Archive for the ‘sales tips’ Category
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
This is Part 3 in our Maximize Customer Meetings Series. This Friday, March 19th, the third agenda in the series goes out to subscribers. The 3 part series will soon be available on our store, also. To get weekly sales team meeting exercises that cover this and many more selling topics, subscribe to Meeting to Win today.
You’ve followed the steps to prepare and execute a productive customer meeting. You’re not done yet! To maximize the work done on this customer meeting so far, it is helpful to send comprehensive and organized Meeting Notes after the meeting. This is where many sales professionals quit. Following up thoroughly is a great way to gain a competitive edge in a sales cycle.
Get started the day of your customer meeting.
- Typically, sales representatives will send a quick thank you note via email to the customer.
- In that short thank you e-mail, let the customer know you will send them more comprehensive Meeting Notes to outline everything discussed and agreed upon along with a timeline of next steps.
This action gives the customer some ownership in this process immediately following the meeting and sets you both up to accomplish something, therefore, maximizing your meeting.
Within 48 hours send your Meeting Notes. Meeting Notes should include:
- A bulleted list of the information the sales representative learned about the customer’s needs.
- A list of action items for both the sales rep and the customer along with time lines.
- A couple of bullets with high-level ideas on possible solutions you discussed while meeting.
- Possible pricing scenarios (if discussed in meeting).
- Call to action. At this point, let the customer know what to expect next. For example, “we will contact your administrative assistant to set up a time for you to tour our plant”.
Benefits of using Meeting Notes after a customer meeting:
- By outlining this in writing post-meeting the customer has the opportunity to correct any wrong or missing information. This is critically important for the sales representative who is formulating a solution.
- This demonstrates to the customer that the sales representative has a clear understanding of the needs which builds confidence and trust and ultimately rapport.
- Customer is agreeing to next steps and is sharing in the ownership of finding a solution.
- Often customers use these Meeting Notes internally to share progress on finding a solution or to report to senior leaders. This builds your good reputation with more of your customer’s leadership, saves them work and demonstrates that you have their best interests in mind.
- Clear communication along the way is critically important when problems or misunderstandings arise in sales cycles. The relationship built along the way can make or break a sales as it gets closer to closing.
Sales Team Meeting Idea:
- Ask the team to come prepared to discuss a recent customer meeting that resulted in next steps.
- As a team, write your Meeting Notes and share them with the group.
- Provide feedback for each other on appearance, communication style and ease of use.
- To get more in depth sales training exercises and practice on this topic, subscribe for Meeting to Win sales team meeting agendas here.
(To get this blog’s new posts emailed to you every Monday morning , Subscribe to our blog.)
Tags: customer meetings, energize sales team, motivate sales team, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting idea
Posted in agenda ideas, agendas, best practice, communication, discipline, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings, management tips, maximize tools, sales activity, sales management, sales manager tips, sales managers, sales meetings, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas, sales tips, team meeting, tips for meetings | No Comments »
Monday, March 8th, 2010
We at Meeting to Win are big fans of Paul Castain and his work. During our 3-week Sales Team Meeting Agenda series on Maximizing Customer Meetings we thought you may enjoy Paul’s thougths on starting your meetings with impact.
Starting Your Meetings with Impact
by Paul Castain of Sales Playbook
OK, pop quiz. How long does it take to make an impression on someone? 30 seconds? 10? Less? …
Here’s something that you can do in your very next client/prospect meeting …
Read the rest here.
Tags: cusotmer meeting success, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agendas, sales teams
Posted in free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings, management tips, maximize tools, meetings, sales activity, sales manager tips, sales meetings, sales tips, tips for meetings | No Comments »
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
It is almost impossible to not “go off the grid” with your prospective customers and customers during the holidays. Everyone is heading to some much needed time off. You can have a competitive advantage by staying on the grid while your competitors are dropping off. Here are 5 ways to do it that won’t cut into your much needed and deserved R&R.
