Matthew G. Sikich II is The Official SelfGrowth.com Guide to "Sales Training". You can find complete information on Matthew G. Sikich II and his products by visiting The 5 Buying Habits.
I'm having a problem with a rental property. My tenant doesn't seem to find it important to pay her rent; go figure. I've been managing my own rental properties for 14 years now and rarely run into this problem, believe it or not. I've arrogantly attributed my success with my rental properties ... Views: 1525
Based on your qualifying efforts, determine the likelihood that your prospect will convert into a good client for your business by conducting a DNA analysis. This involves measuring the prospect’s level of desire, need to take action, and ability and authority to make a purchase or selling ... Views: 1522
I cannot tell you how many times I have encountered sales people that don’t know anything about the product or service they are promoting and said to myself, “what is this person doing here?” or “why did I even bother to ask this person a question” or worse yet, ,just turn heel and walk ... Views: 1521
To increase sales performance, sales managers must highlight essential areas of goal development for the sales reps to improve in. Even if the reps are lacking in many professional selling areas, it's best to identify and focus on one area for specific measurable improvement at a time. Next the ... Views: 1515
Remember the old saying “Good Salesmen are Born”. Well, anyone can become a good salesperson if they can learn and master the basic sales skills. Sales techniques have dramatically changed over the years. Gone are the old school selling methods of talking incessantly and pushing a customer ... Views: 1514
As the use of social media networking tools continues to grow in popularity, understanding the netiquette do's and don'ts of online communication is critical to your success. A blended word for “network etiquette”, Wikipedia defines netiquette as “a set of social conventions that facilitate ... Views: 1514
No matter what you do, trust is the most important asset that you can have.
It's crucial for business.
It's required for relationships.
It's the foundation for self-confidence.
We all know in some way or form how to build trust but it is often easy to commit the following mistakes ... Views: 1513
Greetings!
Thank you, today, for the opportunity to share my thoughts on the importance of business training, workshops, hiring and handling business more conveniently which are critical aspects of growing any business.
This I would like to shed light on the importance of Business ... Views: 1508
When sales professionals avoid any situations, where they have the potential to fail or make mistakes, they are limiting themselves and are in fact positioning themselves to fail. The fear of failure or rejection holds far too many sales professionals hostage. They have the ability and the ... Views: 1508
There are plenty of reasons why you would want to hire a sales consultant or trainer for your company. Perhaps you have a new product line coming out and want to enter the market with a big splash? Or your sales force has not been meeting their quota? Or you want to improve your sales team's ... Views: 1507
It is not easy to fill a sales vacancy. The sales industry is known for its high levels of staff turnover caused by a mixture of a large number of vacancies, staff constantly moving to other companies and poor performers being culled in the constant search or the next target. It can therefore be ... Views: 1507
Let me begin by stating that this article is not a discussion about the military or the pros and cons of war.
It is about learning some of the most powerful persuasion strategies in use today.
And the truth is, military recruiters are some of the best salespeople in the world.
They have to ... Views: 1505
In our current economy, it is imperative that businesses maximize their profits while minimizing their expenses. Often, businesses choose to eliminate their training from their budgets to quickly show reduce cost. This can often have an adverse effect on their employee's productivity! Instead ... Views: 1503
Once upon a time there were tricks of the trade. If you have been in sales for anytime the lure and attraction of securing the best list of guaranteed questions with tie-downs has most likely been thrown at you. Today, if you rely on the ancient trades banter, you will not sell, you won't even ... Views: 1497
succeed in the field of b2b sales lead generation and appointment setting, you may need some essential skills.
