How to Stay Motivated in Sales

September 10, 2017 jeffbeals

By Jeff Beals

Leading a sales team is not easy. Consider these scenarios based on true stories:

Scenario #1

Your sales team is in the running for what would be the biggest contract in company history. You invest countless staff hours and other resources to win the business. For a while, it looks promising. You build a trusting relationship with the primary decision maker and have demonstrated how your offering perfectly fits their need. The prospect starts using phrases like “When we work together…” and “You will be responsible for…” and “We really need you…” You now consider that decision maker to be a friend.

Then suddenly your main contact starts being vague and evasive and is slow in returning calls. Two weeks later, the decision maker, your new “buddy,” sheepishly tells you they chose a different provider. It makes no sense to you that the other company was chosen, because they don’t provide the things that the prospective client originally told you were the biggest priorities. You feel frustrated, defeated and misled. Worse yet, you were counting on that business and it vanished. You’re incredulous and wonder, “Why did they lie to me?”

Scenario #2

It’s never easy to attract an elite sales rep from a competing company despite your non-stop recruiting efforts. You need a couple more sales reps but at least the ones you have are good especially, your top producer, Jim. It seems like there’s nothing Jim can’t do. Year after year, he breaks records. And he has such a great attitude!

Then one day without warning, Jim resigns to take a new sales position elsewhere. He thanks you for being a good leader and for providing the resources he needed to succeed over the past 10 years but says he needs a change. His decision is final. You never had a chance to make a case for him to stay. The pit in your stomach feels terrible. You and the rest of the leadership team talk and act as if there was a death in the family.

*****

If you have been leading sales teams for any significant amount of time, these scenarios likely ring true. While sales is not rocket science, it’s not easy. One of the most important skills a sales leader can possess is the ability to bounce back when life punches you in the gut.

With all the emotional, high-risk/high-reward scenarios playing out each year and with so much riding on your ability to lead the sales process, how do you cope with disappointment? How do you cope with the pressure? How do you avoid burnout and stay motivated?

These ideas will help you keep it fresh and keep the completed deals flowing:

1. To cope with the inevitable rejection in a sales career, concentrate on your victories. Celebrate each one of them in your own way. Some people will tell you that if you simply expect success, you don’t need to celebrate victories. I disagree. Appreciate everything.

2. Keep in mind that selling is a noble profession. Without sales activity, the wheels of commerce grind to a halt. Your work creates jobs and feeds families. Sales is the lifeblood of your company. Without you and your team, there would be no company.

3. Remember that character is king. Focus on people – the hopes and dreams of the clients you serve and the real needs of the team members you lead. Draw inspiration and motivation from the people who surround you. When you remember that the things you sell have real impacts on real people, it helps you ride through the rough patches.

4. Embrace the competitive side of sales. Do you enjoy sports? If so, you probably love competing and watching other people compete. Sales is game. Try to accumulate little (and sometimes big) victories each day. Playing to win removes the drudgery of day-to-day work.

5. Take pride in your resilience. It feels good once you have successfully persevered through difficult times. Remember that feeling anytime you feel hopelessness and then do what it takes to feel that way again. Great leaders are resilient. Three of my favorite quotes from former British prime minister Winston Churchill will help your bolster your resilience:

“Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.”
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm”

6. Make it fun for both your team and yourself. Those who don’t ﬁnd ways to enjoy their work typically don’t survive long in a brutally competitive industry. Find the joyful and positive aspects of your work and focus on them.

7. Tell the truth even when it hurts. Integrity leads to success. You will be rewarded with high levels of client and employee retention.

8. And finally, as you sell today, imagine what your legacy will be years down the road. Your work in leading a sales team literally shapes the future. Isn’t that pretty important?

ATTENTION SALES LEADERS:

If you hold a leadership position in sales, I have the perfect resource to help you become even more successful!

It’s called the “Sales Leader Mastermind Group,” and it kicks off this fall. I will personally lead and facilitate this group along with my partner Beth Mastre. I’m recruiting members for it right now. There are four in-person meetings per year – All the other meetings are virtual, so you can join in no matter where in the world you might be. My mastermind group members will also have their own personal discussion forum.

Sales leadership can be a lonely existence. Joining this group will help you create a stronger sales culture, attract talented sales reps and drive more revenue while you better manage both your personal and professional life. Click here to see an info piece about this mastermind or contact me personally at (402) 510-7468.

