I’m a total dud when it comes to small talk. Sales and Selling |
- I’m a total dud when it comes to small talk.
- Yellow Page Salesman...
- As I get older, I start liking having a routine. What is your routine for success?
- Cold Calling for Noobz - X-POST from r/entrepreneur
- Should I Bill Customers Through Paypal Or Cash?
- What should I ACTUALLY include on my resume from a sales position?
- Territory needs to be nursed back to life...
- i'm so bored because of my companies comp structure.
- Mock Sales Scenarios for Interviews
- FIRST LEAD
- platform to upload contacts/emails similar to linkedin
- Will resigning without another job at 7 months hurt my sales career?
- (Intern here) How do I qualify and validate an opportunity?
- Does anyone know anything about Prehired?
- We've communicated through text; should i call that number about a possible job
- Anyone else here work for an electrical wholesale distributor?
- Dilemma
- How much of the success at your company is dependent on what territory you get assigned?
- what is my next step
- Communal commission structure?
- Crushed last year. Not this year.
- Commercial insurance sales
- Huge email campaign, ZERO Responses
- Straightforward/Best books on CLOSING
| I’m a total dud when it comes to small talk. Posted: 04 Dec 2018 06:42 AM PST I am in construction sales and I can sell the hell out of our product, but only once I get to that stage of the sales call. The issue I have is that I am typically more introverted and I feel like I am bland when it comes to conversation outside of the product I'm selling. This is sometimes ok because the customers are working on a job site and aren't "people pleasers". However, in the event that I am in an office environment, I can't seem to initiate the call/break the ice without getting extremely awkward and jumping immediately into the product I'm selling. Are there any introverted people in this group that have overcome this sort of barrier? How did you do so? Edit: grammatical [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Dec 2018 08:35 AM PST I will try to make this short. I am a 25 year old Yellow Page Salesman. I have only been at the job about 6 months (was laid off as an internet salesman because the company was in the shitter). I live in an area that finding good jobs that offer good pay is not typical.. I need to succeed at this job until I can either find something better or until my wife is done with college (2 years) which is when we plan to move to LA (she is in interior design). Any former YP salesman with advice or tips? Otherwise any advice is greatly appreciated. Should mention that I am doing my selling over the phone to prospects and to current customers (renewing them for another year). [link] [comments]  |
| As I get older, I start liking having a routine. What is your routine for success? Posted: 03 Dec 2018 07:41 PM PST I run a business, so part is definitely sales, other part is tech and admin stuff. Right now everything is disjointed. Im thinking if i build a routine and stick to it, i'll be more successful. What is your proven routine that you like? [link] [comments]  |
| Cold Calling for Noobz - X-POST from r/entrepreneur Posted: 04 Dec 2018 08:28 AM PST Is it still cool to call people noobz? Asking for a friend. In a recent post I talked about why, if you do not have the skills or confidence to become a full-fledged entrepreneur, you should develop "entrepreneurial skills" by getting into B2B sales or a trade. I got a lot of good feedback and several questions from readers on Reddit. One of the most common went something like this: "I need to get more business but I am intimidated by cold calling. How do I do it?" Yes, it can be intimidating. But it can be extremely effective, especially if you are selling a simple local service. And I believe it is an essential skill for most entrepreneurs. A Case for Cold CallingIn business there is a constant trade-off between "do it yourself" and "pay someone to do it." In sales and marketing you can spend money all sorts of ways: warm lead lists, paid advertising, hiring your own salesforce, etc. Each strategy has varying levels of effectiveness. Most of these strategies, for the fledgling entrepreneur, are far too expensive, unless you have some kind of internet business that is built upon paid advertising. So how are you going to get your name out there for free? You get a phone, OneNote, and Google, and you tell people about it one person at a time. It costs virtually nothing but time. Think that sounds ineffective? Here's a picture of JFK campaigning door-to-door in 1960. While this was likely a publicity stunt at the presidential level, he DID win a Massachusetts senate seat in 1952 largely by campaigning door-to-door and to small groups of titillated housewives. My point is if a US senator isn't above cold calling as a strategy to get elected as one of the most powerful figures in the country - you shouldn't be above it if you're trying to sell carpet cleaning or whatever. People underestimate the power of the phone to do big business (I don't have any facts to back that up, but I have a lot of opinions). When I was in B2B sales I sold complex technology products that cost, sometimes, hundreds of thousands of dollars completely over the phone - from initial contact to closing sale. Customers were comfortable dealing with that much money through the telephone wire. How not to cold callAs a starting place - we're going to focus on how not to cold call. Here's a fake cold call from Bob, the owner of Bob's Carpet Cleaning, to Stacy at (the cleverly named) Art Supply Store: RIIIINNGGG