Great Sales Results

Every good sales person I know loves to close the deal. The exciting aspects of the sale like presenting to a large prospect, overcoming objections and signing the agreement get their heart pumping like they just won the lottery. They love the action!

However, every GREAT sales person not only loves to close the deal, but, also has learned the importance of organizing their critical activities in a systematic process so that the important functions of selling, that are not so glamorous, do not get overlooked because they are not as exciting.
Let’s face it, some people are just naturally charismatic and evoke a certain “Mojo” when talking to other folks. People refer to them as the “natural sales person”. You don’t have to be that to be successful selling in this industry. But you DO have to be organized and disciplined.

Here are 5 tips on how to organize your sales activity.

1. Use your CRM software (Contact Relationship Management). There are several on the market; ACT, Goldmine, SalesForce.com, Telenotes or possibly your company has developed their own software for keeping track of their prospect information, appointments, CED’s, etc. Don’t use the software for your sales manager’s approval, your sales director’s edict or for anybody else. Use the software for your own benefit.
2. Entering information. In selling, information is everything. The decision maker’s name, email, cell phone number, competitor, current competitor issues, buying motivations, etc. are ammunition that you will need to close the sale. Since you do not normally sign the agreement on the first or second call, you need a system to capture, organize and retrieve every piece of vital information that will benefit you on the call when you have the opportunity to close the deal. Therefore, begin to identify all of the information that if you knew it, would enhance your chances of closing the sale. Then, enter that information into your CRM so that you can have it when you need it.
3. Scheduling next actions. When is the best time to schedule your next action for a prospect? When you complete your current task! Don’t wait until the end of the day, the next day or your “office day” to schedule your next task. You will never be better informed to schedule your next task (to follow up, email, phone call, send a thank you, etc.) then at the very moment you complete your current task. If you wait, you’ll forget. You’ll either forget some of the information you collected or you’ll forget to schedule because they weren’t interested, or you’ll get caught up with some other activity.
4. Work Geographically. Most sales people have geographical territories. But, I can’t tell you how often I’ve seen sales reps go from one end of town to the other because, due to the lack of a well planned day, calling on prospects they “think” need to see them today. Therefore, it is important that within your area you “sub-divide” your territory into work zones. Then schedule your work zones onto specific days and frequencies. Some zones need to be worked weekly. Other zones may need only once a month.
5. Review your activity. It is important that throughout your working week that you take time to review the results of your activity. Pay attention to what is working and what is not working well. You may discover that some activities need to be stopped while other activities need to be increased. For example, if after a month of cold calling, you discover that only one solid lead resulted while in the same time your network meetings which occur once per week yielded several solid leads and sales. It would seem to make sense to develop more network relationships & meetings to replace some of your cold calling activity. This is just an example, but in order to become more successful, you need to pay attention to what you’re doing that is working and what is not.
   Organization helps focus your resources; time and energy, on those activities that can produce the greatest results. I believe that you will find that a large portion of your activity has very little impact on how much business you sell. It is so easy to confuse being busy with success. Therefore, spend the time to organize your efforts in a systematic and productive way and you will find that results will speak for themselves.

Great Selling!

RentalSalesRep.com is a Remote Sales Management organization that provides digital sales training and sales support to the Textile Rental Industry. To learn more visit www.RentalSalesRep.com, or follow them on Twitter @Rental_SalesRep. You can contact them by email at Sales@RentalSalesRep.com