How to Establish Your Personal Brand This Fall

September 6, 2017 jeffbeals

By Jeff Beals

I live across the street from a high school.

Make no doubt about it; there are some negatives living so close 2,500 teenagers. You hear a lot of squealing tires and you’re constantly picking up fast-food wrappers that blow into your yard.

But there’s a big positive as well – I love hearing the marching band practice each evening. It starts in early August and continues throughout the high school football season. When I hear that marching band, it puts a smile on my face, because it means autumn just around the corner. It’s my favorite time of year.

September is also the best time of the year to assess your personal brand status and make plans to grow and strengthen the image people have of you. Why is September such an important time? Well, ever since you were a kid, September marked the beginning of new academic year. As a professional, it’s the start of a very busy four months. Right now is your chance to make sure 2017 ends up as a success for you.

Make no mistake…You ARE a brand. You’re a business of one, a business unto yourself. Every successful business makes annual marketing goals. As a “personal business,” so too must you. So too must all of us.

As I do each year around this time, I’m reminding you to protect and advance your personal brand, here are 12 items to remember:

Focus externally – Be active and involved outside your home or office. Show up at networking events. Go out of your way to talk to people when you are in public venues. Remember that nearly 75% of all jobs are never advertised and a similar percentage of big clients only come from relationship-building. Make it a goal to attend a certain number of events per month.

Think Like a Sales Pro – Because you are a “business” of one, you need to sell yourself the way businesses sell themselves. Read up on marketing and sales techniques. Remember that a good sales rep always has lots of prospects moving through all parts of his or her pipeline at all times. In other words, at any given time, you should be meeting new people, strengthening relationships with existing acquaintances and holding serious professional conversations (deal-making, so to speak) with people you know well.

Find the Fascinating – You need an “area of self-marketing expertise,” something about your business or career that is fascinating to people outside your profession. Feature this when you are networking or using social media.

Focus on results when networking – Determine what is most interesting about your career and your line of work and then exploit it. I call it your “area of self marketing expertise.” That’s what you talk about when you meet new people, not the mundane, technical details that will cause a lay person’s eyes to glaze over in boredom.

Build a “Google trail” – If you haven’t done a search on your name lately, see what’s out there. I guarantee that people are Googling you on a regular basis. A prospective client will probably Google you to know who he or she is dealing with before meeting with you. That’s why a Google trail is so important. If nothing or very little pops up when someone Googles you, there’s a problem – they’ll assume you don’t have much going on. Therefore, Google your own name on a regular basis. If you’re not very visible on line, deliberately get your name out there to build an Internet presence.

Get serious about social media – Be honest…Is your online brand inadequate? Social media are now to people what the Yellow Pages were to businesses 25 years ago – THE place where future clients and prospective employers find out about you. Don’t just have a presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Make sure you post material that is interesting and not just inane personal stuff. Use social media to strengthen your reputation by building on your area of self-marketing expertise. Social meeting is not just for fun; it’s an essential business tool.

Go Beyond the Big Three – LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are great, but don’t stop there. The more social media outlets you use, the better. You can even use Google+, Pinterest and Instagram to build a personal brand. Millions of professionals receive great benefit from their YouTube videos. Blogging has long been a powerful personal branding tool.

Use Your Real Name – In order to build your personal brand awareness, use your real name when reviewing products on websites, making comments at the end of newspaper/magazine articles and posting comments on discussion forums. Just make sure the things you write help your personal brand as opposed to harming it.

Engage the Media – Volunteer your expertise to media outlets in your industry as well as your local market. Make a point to meet members of your local and industry media and build friendly relationships with them. In addition to traditional media, you can get a lot of mileage from doing blogs and podcasts.

Refresh your value statement – Does your 20-second intro speech need updating? You need to be able to say what you do quickly, clearly and in a way that captures a person’s interest. A useful elevator speech also conveys how a person could benefit from what you do.

Ask probing questions – Don’t just chit-chat and make small talk during networking conversations. Ask some questions designed to uncover the critical information that leads to new opportunities.

Listen to your clients and colleagues – When we get too busy, it’s easy to start making assumptions. Those assumptions can cause you to lose opportunities. Instead, ask the important questions and truly listen to the responses. Don’t just go through the motions. Let the other person’s words sink in and make an impression on your brain.

