On a sales call, especially a prospecting call, you must be emotionally unattached to the outcome.

If you become attached to the goal of turning every prospect into a customer, you will surely be disappointed. Disappointment leads to frustration, which can lead to procrastination -- and so, the downward spiral begins.

Selling is a sorting process. Initially, you separate out the unqualified prospects (suspects) and retain the qualified ones.

Next, you sort out the prospects who are qualified to graduate to the customer level from those who aren’t. Obviously, the goal is to have as many prospects as possible reach the customer level. However, many won’t make it.

So, be “attached” to the process, not the outcome. As long as you focus on and work the process, the desirable outcome will follow. © Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Jeremy Rawitz

Sales Strategy Corp.

347-385-8500

Here is something a little off topic but interesting nevertheless. It is a reprint from the New York Enterprise Report on Internet Marketing.

Enjoy, Jeremy

Quite simply, the Internet is the greatest marketing vehicle ever developed. It is spreading throughout the economy generating savings and profits, and it is quickly and quietly coming into its own for customer acquisition and building brand equity for those who use and understand it correctly. The Net enables 1-to-1 relational marketing and sales - including knowing what your customers want to buy and how they will decide to buy it, – and bringing them in at mass-market rates, and closing sales or getting leads, with very low or easily calculated incremental costs.

What the Net is NOT is a techie tool. Sales and marketing managers have to lead Internet initiatives while the IT departments have to be the creative servants. Technologists do not understand and deliver value to customers, merchandise, sell, or retain relationships. Marketing, sales and business people do.

Properly used, the Internet (now we are also going to start calling it ‘eMarketing’) will:

• INCREASE SALES by attracting prospects who are actively looking for what you are selling NOW
• ACQUIRE CUSTOMERS - The Internet is particularly good at building repeat customers and retaining efficiencies. Retaining 15% of your customers can increase your profits 30% to 85% depending on your industry.
• SHIRK COSTS - in all areas, particularly marketing & distribution, with the savings going right to profits.

As with any business revolution, those that don’t integrate the Internet throughout their business, and enable profitability at lower prices / higher customer values, will find it increasingly hard to survive. Moreover, in the 21st century e-economy balance sheet, assets from brand equity and opt-in permission-based lists will have significant impact on company valuations. These are not hard or expensive to build, but they take time and care.

Before we go on, it’s useful to gain perspective by taking a step back. Generally, leading sales and marketing professionals share two feelings about the Internet. First, it should have huge promise. Second, their company’s web sites should be adding more to the bottom line. As a professional e-Marketer, I am continually dismayed by the low level of expectations organizations have for their web sites. You should be getting much more from your Internet initiatives.

Internet Myths

Perception vs. reality about the Internet has been split into different areas giving different impressions: “The Bubble”, “We’re Covered”, “The Quiet Success” & and “e-Marketing”.

“The Bubble” was a stock market phenomenon and had little to do with the actual Internet, the value it delivers or how it works. What “The Bubble” did do was fund the temporary overbuilding of infrastructures. “We are Covered” web sites are those that companies built without business planning and now lie neglected or in a “Catch 22” never-never world of “we will put money into it when it shows some results”. The search engines are littered with these websites. The result is that many organizations are out of the markets, profits, customer acquisition and planning they need, by thinking that they are ‘Covered’ because they have a web site. If your organization is one of these, continue to read this column every month and consider implementing the recommended steps ASAP.

“The Quiet Success” organizations are those who are paying their dues. These are both B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) web sites that have continually been in touch with their customers and used e-Marketing to improve their marketing efforts and build brand loyalty. These are market leaders who are exploring new products and services, integrating their sales with their customers’ lives and operations, and saving on infrastructure and media. It sounds like a lot, but it is simple; the trick is to base your planning on your customers’ voice and to keep at it in ‘Measure & Improve’ cycles. Most of the success stories are pre-Internet companies who are getting daily profits from making e-Marketing a growing part of their customer operations.

Marketing on a Two-Way Street: “e-Marketing” is a new, often abused term that is starting to define a new viewpoint and profession. e-Marketing understands that the Internet is a two-way street, a way to learn about and relate to each customer on his or her own terms very affordably and productively. e-Marketing is NOT just emailing. It includes using websites, email, CRM (Customer Relations Management) and databases for sales and lead generation, market research and to strengthen other media. For example, search engines can now be used ‘in reverse’ to determine exactly what products and services to feature (see our next article), and web sites can be used to supply targeted information and harvest leads from ads, and to print out coupons for in-store redemption.

jr@salesstrategycorp.com

Don't be afraid of failure! The most successful salespeople are often those that have failed the most. The more you fail, the more opportunities you have to succeed.

