Tel-E Sales Tip of the Week
May 8, 2009
Published By Art Sobczak,
Business By Phone Inc.
See articles, books, audios, and other resources
http://www.BusinessByPhone.com
See Back Issues At
http://businessbyphone.com/backissuesm.htm
See Material You Won't Get
Anywhere Else at Art's Blog
http://www.TeleSalesBlog.com
Art's Recommended Resource for Lists and Sales Leads
UNBELIEVABLE!
UNLIMITED SALES LEADS
FOR ONLY $9.95 A MONTH!
It's true. The best site to go to for business sales leads is
http://www.GoLeads.com.
Download as many Sales Leads as you want.
It's only $9.95/month. Don't purchase another list until you go to
http://www.GoLeads.com
Includes Contact Names, Industry Headings and
Employee Sizes.
__________________________________________________
Follow Art's Tips on Twitter
This Week's Tip:
You'll Never Graduate from This School
Greetings!
It's graduation season. Kids all over are finishing their
high school and college education. For many, their
formal learning has ended.
I still vividly recall my own college days. It seems like yesterday.
Reading hundreds of pages weekly, doing papers, projects,
speeches, investing many hours in the library doing research…
pulling the occasional all-nighter to cram for an exam when
I got a bit behind in the work, because I also had a couple
of jobs. I did more than my share of the college party thing,
but often had to set aside other activities, saying, "Nahh,
I have an exam. Need to study."
I wasn't a straight-A student, but did pretty well because I
cared. And most anyone who halfway gave a hoot about being in
school for the learning can relate to what I'm talking about.
The fact is, is if you wanted a good result, you needed to push
yourself to do the work and learn the material. The same, of
course is true for today's students.
But, what happens when we leave the formal institutions we
call "school"? When we get out into the school of hard knocks,
the real world. The one we're in the remainder of our lives.
The one that determines how much we earn.
Hmmm, have you pulled an all-nighter lately studying up on
sales skills?
How many pages of sales skills material have you read in
the past week? Heck, the past year?
How many hours have you invested on researching the psychology
of sales, your sales process, questioning techniques? How much
have you practiced?
How often do you review the way you sound on the phone?
How much did your college tuition cost? How about your books
for a semester? Compare that to how much you invested in your
own self-development, as it relates to sales, in the past year?
How does that compare to what you spent at bars, restaurants,
and other frivolous things in the past month?
Look at your profession like others where skills must be
razor sharp in order to survive. Tiger Woods is legendary for the time
he spends working on his game, beating thousands of balls per
week. The results show.
Note to Sales Pros: please do not rely on your company to
provide
you with everything you need. Some equip their reps with lots
of opportunities for growth, others fail miserably in this
area, yet expect great results (I'll get to them in a minute).
As Zig Ziglar said, "What you do off the job determines how well
you do on the job." If you want to grow, it is your personal
responsibility. Whatever is provided to you is a bonus.
And by the way, here is something I've never heard from the
leading salespeople, but hear quite often from the strugglers:
"I've had sales training before." That's like saying, "I had
math in the second grade. I don't need it again." Or, "I've
had chicken pox."
Most people don't know what they don't
know. IF they're
doing something wrong, how would they know, and get better?
Lots of people get really good at being bad, by continually
repeating the same mistakes.
One more thing: be humble about learning. I truly believe in
and live the adage, "The more I learn, the more I realize how
little I really know." Yet, after a training session I'll often
have someone come up to me and say, "Thanks, I knew most of this
already, but it reminded me of a lot of things."
Yeah, I know I'm not supposed to raise my body when I strike
the golf ball, causing it to go wildly right into the woods
or desert.
The fact is, I haven't practiced enough lately to USE the
information when I NEED it, and make it a part of my habits
and skills. Never be ashamed about learning.
Note to Managers and Owners: What do you invest in really,
truly developing your people? And I'm not just talking about
buying a tape program and putting it in the library in case
someone wants to use it. I'm talking about working with your
people, listening to calls, evaluating, coaching. Regularly.
Are your sales meetings sessions where you go over administrative
details, or do you get into the nitty gritty of how to actually
open up a call, get to a decision maker, ask questions, deal
with resistance, and close business?