Art Supply Store: Hello? Bob: Hi this is Bob from Bob's Carpet Cleaning. Is the owner of your business there? Art Supply Store: This is the owner. Bob: Oh, great, hi. What's your name? Art Supply Store: Stacy. What do you need Bob? We're very busy. Bob: I'm wondering if you need any carpet cleaning done? We're fast and cheaper than the competition. Can I get you a quote? Art Supply Store: No thank you. Have a nice day. Stacy hangs up. That conversation was bad. It was jilted. Bob didn't know anything about the customer, didn't get her to agree to anything, and focused on himself and his abilities without learning anything. He just started pitching. If you cold call like this it is going to suck, because people will not want to talk to you. You can feel the energy change when Bob asks Stacy for her name, because he just labelled himself as a complete stranger. She doesn't trust him and doesn't see any value in what he has to say. MindsetIf you are timid about contacting a stranger, you need to get out of the mindset that you are bothering people. Instead, when you make the first contact with a potential client, you need to have the perspective that you are just starting a process of educating them about your product or service. Meaning a) you are bringing this person value and b) this is just the first contact of many. The reason you need to get this mindset is that it makes you think how you can actually help this potential client think about business and life differently and that you take the pressure off yourself to close the sale on the first call. If you can close the sale in five minutes on the phone you are already an amazing salesperson and can stop reading this guide or something is fishy about the deal. Goal of the first callTo reiterate, the goal for the first call is to get to the next step, not close the deal. Don't put so much pressure on yourself for that initial contact. For me, the second step is the opportunity to sit down with the customer and gather information that would help me serve them. Let's pretend I am trying to sell a carpet cleaning service. I want to know certain things about the customer like do they have carpet? Do they clean it? Do they do it themselves or hire someone? What kind of value do they place on a clean workplace? If I can get a customer to consent to take some time out of their day and have a discussion like that, it means that they are likely taking my service seriously and see value in things I have to say about carpet cleaning. Now instead of trying to close the sale I am just trying to get the opportunity to ask a stranger a few questions. That's not so bad is it? Two QuestionsSo you have the goal of the first call. How do you get there? You need to be prepared to answer the pressing question that is in everyone's head when they get a call from a stranger: Why are you calling me? You need to explain to the customer why you called them specifically. If someone thinks they are just some name on a list they will not want to talk to you. So you should know their name, their position, and some information about the company. And you need to briefly articulate who you are and why you are calling. Do some research on the customer. Let's take the example above. Bob researches a local art supply store. He looks at their website and LinkedIn and maybe even asks around his current contacts. He learns that Stacey is the owner and that they serve customers from the whole region with their specialty paints. So now he has a little bit of info. Immediately after that question you need to answer this one: Why should I care? This is where you come in as an educator. So I don't own a carpet cleaning company. But off the top of my head I think a carpet cleaner is really in the business of clean workplaces. I Googled "clean workplace" and this is one of the first articles to pop up: https://recruitloop.com/blog/5-reasons-clean-workplace-good-business/. I see the 5th reason shows that indoor air has 100 times more pollutants than outdoor air. That's a startling number! And the 3rd reason discusses how employees actually view their work as a second home. After 30 seconds I have something I can educate a potential client about. Is it a life-changing fact? No of course not. But now you have some value to show the customer. Making the first callSo now that Bob has done his research and focused on providing value, let's try that cold call again. RIIINNNGGG Stacy: Hello? Bob: Hi this is Bob from Bob's Carpet Cleaning. I'm looking for Stacy Johnson. Stacy: This is her speaking. Bob: Hi Stacy. I'm calling from just down Main Street. I was doing some research on your company and saw that you are the owner of Art Supply Store. A lot of my retail clients collect a lot of dirt on their carpets from the foot traffic that comes in the door. Not only do dirty carpets hurt their brand, but it affects the air quality inside. I'd love a chance to talk to you about how I can help make your store a brighter, healthier place. Do you have a few minutes? Stacy: You know, we're really busy now, but one of my employees was just complaining about dust in here. Can you call back later this week? Bob: How about Tuesday at 2:30? I just need 30 minutes to ask you a few questions and learn more about your business. Stacy: TAKE ALL MY MONEY OK I made that last part up. Coming up with sales scenarios is always silly because you're always portraying the ideal situation. It obviously doesn't always go like that, or even most of the time. But I hope you can see the difference between the second approach - where Bob has done some research and is bringing value to Stacy, and the first, where he is just pitching to pitch. If you get that meeting make sure you send a follow-up email and contact the customer again the day before. Prospects will flake on you, but they will do it less if you hold them to it! Who has seen success with cold calling? [link] [comments]  |
