Closing Excitement and Etiquette

Sales trainer Renee Walkup recently wrote about something that isn't usually talked about - but should definitely be recognized - closing etiquette. Her bad example is Ed Helms' character, Andy Bernard, from the TV show The Office, but I'm sure you know a few people just like him. Read on for Walkup's great tips.

If you are a fan of the TV show, "The Office" you aren't alone. Those of us in sales have to laugh when watching Ed Helms' character. Ed does a brilliant rendition of the "typical" obnoxious salesperson with his character, Andy. Just the other day, Ed was on my other favorite humor radio program, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me." I almost fell out of my seat, when I heard Ed describe his character, Andy, like this: "Andy is totally transparent, but actually is convinced that he's stealthy."

Isn't that so true? Andy can't help but either snicker inappropriately, roll his eyes when he's annoyed, and do a jig when he closes a sale while shouting "YEAAAHH!"

So my question to you is, how do you react when you close a sale? Are you transparent, stealthy, calm, bored, excited, or what? What does your customer see and hear from you when you hear the sweetest love words a salesperson dreams of... "yes!"

Why then, do I see salespeople sometimes act inappropriately when they close a deal? For example, I have seen salespeople who calmly reply "ok" and then pack up and leave the scene (in person or on the phone). On the other extreme, I have witnessed salespeople embarrass themselves by pulling an "Andy" and breathing a huge sigh and say something to the effect of, "Thank goodness I can make my goal this month, YIPPEE!"

Now, you have worked hard to get this deal. Haven't you? How SHOULD you react? If Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, or Stephen Spielberg were directing you, the advice would go something like this: "Make your customer feel as though he/she has just made a significant decision that's important to you, but avoid peeing in your pants with excitement."

How to do that? Here are my tips for communicating excitement and enthusiasm while maintaining your cool professionalism.

1. Acknowledge the close. When your customer says "yes" the first action you should take is to comment. Make the customer feel important by acknowledging the close, or sometimes he will take it back later. You might say something such as: "That's great, Jake. We are excited about the opportunity of helping you grow your business." Another idea is: "Thank you so much for selecting our firm, Jake. That's great!" Or: "I'm delighted that we're going to team up on this initiative. We have a perfect match!"

2. After acknowledging the sale, offer up an action. "Jake, the first step we'll need to take is to make sure we have all the stakeholders contact information. Let's go ahead and make a list..." Or "I have the contract right here. Let's go ahead and get the agreement signed off on so we can get started for you." An alternative is: "OK, before we get started on the project, let's review our timeline together..."

3. Make sure the customer feels "the love" too. He should be happy that you are going to work together, because after all, he had other choices. There most certainly was competition and he's going to have to tell the other companies why he chose yours. If you have a skilled competitor and your contract hasn't been signed off on yet, you may be at risk of still losing the sale. Get him to smile and repeat essentially how eager he is to get started as well. You can do this with a question, such as: "Jake, we've worked hard to get this partnership sealed. I hope you are as eager to get going on this as I am. What steps do you want to take first?" Make sure that your customer has the buy-in for action by using your skills to keep him involved in the close.

Renee Walkup is president of SalesPEAK, a national sales performance company, as well as a well-recognized keynote speaker, sales coach, and author, with a 25-year background in sales, sales team management and training. Learn more at www.salespeak.com

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Smiling and Dialing No Longer Works

"There's a myth that selling by phone is a numbers game," Wendy Weiss says. "If you dial the phone enough times, someone is going to say, 'yes.' Perhaps that was true years ago; it is certainly not true today. It is simply too hard to get people on the telephone. When you do get a prospect on the phone, you had better have something compelling to say as you will probably not get a second chance."

Wendy's new e-book, 101 Cold Calling Tips for Building New Customers in a Down Economy, is a must read if you're serious about booking more sales. I've used Wendy's clear-cut advice and no-nonsense approach and it works.

Do you want more sales? I suggest you check out Wendy's new e-book.

