1. www.scitech2Q03.com Sales Masterclass
Top 10 Sales Tips
"What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?"
Dr. Robert
Schuller
1.Define and target your markets. Every piece of advance
targeting will pay
dividends in reduced cost of sale, time to sale, better return on
your marketing
budget, and overall improved pipelines, (that means more
sales). And once you've
identified your best prospects, aim to understand your
customer's business, but
don't over-research. You want to find out something from
them, and not appear
to be a know-all.
2.Always have a value proposition. Analysing lost sales
invariably points to
a competitor able to articulate the value of their service better
than you. Test it
out as part of your market planning, and use and refine it. It's
much more
interesting to the prospect than the features of your product,
so don't
3.Don't call your top prospect first. Practice makes perfect,
so is the account
you really want to win the one to practise on? Try out your
presentation skills on
someone less critical (but don't let them know that)
4.Never leave a meeting without agreeing next steps.
The road to
nowhere isn't the one you want to be on. And make sure the
prospect has
something to do too. It shows they're committed to the
process and genuinely
interested.
5.Only sell the product for free once. It's great to get your
early market
entry, and create a reference customer, but don't do it more
than once. You'll
have no money and a huge support overhead, and a market
perception of being an
easy touch.
6.Question, question, question. But have them prepared in
advance so that
they bring out the customer's issue, which, surprise surprise,
can be resolved by
your product. When you've identified their issue, find out the
real impact on the
organisation. That's where your value proposition comes in.
Always ask "If you
could fix/improve/etc would that solve" and don't state "With
our product you can"
7.Don't be a walking library. The easiest way to get rid of a
salesperson is to
ask for literature. If you reveal all, then there's nothing left to
find out and that
next meeting may never happen, (cf first-date sex)
8.Beware of low-hanging fruit. Quite often you're being
asked to pitch to
make up the numbers (column fodder). Those unsolicited
tenders should be
handled with care (don't get tender if you're not in a
relationship)
9.Have a clear salescycle with defined stages - even

2. when you're
starting out. Monitor and report at each stage. It's the only
way you'll be able
to modify your approach and provide a reliable forecast. At
the end of a sales
cycle always write win/loss reports. "If you lose, don't lose the
lesson" - Dalai
Lama. And don't get carried away by success - you might just
want to replicate it.
10.Reference stories are your most useful weapon.
Always create stories
from a successful sale to use in similar situations. Try to make
the company a
reference customer (try writing it into the contract), but don't
take the mickey.
Even your best customer has limited patience.
Your bonus tip
'Some will, some won't, so what'
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