Failure has become a stigma, both within sales and culturally. No one wants to fail or be labeled a “failure”. The result of that is that people either try to reject their failure or avoid taking any risks at all. In sales, this can be the end of a career. There are salespeople that decided they couldn't deal with failing anymore and set up camp with whatever level of success they had. Prospecting stops, clients demand everything, and sales plateau. They may keep showing up for work, but their career has gone as far as it's ever going to.

If you are going to be in sales, you better get used to the idea of failing. You are going to get rejection and many deals won't close. It's your outlook that determines how you react to these situations. Some salespeople try to hide from their failure, they make excuses until they don't feel responsible anymore, “The market is bad”, “That buyer was an idiot”, “I didn't get the support I needed.” All of these things are another way of saying, “I don't want to admit and learn from my failure. I'd rather appear to have it all together than actually go through the process of being the best."

Don't do this. Admit to your failures and learn from them. Have the courage to recognize your faults and you will develop much faster into a great salesperson than all the people hiding from their mistakes. Some salespeople go a step further and avoid risks altogether. They do only what is required of them to keep their job. They'll maintain clients and avoid prospecting. They pad their numbers and hide behind “full pipelines”. They'll bury themselves in paperwork and proposals, whatever is necessary to detach themselves from failing.

If you fall into this trap, know one thing: you have decided to stop developing and improving yourself. The only way to grow is by trying new things and taking risks. Once you retreat into your shell, you destroy any possibility of growing. Embrace your failure. It will help you improve as a salesperson and ultimately will garner respect. Though there is a stigma to being a “failure”, there is also a stigma to people that persevere through failures and become great successes. Failure is simply a step toward success.

© Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Jeremy Rawitz

Sandler Sales Institute

347-385-8500 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do your salespeople, individually, care whether or not your company is the "Best in the World" or "The Leader in Widget Performance?" Undoubtedly that is important to them, but is that what gets them up in the morning, and keeps them going out in the field?

No. Salespeople sell for their own reasons, not the company's. Your job as a sales manager is to help them achieve their personal goals so the company can achieve its goals, too. Find out about their personal goals. While this may sound easy, there are many companies out there whose culture inhibits people from sharing their individual goals. In fact, there are many companies out there whose culture inhibits the sharing of corporate goals, too. But you cannot manage salespeople effectively if you don't have any idea why they show up each day.

Internal motivation.

How many times have you asked yourself, "How can I motivate my people to higher levels of success, both personally and for the company? How can I begin a goal-setting journey for myself and each of my salespeople, and how do I manage the realization of my goals on a daily basis?" An understanding of motivation-and the secret of self-actualization-is essential to successful sales management.

Motivation is a much used and little understood word. Motivation is a "motive for action." A much better, though more involved definition would be that motivation is a desire held in expectation that it will be accomplished. To understand it better, let's break that definition down into its components.

Desires and/or needs. First, motivation involves desires or needs. Before you can motivate yourself, you must know and understand your basic needs and desires. What the good managers do is act as a catalyst and help each salesperson they manage to motivate themselves.

Expectation and belief.  Second, motivation involves expectation and belief.

Belief, in turn, will help you make the structural changes necessary to achieve your goals. The same holds true for each of your salespeople.

Accomplishment and action. Finally, motivation involves accomplishment, and accomplishment requires action.

You must learn to identify what motivates you and to select and set personal goals that fulfill your needs as an individual. Your salespeople must also learn to do the same.

These three factors are the basic framework in which all motivation is built. You may be looking for a way to motivate yourself toward greater creativity, responsibility, and productivity. How do you go about it? You must discover all you can about yourself. You must develop self-awareness, involving your needs, desires and drives. At some point, you will discover a triggering device or an expectation and belief that will turn those desires into creative action. It isn't easy, but it is definitely possible.

Jeremy Rawitz

jr@salesstrategycorp.com

On a sales call, especially a prospecting call, you must be emotionally unattached to the outcome. If you become attached to the goal of turning every prospect into a customer, you will surely be disappointed. Disappointment leads to frustration, which can lead to procrastination...and so, the downward spiral begins.

Selling is a sorting process. Initially, you separate out the unqualified prospects (suspects) and retain the qualified ones. Next, you sort out the prospects who are qualified to graduate to the customer level from those who aren't Obviously, the goal is to have as many prospects as possible reach the customer level. However, many won't make it.

So, be "attached" to the process, not the outcome. As long as you focus on and work the process, the desirable outcome will follow.

Jeremy Rawitz

Sales Strategy Corp.

jr@salesstrategycorp.com