Are you using the C-word enough?

How do they do it?

Have you ever seen a salesperson or business owner who always seems to wins lots of quality new business and wonder how they do it? Have you ever dismissed them as “just lucky”?

We’ve all experienced the highs and lows of sales success, the adrenaline buzz of winning versus the anxiety of lean times when you’re wondering when the next win will come. And yet these brilliant salespeople always seem to avoid the latter. How come they never seem to hit those lows?

In over twenty years of front line sales, first working alongside the best and the worst salespeople, and now helping other businesses with sales training and consultancy, I have seen the ‘rollercoaster’ sales pattern many times. I’ve enjoyed celebrating great wins, and I’ve seen grown adults cry with anguish. Sales – it’s a cruel world!

But there’s one simple way that you can avoid the lows, and make it up there with the ‘superstar’ salespeople. It’s the ‘C-word’… Consistency!

There are many factors that can influence your sales pattern, but the best way to keep a constant flow of new business is to not be distracted from working on your lead generation. I’ve talked about this before, but taking regular ACTION is all it takes. The important part is to not leave that action to chance, or it won’t end up happening.

Here are my ‘top tips’ for keeping consistent:

1. Identify what ‘business development’ work you need to do – be it calls from the car travelling between meetings, social media activity, networking or meeting with referral partners regularly – and schedule it into your diary. Then don’t let that allocated time slide.
2. Procrastination hits hard when it comes to business development -especially follow up calls – but try to focus on “little and often” if you’re struggling. Don’t take on too much at once, fall victim to overwhelm and end up doing nothing!
3. Keep yourself – and your team – accountable. I highly recommend using a CRM to keep track of your BD and sales activities. Measure your results by tracking every activity – number of calls, decision-maker contacts etc – through to appointments and conversions. What step can be improved? Do you need more appointments? Do you need to improve your conversion rate? Only by tracking and measuring will you be able to identify where you need to make changes or get some more training to improve your sales.
4. Be seen – turn up, regularly – and be consistent when you are seen. Is your message congruent in person, on the phone, on your website, on your social media and – often overlooked – in what other people say about you?
5. When you are showing up, “show and tell”. If you can show people you’re passionate about what you do, that’s half the battle. Don’t be scared to tell people how you’ve helped others and demonstrate your results. That will resonate with people and you’ll start to get a reputation as someone who consistently delivers results.
6. Always be sincere, genuine and helpful. It’s a good idea to regularly ask yourself, “how do I help people?” Then go away and help others! Don’t give away all of your time and expertise for free, but being helpful is a fantastic way to end up with strong, natural referrals.
7. And finally, keep your promises. Said you’ll call back tomorrow? Make that call! It’s surprising how many business owners and salespeople don’t do this one – so if you do you’ve already got a great head start on the rest!

Do you want to get more consistent (and successful) at setting appointments with leads, and improve the results you get from the phone calls you make?

Get in touch about my cold calling and follow up training workshops.