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How to Boost Your Sales in a Down Market

 

Guest articles > How to Boost Your Sales in a Down Market

 

by: John Boe

 

As a professional sales trainer, I have the opportunity to talk with salespeople, from a wide range of industries, representing a variety of products and services. Based on their feedback, I find that while most sales reps are challenged in this difficult economy, some are doing quite well. In fact, it's not unusual to find evidence of both success and failure even among sales reps working in the same office, trained by the same manager, selling an identical product, in the exact same market.

While there's no "magic bullet" for selling in a down market, there are several key steps you take right now that will have an immediate impact on your business. Here are four tips I would like to share with you that I've gleaned from top producers who have learned to adopt new strategies and prosper during tough economic times.

  1. Don't "play office"… make appointments. Monitor your activities and take a critical look at how you spend your day. Is your day filled with client appointments and prospecting opportunities or are you reading the newspaper, surfing the internet, playing solitaire, filling out administrative paperwork and taking long lunches with co-workers? In other words, respect your time and delegate all administrative tasks that keep you from your two primary functions… making appointments and closing sales.
  2. Accomplish daily prospecting goals. Schedule time each morning to make a minimum of 25 prospecting or customer service calls per day. Daily prospecting activity is the single most important ingredient in determining business success.
  3. Enhance customer service. Make it a priority to meet with your existing customers. Look for follow-on sales as well as cross-selling and upselling opportunities. This is not only a sound business decision, but it also allows you to promote client loyalty and generate additional referrals.
  4. Be prepared to address common objections. It will serve you to develop a well thought out response to the three most common prospect objections; "It costs too much", "I can get it cheaper elsewhere", and the classic stall, "I want to think about it." It's important to take the time to actually role-play your responses until you sound smooth and natural. When it comes to building confidence, there is no substitute for role-play.

Seasoned salespeople have learned to accept the fact that economic market conditions will fluctuate up and down just as predictably as winter follows fall. By incorporating these powerful Best Practices into your daily activities, you'll not only improve your business now, but also hone your business skills so that as the market recovers, and it will, you will be in position for even greater income than previously experienced.

"Tough times never last, but tough people do!"
~ Robert H. Schuller

 


John Boe presents a wide variety of motivational and sales-oriented keynotes and seminar programs for sales meetings and conventions. John is a nationally recognized sales trainer and business motivational speaker with an impeccable track record in the meeting industry. To have John speak at your next event, visit www.johnboe.com or call 877 725-3750. Free Newsletter available on website.


Contributor: John Boe

Published here on: 05-Jul-09

Classification: Sales

Website: www.johnboe.com

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Site Menu

| Home | Top | Quick Links | Settings |

Main sections: | Disciplines | Techniques | Principles | Explanations | Theories |

Other sections: | Blog! | Quotes | Guest articles | Analysis | Books | Help |

More pages: | Contact | Caveat | About | Students | Webmasters | Awards | Guestbook | Feedback | Sitemap | Changes |

Settings: | Computer layout | Mobile layout | Small font | Medium font | Large font | Translate |

 

 

Please help and share:

 

Quick links

Disciplines

* Argument
* Brand management
* Change Management
* Coaching
* Communication
* Counseling
* Game Design
* Human Resources
* Job-finding
* Leadership
* Marketing
* Politics
* Propaganda
* Rhetoric
* Negotiation
* Psychoanalysis
* Sales
* Sociology
* Storytelling
* Teaching
* Warfare
* Workplace design

Techniques

* Assertiveness
* Body language
* Change techniques
* Closing techniques
* Conversation
* Confidence tricks
* Conversion
* Creative techniques
* General techniques
* Happiness
* Hypnotism
* Interrogation
* Language
* Listening
* Negotiation tactics
* Objection handling
* Propaganda
* Problem-solving
* Public speaking
* Questioning
* Using repetition
* Resisting persuasion
* Self-development
* Sequential requests
* Storytelling
* Stress Management
* Tipping
* Using humor
* Willpower

Principles

+ Principles

Explanations

* Behaviors
* Beliefs
* Brain stuff
* Conditioning
* Coping Mechanisms
* Critical Theory
* Culture
* Decisions
* Emotions
* Evolution
* Gender
* Games
* Groups
* Habit
* Identity
* Learning
* Meaning
* Memory
* Motivation
* Models
* Needs
* Personality
* Power
* Preferences
* Research
* Relationships
* SIFT Model
* Social Research
* Stress
* Trust
* Values

Theories

* Alphabetic list
* Theory types

And

About
Guest Articles
Blog!
Books
Changes
Contact
Guestbook
Quotes
Students
Webmasters

 

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