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https://www.amazon.com/How-Talk-Kids-Will-Listen/dp/1451663889/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2F71LCKZZ6X22&dchild=1&keywords=how+to+talk+so+kids+will+listen+book&psr=EY17&qid=1595391285&s=todays-deals&sprefix=how+to+talk+so+ki%2Ctodays-deals%2C178&sr=8-1

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S01 E11 | The Secrets of Savvy Sales Coaches

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 11:00:00 -0000

The top performers in every field have coaches who have helped them get to the top. Learn how to give coaching, how you can use tech as a coaching tool and why coaching is important to your success. You will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode...

Technique Tips from Merit:

· Getting the right coach for the right application is job number one.

· The questions that your coach will ask should be questions that open up your ideas or create new possibilities that you may not have seen before.

· Be specific with your coach about what you're looking to accomplish in that coaching relationship.

· In the real world, things are happening very fast and we don't have the luxury of time trying to figure this out on our own, so Prescriptive Coaching is a great solution.

· When practicing a technique with someone you are coaching, always demonstrate the technique first.

· The Commend and Recommend technique: Find something to commend and something else you can recommend for their improvement.

· Before I tell you what I heard in that practice session, tell me, what you think you did really well in that practice session and where do you think you could make an improvement?

Technology Tips from Julie:

· When you are give feedback on anything, be as specific as possible.

· Don't just say, “you did a good job with dinner” instead, say, “Wow. I really love that you actually set the table and really thought about how the food was going to look on the plate.”

· Tech can help you capture information for coaching sessions

· Tech can help you scale that information and aggregate that information, not only so that you can provide better feedback one on one, but also so that you can provide almost globalized coaching.

· Use technology and tools to record sales conversations and analyze them.

· Analyze the language that's being used and the tone of the call. The system can listen to the words and the cadence and the speed. And if you combine that with your sales analytics, it can tell you the questions that actually generate the best results.

Smarter Sales Soundbites:

“Sometimes we get so caught up in the way the world looks from our chair that we just forget to have a look around us and to see the world from a different perspective or to even see our own behavior and own strategies from a different perspective.”

“Coaching can be one minute of genius that you share with someone, or it could be an actual program that spans months or years of dedicated and specific coaching protocols.”

“A coach is going to see something that might be right in front of you the whole time and invisible to you.”

“A good coach doesn’t want to work with you forever. I want you to outgrow me. I want you to get my lessons so deep in your bones that you don't remember how you had a sales call any other way. And then I know you don't need me anymore.”

“Merit, you're like Mary Poppins for sales.”

Referenced in this Episode:

Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill https://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Original-RevisedTM/dp/0990797600/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2DV7YT751YI1R&dchild=1&keywords=think+and+grow+rich&qid=1595391242&sprefix=think%2Caps%2C193&sr=8-5

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

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S01 E10 | How to Avoid Plummeting Your Price

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 22:13:43 -0000

Show Notes:

There's a difference between what somebody has set aside in their budget for a solution to their problem and what the pain really costs them and what it's worth to them to solve the problem.

In this episode you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode...

Technique Tips from Merit:

Ask questions about the outcome they are really looking to achieve, because that outcome often has multiple solutions and those solutions can be paid for with different budgets.
Make sure I'm solving the real problem, not just that surface level problem.
People will find incredible ways to fund projects that they're personally committed to.
When a prospect doesn't really understand their own pain, then any investment will seem like too much. If there is no pain, then no amount of investment is worth it.
Pain multiplier: Is that a one-time cost or do you experience that cost over and over and over again?
Sell them what they want and then make sure that you're setting it up so that tomorrow you can give them what they need.

Technology Tips from Julie:

Understand how to use Excel or other spreadsheet applications to analyze your pricing.
Before you build anything, go out and test the market test whether or not anybody clicks on a particular price.
Use a profit prediction tool to help you understand the potential of various pricing models.
If you know your numbers and you know your conversion rates, you can start to really look at your pricing and your profit to determine if your numbers are set the right way.
You need to set some numeric expectations with your clients. when you understand what their problem is and their pain and then you talk about how you're going to help them solve that pain, and ask, “How are you going to quantify that that pain was solved?”

