Long-term success in sales means that you need develop a variety of behaviors. Here are five sales behaviors that will help you succeed and achieve that goal.

Behavior #1: Regular prospecting.

The best sales people dedicate a significant portion of their weekly schedule to prospect for new business opportunities. Prospecting is not an enjoyable task but successful sales know that regular execution will prevent the peaks and valleys that many other sales people experience.

Do you schedule enough time in your weekly routine to prospect for new business?

Behavior #2: Asking powerful questions.

Sales people who achieve long-term success consistently ask high-value, tough and penetrating questions. They don’t waste time asking low-value questions such as:

• “What are your needs?”
• “What do you know about us?”
• “If I could show you how to save money, would you be interested?”

Instead they ask questions that cause their prospect to actually think and that give them—the sales person—key insights into the prospect’s situation.

• “What are the top two or three challenges you are struggling with right now?”
• “How are those issues affecting…?”
• “What impact will a solution have on your business? On you?”

What powerful questions can you create?

Behavior #3: Persistence.

You can’t make one call or send one letter or email and expect to connect with your prospect. In today’s new business climate it takes up to 14-16 touch points to connect with chief decision makers. That means you need to be persistent and use a variety of strategies and approaches if you want to connect and meet with your prospects.

How many attempts to connect are you willing to make?

Behavior #4: Asking.

Top sales people consistently ask for what they want and/or need. They ask for appointments and meetings. They ask for clarification when unclear about something or when a prospect makes a vague statement. They ask for the sale. They ask for something in return for making a concession. They ask for referrals. They ask for letters of endorsement or testimonials. In short, they ask for anything that will help them move the sales process forward or that will help them increase their sales.

What do you need to start asking for?

Behavior #5: Follow up.

Many a sale has been lost due to lack of follow up and I guarantee that you are losing sales if you are waiting for people to call you back. Considering the technology we have at our disposal, making follow-up contact with prospects should be easy.

Unfortunately, many sales people believe that the prospect will call them if they are interested. However, prospects are incredibly busy which means it is your responsibility to reconnect with them after you have sent them a proposal or conducted a meeting or presentation.

What follow-up system do you need to develop?

Develop these sales behaviors and integrate them into your routine and you will notice an immediate improvement in your results.

Do you know what sales blunders are costing you money? Go here to get a FREE audio program and two other sales-boosting resources that will help you increase your sales.

Kelley helps people master their sales conversations so they can win more business and increase their sales. He does this by conducting sales training workshops and delivering keynote speeches at conferences, sales meetings and other events. Contact him at 905-633-7750, Kelley@RobertsonTrainingGroup.com or follow him on Twitter @FearlessSelling

I am often approached by my sales reps with sales questions such as:

• How can I overcome the rebuttal of no money?
• What is the best way to get past a gatekeeper in a small business where the owner is often out of the office?
• What question can I ask that will get my prospects to buy?

It’s common to look for that silver bullet, the magic saying that will turn “no” into “yes.”  They are so focused on the specific deal, client or prospect that they miss the real lesson or area they need to work on, themselves.  I am probably the worst culprit of ignoring the advice I am about to give, but here’s my commitment to you all reading this – I am making it my goal again!

In our “always on” world (typing and sending this for review from 20,000 feet in the air somewhere between BOS and MDW) of numbers, metrics, real time stats and constant need to hit those daily, weekly and monthly goals turning each call into a customer can be a very attractive proposition.  But turning that call at 3:45 today into a deal tomorrow may be an impossible proposition.  If you are off the phone (or worse, that poor woman is on hold) and asking me a question, it is likely too late.  You will not get them back on the phone with the new silver bullet I am sure I can feed you.

So, what is the answer to these sales questions?

What I say may surprise some….

1. Go to the gym, take your wife out to dinner, meet your friends to watch March Madness or go get a massage.

This alone will not get you to close more deals or turn that 3:45 call into a yes.  But, it will get you in the right frame of mind and focused so that when you are on that call you can process and respond using all your skill in the moment when you already have their attention (also hard to get as they are probably reading your email, at 20,000 feet passing you in the night headed to BOS from MDW).  With all the data and information we face each day, the only way to be primed to process it and put part two below into effect is if you are ready and focused.

2. Don’t wait until someone says no to ask how to overcome it!

Once it happens it is too late and your best bet is to learn from the meeting and make sure it does not happen again.  That is what I tell my reps, young and old.  My goal is not to help fix the botched sale but to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.  That’s where the self-improvement really starts.

