Sales Planning and Sales Consulting Articles
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Talking with your existing customers is usually not too difficult. If they are happy with your product or service, and you enjoy a good business relationship with them, it can be easy and pleasant. But what about your other prospects, the ones who are buying from your competition? How do you get this business?
Selling is tough by definition. There is always a competitor enjoying the business that you want to have. In some cases, they may be getting business that you are aren't even aware of because you just haven't had the opportunity to talk to the potential buyer. You are on the outside looking in. Even with your current customers, bold new ideas, the security of the status quo, cost considerations, or the lack of a solid, credible business relationship can be obstacles to "adding on" additional sales.
Soliciting new business is at the other end of the spectrum from taking orders. Prospecting's hallmarks are frequent rejections, potential buyers not reached, doors not opened, and endless voice messages not returned. Nevertheless, the successful sales person always sees the cup as half full, not half empty. For every door that appears closed, one can be opened. How do you find the ones to open? To be sure, for really big sales results, you need to find a way. Tackling the tough account and making major inroads on their business can and should be a positive part of your selling mentality. It's not as hard as you may think. Your attitude and commitment to success every day will make the difference.
Sound too simple? Not really. No one makes the big score every day, yet you can establish a way of succeeding daily and it will color your attitude and solidify your pattern for winning. How? Commit to making at least one concrete step forward with a customer or prospect every day, no matter how small it may seem. Take a look at your territory, your accounts, or your prospects and make a commitment to move one of them ahead further than they were the day before. Even when you slightly open a closed door, it is a Mini Win for you. If you set your mind to accomplishing a tangible step in advancing one potential client or customer further than they were before, you can establish a pattern of ending every day with a win, that no matter how small, will form the pattern or your success. Mini Wins make for a winning attitude, and a winning attitude can make you pretty tough to beat.
Mini Wins are the small successes you achieve as part of a plan to know all your current and prospective customers, what they are buying, what they need in the future, and how you can participate in their business success. Mini Wins are concrete steps that can lead to establishing or advancing a business relationship. Mini Wins are when you actually contact a prospect you have previously been unable to reach.
A Mini Win isn't earth shaking. It is, however, very positive and moves you in the right direction to meet the people who can buy. It can be as simple as:
- Breaking through the voice mail barrier - a first conversation.
- An appointment to meet in the future.
- A successful cold call - introducing yourself
- An exchange of information - learning of potential opportunity.
- A lunch or breakfast appointment.
- A prospective customer's willingness to receive specific information.
- Sometimes just knowing where the activity is in the market (or where it is not) can help shape your prospect planning and focus your time management efforts. Small accomplishments can quickly fill your sales pipeline with meaningful potential sales. Seems like common sense, doesn't it?
Mini Wins formalize a daily plan to open closed doors, establish relationships with buyers you don't know, obtain information you need to formulate sales targets and set priorities, and most importantly, identify the valid business reasons you need to intrigue a new customer or client. A mini win is not a sale but remember, if you're not talking to the prospect, then you can bet that one of your competitors is. Mini Wins are tangible evidence of your progress and initiative; they measure your conscious efforts to expand your potential sales base and the number of solid buyers with whom you can meet. Mini Wins are positive. They give you a sense of accomplishment that may seem modest, but are powerful when viewed cumulatively at the end of the week or the month. Small successes are not insignificant; they shape your entire attitude. People who win every day are winners. Winners sell business and make money!
Committing yourself to Mini Wins every day can be a low tech, virtually cost free process. In its simplest form, you need only a poster board and two colors of common "sticky" notes, preferably pink and another color. It can also be done with most popular relationship management software. For most users though, the low tech, poster board approach is more visual and has greater impact and effect.
As a starter, take 35 of your top prospects or customers; the ones you are not "on top of". These are the accounts where you may not have a relationship with the buyer, or you know little about the competitive situation. You are concerned because you are literally standing on the outside saying, "I wonder what is going on inside?". With these bases not covered, you have little or no chance of selling them anything. Using the poster board, divide it into a grid to accommodate 35 equal squares and label each square at the top with the name of the account. Place 35 pink stickies in each square. What do you have? You have 35 accounts that need action of some type to begin the process of relationship building, information gathering, meaningful sales calls, etc.
Each time you take any action, such as leaving a voice mail, sending a letter, or making a cold call, note it on the pink slip. This signifies an initiative on your part, but with no specific result or contact. When an action finally results in an actual contact with the prospect, write your brief comment on a yellow note. Remove and replace the pink note. Again, the yellow note is only used when you have had contact with the prospect, in person or by telephone. Set a goal to replace a pink note every day with a yellow note. Each time you replace a pink note with a yellow one, you have a Mini Win.
What's the value of a pink note saying you left a voice mail or sent a letter? On the surface, perhaps little. But you can be sure of this: If you do this daily, pink notes, which visually pinpoint the weaknesses in your territory knowledge, relationships, and control, will disappear and give way to only yellow notes. Sooner or later, you'll meet every key prospect. When you do, you can be guaranteed that the big successes are soon to follow.
As weeks pass, paste fresh yellow notes over the old ones every time you have an new action or initiative such as an appointment, phone call, or mailing. The board should be dynamic and reflect your continual progress in developing new business opportunities. Many salespersons keep the board going continually. You can also start from scratch with a new group of prospects, working them in the same manner. Whether you expand on the original list or not, the goal is clear: add new yellow notes to show inroads with new prospects and eliminate as many pink notes ( the prospects going nowhere!) as you can.
Using a poster board, near your desk and your phone, is both effective and useful. It serves as a constant and bold reminder, everyday, of your successes in moving forward, and equally important, what accounts still remain "in the dark". You can quickly see where your prospecting priorities lie and you can move to take charge of your own success each day. After a short time, you will not be content to see blank pink as you look at your status board. Remember, even one Mini Win a day can give you tremendous results by the end of the month.
Computer software varies tremendously yet all will provide, in one form or another, the ability to track, for each account, your activity as a note, a to-do, etc. Customized reporting can allow you to view the status of this information, as well as share it with others who would benefit from knowing of your initiatives. Yet as it is with so many sales steps, simple is often better. The poster board, because it is so visual, is extremely effective.
The answer is yes. Looking for new business isn't easy, but it is the key to breaking through your sales goals and quotas. Mini Wins will give you a concrete method of focusing on the prospecting priorities that you have set, and will allow you to measure with your eyes the results and progress of your efforts. It is a great feeling to know that you are on top of your territory, can point to specific actions taken to position yourself for new sales, and know that persistency will invariably pay off in sales dollars. These Mini Wins perpetuate a winning attitude and lead to the big rewards down the road.
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