By the way, never let up. When things are good, don’t let complacency stop you from perpetually marketing yourself. When things are going poorly, don’t let discouragement be an excuse for apathy.

Remember, marketing yourself is never about ego; it’s just marketing. In a loud and crowded world, hard work and talent are no longer enough. You need to make sure key audiences know about your abilities and accomplishments.

Jeff Beals shows you how to find better prospects, close more deals and capture greater market share. Jeff is an international award-winning author, sought-after keynote speaker, and accomplished sales consultant. A frequent media guest, Jeff has been featured in Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, Men’s Health, Chicago Tribune and The New York Times.”

Here’s Why Should You Choose Jeff Beals as Your Next Speaker:

“Jeff Beals has presented four different topics at five of our internal events in 2016. At each event, the audience of commercial real estate principals and agents was completely engaged and motivated the entire time. Jeff facilitates his training sessions in such a way that each member of the audience was able to relate and understand how to apply it every day in the field. Jeff is brilliant, and we have hired him to continue speaking at our events in 2017!” – Lindsay Fierro, Senior Vice President, NAI Global, New York, NY

“Your workshop was a huge experience for our attendees by giving them the opportunity to improve their work in the critical environment in which we are living today. Your talent as a speaker and your qualities as a person made the difference during your time with us. I would certainly recommend you to anyone who asks.” – Ana Paula Costa, Educational Planner, Febracorp, Sao Paulo, Brazil

I’m in Phoenix and had breakfast earlier this morning with our semi-retired sales representative who is doing some continued work for us here. He attended your sales meeting last week and told me that in 43 years of selling, you were the best he had ever heard. Thanks for a great experience.” – Drew Vogel, President & CEO, Diamond Vogel Paints, Orange City, IA

“Our corporate partnership team had great takeaways regarding how to network smarter while also understanding the importance of our personal brand to current and prospective partners. Jeff does a great job weaving in real-world examples and how you can apply his teachings to growing your business and building long-term partnerships.” – Jason Booker, Senior Director of Corporate Sponsorships, The Kansas City Royals Major League Baseball Team

+1-402-637-9300

info@jeffbeals.com

Important Differences Between Sales Leaders and Sales Managers

August 30, 2017 jeffbeals

By Jeff Beals

A sales manager is the person responsible for making sure the sales staff is in place, equipped to succeed and motivated to compete. Good sales managers think quickly on their feet and take immediate, decisive actions to mitigate any threat to the organization’s ability to sell.

Sales managers facilitate the sales process and protect the organization’s ability to do deals. While the term “sales manager” is the typical, generally accepted title of the person in charge of sales, the term “sales leader” is more appropriate. A manager supervises details. He or she makes sure tactical work is accomplished in an efficient manner. A leader makes sure those tactical tasks are completed but sees the business from a broader, more global perspective.

Even if your company is a small one, with only one person in charge of the sales staff, sales leadership is more important than sales management. The sales leader empowers the sales staff to carry out their work and rewards them for deals completed. Anyone who serves as a company’s sales manager would be wise to see himself or herself as a leader and behave accordingly.

As the sales leader, you need to carefully analyze employees’ personalities and push the right buttons to help them succeed at the highest levels. Urge them to accomplish more while still setting them up for success.

“It’s putting people in stretch assignments,” said Joe Moglia, former CEO of TD Ameritrade.

Moglia believes two primary things are critically important when choosing people for a job and when assigning new goals to an existing employee: alignment and listening. You can’t succeed with one and not the other. The leader must thoroughly understand the assignment and the people being considered for it. The most talented people in the world will fail if their personalities and abilities are not in alignment with the job. When it comes to listening, the leader must ask the right questions and then focus on what employees say and what body language they exhibit. Listen to find out whether the staff member is really excited about the assignment.

Effective sales managers accept responsibility. They realize that they are in charge and accountable for what happens, but they don’t see themselves as bosses. A leader is not a foreman. As a leader, you must depend on the abilities and hard work of your staff members. A successful sales leader is one who establishes interdependence. He or she trusts and depends on the staff while the staff trusts the sales leader to guide, provide resources and create a safe, pro-selling atmosphere.

Sales leaders have so many responsibilities – recruiting reps, training them, keeping them motivated, forecasting/budgeting, working closely with marketing, etc. – but there is one area of a sales leader’s job that is crucially important but often underrated: resource acquisition.

