A “Wake Up” Letter to all Sales Representatives

Dear Sales Representative,

Technically – this includes everyone since we are all in the business of selling. However just for clarity this letter is especially for all sales representatives, solo practitioners, business owners and business leaders.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

The best are getting better.
The weak are getting worse.
The middle is dropping out of the middle.

If you watched the news on just about any day of the week, you will agree there has never been a bigger need for a professional sales approach. When prices skyrocket, the stock market tumbles, and customers are worried, it’s time for you, the person on the front line of the economy, to jump in, attack, and truly make a difference. Costs are going up on every front and you will HAVE to raise your prices and at the same time make your customer feel good about paying more! To the average person, that sounds like an impossible mission! But for the professional sales person, it’s what MUST BE DONE!

What is the most important thing you must build in order to sell to a new client? Skipping this part is what is responsible for most people not making the sales that they should today. The reason is that everybody is under pressure to do more and to sell more. So what do you usually do in a selling situation?

You call on a prospect, dump your sales pitch in their lap and wonder why they don’t jump on board with you. You even cut the price so low you are not making any money. They still don’t bite. And you wonder how people can be so set in their ways that they won’t hire you. You start looking for someone to blame. You think that you are not offering the right products, or your service is not good enough. You begin overanalyzing and stressing out.

Let’s look at it from the prospect’s point of view. “I don’t care how low your fees are. I don’t care how many benefits you have. I don’t care if you have the most perfect offer in the universe. I don’t care if you have an “irresistible offer.” You want me to dump my current vendor and you want me to hire you? How do I know you are who you say you are? How do I know you have my interest at heart? How do I know you will deliver what you say you will? I don’t know you – so I don’t trust you!”

So, job numero uno is to establish trust. You must establish trust if you want to make the sale. And today people don’t trust anybody unless they have earned it and neither should you. The only way to build trust today is with consistent exposure. It means you bring your potential customers an idea that will help their business. It means you may give them a free sample. It means you bring them some valuable news. I know what you are thinking. I need business NOW. I just lost one of my biggest clients. My income is going to take a huge cut.

Well now is not the time for being scattered and using rush tactics to get more business. Now is the time to think. How can I consistently expose myself without being annoying? Make sure you follow up on all the things you’ve been asked about. Provide the customer with references and testimonials from people they know so they can check you out. Then you will have begun to establish a relationship based on mutual trust. Then perhaps you could start a business relationship.

It means you better add 10 more prospects a day to your list and start a “consistent exposure” program with them. It means you better not take your current customers for granted. It means you had better be a little more demanding of yourself. It means that if you are not putting in a 50 to 60 hour week marketing your services you are not doing the job that needs to be done.

After Christmas and the New Year there could very well be a major reduction in everybody’s discretionary income spend on all goods and services. Now more than ever, you need to be establishing trust at a much deeper level with all those customers whose business you desire. If you’re thinking that your job description is not SELLING or you feel embarrassed to be called a sales person then you are missing the whole point of being in business. Titles are not designed to exclude you from selling; they are there to make the customer view you as something other than someone who is simply trying to sell them something. But from your point of view, you need to say to yourself “I am a sales person and I’m damn proud of it!” From the customer’s point of view it is no longer going to be about who has the cheapest price! It’s going to be about “who do I trust the most with my business?”

For a FREE copy of “7 Steps to Up Your Game and Get Your Phone Ringing” send an email to possibility2profit@gmail.com