Black Sales Journal

There is no easy way to be the best.  Part of it is achieving skills and attributes, and part of it is just plain hard work    The skills in this post will make a noticeable difference quickly.  Paying attention to these, and you wil see the benefits early and often.  Always be the best!

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I hope I never sound like a broken record, but there are some ‘rules’ that I believe in.  One of them is being prepared; another is mastering the relationship.  Those two are important, but there are more.  Realize that you can change the game with these skills and activities.

It is imperative that you have command of some very important skills to help you be successful.  We are going to make the assumption that you have a command of the requisite sales skills.  Warning…those skills are not enough.  You need skills regarding relationship building, responsiveness, and being effective.

It is work being prepared, just as it is work doing those activities that make you effective.  There is no way out around that.  I assure you…these things will reward you for the rest of your career.

Skills and Activities that Change the Game!

Be an Expert or a Specialist

Visit these BSJ articles - Your Customer Needs an Expert and More On Being an Expert

Yes, your customer does need an expert.  They may not have told you, or they might have used some key phrases such as, “I need someone who understands my business.”  Customers do not want pretenders so study your trade and your area of specialization.  When you specialize, you will want to get some certification, accreditation, or degree.  In the absence of those being available, you will want some recognition notoriety.  One way or another, you want to be recognized.  Don’t take this one for granted as it definitely changes the game.

Network Effectively

Visit these BSJ articles– Networking for the Black Sales Professional and Know Your Elevator Pitch

Whether you’re a sales professional that works for a larger concern, or an entrepreneur who runs a one-person shop, you need to hone your networking skills to a degree that you are effective and efficient.  You know the importance, as the professional who is solid at networking effectively is never without someone to present to.  Yes, it is speed dating at its finest but there is no activity like it that can yield these types of favorable results.  You will get a lot of practice at this and a lot of time for trial and error.

Create Deep Enduring Relationships

Visit these BSJ Articles – Deepening Your Customer Relationships and Deepening Your Customer Relationships Part II.  I would also suggest visitingShould You Ask your Customer for Feedback?

Unless your sales job is transactional such as a one-time sale, you will need to have an actual relationship with your customer.  You will need to get to know them, listen to them, and be responsive.  If you cannot develop a relationship that is more than casual, you are always at risk for another sales professional.  Relationships take time, develop dependence, and generate trust.  Who will risk their position, project, and profits on you and your product if you have not been able to develop a relationship?

Be Responsive

Visit these BSJ articles – Responsiveness – the Objective of the Sales Professionaland Following-Up! – Correspondence Creates an Edge.

Being responsive and exceeding expectations can separate you from other sales professionals.  Excellent follow-up is an activity that needs more attention.  It can begin to give you a special preference that accrues to someone that others can only hope to copy.   The responsive professionals are in demand because they do the things that others only do intermittently.  They communicate, keep commitments, and look toward the future.  This is a requirement to be the Ultimate Sales Professional (BSJ – Ultimate Sales Professional 1, Ultimate Sales Professional 2, and Ultimate Sales Professional 3) as it definitely separates the professional. Responsiveness is easy to talk about, but more difficult to do, as it requires you to exceed customer expectations, and be what your company needs as well.  It can be done, and you will see that at a point, these two different objectives intersect at a point.

Be Memorable

Visit this BSJ article– Make Yourself Memorable

It is not good enough to be good, or even the best, if you are not remembered!  Take the time to make sure they remember you as it will show well for all reasons.  Always be the professional and never miss a chance to present your (yes, your) brand, as opposed to the company you work for.   Your brand in addition to being responsive and all of the other fine attributes, you stay close.  You drop a handwritten note showing your appreciation.  You pass along emails and newsletters that should concern the customer.  You strengthen the customer’s knowledge and he becomes dependent on you.

Master the Skills – Make the Money

There are more skills that you might need, and more that are crucial at different times, but in the sales arena, if you put these together along with the skills that make you accomplished within the organization that you work in, you can ‘change the game’.

Review the articles that I have shown, and you will see the specifics. Remember, you cannot gain mastery without working hard at these.  You will be accomplished with them!

Your comments are always welcome.

