Saturday, January 28, 2006
Look for these food trends in 2006
To whet diners' appetites for the coming year, USA Today's Jerry Shriver asked experts from the food and wine world to predict the trends that will guide out visits to restaurants and grocery stores. The only consensus among them is that something new and probably delectable awaits every taste bud. Read the article. Read about the latest retail trends at CNNMoney.com.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Back To Basics - Prospecting 101
One the keys to growing your sales is generating new business. You can penetrate existing accounts, you can regain lost accounts or you get new accounts, all ways in generating more sales dollars. Let's get back to basics and look at prospecting for new accounts.
Every time I hear the word "prospecting," I think of one of these crotchety old miners knee high in some icy mountain stream panning for hours in search of a few tiny flakes of pay dirt. In defining prospecting it is to search for or explore (a region) for mineral deposits or oil. Looking for gold! Here is one sure-fire method that will help you garner more new business and make more money.
When you have targeted and qualified your prospect, you now need to start planning and develop a strategy to get this business. Layout a plan that shows 13 sales calls. Why? Most sales people quit after 3 calls and on average it takes 8-10 calls to get the first order. List it by week number and date the call. For every sales call that you are planning to make, list a specific plan of attack. Also allow for notes on the results and the follow up needed on each of these calls.
This program can be a self-starter style by the sales rep themselves, developed by sales management or worked on as a team. I like the team aspect of it as there is ownership taken by the sales rep and support from sales management. What's the old saying - "two heads are better than one". The key to the success of any prospecting program is to follow it every week. If you miss a week, it's like starting over. You want to look at the successes within the prospects as well as any objections that occur. Continue to develop your strategies based on your results and you will find that this 13 sales call process will get you more new business than ever before.
Every time I hear the word "prospecting," I think of one of these crotchety old miners knee high in some icy mountain stream panning for hours in search of a few tiny flakes of pay dirt. In defining prospecting it is to search for or explore (a region) for mineral deposits or oil. Looking for gold! Here is one sure-fire method that will help you garner more new business and make more money.
When you have targeted and qualified your prospect, you now need to start planning and develop a strategy to get this business. Layout a plan that shows 13 sales calls. Why? Most sales people quit after 3 calls and on average it takes 8-10 calls to get the first order. List it by week number and date the call. For every sales call that you are planning to make, list a specific plan of attack. Also allow for notes on the results and the follow up needed on each of these calls.
This program can be a self-starter style by the sales rep themselves, developed by sales management or worked on as a team. I like the team aspect of it as there is ownership taken by the sales rep and support from sales management. What's the old saying - "two heads are better than one". The key to the success of any prospecting program is to follow it every week. If you miss a week, it's like starting over. You want to look at the successes within the prospects as well as any objections that occur. Continue to develop your strategies based on your results and you will find that this 13 sales call process will get you more new business than ever before.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Teamwork....From a Football Perspective
Did you watch the NFL divisional playoff games over this past weekend? I can tell you that the teams that won typically used teamwork to achieve their goals. That's coaching, offense, defense and special teams. Take the Seattle Seahawks, who lost the league MVP Shaun Alexander early in their game, yet came together as a team and won their game to advance to the NFC championship game. Take the Carolina Panthers who had to go into Chicago and win on the road to advance to the NFC championship game, without their star back Stephan Davis and then losing DeShaun Foster to a broken ankle. Take the Pittsburgh Steelers who had the hostile environment of the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, the referees bad calls, an unexpected fumble and much more, but, managed to use all aspects of teamwork to advance to the AFC championship game.
If you had an opportunity to hear any comments after these games you would have found that players from the winning teams kept talking about how all apsects of the team gelled together and they found ways to win. Jerome Bettis from the Steelers talked about how he let the team down with his fumble that almost cost them the game, but, how his teammates rallied behind him and they won the game. If you heard the Colt's Peyton Manning's comments, in the same breath as he was trying to say he was being a good team mate, he seemed to point fingers at his coaching staff and offensive line when it came to their protection schemes.
Can you adapt the principles of an NFL football team in everday sales life? Positive mental attitude, listening to your coaches and peers, never say die attitude, focusing on the end result....winning! Use you entire sales team, your managers, your sales support system that is in place to create that winning attitude.
As the old saying goes, there is is no 'I' in TEAM. Keep in mind....teamwork is the cooperative effort by the members of a group or team to achieve a common goal.
If you had an opportunity to hear any comments after these games you would have found that players from the winning teams kept talking about how all apsects of the team gelled together and they found ways to win. Jerome Bettis from the Steelers talked about how he let the team down with his fumble that almost cost them the game, but, how his teammates rallied behind him and they won the game. If you heard the Colt's Peyton Manning's comments, in the same breath as he was trying to say he was being a good team mate, he seemed to point fingers at his coaching staff and offensive line when it came to their protection schemes.
Can you adapt the principles of an NFL football team in everday sales life? Positive mental attitude, listening to your coaches and peers, never say die attitude, focusing on the end result....winning! Use you entire sales team, your managers, your sales support system that is in place to create that winning attitude.
As the old saying goes, there is is no 'I' in TEAM. Keep in mind....teamwork is the cooperative effort by the members of a group or team to achieve a common goal.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Cold Calling Made Easy
Even the name is chilling. There is a very small percentage of sales people that will tell you that they enjoy and look forward to "Cold Calling". We have all had to walk into a business and ask "is the owner or manager in" or even the dreaded "I need to see the person that does the purchasing of your products". Cold calling at its finest. You're not alone if you dread this process.
Now, there will always be a need to cold call businesses whether it be in person or on the phone to generate new leads and prospects in the marketplace where you work. If you want to grow your business, you have to make new contacts. But, I am a firm believer that cold calls can be minimized by information gathering, organization skills, networking skills and some pre-call planning. We can minimize those cold calls by making them into warm calls.
Warm calls are made on a potential prospect when you have a contact name, a referral, pertinent industry information and/or news or a common contact, event or topic that can be used while asking for the potential prospect. We could always refer to this as the proverbial ice-breaker.
It is so much easier walking into a business and getting to ask if Joe Smith is in and then talking about his business. This seems to take a bit of the uncertainty out of the call and most likely will get a dialog going to work on getting your card in his hands and on your way to making an appointment. By the way, getting an appointment for the first pre-planned call is the main objective of this warm call. Wishing for anything more than that may be setting yourself up to fail.
Making cold calls into warm calls does take a bit of work on your part. If you are looking for an operators name you may have to do some pre-call investigative work on the account prior to making your first call. You can ask your current customers for a contact name, look into local business organizations, i.e., Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Kiwanis and the like, or search on the Internet. When searching the Internet for contact information you can gather as much information as possible about the potential prospect via the local newspapers web site, business web sites or by conducting a Google search using the prospects name.
Always be in information gathering mode when it comes to working on potential prospects. When you are out and about, at business functions, at social functions or at any possible networking event, always have a business card and be ready to gather contact information. Take any opportunity to get information that you can apply to your initial call to make it a warm call.
Statistically speaking, most sales are not closed until after the fifth call, but, we can't get to that point without that all-important first call. Gather as much info as possible to make it a warm call and be confident in yourself, your company and your products. So be organized, pre-plan your call and go have some fun now with warm calling.
Now, there will always be a need to cold call businesses whether it be in person or on the phone to generate new leads and prospects in the marketplace where you work. If you want to grow your business, you have to make new contacts. But, I am a firm believer that cold calls can be minimized by information gathering, organization skills, networking skills and some pre-call planning. We can minimize those cold calls by making them into warm calls.
Warm calls are made on a potential prospect when you have a contact name, a referral, pertinent industry information and/or news or a common contact, event or topic that can be used while asking for the potential prospect. We could always refer to this as the proverbial ice-breaker.
It is so much easier walking into a business and getting to ask if Joe Smith is in and then talking about his business. This seems to take a bit of the uncertainty out of the call and most likely will get a dialog going to work on getting your card in his hands and on your way to making an appointment. By the way, getting an appointment for the first pre-planned call is the main objective of this warm call. Wishing for anything more than that may be setting yourself up to fail.
Making cold calls into warm calls does take a bit of work on your part. If you are looking for an operators name you may have to do some pre-call investigative work on the account prior to making your first call. You can ask your current customers for a contact name, look into local business organizations, i.e., Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Kiwanis and the like, or search on the Internet. When searching the Internet for contact information you can gather as much information as possible about the potential prospect via the local newspapers web site, business web sites or by conducting a Google search using the prospects name.
Always be in information gathering mode when it comes to working on potential prospects. When you are out and about, at business functions, at social functions or at any possible networking event, always have a business card and be ready to gather contact information. Take any opportunity to get information that you can apply to your initial call to make it a warm call.
Statistically speaking, most sales are not closed until after the fifth call, but, we can't get to that point without that all-important first call. Gather as much info as possible to make it a warm call and be confident in yourself, your company and your products. So be organized, pre-plan your call and go have some fun now with warm calling.