1. Send Happy New Year cards to your clients. These cards should arrive right before or right after Jan 1st. Your greeting will stand out since it won’t be arriving with the pre-Christmas gifts and cards that get lost in the shuffle or arrive during vacations. Your New Year’s greeting could include a calendar or some useful information for the new year.
2. Send an article or book that is relevant to the current business climate or their current business issues. They can start the new year thinking about you and gaining some fresh ideas.
3. Get on their calendar for a January meeting. The new year is a great time to evaluate the business you did the previous year and set plans for the new year. Requesting a Jan meeting in December is extremely effective. Customers want to feel they have a productive Jan set up before they leave for the holidays, also. Setting up a meeting with a good objective is a good way to help them do this.
4. Help them prepare for new year planning meetings. If they are a current customer, one way to do this is to send them a slide deck outlining the work and accomplishments in 2009 along with some ideas to continue the good work in 2010. Your email can start with “Often our clients ask us for a recap of the previous year so they can use it during thier new year planning sessions. I thought you may also find this helpful. Please see attached document. I am happy to walk through the slides with you at your convenience. Hope it’s helpful as you head into the new year.“ Write it in a way that they could use it with their superiors and in planning meetings. They will see you as a true partner and you’ll cut their 2010 workload before the year even begins.
5. Instead of just an “out of office” reply, send a proactive note to your customers and prospective customers several days in advance of your vacation. Let them know you’ll be out and how they can get in touch with you if appropriate, or at least how to get in touch with someone who can help them in your absence. They probably will be out, too, but they will have you in mind and feel that you took an extra step to ensure they are taken care of even when you are out. (It’s a great reason to reach out to them when you return to let them know you are back in the office and move your relationship forward.)
Enjoy your time “off the grid” while a few small efforts will keep you “on the grid”. Happy New Year!
Tags: new year
Posted in communication, how to have productive sales team meetings, management tips, new managers, new years resolutions, sales activity, sales management, sales manager tips, sales managers, sales tips, tips for meetings, tough economy | No Comments »
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
This has been a tough year for many. It’s Q4 and salespeople could be feeling tired and ready to “write this one off” and take another shot at it in 2010. Here’s the problem with that. Momentum is a very cool thing and it’s great when it’s working for you and horrible when it’s working against you. So, even if 2009 is a lost cause in terms of goal achievement, there is no better time (well, a month ago would have been better, but…) to get momentum going for 2010.
To gain more and more momentum as you close in on 2010, try these strategies:
The first five on the list come from the advice my friend Alvin of Tactivity shared in a LinkedIn discussion. I’ve added (and repeated) a few ideas that have helped me, also.
- If you’re on pace to the President’s Club in your organization, then increase your activity.
- If what you are doing hasn’t been working, then complete a thorough cleansing of the pipeline/funnel: Is it real? Is it good business? Can you win?
- Prioritize your activities around the health of your newly cleaned funnel
- Brainstorm a list of possible actions for your top opportunities; then choose only the 3-5 activities that will really advance them towards closure
- Go get it done!
- Conduct business reviews with existing clients to secure relationships, identify risks and uncover new ways to help them.
- Examine your territory for new opportunities a tough economy has turned up.
- Increase your sales activity. Oh, did we already mention that one? Action creates action, energy creates energy. Make more calls!
- Solidify referral partners. Decide to gain 20 referral partners and stay in touch with them, ask for referrals, be accessible and be someone they would be proud to refer (hint: send them referrals, also).
- Stay “on the grid” with prospects and existing customers. Share useful information to help them run their business more effectively. Don’t be out of sight or you know where you’ll be…. Out of mind. Many of their sales reps have “gone dark” lately as companies do lay-offs and reorganizations. Just being there may differentiate you!
- Have a team meeting every week to celebrate successes, share ideas, collaborate on hot deals and challenge each other. This team accountability and celebration is fuel for your sales engine. (You know we couldn’t leave this one out!)
- BONUS: Increase sales activity. In my experience, there is NO substitute. Commit to accelerated sales activity in Q4 if you do nothing else. Yeah, it’s worth mentioning 3 times.