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Emotional Time Wasters

"Do you remember the things you were worrying about a year ago? How did they work out? Didn't you waste a lot of fruitless energy on account of most of them? Didn't most of them turn out all right after all?" -- Dale Carnegie

I know what you're thinking, so let me say this now - no, I did not forget what day it is and do another quote of the week! This quote is actually a lead-in to a great reminder from networking guru Andrea Nierenberg. Here's what she has to say:

Emotional Time Wasters. We all fall guilty to at least one of them some of the time and maybe several. Recently I tweeted about this and asked people what they were doing to manage their time and therefore alleviating their stress. It is an interesting thought to ponder.

Here are the Big Five:

Indecision - too often we waste time by standing in motion. Take action on something that has been nagging at you. You will feel better and create a next step.

Guilt-can be paralyzing. We allow something to play over and over in our heads and often the 'act' has been committed. Whether we are upset because we said something we now regret or something else - instead of stewing - start doing. Write a note of apology, pick up the phone or any other way you can confront the situation.

Worry - I read once that 75% of what we worry about won't happen and 15% is inevitable. If you must worry, spend 10 minutes a day worrying and then let it go.

Perfectionism - Sometimes we spend so much time trying to make something 'perfect' that by the time we send out our proposal, our competitor has already won the business. Be thorough, strategic and do your homework then make it happen. It will never by totally perfect. I'm not talking about typos. That is inexcusable.

Procrastination - my definition for this is 'getting ready to get ready.' We can always find an excuse not to do something. Right now, think of one item that you are procrastinating on and do it before the end of the day. Just start - remember the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

We all know these five emotional time wasters by heart and there is really no way to totally rid ourselves of them. Do your best to get rid of them, and you'll have more time for money-making activities - and more enjoyment in your life!

Andrea Nierenberg is the president of The Nierenberg Group, a business communications company with a total process for educating, motivating and connecting people. Learn more at www.nierenberggroup.com

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Quote of the Week

"Until you commit your goals to paper, you have intentions that are seeds without soil." -- Anonymous

There's nothing wrong with dreaming big. In fact, I would say there's something wrong with not dreaming big! Think you'd be a good fit for that managerial or VP position? What about making enough money to take a European vacation? These are things you can do...but you have to start at the beginning, with a pen and a piece of paper.

Most big goals need a plan - and to create a plan you need to write down action steps and commit to them. If you want to go on vacation next year, how much extra money do you need to make? Do you need to sign one more contract each month? Every three months?

Once you know what it will take to reach your goal, you can continue breaking it down into manageable pieces. Maybe you need to go to a networking event every month to meet enough new prospects that will become your extra contract. Or maybe you need to get into the office half an hour earlier to get a few more calls in.

The point is, writing your goals down makes them more manageable - and attainable!

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Summer Selling

Are you going on vacation this summer? If you've got some days saved up, cheap flights and hotels make it a great time to get in some rest and relaxation. That being said, you don't want vacation time to have any negative impact on your business. Follow these tips from Mark Hunter, The Sales Hunter, and you'll be able to rest easy knowing your sales aren't going anywhere.

"Summer is upon us and that means a lot of vacations. Just because there's a vacation in your schedule, it doesn't mean you should let it slow your selling process," says Hunter. "As much as you might be looking forward to it, it's best to avoid mentioning it to prospects or others. Talking about it may give a potential customer a reason to go someplace else when they're ready to buy, if for no other reason than they think you won't be focused on serving them."

Take these steps to avoid missing sales while you're away:

1. Make sure either you or someone else can still check your email and voicemail messages at least a couple of times a day.

2. Know in advance how you will handle any orders that may come in and how sales questions or issues will be handled.

3. Plan your vacation schedule so you will have a couple of blocks of time to deal with hot sales issues. For example, take one hour every other day to be available by phone or email to deal with issues. If you don't need it, great! If you do need it, you won't feel that it has disrupted your vacation because you planned for it in advance.

4. Do not leave a message on your voicemail saying you're away on vacation. Nothing will turn off potential customers faster than knowing you're away.

5. Always remember that your vacation is a product of the job you do. If you didn't do your job, you wouldn't have a vacation so working a little bit while you're on vacation is certainly no big deal.

