from: smartsalestips.com
Businesses can have all the sales they need to be wildly successful. How you ask? Well you could sit in your office cold calling, but that is a numbers game and most salespeople don’t like doing it so they are not very effective. Most people don’t buy from a cold call – do you?
Or do you reach out to someone you know for a recommendation? Most people tend to buy from people they know and trust and that’s why making connections and building relationships is the key to increasing your sales.
How many networking events do you attend each month? Are you getting enough leads from those?
Unfortunately, all too often I walk into “networking” events and see the following: people register, walk into the meeting room, find their friends or coworkers, sit down and start eating. They chat with the people they know and then listen to the speaker while they finish their meal. When the speaker finishes the raffle prizes are given and people leave. Or sometimes I see the ‘product-pushers’ who aren’t interested in connecting or learning anything about you, they just want to sell their product. Sound familiar?? I don’t consider either of these networking.
Networking is one of the easiest and most important things you can do to increase sales – when done effectively. But to get results you need to develop a strategy, set goals, and you need to do the follow up.
Contrary to much teaching, motivation comes from within and no one can motivate a person other than him or herself.
We also know is that a successful leader can create an environment in which his team members can be successful. They can create the stage for success for those people by being the type of leader their team members respect.
What I hear every day from unhappy sales reps is that they are not recognized or appreciated by their boss. They’ll tell me of a terrific success they had that day or that week and how their boss never even acknowledged it. The idiom “praise publicly and critique privately” has never been more true.
Always publicly praise your employees’ successes and triumphs (large or small). It costs nothing but reaps immeasurable rewards. I would climb mountains for my favorite boss and I always wanted to make him proud.
Another big motivator is establishing clear and obtainable goals, especially if your sales reps know exactly what is expected and if what is expected is obtainable and reasonable. What is de-motivating is setting unreasonable goals. If a sales rep feels the goal is way out of reach, they will do less, not more.
Lastly, a sales rep finds greater motivation while holding greater respect for their sales leader. How do you get respect? . Being truthful, professional, respectful and fair with your team will go a long way toward earning their respect. The old way of leadership was creating fear and trying to motivate with fear. This will sometimes work in the short-term, but will never grow into a rich, mutually beneficial relationship between you and your team members.
Treating your sales reps as people and with respect, establishing attainable goals and publicly complimenting your team will go a long way to making your goals in 2009 and 2010!
Or do you reach out to someone you know for a recommendation? Most people tend to buy from people they know and trust and that’s why making connections and building relationships is the key to increasing your sales.