Check out:

GERU - Profit Prediction Tool

Smarter Sales Soundbites:

“There's a difference between what somebody has set aside in their budget for this solution and what the pain really costs them or what it's worth for them to solve.”

“We undersell our own solutions and go for that quick sale to our detriment.”

“Think from your clients perspective, are you really solving the real problem with this solution or are you leaving some aspect of the solution on the table because we're afraid to ask for a certain amount of money?”

“The real sales solution is a combination of having your mindset it right, getting the mechanics of selling correct and also being in consistent motion.”

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S01 E09 | Love Them More to Sell Them More

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 22:08:12 -0000

SHOWNOTES:

This episode is about how to find out what the pain is that people are willing to pay to fix. Learn what people really buy, the questions to ask them so that they discover for themselves they need what you have and some amazing tech tools to keep you organized and on track. In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode...

Technique Tips from Merit:

· The way that we buy impacts the way that we sell.

· Ask questions so people discover for themselves that they have pain.

· People make decisions intellectually, but they buy emotionally.

· Say what you do in a way that hits those emotional hot buttons for them.

· The multiplier question: Is this a onetime cost or do you pay this over and over and over again because this problem is still in place?

Technology Tips from Julie:

· Tech enables us to capture both qualitative and quantitative evidence about pain.

· Strategy 1: Do market research on social media to learn what people are complaining about.

· Strategy 2: Ask Google what people are searching for to find solutions to problems.

· Strategy 3: Survey your existing audience to help me understand which messages resonate and which pain they're experiencing.

· The big thing that tech can do is it can help you to find what people are talking about and the words that they want to hear.

Smarter Sales Soundbites:

“People will do more to to avoid pain than gain pleasure.”

“You didn't walk in your doctor's office because you were interested in her solutions to solve your heel pain, you walked in because you had an emotion that finally got you into that doctor's office. Buying is emotional.”

“Take the things we find through tech like, here's the top 10 reasons that people go and find this solution and then say, what we hear most often is that people are frustrated by this. Is that true for you?”

Referenced in this Episode:

Listen to what the market is saying about you and your competition.

Brand Mentions

Research what the market is searching for when it comes to your product, service or industry.

AnswerThePublic.com

Ask your market what matters to them.

Zoho Survey

Survey Monkey

Merit’s download: Pain Questions

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Our Websites:

https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Shift-Challenging-Sabotage-Success/dp/0997646802

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S01 E08 | The Secrets to Serve Better So You Can Sell More

Wed, 15 Jul 2020 10:00:00 -0000

Like it or not, we are all in sales... so the question is how do you serve better in order to sell more? How do you grow the lifetime value of a client? You will love this episode because increasing existing business is the easiest way to grow. In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode...

Technique Tips from Merit:

Serving clients well is really the key to growing sales.
To grow your businesses with existing clients, first solve the problem they hired you to fix and then upsell additional offerings.
If we're not serving our clients, delivering on what we've initially promised, then there is nothing more they're going to want to do with us.
You don't get any extra credit until the original job is done.

Technology Tips from Julie:

Customers that have exceptional salespeople are ten to fifteen times more likely to remain loyal.
One of the challenges I would encourage everyone to take on is not only capturing what success looks like, but how will success be measured.
Capture metrics in your CRM system, Excel, GoogleDocs or Office.
If you don't have your photo in your signature on your emails, go do that right now.
Do more video messages, incorporate your humor and your personality into those messages.

Smarter Sales Soundbites:

“I want to solve the problem that you hired me to solve. And then if you're open to it, I would like to have two other conversations with you. One about who else you might know that I would be able to help in similar way and also what else you and I might do together to expand on the solution that is now in place and delivering the result that I promised.”