The most effective sales leaders do what it takes to make sure their sales teams have the tools and budget they need to close deals.

Attracting new clients is so important that every organization should devote considerable resources. That said, not all do. Leaders of various organizational departments in a company jockey and position for resources. Some are better at it than others. If the sales leader isn’t good at playing corporate politics, the sales staff might be at a resource disadvantage against the competition.

If you’re a sales leader, do not let this happen. One of your most important duties is to provide your sales team with everything it needs to succeed. You don’t ever want to give your salespersons an excuse for not performing. Lack of resources is a convenient excuse for a sales person but should not be an excuse for a sales leader.

One of the best ways to ensure abundant sales resources is to establish your personal clout inside your organization. This is accomplished by doing good work and practicing good internal politics.

Clout is affected by timing. Make a pitch for greater sales resources right after you score a high-profile victory. Make the pitch when the higher-ups most value you and believe they could least afford to lose you.

ATTENTION SALES LEADERS:

If you hold a leadership position in sales, I have the perfect resource to help you become even more successful!

7 Reasons Why You Should Join a Mastermind Group This Year

August 15, 2017 jeffbeals

By Jeff Beals

Napoleon Hill wrote one of the most popular business books of all time back in 1937. It was called Think and Grow Rich, and in the 80 years since it was published, more than 100 million copies have been sold.

Though it was released during the Great Depression Think and Grow Rich remains shockingly relevant for professionals working in the 21st Century. The book was the result of Hill’s 20-year study of highly successful individuals who had amassed great personal wealth.

After studying the habits of exceptional people, Hill developed 13 achievement philosophies that lead to success. One of those philosophies was called, “The Power of Master Mind.”

That’s right…Napoleon Hill invited the mastermind group.

In 2017, sales professionals are joining mastermind groups like crazy. They have become super popular over the past five to 10 years even though Hill wrote about them eight decades ago.

What’s a mastermind group?

It’s a group of professionals, usually about eight to 15 of them, who meet on a regular basis to help each other be more successful in a confidential setting. Leadership can be lonely, because there simply aren’t a lot of places you can seek guidance inside your organization without compromising confidential information or admitting your personal weaknesses.

“The Mastermind principle consists of an alliance of two or more minds working in perfect harmony for the attainment of a common definite objective,” Hill wrote. “Success does not come without the cooperation of others.”

I benefit from membership in a mastermind group. I’m part of a mastermind group of 52 sales speakers/consultants located around the world. We’re ostensibly competitors, but we help each other be successful. We view the world from an abundance mentality, which means we work together to increase the size of the pie rather than fighting for pieces of a smaller pie. Just today, one member of our mastermind group sent a message on our private discussion forum seeking advice as to how she could better serve one of her clients. Several mastermind members chimed in with ideas.

If you are asked to join a well-structured mastermind group consisting of high-quality people, consider yourself lucky. You should probably jump at the opportunity. Actively and enthusiastically participating in a mastermind group is hand-down one of the single best things you can do to up your game and improve your life. Here are seven reasons why:

1. You’re no longer on a deserted island. Once you join a mastermind group, you’re no longer alone. Instead, you’re part of a confidential group of outstanding leaders. Many masterminds allow only one person per industry. That means you can openly share information without your direct competitors hearing about it.

2. You gain transferable knowledge. The legendary businessman Henry Ford visited a beef packing plant in Chicago many years ago. Ford took great interest in the way workers processed the beef from whole carcasses into small cuts of ready-to-sell meat. As he observed, it occurred to Ford that if the process was reversed, all the cuts would go back together to form a whole steer carcass again. The metaphorical light bulb switched on in Ford’s head. “I can build automobiles this way,” he thought. Ford returned home to Detroit and promptly created the famous assembly line.

If your mastermind group includes people from different industries, you can learn amazing ideas and apply them to your industry allowing you to jump ahead of your competitors.

3. You constantly learn new things. In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey advises us to regularly “sharpen the saw,” meaning we take time to open our minds and increase our skills. Your profession is constantly changing; a mastermind group can help you stay on the cutting edge.

4. You develop better habits. A good mastermind is highly supportive yet also holds you accountable. If you say you’re going to tackle a new project one month, your fellow mastermind group members will expect to hear about your experiences the next month. This helps you avoid procrastination.

5. You benefit from a “personal board of directors.” A mastermind group functions as your own advisory board. You can go to them and seek counsel for just about anything. Peer-to-peer advising is incredibly powerful because it allows you to get things off your chest, figure out what to do before you do it and discuss possible outcomes before they happen. Just think how successful you can be when you have a group of people who are invested in your success just as you are invested in theirs.

6. You might find new clients. While this isn’t necessary an expressed benefit of many mastermind groups, some of your fellow members might be ideal clients for your organization. Mastermind members tend to become friends. They bond together. There’s nobody better to do business with than somebody you completely trust.

7. You become more confident. When you have the opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of a potential decision with a group of talented and experienced people, you will carry out your decisions with much more confidence.

While mastermind groups are indeed powerful, don’t join one unless you are ready to give it your full commitment. It does require time and effort. If you can’t find one that suits your needs, you might just start one yourself!

Hey, if you have a leadership position in sales, I have the perfect mastermind group for you! It’s called the “Sales Leader Mastermind Group,” and it kicks off this fall. I will personally lead and facilitate this group along with my partner Beth Mastre. I’m recruiting members for it right now. There are four in-person meetings per year – All the other meetings are virtual, so you can join in no matter where in the world you might be. My mastermind group members will also have their own personal discussion forum.

Here’s Why Should You Choose Jeff Beals as Your Next Speaker:

+1-402-637-9300

info@jeffbeals.com

Is Your Buyer a Liar? Here’s How to Find Out

August 11, 2017 jeffbeals

By Jeff Beals

“Buyers are liars.”

That’s an age-old saying in the sales profession, and I hear salespeople use it from time to time.

I’m not a fan of the saying, because using it can emotionally pull you apart from a client, but there have been times when I too have thought “buyers are liars.”

Why do sales pros feel compelled to utter these words? Is it because grizzled veterans get cynical and jaded after years of sales trench warfare?

Perhaps that’s the case for some burned-out old timers, but it’s not the main reason.

Is it because sales reps harbor feelings of hostility toward their clients?

No, it’s not that either. Most professionals are grateful they have clients.

Sales pros like to use the term “buyers are liars,” because sometimes they’ll work hard trying to find the perfect solution for a client only to have that client later say they want something completely different. It happens a lot in some industries.

Is that the buyer’s fault?

Occasionally, but not usually.

While some people choose to mislead a salesperson for whatever reason, blame is usually placed at the foot of the sales pro. We sometimes think “buyers are liars” because we are not really listening. More significantly, we’re not listening as intensely and studiously as we should.

The key is to listen like a detective. Think like a detective. Act like a detective.

Ask questions and carefully listen. You need to listen as intently and actively as a detective listens while interrogating a suspect in a homicide or some other serious crime.

I have often thought that many of the activities professionals (of any industry) do each day are analogous to the work done by detectives.

Whether you are selling, negotiating, proposing or convincing, your success depends on conveying information and getting information out of somebody else. There are times when your clients, colleagues and vendors do not want you to know the whole story. Other times, they may accidentally omit important parts of the information.

As a “detective,” you need to keep digging. Turn over the rocks. Scratch the dirt. Use your Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass. Don’t take things at face value. If you have any doubts or feel like there is even the slightest hole in the information you are receiving, you need to keep questioning – and listening – like a detective.

During interrogation, criminal suspects have a vested interest in the outcome, which is why they lie, withhold, mislead and evade. Detectives look for inconsistencies in their stories and take cues from suspects’ body language. When detectives get the sense that they might be making progress in an interrogation, they start to go deeper, asking more detailed and intricate questions.

Hopefully, your professional interactions are not as grave and adversarial as a criminal interrogation. Nevertheless, you must know that many of the people with whom you interact feel compelled to withhold information. You need to get that information out of them, because it has a direct impact on your success.

Even when the other person and you have a mutual interest, it’s not uncommon for the truth to lie beneath the surface. Keep questioning and listening intently until you are convinced you have unearthed the whole story.

ATTENTION SALES PROS:

I want to make you aware of a unique prospecting resource available to you. My colleague Beth Mastre and I are offering the “Sales Prospecting Masterclass” on Tuesday, August 29th in my hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. It’s sponsored by the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, but anyone, regardless of whether they are a chamber member, is welcome to register.

