Sales & Marketing Consultant, Bestselling Author & Business Motivational Speaker

Losing focus happens to us all. The field of sales and marketing is fast paced. With the benefit of being on social media networks, networking in person, contacting new leads and following up with current customers can quickly become overwhelming. There are times that a whole week will fly by and you have been caught up in everything but your overall objective. With all of these moving parts, how can you stay focused?

Make A List
Do you have a list of the specific goals that you want to accomplish in a certain amount of time? If you have clear cut objectives for the month, the quarter or the year, you need to have those written down. Keep this list of goals in a place that is easily accessible. For some, it’s a hand written note. For others, this list is kept online for easy access. Regardless of how you keep track of your goals, keep them written down. This allows you to reflect on the goals that you have achieved. This also allows you to evaluate what strategies and methods are working and which ones need to be changed up to see optimal results. Make a list and check it twice.

Keep A Tight Schedule
It is impossible to keep your schedule or calendar organized in your mind. If you are depending on your memory alone to keep your details straight, you can guarantee that things will slip through the cracks. Therefore, you must have a system for your schedule. Google calendar is a great way to keep track of everything on your daily to-do list. Google calendar also sends you a reminder to let you know when an appointment or deadline is approaching. If you prefer to keep your calendar in a hard copy format, make sure the system works for you. Before you call it a day, make a note of the first few things that are on your agenda for the next day. This will mentally prepare you for the day, giving your brain a chance to get a jump start on being focused and productive.

Third Party Objective
When we are immersed in our business, our viewpoint becomes similar to that of being in a fishbowl. We don’t always see things in an objective manner. By asking someone outside of our business to give us their observations, we are given a well-rounded view of our business. This shows us what is working and what is not working. We may not see our marketing efforts as being too aggressive, but an outside view may show that we are being too aggressive. This is a great way to see your business as a whole.

Maintaining focus is critical for all sales professionals. By keeping a list of our goals/objectives, having a great calendar system and getting outside observations, we will be able to remain focused.

Happy Marketing!
Sean
(Image Creative Commons)
Sean McPheat
Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

Some of us have been in the sales business long enough to remember having our leads and contacts listed in a Rolodex that sat on our desks. While the Rolodex has evolved into an online address book or the address book on our smartphone, the idea behind how to leverage your Rolodex remains the same. We invest a great deal of time and energy into obtaining contacts information. We have their phone numbers, their email addresses; their Twitter handles and are friends with them on Facebook. We may have all of this valuable information, but how many of us let our hard earned list sit and collect dust? We need to leverage our contacts and here are a few ways to do just that.

Organize Your List
Sales professionals can have hundreds or even thousands of leads and contacts on their list. If these leads are not organized in some fashion, these leads will be of little use. When you are networking, online and offline, have some type of system when you enter in their information. A great way to organize is to have specific subjects and place the leads in the appropriate section. Keep your sales leads separate from your possible joint venture contacts. Keep a list of current customers under one heading and keep a list of individuals your current customers referred to you under a different topic. Sometimes it helps to have your contact list entered into a spreadsheet. This allows you to move your contacts around, find your contacts easily and keep track of any notes that pertain to a specific individual. Organizing your leads will save you a great deal of time.

Start Contacting People
The main function of a list of contacts and leads is to actually pick up the phone or click ‘compose email’ and start a conversation. Business rapport and relationships do not happen overnight. Reach out to your list and begin engaging. This could mean that you utilizing email marketing or that you are following up on potential sales. Find out where your list members spend their time and take the time to get to know them. As you continue to build your rapport with your list of leads, you will quickly determine who should stay on your list and who should be removed. This is a great way to narrow down your contacts to those that you can build a great business relationship with.

Track Your List
This goes hand-in-hand with organizing your list. You should keep very detailed notes on each conversation and interaction that you have with the members of your list. If you reached out to them via a phone call, make a note in your spreadsheet indicating the date and the gist of the conversation. If Jane Smith is interested in a joint venture, make note of this so that you can get in touch and see if this would be a successful venture.