| Should I Bill Customers Through Paypal Or Cash? Posted: 04 Dec 2018 10:24 AM PST How can I bill faraway customers while maintaining an air of professionalism? These apps seem a bit below business standards. [link] [comments]  |
| What should I ACTUALLY include on my resume from a sales position? Posted: 04 Dec 2018 08:02 AM PST If you're someone that is currently in a sales position, and whether you're looking to just polish up a resume to "see what's out there" or if you want to move to another company or industry... how much detail from your sales career do you include? Do you mention:
How much do you generalize the tasks that you had to perform throughout the sales process that it would still be applicable to other sales gigs or other industries as a whole? Sorry, I tried to search for this info but couldn't really find anything that I thought matched my question, but I maybe didn't look far enough. [link] [comments]  |
| Territory needs to be nursed back to life... Posted: 04 Dec 2018 10:05 AM PST Hey r/sales, You've never let me down in the past, so I need some help. I'm in enterprise IT and I got a job at a struggling branch about two months ago. Everyday it becomes more apparent that the generations before me in this small branch have been... subpar. I was given about 8 buying accounts. 3 of them won't talk to me, 2 of them told me they are transitioning their business away from us, and the other 3 have been okay. Sales have decreased at least 20% in the last three years. Guys, how do I turn this ship around? My manager is not management material (great guy, but he is clueless about running a sales territory). [link] [comments]  |
| i'm so bored because of my companies comp structure. Posted: 04 Dec 2018 10:01 AM PST My company does not do sales commission. We get a generous salary (80k) and we can bonus twice a year, once every 6 months. Each bonus can be up to a max of 20k (1/4 of our salary) which depends on how much percentage of quota you are at. You only need to be at 70% to quota to make money (14k bonus). I've been at 100% for the year for the last 2 months, so i will be maxing out at 120k this year. I'm so bored. If I sell more I won't make more, i'll just ended up making next years quota even higher. Any side hustles I can do while i twiddle my thumbs in the office? [link] [comments]  |
| Mock Sales Scenarios for Interviews Posted: 04 Dec 2018 09:34 AM PST Hi y'all, do any of you know of any good resources for mock sales scenarios during sales interviews? Im trying to get into sales as a BDR and can't find any good videos/info on how to master a sale scenario. If you don't know of any resource, could you please tell me how to do it step by step? The reason I'm coming for help is because I had an interview yesterday with a software company in Boston and I was doing so well, until the second part of the interview came along with a pretty basic sales scenario. I thought I prepared for this but I don't have a good feeling about it to the point where I highly doubt they'll consider me. I'm absolutely crushed as I was extremely excited about the company, but I am absolutely not going to let this stop me from pursuing a career in sales. Apologies if this topic has been already discussed. Was trying to look in the sub archives but couldn't find anything. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Dec 2018 12:12 PM PST Been COld Calling All Day, Just Got My First Lead WHOOOO Man This Shit Feels Like Crack [link] [comments]  |
| platform to upload contacts/emails similar to linkedin Posted: 04 Dec 2018 11:55 AM PST I was wondering if there were platforms to upload a list of contacts/emails and send invitations to connect. Similar to linkedin. I am looking for something where I can upload several of my outlook email accounts each day or upload a CSV or TXT file of exported contacts from my outlook email accounts to some place where I can send invitations to connect similar to linkedin or if there is some kind of email marketing program out there that can utilize exported email contacts. thanks for any help [link] [comments]  |
| Will resigning without another job at 7 months hurt my sales career? Posted: 04 Dec 2018 11:53 AM PST Currently working at a terrible sales job, with no training, support, or even commission. I'm seriously so done with it and want to resign. This is my first sales job (inside sales) and I'm scared that it will hurt my sales career if I leave. Will it? [link] [comments]  |
| (Intern here) How do I qualify and validate an opportunity? Posted: 04 Dec 2018 11:48 AM PST Sorry for the silly question but I have no experience in sales and I've looked around and thought it'd be best if I hear from you folks as well. I need this for a training session with manager and I'd like to know what kind of questions would you ask considering you're dealing with a data Centre firm and need to qualify and validate the opportunity being an IT solutions provider. [link] [comments]  |
