Blog
Getting off the Proposal Hamster Wheel
Don't reach for normal, reach for better.
I love that expression. I heard it recently on the Michelle Obama podcast when she was in conversation with her good friend, Michelle Norris. I think it really summarizes the opportunity that is there in the sales process right now.
I certainly worked with a lot of companies over the last number of years that were struggling to keep up with the level of leads. However, the majority of those leads (80 to 90%) we're not good ones. They were complete time wasters and exasperating their team, and most directors would say to me;
"We're stuck in a rut. We're on this hamster wheel of just churning out proposals. We are overwhelmed. We have 5 to 10 proposals to send out, and we get them done as quickly as possible, and just send it back to the client."
What I saw happening in the sales process was the company sales leader was really trying to figure out what is the best way to filter these leads and to process them as...
Feely Focus on Mindset for Sales
Today's Feely Focus is on mindset and mindset in sales in particular. This is a topic I'd love to discuss today because what I'm seeing out there is a lot of fear.
There's a lot of apprehensions and feelings of what is not appropriate right now; for example being proactive. It's not appropriate to reach out and create more conversations when it's exactly what you or your business needs to be doing.
Your team needs this in order to recover, in order to grow your business, and in order to win more profitable clients. A sales mindset is a key area that I feel is necessary to think through right now.
What is a profitable client?
There's no point in taking low-value business when there's an uncertain marketplace. People are asking me, sales teams, sales leaders, business owners;
What is the right approach right now?
What is appropriate?
How do I sell when I can't meet face to face and so many tools and the techniques, and the methods that people created leads have been taken...
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Cold Calls
I just had a cold call sales call from a very enthusiastic salesperson trying to send me some software, it was over the phone, and I probably will never buy from them for a number of reasons.
- He went straight to a sales pitch and did not take the time to even figure out if what he was trying to sell me was a fit for me.
- I was confused. I was trying to figure out what was relevant about this software; how it was going to help me in my business. Now, I gave him a little bit extra time because the person who runs the company, he mentioned them, and I knew him, you know, from a number of different views of years ago. And so I wanted to give him a chance, I asked a lot of questions to really figure out if it was the right software for me.
So sales leaders, it's really, really important right now to help your team to earn the trust of the buyer.
What that salesperson needed to do was earn enough of my trust to give him my time to take that free demo that he really wanted me to sign up...
