Are you watching your monthly sales getting deeper and
deeper into the red?
Are you thinking that you need to "get yourself a
good salesman"?
Did you know that the moment you signed your name on the
dotted line to start your own business, you became your own best salesman? Are
you?
When I worked as a business consultant with a local
college a few years ago, my job was to work with 32 different businesses each
year in their 10 month program, helping the businesses in that program
implement the program into their own businesses. It was my job to visit with
each of these 32 businesses each month to help them implement the things they
were learning that month into their own business.
But how was I going to help these businesses unless I
knew where their bottom line was?
To my dismay, I discovered that 85% of these small
businesses were technically bankrupt. (This actually matches the Statistics
Canada numbers.)
The question that arose time after time was, "Are
you in sales?"
When I asked that question, I would receive answers like,
"I'm in transmission repairs." or "I'm a designer." or
"I grow poinsettias." Nobody would say that they were actually in
sales.
Guess what! Each and every one of us whether we are in
business or not, is in sales. From the time we are born, we learn how to sell.
We become masters at it through our formative years and into adulthood.
We are in sales every waking minute of every day of our
lives. We are selling ourselves to our families, our spouses, our relatives,
our neighbours, our teachers, our friends, the butcher, the baker, the
candlestick maker...
By the time we are adults, we are masters of sales.
So, do you like sales?
Why is it that as soon as we hear that we might
have some remote connection to sales in our business, that we suddenly freeze
up not know what to say? Why can't we just pick up and speak with energy
and enthusiasm about our product or service? Why do we have a challenge with
targeting people's pain? Why do we not see how we can help them through their
eyes?
How many sales have you missed because you were afraid to
ask for the order? You were afraid of how to form the phrasing to close the
sale? Were you so afraid of losing the sale that you could not form the words to ask?
Remember that you are a born salesman, so this should be
a "piece of cake" for you.
Just because you now have a business does not mean that
you have suddenly become everyone's enemy to sales. Why is it that as soon as
we have a business, we suddenly feel like we are stuck and have to relearn how
to sell?
Follow these two rules of sales success:
1. The questions are the answer.
Ask questions to find out exactly what it is that your
customer is looking for and how you can help them.
2. Practice, practice, practice.
Read books about how to ask for the sale and practice.
Horses and pets are very good listeners...so are stuffed animals. I have
pitched to all of the above.
Would you like to keep on struggling with your sales online or learn how to do it online in my MM 303 - Putting it all
together on 15-30 minutes a day? Putting
it all Together
Catch the EarlyBird by reserving before midnight the 3rd
Friday of the month.
Christine Till
The
Marketing Mentress
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