Mastering the Art of Success
run a marathon. In order to do that , just break the elements down into
th eir components. If you separate it into specific a ctivities, measure
whether you’re doing the activities, and then have four or five people
who are holding our feet to the fire from an accountability standpoint, I
think you would a chieve your number s. That’s number one in sales.
The second it em in sales is proactiv e pipelin e management. I
suggest that salespeople maintain tw o baskets. One basket is a basket
of prospects. Prospects are people whom we wish were doing business
with us but they never have. Customers are the conduit to the second
basket and customers are good to have. They are people who
occasionally do business with us. Maybe they buy something from us
once every three months. We offer ten products and they buy one every
other month. It’s good to have customers, but there is a better thing
out there and that ’s my second basket—the client. Clients are people
who regularly do ongoing business with you and do a lot of business
with you. We represent and sell ten products or services and they
re gularly, every month, are buying seven or eight of those products or
services.
Successful salespeople build a clientele so what we need to have in
writing is a list of our prospects. List them in order of priority: who is
the number one prospect—a client whose business would make life
very good? Who’s number two? Who’s number three? And you work it
on down the list. Next, who’s your number one customer? Who’s
number two? Who’s number three? You work on down the list.
Do the same for your prospects: Who’s your number one prospect,
number two, number three, and on down the list. Once you have those
lists, ask yourself when you last touched base with them. How often
have you contacted them and what’s standing in the way of those
prospects becoming either a customer or a client of ours? If salespeople
were to sit with someone e lse holding them accountable at least once a
month and inspect the baskets, I guarantee that you will win the day
and you will win more sales.
The third area that is critical f or the success of a salesperson is to
differentiate yourself from the competition. One of the key ingredients in
differentiating you from the competition is creating perceived value.
What perception of value are you creating in your marketplace that w ill