3. The most successful sales reps I know are students of their craft.

They read books, they listen to tapes, they read blogs (you are on your way!) and they hang out with the top producers. If you are rep 15 out of 17, stop hanging out with 16 and 17, stop making excuses and stop justifying your #15 position.  Own where you are. Go offer to buy #1 lunch.  That is a $5 foot long at Subway that I know will pay dividends (we were all #15 at some point so will be happy with a sub).  Ask that person how they managed to overcome the same objection, got past a gatekeeper or created a need when the prospect did not think they had one.  Talk to your manager about a sales technique that you read about and how they think you could apply parts of it to your sales process.

I know a lot of these sales questions sound familiar and you probably do bits and pieces already today but I would challenge you to try all the pieces.  If you just want to turn one “no” into a “yes” feel free to send me your call recording or your sales email, or any of your sales questions and I am confident I will find another question to ask or something you missed.  If you are interested in being a student of your craft and a top producer, then don’t lose site of the importance of always investing in yourself.  Just be mindful of what could happen, you may find yourself at Subway with someone offering to buy you a foot long turkey sub on wheat.

In conclusion:

• Spend time on YOU so you can be ready and focused
• Don’t wait until someone says no to ask how to overcome it
• Keep on learning and learn from the best – go offer to buy #1 lunch

Jeff Purtell is the Chief Operating Officer at Acquirent. He has experience across a broad range of disciplines that provide a unique view and understanding of sales talent and processes. Jeff is a graduate of Bucknell University and a proud new father!

Thanks for the words of wisdom, bloggers! Which sales blog posts made an impression on you in April?

Is it just me, or is the constant barrage of “expert” advice on all the things I should be doing on social media becoming a bit wearing these days? Sure, I know I should be building a tribe of followers on Twitter and nurturing my relationship with them by interacting and retweeting. And I know I should be participating in LinkedIn Groups to establish myself as an expert in my field. And, of course, I should be embracing yet another change to the way Facebook works to build my personal brand.

But who has the time for all this stuff? And does any of it really work?

Yeah, I’ve seen the case studies. The big brands with millions of followers who are using free PR on Facebook instead of advertising. Or the girl who’s suddenly become a media superstar because her homemade Youtube videos suddenly went viral. But these are the exceptions, not the rule.

The experience of most business owners and salespeople with social media is that it burns up an awful lot of time for very little return. Twitter followers rarely seem to turn into buyers. LinkedIn groups seem flooded with people pitching at each other rather than any real clients. And Facebook seems to change the rules as soon as you get the hang of the last change.

Surely though, there are some things you can do on social media which do have a high payback… right?

Well, yes. But you won’t find them being touted by social media gurus with yet another training product to sell you. To find them, you have to go back to basics and see how social media can help you do the things you ALREADY KNOW work.

Here’s a simple example…

Ask almost any business or salesperson what their very best source of new clients is and the answer is almost universal: word of mouth, referrals. But ask those businesses what they’re doing to get more referrals rather than leaving it to chance and you’ll usually get an embarrassing silence. It’s not that businesses don’t want more referrals. Or that they don’t know people who could give them referrals. It’s just that asking for referrals is usually a painful, embarrassing process.

“Do you know any accountants who might be interested in what I do?”

“No”

“How about any lawyers?”

“Not really”

“Er, butchers? Bakers? Candlestick makers?”

The typical guessing game that asking for referrals can devolve into benefits no one. But what if you had access to the “little black book” of all the best contacts of the people you knew? What if you could see who they knew and could introduce you to? That would make asking for referrals a whole lot easier.

“I see you know John Smith of Smith and Sons…is there any chance you could introduce us?”

(Not that I think that’s the best way of asking for a referral, but we’ll come back to that in a later article).

When you know who people know, you can ask for referrals with confidence, and you can avoid wasting their time with guessing games. And with LinkedIn, that’s exactly what you can do. Head over to the profile of your connections on LinkedIn and see who else they’re connected to. You’ll be shocked by how many great potential contacts for you they know that you had no idea about. Better yet, use the LinkedIn advanced search to search for potential clients– by sector, by company name, by job title or business size — and then see which common connections you have.

Again, you’ll find connections in the most unexpected places. People you had no idea knew the sort of people you’d love to be referred to. And people who would be more than happy to refer you.

Referrals are the oldest and most effective form of selling. And with Social Media they can work even better.

–

A special thanks to Ian Brodie for this guest post!