2010 can be an amazing year. Salespeople that build momentum now can get a head start and be rewarded by helping more customers in 2010 than they ever thought possible. Not to mention, for some 2009 can be a distant memory…. Get started today. Staring in January 2010 will be TOO LATE.
To help sales teams build momentum during Q4, Meeting to Win is running a Q4 Push Promotion which means…free sales team meeting agendas for Sales Managers. Sales Managers can subscribe for sales team meeting agendas and get all of Q4 for free. First payment of $10/month won’t be charged until January 2010 (sales managers can unsubscribe any time in Q4 and never be charged). The agendas are designed to motivate sales teams and accelerate performance while continually gaining and maintaining incredible momentum.
Read more HERE then join us by subscribing HERE and entering the Promo Code “Q4PUSH”.
Posted in LinkedIn, Uncategorized, agendas, best practice, communication, culture, down economy, free sales team meeting topics, management tips, meetings, new managers, new years resolutions, opportunity, performance, sales activity, sales management, sales manager tips, sales managers, sales meetings, sales team, sales team meeting ideas, sales tips, tough economy | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
For the past 6 months I’ve had the opportunity to witness a salesperson succeeding. Of course, I know many salespeople succeeding, but this story really intrigued me. First of all, this salesperson started a consulting business in their field 6 months ago. They had no brand, about ten thousand competitors and no marketing budget. Oh, and we were in the downward spiral economically.
Flash forward 6 months and this salesperson has more business than they can handle and is now considering adding to their team just to keep up.
I am very impressed with how hard this person has been working and really started to think about the actual keys to their success beyond just hard work. I started making a list of this salesperson’s activities, habits and characteristics and thought it would be fun to share my list in a blog post.
So, here, in no particular order, are my observations or what I am calling “one salesperson’s keys to success”.
- Creative deal and pricing structures. This consultant is in an old industry where they’ve always done pricing the same way. He surprised prospective clients with better deal structures than they’d seen. Don’t mistake “creative” for lower – these are competitive deal structures that are a win for both parties.
- This salesperson is not afraid to walk away from deals. If the deal isn’t in this person’s sweet spot, he actually walks away from it and spends time where he can be more effective – and valuable to his client.
- Cold, hard, disciplined sales activity. This salesperson knows what activity leads to sales results and he does that activity EVERY DAY.
- Manages time effectively. Plans his work and works his plan – seems so simple.
- Does not get slowed down by rejection. He is able to expect some rejection and take it in stride knowing he is that much closer to a “yes”.
- Uses technology effectively. He is very selective about which technology tools to use and which would be “cool”, but just create more work or wasted time.
- Frugal. He is only spending money where there is clear ROI.
- Networking, networking, networking every day.
- Chose a niche and sticks with it. He is turning down business outside his niche. Since he began doing this his traction in his niche is growing daily and his client list has doubled each month.
- He sets attitude rules. For example, if he loses a deal, he only allows himself to “mourn” it for 24 hours. He uses business development activity to pull him out of mourning which turns into new opportunities before the 24 hours is even up.
- He takes care of himself – he works out daily, eats right and even took a week vacation.
- He doesn’t waste time on administration. He set up a system that is efficient and doesn’t spend too much time on paperwork.
- This person naturally has no call reluctance.
- This salesperson has stayed in touch with past clients consistently for 15+ years.
- He is a master at LinkedIn. Daily he is on LinkedIn building and sharing his network.
- He asks for referrals every day – and gets them.
- For some reason, Tuesdays were a discouraging day. This salesperson figured out why (he couldn’t connect with anyone on Mondays and felt no progress) and did something about it. He created a plan to stay motivated on Tuesdays and recognized that the week always improved.
- Extremely and appropriately persistent.
- Knows his ideal customer and pursues ONLY that.
- Faces reality and addresses concerns during deal pursuits. He recognizes when a deal may go south and addresses it with the client before he spends too much time.
- Works a tactical plan. This salesperson knows his strategic goals and then carves out time to create a detailed tactical activity plan. When he gets to his office he “doesn’t have to think”, he just executes his plan.