“70 percent of the time when a customer leaves an organization it is because they believe that they've had poor service and almost always that is attributed to the salesperson.”

“One of the things that every customer needs once they've joined you is reinforcement that they have made a good decision. They've got to demonstrate that success, not just for them, but for us as well.”

“Measure the indicators on the way to the results.”

“Good customer service is just an integral part of being a professional salesperson.”

Referenced in this Episode:

Myth Shift: Challenging The Truths That Sabotage Success by Merit Kahn (formerly Merit Gest)

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S01 E07 | Profitable Proposal Tech & Techniques

Wed, 08 Jul 2020 23:13:00 -0000

Whether you work with a standardized proposal or each one is a custom work of art, this episode is for you. You will learn about the technique to write your proposal and how to use tech to make customizing proposals easy and you can track them to so you know when it’s being considered.

How do you save time, use the right language, know when to send and track those proposals?

In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode.

Technique Tips from Merit:

A proposal is my best guess at what I think you want. A working agreement is let's have a discussion about what you really need and what you want, and then I'll give you the good business reasons why there might be some other elements that you need to get to your outcome.
When they say, “put together a proposal…” Respond, “I’d be happy to, but Are you open to co-creating a working agreement so you get exactly what you need/want and it makes good business sense.”
There won’t be any surprises in the proposal, I’m just writing up what we discussed.
Proposals outline benefits, deliverables and costs. Make sure you're also includes your prospect’s pain and review that before getting to the costs.
Tracking a metric of how many proposals have you done is not as effective as tracking the metric how many qualified proposals have I done?
Recording sales conversations then use the exact language they articulated their problem in your proposal.

Technology Tips from Julie:

Use tech to track, expedite and make the proposal process more consistent.
Separate out the idea of the proposal from the contract, because those are two different stages of the sales cycle.
One of the first ways that we differentiate is by being beautiful. Don’t just word document proposals, do beautiful proposals using PowerPoint, PandaDoc or Proposify.
Reuse components of your proposals. So rather than crafting proposals from scratch, every time, decide the 10 different things that you typically sell and have a page for each.
Proposal technology platforms allow you to go straight from a proposal to a signature.
Being able to follow up on your proposal is one of the most critical things that you can do so you can call them when they are looking at your proposal and are ready to buy. I use DocSend which lets me see that they've opened it and I get notified every time somebody opens my proposal. But the other thing it does is it lets me see which pages of my proposal they spend the most time on.

Smarter Sales Soundbites:

“A lot of people rush to get to the proposal that they think is going to sell for them instead of really hang out a little bit more in that question and discovery, part of the sales process, to even discover whether or not this prospect really qualifies for the time and effort that they're going to put into a proposal.”

“One of the challenges is making sure that we don't use proposals as a crutch for selling. If I'm just measured on how many proposals did I get out the door, there's no incentive for me to do the qualification step properly so that I'm maximizing the proposals that I do have out there.”

“There aren't gonna be any surprises in what we discussed.”

“I don't think I'm doing anybody any favors by taking my time to create a proposal that's only based on guesswork.”

Listener Challenge:

Make sure that you're not creating proposals before qualifying prospects.
Create beautiful proposals.
Use tech to track that proposal.

Referenced in this Episode:

Creating Proposals

Tracking Proposals

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Merit Kahn

Julie Holmes

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S01 E06 | Analyze So You Can Finalize More Sales

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 15:01:28 -0000

SHOWNOTES:

If you’ve ever felt like pulling your hair out because you feel like you have to do everything, but you aren’t really sure of what is and isn’t working when it comes to sales, you are going to love this episode all about ANALYZING YOUR SALES PROCESS. In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode...

