knock down those walls, the benefits will start pouring in for you.

10 Tips For Managing your Boss (Tips 1-5):

Tip #1. Contribute To The Decision Making Process - In order to expedite the decision making process, lend your boss a hand. Do this by specifically telling your boss what you expect and need from them, summarizing the options available and voicing your suggestion. Decisions are better made when multiple perspectives are explored.

Tip #2. Help Manage Their Time - Most bosses tend to juggle a lot of things at once. When this is the case, it is easy for something you need to slip through the cracks, as it may not be as big a priority for them as it is for you. Enforcing a deadline on your boss may seem like being insubordinate, but 90% of the time, they welcome the structuring.

Tip #3. Offer Suggestions When Asking For Opinion - This goes hand-in-hand with Tip #1. If a boss wanted to run the entire company alone, they would not have hired you. One of the best things you can do for your boss when you need their opinion is to come prepared with not only questions but also possible options or suggestions. The more prepared you are, the less time it takes to sort through whatever you are addressing.

Tip #4. Avoid Adding To Their Work Pile - Making more work for your boss does not benefit anyone. Information overload just causes undue stress, which leads to hasty decisions, and hasty decisions lead to mistakes. Condense data and bullet list information that you present to your boss so that they can quickly and easily process it.

Tip #5. Bring Solutions When Reporting A Problem - The ongoing theme to this e-tip is the idea of employee/employer being a two-way street. Such is true when facing problems. Most problems have several aspects to them. The trick is figuring out which of these aspects is what you need to bring to your boss' attention. Dumping the problem at large on them is tantamount to passing the buck.

Executive Summary: In today's business world, smaller and more efficient business environments necessitate a new kind of team dynamic. While the roles remain the same, the relationship between a boss and an employee should be based more on sharing the decision making responsibilities. Helping your boss with his or her workload, especially those with a Type A personality, will help alleviate everyone's work stress. After all, happier management makes for happier employees.