lncrease your sales velocity

How do we make things happen faster? I work with salespeople who are great once they get in front of the customer, but it takes them too long to get in front of the customer! Not only does it take them too long, they have a tough time moving the process along with the customers they do get in front of.

We've talked about the fear of being "pushy." The difference between master sellers and those that struggle is that the struggling seller thinks about being pushy and the master seller thinks about helping customers and winning. Master sellers aren't pushy; they're persistent. I1ow we are persistent is our choice but the non-persistent salesperson doesn't exist.

At every step in the sales process, with existing or new customers, there are steps we can take to increase our sales velocity.

One way to think about sales velocity is to think about our sales career as a boat that has a constant leak. The master seller bails (sells) faster than the leak, the good seller bails at about the same rate, and the struggling seller doesn't even know they need to bail until the boat hits the bottom of the ocean.

Prospecting: Be Prepared.

We need a good list. Many sellers prospect one at a time. They get on the internet, look up a company, and call them. When this call is done. thev Iook up another and do it again. This is slow work. We need to create a good list first, during non-selling time. After the list is created, we keep it in our "Prospecting" file for ready use.

Prospecting: Scripts

Scripting gets a bad name. We don't want to sound like robots, but writing out the objections we will face and our best responses will accelerate our sales process. The majority of sellers we compete against will shirk this basic but major velocity tool. "I already know what I'm going to say," "I don't want to sound mechanical," and other excuses are used to avoid this intellectual leadership sales preparation. Don't be one of them. Nothins will make us sound more natural anl confident than being prepared.

We don't read our scripts. Scripts are the preparations we make to move through initial resistance more quickly. If we want to set ourselves apart from the crowd, we need well thought out responses to common objections. Preparation allows for improvisation.

The act of thinking through and putting our responses in writing will give us the conviction it takes to sell well, to convince others quickly.

When asked, most sellers say they are "relationship sellers," which means they act nice and hope for the best. Master sellers act nice and prepare for all possible sales situations.

Prospecting: Qualification

We must know exactly which customers we can help and which we can- not. Nothing derails sales velocity more than working accounts that do not fit our profile. If our "ideal" customer isn't exactly clear to us, we: Look at our current best accounts. This is a great place to begin to define our ideal target. . Look at the great sellers around us. What kind of accounts are the monster sellers doing business with?

Measuring Sales Velocity

"How long will I call an account without an order before I move on?"

"What is a profitable account?"

"Which accounts are too small?"

"Which fish is too small to keep in the boat?"

Without answers to these questions, we will spend hours of wasted time and energy on accounts that are too small to ever help us.

Connect All Calls

We must connect all calls. Phone sellers are easy to forget and blow off, road salespeople cannot afford to miss an appointment. When we finish with any call, we simply say, "Susan, when should I call you back on this?"

Or the more assumptive, "John, I'll call you back today at 2:55. Will you be around then?"

Be specific. Tomorrow morning isn't good enough. Tomorrow at 8:55 a.m. is.

Building relationships and trust

takes time. Working on sales velocity in our sales process will help us reach our goals fasterl

James Olsen Reality Sales Training (s03) s44-3572 james@realitysalestraining.com

By Mike Dandridge