Mark Hunter, "The Sales Hunter," is a motivational sales speaker and industry expert who addresses thousands each year on how to increase their sales profitability. For more information on his sales training or to receive a free weekly sales tip via email, contact "The Sales Hunter" at www.TheSalesHunter.com.

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The Five Secrets to Effective Time Management

During hard economic times it is often prudent to take on more responsibility at work to show how important you are to the company. But that shouldn't mean you're at the office 12-13 hours a day. So how do you get everything done in a normal time period? Use these time management techniques from sales trainer Mike Brooks to fit more into your busy days.

Secret #1 - Identify the two most important things to do each day, and then do them. Identifying these priorities is actually easy. Each night before you go home, make a list of all the things you need to do the next day. Once that list is completed, ask yourself, "What two things, if completed, would have the biggest impact on my bottom line?"

Once you've identified these two items, make them your top priorities for the next day and commit to getting them done. Unlike most people who struggle with many conflicting activities that rob them of their time, by adopting this one habit, you'll move into the top 5% of all business executives and managers.

The most effective executives and business owners are "doers" and the way they are able to accomplish great things is they have the ability to identify the important things and they commit to getting them done.

Secret #2 - Start each day with your top two priorities and work each one through until it's completed. Then cross it off and complete the next one. Resist the temptation to multitask other activities while you're working on your priorities, and don't start the next one until you're done with the first one. Working each one through to completion is the key.

This builds momentum, a sense of accomplishment and empowerment, and most importantly you'll actually be getting your important priorities done each day.

Secret #3 - Start with your most important (or most difficult) priority first. Accomplishing one or two important tasks always leads to more success -- and always frees up the most energy. Once those "mountains" are out of the way, you can easily and more enjoyably take on your other tasks of the day.

Most people do the opposite: they put off the hard (and most important stuff) and get caught up in the time robbers. This is a sure recipe for feeling overwhelmed. Do the opposite -- start with the hard, and watch your day get easier!

Secret # 4 - Group your other activities. Paperwork, checking e-mail, checking voicemail, etc., are incredible time drains. The worst thing to do is to keep checking them every few minutes. Make a schedule - perhaps after you cross off a priority you allow 15 minutes to check these things and then go right back to your next priority. Paperwork and other non-essential activities especially are best grouped at the end of the day.

Although these things seem important (and some are) don't keep getting tangled up in them. You must stick to your top two priorities (like 2-3 hours a day spent cold calling -- a top priority that pays for itself many times over). Grouping your activities allows you to get all of the other 'stuff' done but not at the expense of your priorities.

Secret #5 - Prepare your next day the night before. Before you leave the office, make sure you have your written list of priorities and grouped activities timed and written down. This helps you stick to a schedule when you get to the office, and that's another secret of effective time management.

It also allows you to get more rest because you're not worrying about or planning your day as you're trying to fall asleep at night.

Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, specializes in helping sales reps avoid rejection and make more money. Check out his free ezine at http://www.mrinsidesales.com/ezine.htm

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How to Open a Cold Call

During a recent workshop sales trainer Kelley Robertson discussed with his clients the best way to open face-to-face cold call. One participant volunteered to share his approach.

"Hi Mr. Prospect. I'm Mr. Sales Person and I work for Big Sales Company. We do a lot of work in your industry and have been in business for over 40 years. We carry a wide range of products and services including this, that and the other thing. We pride ourselves on delivering great service and..."

Unfortunately too many people in sales think that they need to talk about their company or product or service when they first connect with new prospects. But this approach is ineffective.

Here is a better way:

Begin by stating your name and your company and then reference a problem you think that your prospect may be facing. "Mr. Prospect, Kelley Robertson, Big Sales Company. One of the trends we're seeing with companies like yours is the requirement to improve accuracy while also increasing production. How does that compare with your situation?"

This takes less than half the time to say which means you reduce the risk of your prospect tuning you out. Avoid the blah, blah, blah syndrome and focus on your prospect when you make a cold call.

As President of The Robertson Training Group, Kelley has helped thousands of professionals improve their business results with his engaging approach to sales training and speaking. Learn more at www.robertsontraininggroup.com

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