This class will change the way you prospect. It’s a “deep dive.” We’ll spend the whole day covering what actually works in today’s challenging sales environment. Every participant will leave with a step-by-step, personalized prospecting plan and actual language you can use to engage prospects the very next day. Click here for information or to register!

Here’s Why Should You Choose Jeff Beals as Your Next Speaker:

+1-402-637-9300

info@jeffbeals.com

Video: Buyers’ 8 Most Common Concerns

July 25, 2017 jeffbeals

Click here to watch this week’s video!

As a sales professional, your job is to figure out exactly what prospective clients care about. How do you do that? It’s easy — ask your prospects questions based on the eight things that buyers typically care about.

All eight of those buyer concerns are revealed in this week’s Blue Chip Sales Tip Video!

How to Overcome the 4 Biggest Prospecting Challenges

July 21, 2017 jeffbeals

By Jeff Beals

Prospecting is not just something sales professionals do to fill their pipelines. Prospecting is a mindset, and for the most successful sales pros, it’s a way of life.

If you work in sales, nobody has to tell you that prospecting today is exponentially harder than at any other time in history. Why is that? Here are four reasons:

Prospects are busier than ever, making them distracted and difficult to reach.
Products are services are now commonly considered to be mere commodities.
Salespeople all sound and act the same. Too many of us utter the same meaningless jargon and gimmicky sales lines.
Prospects have access to unprecedented information about products and services. They can find out anything they want about your company through a simple Google search. In many cases, they can find online reviews about your offerings. They can go onto a discussion forum and solicit opinions about you and your products. The problem with all this information, however, is that it tends to be overwhelming, unfiltered and often taken out of context. Prospects are highly informed but not necessarily accurately informed.

The combination of these four challenges has turned prospects into price-sensitive buyers who are hesitant to engage with salespeople.

So, what can we do to rise above the fracas and succeed in an highly competitive selling environment?

Prospect like “your hair’s on fire” – Because prospecting is harder than ever, you need to be more diligent. Like I mentioned earlier, prospecting is a mindset, a way of life. You could even call is a “lifestyle.” Embrace it. Welcome it. Do it every single day of the week. While prospecting can be nerve-wracking and frustrating, push through it. If you are positive about it, you’ve won half the battle.

It’s not about you – Always focus on what the prospects value, not what you care about. It’s never about you. It’s not about your company. It’s not about your product’s features and benefits. Think of yourself as a detective assigned to figure out how you can best help the mysterious person known as your prospect.

Apply discipline to your prospecting – Even though there are more enjoyable things to do as a sales professional, you have to make prospecting one of your top daily activities. You even have to do it on days you’re closing other deals. Top producers reserve blocks of time for prospecting and they don’t allow any distractions during those times. I know of no other use of your time that is more likely to lead to long-term sales success than being a dedicated, disciplined prospector.

Value-based language – When emailing prospects, leaving them voicemails or talking to them face-to-face, ask questions that determine what they value and then explain things in a way that shows how you deliver that value. Good prospectors research and test language they can use when engaging potential customers. Ultimately, you want language that captures a prospect’s attention, conveys value, makes them feel comfortable sharing sensitive information with you and then compels them to make some sort of a commitment.

Make a plan – While you need to be an exuberant and disciplined prospector, you do need a plan. If you run to the nearest phone and start dialing cold prospects haphazardly, you’re wasting your time. Your plan should include what types of people you target, where you get leads, how you do pre-call research, the language you use to establish value and the tactics you use to push them further down your pipeline.

This comes as a surprise to a lot of people, but did you know that prospecting is the number-one deficiency among salespeople and sales departments? It’s true. Most of the problems that salespeople complain about are ultimately caused by poor prospecting methods or a lack of prospecting discipline.

Video: What’s the Single Most Important Thing to Know about Sales?

July 16, 2017 jeffbeals

Click here to watch this week’s video!

What’s the most important thing to remember when it comes to selling? It’s not about you! That’s it. Always remember, whether you’re prospecting, presenting or closing, focus on the buyer, not your features and benefits. But be careful to avoid the “biggest sin in business.”

You’ll hear all of that and more in this week’s “Blue Chip Sales Tip” video!

Could the Grass Actually Be Greener on YOUR Side of the Fence?