In b2b sales, these skills will help in terms of opening business relationships--prospecting and of course, for asking the prospects' commitment, which also means your ability to close ... Views: 1496
The benefits of hosting teleseminars are numerous. Value added for your market, multiple streams of revenue, increased visibility and increased market reach to name just a few of the many. In this article we will address a great way to generate revenue on the backend. What this means is after ... Views: 1495
Copyright 2005
Most small businesses will not even try to advertise on television. It’s too expensive and the audience is too broad. The ads on television are not targeted enough. Think back to the last time your entire family was gathered around a television set. It was fun family time, but ... Views: 1493
How can I say that price has nothing to do with sales? There is a very simple way to test whether price is the biggest barrier to you selling your product or service. Sell your product or service on approval. Most software and many services are now sold with a thirty day trial, or on ... Views: 1492
Five great ways to send your sales skyrocketing in 2010
It’s a challenge that even the most accomplished sales professionals have to tackle regularly: how to attract more of the targeted customers who are best suited to help your business thrive. After all, it’s not enough to know who it ... Views: 1490
Over the last few years, I’ve spoken and written in depth about following up with people and why I really do think that it is the most important marketing technique that you can do.
But, I still see business owners struggling with following up with people. Case in point, I was speaking to a ... Views: 1490
Are you searching for new and innovative ways of sales lead generation? Are you lacking in sources of good quality leads? Are you tired and bored using the same methods for generating sales leads?
If you answered No to these questions you're either satisfied with the income you're earning - or ... Views: 1489
As much as we hate to admit it, at one time or another, we’ve all been lied to. Sometimes the lie is exposed quickly and sometimes it takes awhile to surface. In sales, lying from a customer occurs more often than we are aware of.
Did you realize that nearly every sales call starts off ... Views: 1488
Test your customer service knowledge and learn how to be a service ace by picking the correct answer to each of these 10 questions.
1. A complaining customer is:
A. Always right
B. Almost right
C. Often lying
D. Always the customer
2. Customers who complain:
A. Had unhappy childhoods
B. Are ... Views: 1487
The secret to changing minds is extremely simple. So simple, in fact, you are probably not doing it.
In order to change minds, you must first have a relationship with your prospect or client. That's it! You could simply stop reading at this point. You have been given the secret.
Still ... Views: 1487
Sales Prospecting with Twitter.com, is called a 'micro blog'. It is a blogging platform that allows posts to be a maximum of 140 characters. It has taken the online world by storm and is set to stay as a dominant online networking platform for years to come. But the main question is if you are a ... Views: 1487
Retired CEO of General Electric, the great Jack Welch has six rules for success. Are you following these rules of success, or are you on a path to irrelevance?
1. Control your destiny, or someone else will.
2. Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it were.
3. Be candid with ... Views: 1486
Undeniable fact: Almost everyone tends to do business with people they know and like. That's why one of the most important facets of your marketing program should be developing and using your interpersonal communication skills. If you allow yourself to be shy or antisocial (and we all have those ... Views: 1485
Reaching out to new prospects and getting your marketing message across effectively can be a real challenge. Yet overcoming it crucial to achieving your customer acquisition goals.
Any face-to-face interaction with prospects and turning them into buying customers requires a lot of patience, ... Views: 1485
Building a lasting relationship with your customers is beyond important, especially in the age of information. More than ever customers have access to information about your products, yet they still want to buy from people they trust. How important is trust to YOU when you buy?
The more a ... Views: 1479
I attended a sales training course a number of years ago and the trainer was talking about closing techniques. I remember he said on several occasions ‘ask for the order and then keep quiet’ he had plastered all over the walls in the training room silence can be golden.
I would love to say ... Views: 1479
You might be wondering what on earth an elevator speech is and why you would want to develop one? Simply put, your elevator speech is a concise, powerful statement clearly defining what you do, and presented in such a way that it creates a desire for more information. I call it an "elevator ... Views: 1478
My first sales manager, a grizzled old veteran with a no excuses allowed attitude used to tell me, “there are no lousy products, just lousy salesmen”.
As a rookie salesman I thought the comment surely a strange one. Of course, there are bad products I thought. I know a bad product when I see ... Views: 1478
It's one of the best pieces of copywriting advice I've ever been given. "As often as possible, start your paragraphs with sentences that hook readers and drive them deeper into the copy." Why? Because - after the headline - the first sentence in any paragraph is what gets read most often. ... Views: 1477
There is a great cold calling scripts debate in the sales community. One group argues scripts make callers sound canned. The other side says if you don’t know where you are going you are likely to get there and your script is the roadmap.