- He really enjoys his business and his clients. Making them happy and solving business needs genuinely motivates him.
These are just my observations of one successful salesperson. If you are struggling currently, grab some ideas from this list. Duplicate his success using his habits. Happy Selling.
This post brought to you by Jill Myrick, Owner of Meeting to Win, LLC. Get weekly sales team meeting agendas and create momentum on your sales team! Visit us at http://www.meetingtowin.com/.
Posted in Uncategorized, best practice, down economy, efficient, management tips, performance, recession, sales activity, sales management, sales tips, tough economy | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
I love Dave Stein’s blog and today’s was another good one. Here is a link to Dave’s New Year’s Resolutions For Sales Leaders post: http://davesteinsblog.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/new-year-resolutions-for-sales-leaders/.
I thought we could add a few more to the list:
11. I will commit to open, honest, real communication with my sales team. Sales people could be facing frustrations and new challenges in this economy. Some are scared, some don’t know how to adjust. Keep communication frequent, consistent and open with your teams.
12. I will hold a regularly scheduled sales team meeting for the many, many benefits they bring. This is a great opportunity to share best practices, analyze wins and losses, improve sales skills, learn from each other’s experiences, understand in real-time what impact the economy is having on our customers, etc. The result? Shortened sales cycles, improved morale and a more equipped sales team.
13. I will commit to holding selling time sacred. Increase customer time by setting the example. Don’t let internal meetings take up selling time. Suggest selling hours each day or selling days each week – whatever works in your business. And then, let NOTHING interfere with that, NOT even your CEO. As a sales manager, set aside time each week to get out on sales calls. This time with your team and customers is too valuable to skip.
14. I will ask my team, as a group or individually, how I can better support them. Your team needs you to run interference, push internal issues through, approve terms, etc, etc. Ask them what they need more of and less of and then figure out what course of action makes the most sense. One way to do this is to ask the team about the best and worst managers they’ve had and why they think they were the best or worst. You’ll learn a lot about what your team wants from you and they won’t feel like they are critiquing you personally. You can follow that exercise by asking them if they’d like to see some of those “best” things from you and fewer of those “worst” things to turn it to how you can serve them.
15. I will bring fresh ideas, new activities and valuable opportunities to my team regularly. Don’t let things get stale. Keep bringing ways to learn to your team. Invite guest speakers, give them access to new tools and best practices, put some effort into planning interesting meetings. Keep looking for ways to add value for your team.
16. I will read one new business book per quarter. The benefits of this are endless. Your own creativity flows better, you learn from thought leaders and experienced, successful business people, you get new ideas and you stay fresh. Your team senses this and it sets the tone for your culture. If this is too much, start with Book Summaries and read one 8-page overview each month. (http://www.summaries.com/)
17. I will ask my sales team to read one new business book per quarter. See #16. Plus, you could all read the same book and discuss it or each choose your own and give “book reports” so everyone learns on multiple topics.
18. I will attend regularly scheduled business reviews with our clients. If you aren’t already doing this, commit to scheduling regular business reviews with your top clients. It’s a chance to find out how you are doing, review how you are helping them the way they hired you to, address any challenges and understand how their needs are changing and how that means you should change. Ask your reps to schedule these and attend them religiously.
19. I will commit to focus! It is tempting to have knee-jerk reactions to the changing economy and constantly change the team’s focus and strategy as you go. Resist this urge. Pick your selling strategy and commit to it with regular follow-up, communication and accountability.
20. I will make a commitment to prospecting with my team. New customers and new business from existing customers is a life line. Constantly be working towards new customers and new business from existing customers. Make this a regular activity and help the team figure out what specifically they should be doing and how often. Depending on your business, each person adding one or two new logos or departments could help you sustain long-term sales growth.
Please add yours!
The Meeting to Win Team
www.meetingtowin.com
Posted in etc, management tips, new years resolutions, sales manager tips, sales managers, sales tips | No Comments »