Technique Tips from Merit:

Ask yourself or your team, “what don’t you have time to do?” Whatever they say is code for “I’m not comfortable doing that activity”. That’s where real training is needed.
Get clarity around the steps involved in prospecting, the things that you do to fill the funnel so that you know if you've got enough in your pipeline to have the business results that you want.
Track the number of leads that you're working on.
How many of those leads turn into conversations?
How many of those conversations turn into appointments?
How many of those appointments turn into money, conversations, and closed deals?
How much are those closed deals worth or how much did you lose if it didn’t close?
Then ask, “What do I need to learn to be more effective in this particular part of that process?”
Take stock and look at what are you tracking. Are you using that information? Are there other metrics that would be more useful to you in meaningful ways that would inform your behavior change so that you can get to a better result?

Technology Tips from Julie:

First, what is important in sales? What should be measured?
Next, how do you know if you should measure it and what you do with that information when you have it?
Understanding what is a good conversion ratio. That would help you know if you are underperforming on that target ratio and it would help you predict the future results.
Lagging indicators track results achieved. Leading indicators are measures, metrics, behaviors or attributes that I can change in the process that will automatically create a change farther downstream.
There are three things that have to happen before you start really owning key performance indicators and really owning measurements and analytics around a process and listening
Know what matters- what data are you looking at
Know if that data is good or bad and at what point you high five
Know what to do if data is bad- have a plan
Once you have this information, the technology that you now add to that is appropriate for the situation and will give you the data that you need. But if you just go right to the tech, without understanding this technique part of it, you're shooting yourself in the foot or you'll spend a lot of money on tech that isn't going to produce.

Smarter Sales Soundbites:

“I can imagine that every one of you can think of at least one time that a manager said, “I feel like you should be doing more of this.” And you thought, “Well, what does more look like? How will you know if more happens? How will you know?”

“You have to identify what you are trying to measure so that you can know where you want to make improvements. If you don't understand the steps involved in getting to certain results and goals, then you can't know whether or not you're doing enough.”

“Track and measure the actual data and not just what you think or feel you are doing to be busy.”

“You can't change the result. But you can change the behavior on their way to getting the result. And if you're not tracking the right things, you can't make those decisions.”

Referenced in this Episode:

julieholmes.vip/kpiguide

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S01 E05 | Overwhelmingly Organized with Sales Tech & Technique

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 21:26:19 -0000

SHOWNOTES:

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by what it takes to keep all your prospects, clients and deal flow organized, you are going to love this episode ABOUT ORGANIZATION AS A TIME-SAVING STRATEGY. In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode...

Technique Tips from Merit:

Qualify or disqualify the opportunity sooner in the sales process.
By disqualifying prospects who are not a good fit earlier, you only have to organize and follow up personally with the best prospects. Everyone else who is moderately qualified gets an automated follow-up.
Are you open to … sharing with me who will be attending the luncheon before I move it to next month when you are at the phase when you are selecting speakers?

Technology Tips from Julie:

Tech strategy - Automations and notifications - only deal with what you NEED to deal with WHEN you need to deal with it.
Tech caution - Beware the tech traps … getting lost in tech that takes you more time than if you’d actually done it yourself.
Tech application -
Project and Task Management (Asana, Trello, Evernote)
The Joy of Searching (Evernote, OneNote, Rocket Book)
Email Auto Follow-Up (Boomerang, Outlook)
There’s an app for that -
Project and Task Management (Asana, Trello, Evernote)
The Joy of Searching (Evernote, OneNote, Rocket Book)
Email Auto Follow-Up (Boomerang, Outlook)

Smarter Sales Soundbites:

“Organization is about things, like the process, and time management is about how you plan your time.”

“Qualification is going to limit the number of things you have to organize.”

“I own a labeler and I am not afraid to use it.”

“Tech and organization to me do two primary things. It helps me to see everything that I need to do and when I need to do it. But the other thing that it does is it enables notifications.”

“If you're going to ask for a piece of information, what is the action you are going to take on that piece of information?”

“So many sales managers that track things because they think they're supposed to, and then they don't do anything with that data.”

“The first step is to figure out what your sales process looks like so that at any given moment, you can see where things are in the process.”

“We waste more time looking for things than we do anything else so the second step is making sure that you have a good search.”