Your contact list can be your lifeline. Take the time to organize and start engaging with the contacts and leads on your list.

Happy Marketing!
Sean
(Image Creative Commons)
Sean McPheat
Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert – Motivational Speaker

As marketing and sales professionals, it is important to go back and review the tips that help build a solid foundation that promotes success. Many sales tips and advice regarding how to be an excellent sales professional are tried and true. Many of these tips are things we already know or have perfected. Even if we think we have perfected the basics, it’s always important to go back and have a refresher course. Let’s take a look at a few sales tips that have worked for you in the past, and that will continue to work for you in the future.

Presentation
Does your presentation, sometimes called your deck, show your product/service at its very best? You need to practice and even memorize what you are selling. Be prepared at any given moment to shift to the specific selling point that will woo the person you are talking with. Does your presentation have a natural flow? This all comes with time. The worst thing in the world is to sound rehearsed. Your belief in your product is what will close every sale.

Sales Is An Art
There is always room for improvement. As a sales professional, you must continually learn and adapt. Subscribe to blogs and news outlets that deal with your area of expertise and that relay information about your target demographic. Reading and staying up to date on your field will always serve you. Information is never a bad thing.

Clear Communication
Your clientele will evolve and you need to evolve as well. Know what is trending, learn how to speak to different types of personalities and remember that you need to be able to answer any and all questions. If you are asked a question that you don’t know the answer to, make sure that you communicate to your customer that you will find the answer to their question. Honesty is key. You can always throw humor into the mix. Being sincere will always be appreciated by your potential customers.

As sales professionals, it is so important to continually strengthen your foundation. Go back to the basics. Take the time to remember why you are so passionate about the product or service that you are selling. Every individual that you engage with may not end up being your direct customer, but they will refer you and remember that you were sincere. In the end, you can always be better. Set aside a few hours each week to work on your professional development. This will serve you well.

Happy Marketing!
Sean
(Image Creative Commons)
Sean McPheat
Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert – Motivational Speaker

This blog is about marketing, and today we’re going to talk about the most fundamental aspect of marketing – how to sell. As a business owner, you undoubtedly know quite a lot about how to sell, and have likely been selling something, in one form or another, for much of your working life. However, it never hurts to revisit the basic, and maybe you’ll pick up something extra that you missed along the way.

In short, the keys to effective selling are knowledge and effort. If that sounds overly simplistic, allow me to explain a bit further.

Know Yourself, Know Your Customer, and Know your Competitor

The first step to successful sales is having a full range of knowledge, about your own company and product, as well as about your customer’s needs, and your competitor’s company and his products.

Every single time that you talk to a customer, you should start the day by researching their company. Strive to never give the same sales pitch to two different customers. Research each customer individually, and look for ways that a relationship with your company can bring them a unique benefit.

When customers are confronted by a salesperson who truly knows what they’re talking about, and who truly understand both their own company and the wider industry, they are automatically less defensive, and much more likely to walk away from the conversation one step closer to making a purchase.

Put in the Effort

Even more important than sales knowledge and techniques is putting in the full effort required to close a deal or make a sale. Never treat a customer like someone who you can do without; every time you make a sales pitch, you should tell yourself that there is no failure – that the company is on the line and you absolutely have to make this sale.

This is doubly important if you’re no longer directly involved in the sales aspect of your business, and you rely on others to do it for you. In your hiring and training processes, ensure that motivation is your primary goal. Never hire someone for sales based on their knowledge of the industry, however encyclopedic it may be. The determining factor in the success of a salesperson is their motivation level, and ensuring that they’re going out every day, meeting with clients, and taking the risks required to make sales.

These may seem like fundamental issues, but it is the fundamentals that make sales, and making sales makes companies.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker