
Three Top Selling Tips from Sales Superstar Neil Riveron
I love connecting with great salespeople and getting their top tips on selling. Here are 3 great tips from Rapid Response’s Neil Riveron…
Attitude is everything! Here’s how COVID-19 can help you focus on “I can!” as our sales paradigm continues to shift. We focus on healthy habits and also share hot sales fitness tips to keep your head in the sales game and targeted on providing value to prospects and customers when they need it most. Read more…
Did I mention that I haven’t traveled in 9 weeks and how weird that has been for me?! I went downstairs today to check on our supply of paper products (ugh!) and saw my trusty suitcase. My “frenemy”. I fondly said hello, seeing it sitting there alone in the dark and gave it a little pat for old time sake. That suitcase is a reminder of the life I was used to before COVID-19.
I know I’m not alone in feeling a little trapped. Being “grounded” is such a strange and unwelcome feeling for salespeople. We are PEOPLE people! We love meeting prospects and customers, and for those of us in the security sector, hours spent Zooming just can’t replace the value of in-person, on-site visits. Many of our projects require exploration of project sites, plans, specifications and a collaborative “team” approach to arrive at the final mix of products and services that best meet customer goals, objectives and budgets. Trying to accomplish that virtually is incredibly frustrating. But frustration is not a productive emotion for any of us, so I’ve spent some time considering how we – as salespeople – can maintain a positive attitude despite the novel physical sales challenges we are facing courtesy of this novel virus.
I like to think of sales education in a continuum and as a way of building and flexing different muscles to achieve specific goals. Our changing sales paradigm requires new exercises to build up that muscle memory. The recommendations I’ve compiled fit into two categories. The first are foundational “healthy habits” that establish a routine, elevate your mood and prime you for productive selling. The second group relates to actual sales practices; techniques you can directly apply within our new socially distanced, remote-selling reality. When combined, these tips can help you to stay feeling positive and keep you solidly entrenched in the sales game, both mentally and physically.
Set the Tone with Healthy Habits
What activities can you engage in that put you in a positive frame of mind? For me, one thing that really helps me to stay positive is exercise. It’s like a vitamin for my head! A short, intense workout gets my blood pumping, clears my head and allows time just for me. Other activities that can help clear your head are nature walks, bike rides, playing a musical instrument, indulging in a hobby or craft, or even setting aside time to leisurely read a magazine or inspirational book.
Block these activities into your calendar. I block “exercise!” as an appointment on my calendar and you know what? It’s not only something I look forward to, it’s an appointment I keep as a result. It also helps to give structure to my days, forcing me to be more productive during the hours that I’ve allocated to “work.” When our days are completely unstructured, it’s far too easy to lose focus and waste away hours without even realizing it.
Hot Sales Fitness Tip: Behavior and attitude changes happen through conscious intention and repetitive action. List three things you will do daily to maintain a great sales attitude. Stick that up on your monitor as a visible daily reminder!
Why is this important? Believe it or not, that simple “task” stimulates your brain. Just as taking a deep breath before reacting is proven to provide enough time to allow your built-in “fight or flight” behaviors to calm down, getting up and moving is a great way to re-set and realign. You come back refreshed and in a better mental state to answer questions like: Who should I call next? Which leads do I need to update? What can I add to the scope of work I was writing? How best do I help customer X with their budget challenges?
Hot Sales Fitness Tip: Creating headspace for your sales strategies throughout the day will return great short and long-term dividends and help you to get stuff done!
Hot Sales Fitness Tip: Create your arsenal of insightful articles, tips, and tools to share readily with your prospects and customers. Review contacts in your sales management software and send a quick note, thinking of them with an attachment or link to helpful information pertinent to their specific needs. Now smile. Good job!
Hot Sales Fitness Tip: Tie behavioral change to technology. Committing to changes that save you time, keep your efforts focused, and help you to remain on track is easy when completed in sales management software that centrally stores, manages and returns the data to you. You see your progress in real-time any time!
Hot Sales Fitness Tip: When I am challenged by days where things are just not going right, I stop and force myself to perform a sales prospecting activity. In that moment, I coach myself into doing something different. It may sound counter-intuitive but, just taking one single action that points me back in the right direction pays off! I happily enter this into my Prospecting Activity Plan.
Try it. What’s the worst that can happen? You leave a few messages, or you get a hit and can laugh about your “everything was going wrong” before this went right call with a new prospect, or customer.
Applying Improved Sales Behaviors
The Mission. Turning back to the mission at heart, improving as security integration salespeople to provide the best products services and value possible to our customers. Now is a great time to invest in improving your sales skills. Many of us are still “locked down”. Instead of commuting, we can use that time to think through our sales templates, identifying areas that need improvement, and putting new behaviors, strategies and skills into action.
For instance, if you examine your sales cycle and the various sales activities you perform to move opportunities “from contact to contract”, as we say at WeSuite, identify where hang-ups are occurring. Are you getting stuck in specific sales phases? Are certain markets or customer types producing better results than others? Which are quickest to go from lead to “win” and why? What discussions with prospects and customers have you had that may help others?
The answers to these and many other questions are so easily found in data. When using data driven systems as a part of your sales process, specific insight is easily gained that can help you improve the focus and completion of your security sales mission.
Another consideration is a review of your customer base and target markets. Identify those that are actively purchasing security systems, products and services due to our changing world. It is also a good idea to reach out to those who may be struggling to see if there are ways you can help. Remember to record all interactions in your sales software.
For those focused on hardest hit markets, you need to quickly re-position, re-tool and re-focus. Identify products and services that can be offered to other market segments and start outreach. Perhaps there are other security integrators facing work from major accounts who need your help. Think about who is in need, their greatest concerns, and how you can provide on-site and remote security solutions. Whatever your situation, it is time to think and respond differently.
Remember Your Focus: At WeSuite, we have conducted numerous webinar meetings over the last 8+ weeks with one primary focus: to help security systems sales teams better utilize our sales software and in-turn their security sales mission.
One of the primary messages we coach on is using the software as your “virtual sales assistant”. In doing so, you can make serious gains in three specific areas found to be the most challenging in the sales world today:
Final Hot Sales Fitness Tip: Use your sales software as your “Virtual Sales Assistant”. Review your sales data regularly and use it. Create 3-5 sales reports to review and use weekly. The cadence of data review is critical. More importantly however, is using the information. Data tells the story factually. Identify specific information you need in order to know that you are: on goal, over or under for each major sales stage.
Silver Linings: Maintaining a forward looking and thinking attitude helps you to stay strong. Focusing on behaviors and techniques and tracking success makes you stronger. As you improve, you will have clarity based on real-time sales data that is truly meaningful to you. The actions you need to take present themselves. You will expect certain results and be able to validate them, taking next steps with confidence. Most importantly, you will become better at security system sales for you, your team and your customers.
We are all looking to learn, be inspired and improve. Please share your thoughts and “Hot Sales Fitness Tips”!
Click here: Endeavor Media’s “Marketing In Challenging Times”
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