The anti-scripts camp does not want to sound like the ... Views: 1475
On Monday mornings prospects are too busy… On Friday afternoons prospects are gone… Don’t want to bother the prospect by calling too early… They’ve probably left the office by mid-afternoon… Middle of the week they’re very busy… What to do?
One of the questions I am frequently asked is, “When ... Views: 1475
Sales Management II – What Managers Should Do for Off the Charts Selling
“A Sales manager’s job is to move sales people to do what works.” This is Part II of III - The “Do” of the key elements – “Move”, “Do”, and “What Works
The “Do”
“Do” means implementing the skills, techniques, ... Views: 1474
If you’re anything like me, you’ve put thought energy and effort into a project, only to be disappointed that the results were not what you wanted. Here’s a tip on what may have ‘gone wrong’ and how a revised perspective can help.
You’ll find this added understanding invaluable. As with ... Views: 1469
How To Stay Up, Even When You’re Down.
This past weekend I was going through some old newsletters when I came across a letter that might help you to deal more effectively with the recession and the tough times you're facing.
So - enjoy the updated version of my Mt. Everest Newsletter.
Sixteen ... Views: 1468
Being a best selling author has been made a lot easier with the advent of the Internet, a place where book enthusiasts from all over the world can converge and hunt for their favorite titles. The Internet's open accessibility, however, does not mean every writer that goes online marketing route ... Views: 1468
When it comes to closing a sale do you really know how to close? Do you freeze up afraid to close or don't know what to say? Do you know how and when to close a sale or even if the prospect is interested in your product? Well, read on and I'll share with you six ways to overcome these common ... Views: 1467
Business owners and sales management can take steps to inspire their staff to new heights. They should be transparent in communicating the actual business results of the organization. Incentive programs can be introduced to all employees and not just the sales team to foster better overall ... Views: 1467
As a sales strategist, I commonly witness that sales people are most comfortable selling one thing and one thing only, whatever their lead product or service is. This approach isn’t the most beneficial thing for you, or the customer. When you cross sell, it has the following benefits:
It ... Views: 1467
When selecting an onsite Microsoft vendor, make some wise choices regarding the scheduling of the training event. You want to get the biggest bang out of your dollar. Make sure small mistakes don't take away from the training experience you have paid for.
Date of Training
Do NOT schedule ... Views: 1467
Why does selling appear to be so much easier for some salespeople?
It seems that they have a knack of identifying which doors to open and then knowing just what to do or say to convince the prospect as to the value of their offering. They are often described as “lucky” or “always been in the ... Views: 1466
Wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to make money and a difference all around the world, 24/7, regardless of time zone, while you were awake, asleep, working, playing or doing whatever you wanted to do?
Of course it would! That’s why so many heart-centered entrepreneurs are adding information ... Views: 1465
Picture this happening to you. Recently you made a major purchase, one that you hope to make only every few years because of the high price involved. During the time you talked with the sales professional, he made you feel very special.
In fact, he greeted your spouse enthusiastically, and ... Views: 1464
Oh, the joy of humming along with those great songs, the hits, wonderfully re-mastered instrumental versions, especially the electronic tonal beats that play over and over through the filtered telephone interface as we wait for the service attendant to finally click on and tell us the ... Views: 1463
Encourage and Expect Individual Accountability is a necessity in life as it is in business. I have yet to find a business professional, athlete, or parent who maintains a high level of integrity, honesty, and success without understanding this law. One of the most difficult things is to say, ... Views: 1463
Great leaders in business, especially those in the sales world, have often regarded people skills as their greatest assets in motivating as well as leading.
There are lots of opportunities for sales managers to motivate even during mundane every day activities. They could be anything from, ... Views: 1459
One of the new marketing trends is “disruptive selling.” This is defined as any marketing strategy that is bold enough, unique enough or enough out of the ordinary to create buzz and, consequently, sales. It could be marketing that runs counter to the time of year when competitors are running ... Views: 1458