Many of us have been there before, and thus the need for this post.  A tough interim or mid-term review is sobering, and if you are in sales it is easy to have a couple of tough quarters.  The importance of this is apparent when it gets to writing.  Use this post, to prepare for this important upcoming event, or to respond to a difficult mid term that has already happened.

Are you currently on a performance program? Remember, you must be on top of your game, and working all of the time.  You might refer to BSJ 4/30/2011, Are You on A Sales Performance Program? Can You Beat it?

Remember, this is the mid-term, and there is some time left to get goals, but you must do something different, or the results will be the same. This post was from last July but applies now as much as any interm period.

Never give up!

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If you are with a fairly large organization, you have probably recently experienced an interim or mid-term review.  As trite as it sounds, you knew it was coming; yet it is one of the least enjoyable activities for a sales professional.  Having someone tell you where you stand in comparison to a goal that you had no choice but  agree to.

Historically, that is the nature of sales.  Review Black Sales Journal – 1/10 Preparing for the Performance Appraisal that discusses the performance appraisal process and the sales professional.  These points are applicable here, yet I am highlighting “what is after the interim appraisal” as a result of the urgency getting on track, meeting goals, and having a successful last 5 months.

Do Something Different!

This is not an issue if you had a great interim review as you are on track, although you need to remain there.  The problem comes when the interim or mid-term was problematic, exposing what even you have to agree are sub-par sales results and as a result low attainment.

When you are in that mode you have reasons to despair and frankly, I can tell you I have been there. It is a place that you don’t want to be as you are up against a clock (actually the calendar) and you know something has got to change, or you won’t be there down the road.

The real deal is that you might not be doing anything wrong, yet you might not be doing enough right.  Something new has to be tried, and now is the time to do it.  I will propose a few things that may help; yet you cannot stop the normal sales process while you execute them.

Those items are as follows:

• You must increase your prospecting effectiveness. It is a proper activity for even those who are having success.  Please to refer to Black Sales Journal 2/10, Prospecting Tips For Black Sales Professionals.  Making your prospecting activities most effective will include changing, yet it is still an activity that is basically short-term that will yield dividends.
• Reckon with the numbers game that prospecting represents. There is no doubt that there is a formula that successful prospecting continually requires.  See this in Black Sales Journal 2/28, How Many Prospects Do You Really Need? You must know your success formula, and make it happen.  The formula is different based on your own effectiveness.  I might be able to make my numbers with fewer prospects, based on my own approach and characteristics.
• Continue to work hard. There is no magic in this statement.  You can increase your effectiveness and recognize your prospecting formula and the numbers that make it work; yet you still can do more.  Here is where you put it into high gear.

Here are some activities that you can do that you might not be doing right now:

• Utilize networking as a prospect source
• Use seminars as a prospecting tool

Networking can be a very effective prospecting source.  It does take work and some planning, yet proper networking will change the prospect base you are exposed to as well as create face-to-face opportunities for prospecting intimacy.  I went deep in this topic in Black Sales Journal 2/21, Networking for the Black Sales Professional.  Using networking effectively is possible in the short term and can be done while the normal prospecting activities continue.

Seminars can be extremely effective.  Done correctly, this activity can be more effective that networking, yet require more preparation, and potentially some resources.  Black Sales Journal 3/24, Finding Prospects Though A Seminar gets deep into this activity that I am partial to.  Now to make this activity work, you do need to have a group that has some has some commonality in buying habits, product needs, industry type, or other characteristics just as the 3/24 post describes.  Once you pull a group together like this, and deliver a message a message with value, you will potentially have followers, prospects, and some customers that you may never have been exposed to.  It would help to be an expert, or regarded as one, yet not necessary.  If you are not an expert, you should engage one to speak to your group, and as is described in the post, keep meticulous records and do not let anyone in, or out, without their contact information, especially their email.

In Summary

These are tactical activities.  They do not replace normal prospecting but can supplement that activity.  You cannot make it in sales without prospecting and need to face that important issue if you have problems there.

Prospecting is the price of admission to being successful sales professional.  Prospecting Tips For Black Sales Professionals were designed specifically for up and coming Black sales professionals in recognition that if you are going to be in this profession, you will need them to smooth out the difficulties of sourcing prospects.

Be effective and prosper.

We welcome your comments.