“The last step is making sure that you have some good notification systems in place so that things are being surfaced to you when you should take action on them.”

Referenced in this Episode:

Asana - Project management with a great FREE option
Trello - Kanban task management tool
RocketBook - Smart, reusable notebooks
Boomerang - Gmail scheduling tool
Outlook - Trusty email client from MS Office
Microsoft OneNote - Get organized with virtual notebooks
Evernote - Get organized with virtual notebooks

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S01 E04 | Differentiate to Dominate with Sales Tech and Technique

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 20:07:16 -0000

SUMMARY:

If you are frustrated about how to stand out from the sea of sameness and differentiate yourself and what you sell, this episode is for you! Don’t be different, be impressive. With clearly communicated expectations and some cool tech that will blow your prospect’s minds, you will stand out as the most impressive sales pro around!

SHOWNOTES:

In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode on differentiation...

Technique Tips from Merit:

The key to avoiding a price negotiation is making sure that you show up as different than all your competition and all the other salespeople out there.
It's not just about the product or service being different. It's about the sales process, the mood, the tone that you set, the questions that you asked.
Process differentiation is probably one of the most important things that sales professionals can do to really stand out and be above and beyond their competition
To differentiate yourself and your sales process follow these steps:
Tell the truth about how much time you have to talk
Clearly articulate the purpose of the communication
Discuss the agenda for the conversation
Agree on an outcome and next steps

Technology Tips from Julie:

Differentiation isn't necessarily about being just different. Because different isn't good or bad. It's just different. I would encourage people to think about impressive.
If you have a good strong technique, then technology can be that wow factor. The way that you leverage technology can be that impressive differentiator.
Try video voicemail instead of traditional email follow up as a differentiator.
Adam.ai can record your meeting, it can also pull out automatically all of the action items that get stated during your meeting. So you can record your meeting, you can get all of your action items, and it's shareable.
With Microsoft OneNote, I can have these templates pre-built. So I know as soon as I get on a call that those are the boxes I should be filling in. From a consistency perspective to make yourself a better salesperson

Smarter Sales Soundbites:

“If nobody sees you as different in the sales process, then it’s always going to come down to price.”

“I've narrowed it down based on features and functionality. And to be completely honest, I went with the one that sold better.”

“Just ask for what you really need.”

“What are you, as a sales professional, doing at any given point during the sales cycle, that you legitimately think your prospect would think, wow... that's impressive.”

“There is a big difference between just being different and being impressive.”

Referenced in this Episode:

Dubb - Video Email/Video Voicemail
Adam.ai - Artificial intelligence meeting management suite
Microsoft OneNote - Get organized with virtual notebooks
Evernote - Get organized with virtual notebooks

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S01 E03 | Leveraging Linked for Super Selling

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 20:33:33 -0000

SHOWNOTES:

In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode on using LinkedIn to grow sales:

Duh… connect with us on LinkedIn…

Technique Tips from Merit:

Have a really clear title
You can change your title as much as you want
Use emotional words and describe who is the best ideal client for you in your description section
Include a meeting link in your description section so they can go straight to your calendar and book time to talk with you
Add social proof to your description. “Jason hired me because…”
When you look up prospects, find commonalities. Join groups they are part of already
“I noticed that you were on my profile and we both happened to be part of the ABC company group or the ABC interest group. So I'm curious, is there a reason that you were on my profile? Are you looking for someone specific? Here’s a link to my calendar if you are open to talking…”
Reach out to our current connections to say, “Hey, it's been a while since we talked. There are people that you know, that would be helpful for me to meet and vice versa. Can we have a LinkedIn connection meeting and see who we might introduce each other to?”

Technology Tips from Julie:

LinkedIn is supposed to be a jumping off point for conversations, not the destination of conversations, so for cover art, like you can go and use a really cool free tool like Canva
Add media to your profile. Video is one of the most powerful mediums that we have to communicate
Put a PDF out there, an image, a couple of photographs, a video message to help people know who you are and what you do
Make sure that you are connecting up your social media profiles
Customize your LinkedIn profile address to make it easier for people to connect with you
LinkedIn offers the opportunity to see who is visiting your profile. Use that free option
Write articles and posts. When people like or comment, reach out to them to connect
Tag contacts and add notes using a plugin that sits in your browser on top of LinkedIn to keep track of where I met

Smarter Sales Soundbites:

“Anytime I'm in LinkedIn, I'm there for business reason. I've got my business mindset on.”

“There's a big blank billboard on your LinkedIn profile that you are not potentially using as effectively as you should still have that like blue with the connecting lines and dots like please get rid of that.”

“Have your potential prospect or the person you would like to connect with and do business with to identify themselves in your description.”

“From a technique perspective, you want to realize it's who you help and why it's not just a laundry list of your resume.”

“If you're looking to just put another notch in your bedpost over how many connections you have, knock it off.”

“People are here one day and somewhere else the next day. But if they're in your LinkedIn profile, wherever they're at, you still have that touch point.”

“If you're hot, then I remember you. If you're a hot guy, I remember hot guys.” - Merit :)

Referenced in this Episode:

Canva - Online Graphic Design for Free
RelayThat - Create and Repurpose Social Media Images Quickly and Easily
Book Like a Boss - Online Calendar Booking Application (it's what Merit and Julie use!)
LinkedIn Sales Navigator - Work Your LinkedIn Like It’s Your Job!
Switchy - Brand, Shorten, and Track Links
Jennifer Darling: connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/Jennifer darling speaks (she offers a free Rockstar Assessment… take advantage of it!)
Dux-soup - a LinkedIn management and analytics solution

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S01 E02 | Revamp and Reload Your Sales Referrals

Fri, 29 May 2020 14:59:00 -0000

SHOWNOTES:

In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode on growing your business through referrals:

Technique Tips from Merit:

The Who-What-When-How Technique of growing your business through referrals is this:

Who will you ask for referrals
Clients: people who can speak to the work you do
Influencers: people you won’t directly sell to but have influence with prospects
What to say to them
Clients: I can’t guarantee you will get the same results I did working with Merit, but I can guarantee it will be a worthwhile conversation. Can I introduce you?
Influencers: I don’t know if it will make sense to do business with Merit, but if you’re open to it, I believe it makes a lot of sense to talk with her about (issue).
When to ask
Clients: When you’ve solved their problem and they thank you
Influencers: Ask one a day
How can I thank you for referring me
Business-gifts-referral fee-donation to cause-reciprocal referrals

Technology Tips from Julie:

The first step is to cultivate referrals from clients by starting with testimonials. Use technology to keep track of your testimonials from emails, LinkedIn, Google company page, Website, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

When someone sends you an email, for example, with a nice compliment, send back a response asking them to post that on LinkedIn. Get your testimonials spread on all your possible social media channels.

The second step is about tracking referrals. Ideally, you have the ability to keep track of your referrals in your CRM, but Julie talks about two other systems you can use to track projects including who you have asked for referrals which are Asana and Trello. You can also track your email follow-ups by putting a trigger on that email. If the person being referred didn’t respond, your tech can alert you to go back to your referrer to ask them what you should do since you haven’t heard from the person they referred to you.

Finally, both experts agree, it is important to thank people for referring people to you. One way tech can make that easier is with an app called Ink which allows you to send a personalized card right from your digital device… even if you don’t have a stamp. Other thank you gift apps include SugarWish which allows the recipient to pick their favorite candy.

Smarter Sales Soundbites:

“I’m not looking for you to introduce me to my next new client, I’m just looking to be introduced to someone who is open to hearing about my offer.”
“Introduction is better than a referral.”
“Reward the behavior you want to be repeated, not the result.”
“Thank people for making introductions whether or not they turn into business.”
“People who refer you want to know that it mattered.”
“They are giving you trusted contacts. They deserve to know the results on that.”
“The ability to track data about sales makes all the difference in your ability to know where to focus your efforts so that you aren't wasting time and that you are really capitalizing and cultivating on the things that work best for you, for your clients and for your marketplace and your industry.”
“f you use technology properly, it enables you to scale and to truly personalize what you're giving them. And that is the way to everyone's heart. Everybody wants to feel special.”

Referenced in This Episode:

www.asana.com - Project management with a GREAT free version

www.trello.com - Project management with a GREAT free version

www.activecampaign.com - Julie’s preferred email marketing platform

INK Cards for iOS - Create and send custom photo cards straight from your iPhone or iPad.

INK Cards for Android - Create and send custom photo cards straight from your Android device.

www.sugarwish.com - Candy gifts

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S01 E01 | Tune Up and Tech Up Your Follow Up

Wed, 13 May 2020 02:49:00 -0000

On this episode of The Smarter Sales Show, Merit and Julie share their best techniques and tech for SALES FOLLOW-UP.

In response to a listener question about following-up with sales prospects, the hosts discuss four strategies for when a client says the timing isn’t right. Merit and Julie provide techniques—including asking questions and securing a date—as well as specific tech that is helpful.

Asking the client about their interest directly can help you move forward. And even if they do say they’re not interested, you can still test that to see if you can turn it around by asking what they would have liked to hear. They explain that 80% of prospects can be crowding your sales pipeline because they’re apprehensive, and you can capitalize on that. This will allow sales managers to make better sales forecasts with more reliable, realistic pipelines. After gaining a confident yes, scheduling can confirm. But don’t make the mistake of waiting or sending a scheduling link, despite how helpful that tech is. You want to schedule it immediately.

Julie talks about some tech that can move the sale forward, too. SyncGene is an app that will synchronize your work and personal calendars to consolidate into a single to-do list. This can solve the problem of missing dates across multiple calendars. Another tool called Zapier allows you to create “if/then” logical rules that automates some of your tasks, allowing you to chain tasks together and streamline your workflow.

Another technique Merit mentions is called the Qualifier’s Mindset, which helps you to sell your solution, even when your confidence is low and your empathy is high. Even if they’re not interested in hearing about it, it helps to believe in the value of your solution and how it brings value to your clients.

Big Brother tech, or sales document tracking tech, is the final piece of tech Julie discusses. This allows you to get notifications and updates on changes to the status of documents you send out. DocSend, for example, can inform you when a document has been opened, as well as how much time a client has spent on individual pages, giving you evidence that they’re actually interested.

Send in your questions to be answered on the air at hello@thesmartersalesshow.com and sign up for our email list at www.thesmartersalesshow.com.

Hot Spots:

01:45 — Keys to the sales follow-up

04:30 — The Qualifying Question

06:20 — The 80/20 rule for confirming prospects

08:00 — If you get a yes, get out your calendar

10:30 — Everything plus a sync (sync’ing apps, that is)

14:40 — The Qualifier’s Mindset

17:00 — How Value Changes Your Mindset.

19:00 — Big Brother Tech for Sales.

22:45 — Next week: How to Get More Referrals!

Key Quotes:

— “Set the stage for the great qualifying question.”

— “They are hoping you are so unorganized that you won’t call them back.”

— “Every CEO of every company wants a realistic pipeline.”

— “If you’ve got someone in a conversation, schedule it live.”

— “If it doesn’t get you to the next step, you’re probably not using the right tech.”

— “You may not follow up with a prospect if you think it’s a waste of time.”

— “Just like that, a document I thought was dead had resurfaced alive!”

— “Data and analytics can be our most powerful tool.”

— “Correctly using tech can shift your mindset.”

Referenced in this Episode:

www.docsend.com - Sales Document Tracking

www.syncgene.com - Gmail and Outlook Synchronization

www.zapier.com - Integrations and Automation Tool

www.booklikeaboss.com - Online Calendar Booking Application (it's what Merit and Julie use!)

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