July 9, 2017 jeffbeals

Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan 1997

By Jeff Beals

It’s been more than 14 years since Michael Jordan played his last professional basketball game, yet he remains an international icon. At age 54, he still appears regularly on television, and with an estimated net worth of $1.14 billion, he’s the richest athlete on Earth.

Jordan has had an amazing career. Many consider him to be the best basketball player of all time. He led the Chicago Bulls to six National Basketball Association championships and was named the league’s most valuable player five times. As one of the most effectively branded athletes of all time, he made a fortune in the endorsement business. The athletic shoes named after him have remained popular for two decades.

Millions of people know and admire Michael Jordan. Even fans of opposing teams who were beaten over and over by Jordan’s teams back in the day have a hard time disliking him. Jordan has worldwide fame; he’s one of those rare individuals who the public instantly recognizes.

Jordan’s accomplishments are well documented and they stand on their own merit, but he also benefits from the power of personal branding. When you are as well-known as he, it becomes easier to get things done. People seek him out and jump at the chance to do business with him.

But despite all his success, Jordan surely has problems. Everybody does. Nobody is perfect. It’s hard to think about Michael Jordan having worries, doubts and frustrations, because the power of his personal brand shines so brightly.

Personal branding is most effective when you throw a little “theater” into it. In other words, be like Jordan, and put on a bit of a show when you’re among your sphere of interest.

What do I mean when I say you put a little “theatre” into your life? Well, when you go see a stage performance in a live theater, you don’t see behind the stage, and you don’t see the actors fall out of character. Similarly, in your life, put on a bit of a show. That’s not to say you are pretending to be someone or something you are not, but it does mean you put forth the best image possible.

Think of it this way: Most people are afflicted with the “grass-is-always-greener-on-the-other-side-of-the-fence syndrome.” Take advantage of that. Exploit that common human tendency. Paint a picture of yourself that is desirable enough that everyone will want to reach their heads through the fence and eat your grass (so to speak). People don’t need to see your dirty laundry. They should see you as someone who leads the kind of life they admire and want to imitate.

Adopting a theatrical approach to your personal branding efforts in no way whatsoever should cause you to be someone you are not. Be animated, play the part and highlight your strengths but never ever lie or deliberately mislead.

But one word of caution as you harness the power of personal branding like “His Airness” Michael Jordan: Sales professionals can’t live on personal branding alone. A personal brand makes people more likely to work with you, but you still have to prospect – research prospective clients, email them, call them on the phone and see them face-to-face.

The grass is actually quite green on your side of the fence, but as a good sales professional, you still need to pick up the phone and invite people over to your “field.”

Here’s Why Should You Choose Jeff Beals as Your Next Speaker:

+1-402-637-9300

info@jeffbeals.com

PROSPECTING: Sales Pros Should Be Seemingly Everywhere

July 6, 2017 jeffbeals

By Jeff Beals

The most successful sales professionals tend to work long and hard. A significant chunk of those hours is typically dedicated to prospecting activities: networking, making phone calls, placing outbound emails, responding to emails, hosting guests, visiting people who refer/recommend them to clients and developing raving fans who champion their cause.

Prospecting must be perpetual. No matter how busy you may be, you need to get out of the office and show up at networking events. We need to reach out and engage the world around us. As a rule of thumb, you need to have meaningful encounters with people in your network every day—including weekends.

I admit that’s a demanding standard.

The good news is that these encounters don’t necessarily have to be at formal functions held in formal venues. Your sphere of interest is ubiquitous. Strike up conversations with people around you. Reach out to people and get to know those who might refer a desirable prospect to you some day.

Many prestigious, big-time clients in the typical industry can only be reached through relationships. They do not commonly walk into your office asking to be your customer. They are not amenable to cold calls, and they won’t respond to your direct mail piece no matter how pretty it is. You have to go out and meet them face-to-face in the places where they live, work and play.

“Big elephant” clients know they are important, and they expect to be wined and dined, so to speak. They are big deals and expect to be treated like a big deal. That requires sales professionals to go out into the world and actively communicate. Getting access to the highly desirable clients requires you to be among your sphere of interest on a regular basis (or get a referral from someone they trust).

Get out there and meet everyone you can. Ask questions. Be like a detective turning over every stone, looking for any shred of evidence that can help you make the sale.

Great salespersons are seemingly “everywhere.” They live their lives so actively that other people feel as if they see them everywhere.

If someone ever says to you, “I see you everywhere,” you know you’re doing something right.

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