You might not believe some of the nonsense I hear when it
comes to companies and their sales training. It is absurd,
really, when you think that a firm will pay thousands of dollars
per year in salary and benefits to hire and employ salespeople,
allow them to talk to hundreds of prospects and customers per
week, yet many don't provide more direction or training than,
"Go over there and listen to Pat make calls, then get on the
phone next week." And Pat, by the way, was probably trained
the same way, and the same wrong, resistance-inducing techniques
are passed down.
If you coached or owned a professional sports team, would you
allow your team to just play games and not practice? Lots of
businesses do just that every day. The champions practice.
I actually heard this from a company last week: "We're thinking
about doing some training with our salespeople in the fourth
quarter (they've had none), but we don't want to
spend too much, and can't take more than a day." Good thing
they're going to wait, because I bet the salespeople working
for them right now won't be around. They probably won't sell
up to the company's expectations and get fired.
Note to the Skeptics Out Who Think I've Written This Just to
Sell Stuff: That will probably be a result, and that's good
because I'm in the business of helping salespeople sell more.
However, if I can get just one or two people to email me—and
they will--saying how they are just starting in sales and were
inspired to invest more time in taking advantage of all of the
great free sales material on the Internet, I will feel gratified.
Am I trying to shame and scold people?
No, I don't need to. I'm throwing out ideas for people to react
to. Of course many of the people reading this—hopefully you—are
already sales-info junkies, devouring all of the good stuff they
can lay their eyes on. And I have worked with many, fine, SALES
organizations (you know who you are). But there are others who
look at sales more as a job or a manufacturing position than what
it really is: an art, a science, and a skill. It is, indeed,
all of those. The master sales pro researches, studies, and
practices. And, by the way, cashes nice checks.
I'm not going to sit here and claim that I'm perfect. I did a
self-inventory and realized that as my business has grown, and
I'm pulled in many different directions, I know I can push myself
even more. It's just like taking care of one's self physically;
it's a matter of determining what you value, and what you're
willing to do to get it done. I know I can, and will, carve out
another 15 minutes per day, minimum to study sales material,
written, audio, and video.
How about you?
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Real ongoing lifelong
education doesn't answer questions,
it provokes them."
Luci Swindoll
(If you are inspired to invest in yourself right
now, go to
http://www.businessbyphone.com/
You will see lots of
resources to choose from)
=========================================
Planning Your 2009 National Sales Meeting,
Or any of Your Training? Let Me Help
You Make It the Best Ever
If your company or association would benefit from a content-packed,
entertaining, interactive, how-to customized workshop on any
part of, or the entire telesales and prospecting call and process,
let's talk. I specialize in developing and delivering programs
that get sales reps saying and doing the right things, right
away, to get more YES answers from prospects and customers.
Isn't it time that the organization does something special
for the most important part of the sales process? Size of
group does not matter; I've done programs for as few as three
people and as big as 2000. If your people are not saying and
doing the right things by phone, nothing else matters. Let
me help you ensure it.
For more info, go to
http://businessbyphone.com/art.htm, or
contact me at
ArtSobczak@BusinessByPhone.com, or call
me at (402)895-9399. (Special incentive for Scottsdale/Phoenix
programs)
_______________________________________
Was This Email Forwarded to You?
If this issue was forwarded to you
and you are not yet getting these free
weekly e-mailed sales tips, send an email to
TelEHotTips @
businessbyphone.com. Please put "JOIN" in the subject line.
Please Pass this
Issue Along to Friends, Co-Workers,
Customers ... Anyone Who Could Benefit.
They'll appreciate it, and so will I!
Or, simply have them go to
www.BusinessByPhone.com
and enter the email address.
______________________________________________________________________
Reprint These Tips In Your Own Publication
We encourage you to reprint these Tips in
your own email, online, or conventionally-
printed publications. It's free, as long as credit is given. Reply with your
request. Contact: Art Sobczak, President,
Business By Phone Inc. 13254 Stevens
St.,
Omaha, NE 68137,
(402) 895-9399. Or,
email:arts@businessbyphone.com
______________________________________________________________________
Art's Recommended Resource for Outsourcing Your Calling
If you need professional calls
placed for you, by specialists who know the complexities
of business-to-business calling and can speak at the decision-maker level, let's
talk. We can handle your lead generation, lead qualification, database
enhancement,
customer care, market research, and in some cases, sales calls. To discuss your
project, or an ongoing program,
contact us at 800-434-3221 Ext. 1235,
or
515-285-3420. Or, go
http://www.marketlinkinc.com/