Ian Brodie helps consultants, coaches and other professionals attract and win more clients. Sometimes using social media (but more often, more traditional marketing). You can grab a free copy of his guide to simple and effective marketing strategies – The Pain Free Marketing Blueprint – at  http://www.ianbrodie.com/free-blueprint/

Last month one of our rockstar salesmen, George Folken, broke the record for the highest single commission check in Acquirent’s history, earning close to $17,000. The best part about it was that he broke his own record from the previous year! We interviewed George about how he did it, and how he plans to do it again.

How do you feel about breaking the Acquirent record for highest commission?
I am very excited. This was my highest commission in any sales job I’ve ever had.

What about Acquirent’s culture motivates you to make these sales?
I like management and the team here. It feels like a family here and they give me a place to make money.

Are you eager to beat this new record? If so, how will you do it?

Of course I want to beat this! I actually set the record last year in September, so I had something to shoot for this time around. I am going to keep pounding and looking for opportunities that will get me to that level again. I know they are out there!

What are your top 3 tips for a successful career in sales?

1. Persistence
2. Know when a prospect is dead
3. Be honest.

Any fun plans to treat yourself with your hard earned cash?

I am going to Jamaica and doing it right!

Favorite College Team

Marquette Warriors — Go Golden Eagles!

Favorite Food

Fat Steak

Favorite band

Phish

Favorite Chicago hang-out spot

Any place that is having a concert of a band I want to see.

And this is how it’s done! Congratulations George!

1.  Having a Positive Attitude – Sales is tough!  If you don’t have a positive attitude in sales, you will not succeed.

2.  Asking Great Questions – Without asking great questions, one can’t uncover the true pain that a prospective client is feeling and how your solution/product can help.

3.  Shutting up and Listen! – You can ask the best questions (open ended of course) in the world, but if you don’t listen to what your prospective client is saying you will not know how (and even if) you can help.

4.  Be a Product Expert – Finally you need to know your product, your competition, the industry, etc.  Once you become a product expert, you move from being a “sales guy” or “sales gal” to becoming a trusted adviser.

When recruiting sales professionals for your organization, please try and keep these key characteristics in mind as they will hopefully help you identify your next star sales professional.

Happy Selling and Happy Holidays!

1)   Find the right partner: Assuming you haven’t found an outsourced sales company yet, you need to start doing your due diligence.  Start by researching companies, setting meetings, viewing pitches and proposals and be very selective.  Ask for referrals and meet the existing sales force.  Remember, this company will not only be working for you, but with you.  Choose wisely!

2)  Get your ducks in a row:  just because you’ve hired an outsourced sales company does not mean they’ll do all the work for you – remember, this is a partnership, and for companies like ours to succeed, we need you to have some skin in the game.  Designate a point person who will be the liaison between your outsourced sales company and your business, develop realistic goals you’d like to see set, and get us all the marketing and training materials you have.

3)  Make sure your product/service is market ready:  we have fallen into this trap before where a company hired us to sell a product that wasn’t market-ready.  While this might seem like a good way to get ahead of the game, it is not.  If you are outsourcing your sales team – you must have a product to sell.  Market research is another monster all together – we’d be happy to do it for you, but make sure you know what you are getting into and be prepared.

4)  Tell us everything you have learned:  We’ll ask you – but it’s best for you to prepare us with the ups and downs of your business, what has worked, what has not.  That way, we as the outsourced sales professionals don’t waste time repeating your past mistakes.

5)  Be flexible:  Outsourced sales is not a magic solution, it’s a learning curve.  We might try one tactic and realize it’s not working and then try another.  Maybe we’ll tweak the cold call script, maybe we’ll re-vamp the offering – either way, you can be guaranteed that the outsourced sales process will evolve.  This is good – this means progress.  Be flexible and understand that we have been here before, and we know what we’re doing.

Making the decision to hire and outsourced sales company is not always easy – but on-boarding that outsourced sales company can be a breeze if you are a willing partner who does their due-diligence and works with us along the way.  Remember, we’re not just your outsourced sales company, we’re your strategic partner.

Happy Selling!

1)  Assuming building a sales team is easy.  Sales people are a dime a dozen, right? Right.  But great sales people are few and far between.  Many of our clients come to us after months and months of fruitless recruiting efforts that have produced poor or no results.  Inside sales is very strategic and needs to be handled that way.

2)  Hire the right sales manager.  Hiring the right sales manager is the difference between a successful sales campaign and an unsuccessful one.  As a professional outsourced sales company we know this all too well, which is why we hire the best and promote from within.  It is integral that you find someone who can lead your organization and has experience managing an inside sales team and a track record of success.  And remember, a great sales person usually does not make a great sales manager!