| Does anyone know anything about Prehired? Posted: 04 Dec 2018 10:54 AM PST Does anyone know anything about these guys? sciencebasedsales dot io PrehiredPro dot io Training company selling high priced courses for people who want to get into SDR / entry level tech sales role. Has shinning feedbacks on their website. "Guarantees" a job. Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| We've communicated through text; should i call that number about a possible job Posted: 04 Dec 2018 09:34 AM PST So i applied online for an entry level sales position. He reached out to me through text. He wanted to talk briefly on the phone. We did, he said it went well, and that the required a writing sample. I sent one. He said thanks, hed reach out when he can for another phone interview (with an exec). That was roughly a week ago. Should i e-mail back or call the number he called me from to follow up? [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone else here work for an electrical wholesale distributor? Posted: 04 Dec 2018 09:05 AM PST |
| Posted: 04 Dec 2018 07:58 AM PST Wondering if any of you have ever faced this. End of year we have a bit of a capacity crunch, which isn't abnormal. The issue is my boss wants to accept some high paying/higher margin work which will push back work for a current customer that is lower margin by about 2 weeks. If this goes through, I'm probably going to be the one that has to tell my customer....something. Anyone ever been in this situation? [link] [comments]  |
| How much of the success at your company is dependent on what territory you get assigned? Posted: 03 Dec 2018 01:37 PM PST I work for a tech company, which is crossing over from being a "startup" to a medium sized company, and after a year here I've noticed that certain territories give reps a HUGE advantage. Is this a common thing? For us, our product is simply more competitive, and geared towards the city that we operate out of. It's hard in our market to be competitive in other states (something were working on) but the people in the preferred territory are making an insane amount of money compared to those in our "expansion territories" I tried expressing this to my manager, and basically what I hear is "were a startup, and these things happen" If anyone has dealt with something like this and was able to find a way to solve it, I'd love to hear some insight, and hopefully make a case to my managers to fix this over here as well. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Dec 2018 02:05 AM PST Hello fellow salesmen i'm 24M who graduated from business college majoring management worked as a Teller in a bank after graduation and moved to insurance sales in a bank ( using the bank data ) its been little over a year now and i wanna know what is my next step i don't wanna do cold calling /outdoor sales all my life if i wanna step out of sales what's best use of that experience as i worked in 2 banks now thank you [link] [comments]  |
| Communal commission structure? Posted: 04 Dec 2018 12:35 AM PST started in my first sales job (B2B) 3 months ago, learnt recently that the commission is earned communally, So for any of us to get paid commission the entire division of 7 sales people have to meet a certain communal number (which we haven't been told) is this crazy or a common thing in sales? [link] [comments]  |
| Crushed last year. Not this year. Posted: 03 Dec 2018 08:46 PM PST Like I said I doubled my quota last year. My last month I had about 40% of my total sales close. This year I came in about 40% less than my quota after quota set from 2017 numbers. Selling software in a small company to the finance industry. I am the only sales person. My numbers this year look more like numbers from 2016. Should I be worried? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Dec 2018 06:07 PM PST Looking to get in to commercial insurance sales after 2+ years in distribution sales. The company I'm interviewing with is a broker with a good reputation in a mid-sized market. Any advice or what to expect from any in commercial insurance? Also any good interview questions for me to ask the company? [link] [comments]  |
| Huge email campaign, ZERO Responses Posted: 03 Dec 2018 02:30 PM PST Here's the pitch: Hello Better graphics sell better. Up to 2x more. I'm offering a new level of graphics. We bring movie quality 3D visuals down to a personal level. 3D Demo Video Everything that sells your product in this reality (and more) can enter into a digital reality, available on every screen in the world. We're offering a 35% reduction(up to $3000) on all new accounts opened before Christmas. Regards Send out 50-ish emails with this and similar pitches and got 0 responses. Got them from searching for "custom auto shops" on Google. I honestly can't think of a better way to acquire customers. I think the proposition is solid and at least deserves a declining reply. At least one. I have huge potential customer bases(i think), but I can't seem to get in contact. If anyone knows a better way or maybe has a list or a few people in mind I could pay 20% commission. EDIT: Got back on facebook ads, so if anyone thinks this is a possibility to get customers (budget being sub $500) some targeting advice could help [link] [comments]  |
| Straightforward/Best books on CLOSING Posted: 03 Dec 2018 08:23 PM PST I am looking for good books on closing; those books that give examples of trial closes, dialogue, etc. I would prefer books that get to the point, are straihhtforward and practical, while keeping the "relationship selling" type banter to a minimum. I remember seeing a famous author awhile back with a good book on closing but I can't remember if it was Brian Tracy, Ziegler? I would love to hear recommendations from you all on this specific aspect of sales. Thank you friends! [link] [comments]  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Sales and Selling. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment