Ready for action

As the summer draws to a close many salespeople are starting to ask themslves the questio “How are the last 4 months of the year going to pan out for me”?

Is that person you, or indeed one of your salespeople?

Now is the time to get pro active. When I was selling the financial services industry during the 1980′s we all understood our sales ratios – we were all trained in the 20-5-3-1 sales method.

20 Prospects
5 First Meetings
3 Presentation Meetings
1 Sale

Knowing and understanding these ratios meant that for every 20 qualified prospects, we arranged 5 initial fact finding meetings and 3 of those initial meetings would result in a proposal or presentation meeting and this resulted in business being completed in one business transaction.

The prospects that didn’t result in immediate business went back into the sales funnel for us to stay in touch at agreed time frames.

I have found from my many years in the Sales Training Business that the 20-5-3-1 ratios are not just applicable to the Financial Services industry, they are in fact a measure for all professional salespeople.

We need Income Generators in this economy

I visited the BNI Docklands chapter this morning  and enjoyed the vibrancy of the meeting. One of their members is leaving the company she is working for as she also has to leave the country because her work visa is not being renewed as she is not an EU citizen.

There is no doubt that the Chapter are very sorry to see her leave as she has been a great contributor to the BNI as well as providing an excellent service to the members and their referrals.

I find this very disapointing because we need people to be income generators in this economy and regardless of whether they are EU citizens or not, here is a person who is keen to be a salesperson with her company and make things happen.

I believe there are 3 types of person in this economy – there are people that make things happen, there are some people who watch things happen and then there some people who wonder what has happened!!

Keep looking for business and you will continue to guarantee you own security!!

The Best Income Protection Plan available

Last week I was working with a team of Financial Services Advisors and we were discussing the merits of their clients protecting their incomes in the event of illness or sickness.

I then asked them to consider that the best income protection for themselves is their willingness and ability to be pro-active and make appointments to sit face-to-face with prospects and cleints.

Remember your client is at present someone else’s prospect and their client is also your prospect – the key to success is your ability to continuously make appointments and continuously deal with rejection!!.

A Salespersons life is one of continuous rejection, interupted by moments of success – the more rejection, the more success.

Keep getting the no’s and the yes’s will come – happy hunting!!

Take responsibility for action

As we approach the end of February it has been a very interesting 2 months when it comes to global financial markets. There is no doubt that cashflow is everything at the moment and there is no point in being over dependant on our banks at the moment. Unfortunately they do not have the confidence to fund extra cashflow during these times of economic uncertainty.

It is very easy for us blame our banking systems for all is happening at the moment – I do remember Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame saying to me that “we cannot blame financial institutions if we do not educate ourselves”.

While I do not agree with some of the practices that have been carried out in our banks, I do think we need to take responsibility and action to “compete for business” in these difficult times – more “Action in Prospecting” will bring more business and improve cashflow and in turn lessen our dependancy on borrowing from the banks.

2009 – a year for pro-activity

A happy, healthy & Prosperous 2009 to you all!

I am sure over the last few days your mind has started to focus on the coming year. After a difficult and for many a challenging year, it is very easy to have a slightly more negative view of 2009.

I believe that you can have a positive outlook for 2009 if you follow these criteria.

1. You are prepared to be pro-active with your prospecting methods for the year. If that means having 5 new appointments with prospects every week or month – just do it!!

2. Analyse your existing customer base and identify those who would be happy to refer you to new potential customers. You will find that there are some people within your customer base who are very comfortable to be advocators for your business.

3. Develop your “$tay in Touch” strategy with your existing customers. When you analyse the lifetime revenue value of your existing customers – it makes real commercial sense to “Stay in Touch” on a personal and consistant basis.

Take a couple of hours to identify where you will be at the end of 2009. Dr Denis Waitley calls it taking a “preview of coming attractions”.

I look forward to being of assistance to you throughout the year! – Be Prosperous.

Referral Marketing – your Prospecting method.

As Business Owners and Salespeople search for news to develop new business, there are many ways to do this. You could advertise or buy list and carry out a direct mail campaign and follow it up with a phone call to arrange an appointment.

On The Prosper Marketing System Worskshop, I encourage delegates to go back to their customers and develop a strategy for obatining recomendations to new potential customers. In fact the new customers you are looking for are probably already known to the customers you already have.

Referral Marketing is a very cost effective way to generate new business. The Prosper Group website has been updated to recognise this on our workshops. If every one of your customers were to introduce you to on average 2 new customers every year, what effect would that have on your business?

Back to Basics for 2009

Well here we are in December 2008 in what has been a fairly challenging year for a lot of companies. In fact a lot of offices have decided to cancel and defer their Christmas parties. So what will 2009 be like and what skills will you need to succeed and prosper?

I believe we can kick start 2009 by being proactive in the market. Start 2009 by calling all your existing customers and make appointments with them. Ask them what they hope to achieve in 2009.

Also make a list of your customers whom you believe are best placed to give you referrals and reccomendations. Remember, the new customers you are looking for are probably already known to the customers you have.

If all of your customers were to give you 2 referrals, what would that do for your business. The main reason that some people don’t give referrals is because they are never asked. Watch for updates on Referral Marketing – you can also visit – www.achieve-prosper.com

A new Referral Marketing System

Back to blogging – I have been away working on a few business development ideas.

Many years ago I read a great book by Tom Hopkins called “How to Master the Art of Selling” and Tom encouraged Salespeople to send out “Thank You” cards to prospects and clients.

Recently, I have come across an “unbelievable” web-based system for sending out cards to your clients. The system allows you to have a personal, consistent and systematic approach to staying in touch with all your customers.

Send Out Cards also provides you with a facility to use the system as a lead generation system – take a look at Send Out Cards - I think you will really find it incredibly easy to use!!