3)  You’re never out of beta-testing. Don’t quit testing.  Sales is always evolving, and yours should be too.  Never stop tweaking and adjusting the sales process to yield better results.  Listen to your sales representatives – they are in the trenches.  Figure out sales metrics and do market validation programs.  As an outsourced sales company we are constantly changing our tactics with campaigns and it is one of the many reasons we are successful.  We focus on figuring out the number of calls someone should be making, the number of converted opportunities, the number of conversations, and the number of appointments.  We focus on whatever will help to lead us to success.

4)  Have realistic goals.  As a company who focuses exclusively on outsourcing sales, we know how important having realistic goals are.  Many of our clients have a slightly inflated view of their product or service (understandably so!) and don’t realize that getting “x” amount of deals in month 1 is completely unlikely and unreasonable.  Don’t put out an unrealistic quota in terms of revenue.  This will set all who are involved up for failure.  Start small, and work up from there.

Building and insides sales team is not easy, but it can be done – especially with the help of a professional outsourced sales campaign.  Give us a call today and let’s see how we can help you build your ‘dream team’.

Happy Selling!

We at Acquirent take pride in the fact that we become our clients’ strategic partners – and our strategic partners have helped many, many companies reach their goals without the permanence of hiring and housing a sales team.  If you are a company that is either just getting started, bringing a new product to market, or would like to test the waters before you dive in head first – then hiring a professional outsourced sales company might just be for you.

The benefits of “leasing” a sales team and hiring one are many.  First of all – many business owners are in the dark about how difficult it is to recruit sales talent.  When you “lease” professionals, you can rest assured you’ll be rewarded with the best talent.  We have all the recruiting tools and networks readily available and at our fingertips and we’ll use them for you.  In addition, leasing an outsourced sales team is often a much cheaper option than doing this in house.  We already have the “machine” running and all we need to do is plug you into it.  We have the infrastructure, the hardware and the software needed to get an outsourced sales campaign up and running.  Not to mention the professional staff in place to keep your outsourced sales team up and running – sales managers are famously hard to find and, lucky for us (and you), managing sales teams just happens to be our core business so it’s what we do best!

If you are considering hiring a professional outsourced sales company, fear not!  You are simply leasing a sales team.  We enter into six month or year long contracts with our clients so you can enter into an agreement you feel comfortable with.  It’s then up to us to make sure you renew!

Happy selling!

1)   Looking for experience over ability – some of our very best sales representatives were plucked right out of college with zero to very little sales experience.  When sales staffing, we look for “Sales DNA” – competitive nature, track record of success, challenge-hungry and hard working are just a few attributes of the “sales DNA”.  Don’t discard a person who could be your next #1 representative just because they haven’t been in sales before.  Everyone must start somewhere!

2)  Personal recommendations – we incentivize our employees to send us the resumes of their friends and peers.  After all, our employees know what it is like to work with us.  Be careful, however, because not all personal recommendations are good ones.  Just because a candidate is the cousin of your best sales person does not mean they have the same (sales) “DNA”, put them through the interview process just like everyone else.

3)  Poor preparation – it blows our minds how many people have no clue what they are doing when it comes to sales staffing.  Don’t just “wing” the interview.  Be prepared with scripted questions that will help identify the right person for the job.  I always start every interview first by a description (and tour) of our company and our offices (culture = important) and then I ask if the candidate has any questions for me.  If a candidate has no questions – that is a red flag.  But you wouldn’t know that unless you adhere to a sales staffing process so be PREPARED.

4)  Talking through the interview – I cannot tell you how many candidates have told me about interviews where they literally didn’t say a word because the recruiter/owner/hiring manager talked their ear off the whole time.  DO NOT FALL INTO THIS TRAP!  While it is important to give the candidate a clear picture of the company and job at hand, the most important part of the interview is to learn about the candidate!! Ask scripted questions and write down the answers!  You will NOT remember every candidate you see – trust us.  Let the candidate take control of the interview if they seem so inclined – this can be a good test on confidence and communication.

5)  Hiring someone you “like” – while they do say the best way to gauge whether or not someone will be good at sales is to ask yourself “would I want to go have a beer with him/her?” hiring someone just because they share a penchant for your college basketball team is no reason to hire that person.  Make sure their skills match up with the job at hand as well.  Likability is definitely a huge factor in sales success, but it should not be the only one.

Sales staffing is a tricky business, but knowing what to avoid can help you find the right sales talent, every time!

Happy selling!