Hub You
Hubs | Hubbers | Topics | Request
#1 in Business Subscribe Email Print

You are here: Home > Business > Sales Training > Sales Skills & Tools – Use Agenda for Presentations

Tags
  • previous
  • relate
  • almost without
  • carefully crafted
  • gather information
    		•

    Links
  • Beauty Products on a Budget
  • Subdividing Land For A Profit
  • You Spent All This Time And Effort To Recieve Visitors, Now What?
    		•

    Hub You - Sales Skills & Tools – Use Agenda for Presentations

    Business Plan Mistakes - The Phantom Growth Rate
    While visiting a friend, he asked a favor of me. He whipped out this humongous business plan consisting of two full 3-inch loose-leaf binders. Someone he knew had paid a whopping $250,000 to have this business plan prepared and my friend was interested in my opinion of it.At first I considered telling him I had something else to do and couldn't spend the next ten hours reading a "Gone-With-The-Wind" business plan. Had I been an actual potential investor presented with this mon
    lagging a little, they will say they need to speed up without any prompting from me.

  • If I want the customer or prospect to ask specifically about an item, I will sometimes include it in the list of promotions, I will highlight it, but skip over it as we go through the list, almost without fail the customer will point to that item and ask “what about this”, any sales professional knows that if the customer asks first about something, they own it.

  • On the contact page, I include all possible way for the customer to get hold of me, business phone, cell phone, home phone, home fax, and email addresses. This implies that the customer is really important to m
    Natural Marketing for Full Business Success
    Is your mind muddy on marketing? Do you wake up each day and say, "I get to share myself and my great message with others" or do you say, " I have to market, or I will fail."Natural marketing refers to the action you take to get the word out about your service and product that rings true to your heart. It feels effortless without struggle, where ideas pop out, you lose track of time engaging in them, and you can't act on them fast enough! Natural marketing feels authentic and ins
    Learning new sales skills and tools, should be a lifelong part of being a professional salesperson. Adapting those new skills and tools to your unique style, and then using them to increase your effectiveness, is another skill all by itself.

    There are many different kinds of salespeople, who sell many different kinds of products and or ideas, they all use different methods, and the really good salespeople let those methods evolve and morph into what will work for them.

    The kind of selling I do involves calling on established accounts about once a month, and as many new prospects as I can qualify to fill the holes in my schedule. Most of my sales calls now begin with an agenda of what I want to cover during the meeting.

    This was not always the procedure I used, the salespeople who broke me into my industry did not use an agenda, most of them just came in with a handful of promotions, asked a few questions, and made their presentations, most were not very professional. The businesses I called on at that time were being called on by 5-6 of my competitors each month, and they all seemed to use the same approach.

    The problem I had was being the new kid on the block and how could I differentiate myself from the pack. We all sold the same products, at about the same price, and all with similar terms, it seemed as if you just had to spend a lot of time to form some relationships, and after you had been around a long time you would get the business, I needed to find a short cut.

    I decided to use a more formal approach to the sales process, first I broke the dress code, which at that time in that industry was slacks and a polo shirt with your company logo, and began wearing a sport coat and tie. Industry lore had it that you would be kicked out of most shops if you showed up in a tie, well in over 25 years, that has not happened once, to the contrary the almost immediate result was that most of my customers began to relate to me on a higher level, than before I made the change.

    Next I began using a simple one-page agenda that listed a few housekeeping items, customer name, account number, sales figures for month, and year to date, and what they spent the previous year. A few carefully crafted open-ended questions to gather information and guide them to what I wanted to discuss. A listing of any promotions or new products, they should be aware of. And finally contact information for the sales desk, credit, corporate office, and myself all on a separate page.

    There are a few subtle cues in this document:

  • The sales numbers for last year are a subliminal reminder that they are expected to beat the previous years total, in fact if we get to the last quarter and some accounts are lagging a little, they will say they need to speed up without any prompting from me.

  • If I want the customer or prospect to ask specifically about an item, I will sometimes include it in the list of promotions, I will highlight it, but skip over it as we go through the list, almost without fail the customer will point to that item and ask “what about this”, any sales professional knows that if the customer asks first about something, they own it.

  • On the contact page, I include all possible way for the customer to get hold of me, business phone, cell phone, home phone, home fax, and email addresses. This implies that the customer is really important to me
    Dealing With Idea Overload In Three Easy Steps
    Following death and taxes, the third guaranteed ‘thing’ in life seems to be that you’ll *never* have enough time to put into action, all of your great ideas and plans for expanding your business and streams of income. That is why so many of the great ideas we entrepreneurs have, seem to end up on the ‘back burners’ of our excessive compulsive, clickity clacking brains. Sometimes never to be seen or remembered again…The problem is that sometimes that back burner of ideas seems to ge
    genda of what I want to cover during the meeting.

    This was not always the procedure I used, the salespeople who broke me into my industry did not use an agenda, most of them just came in with a handful of promotions, asked a few questions, and made their presentations, most were not very professional. The businesses I called on at that time were being called on by 5-6 of my competitors each month, and they all seemed to use the same approach.

    The problem I had was being the new kid on the block and how could I differentiate myself from the pack. We all sold the same products, at about the same price, and all with similar terms, it seemed as if you just had to spend a lot of time to form some relationships, and after you had been around a long time you would get the business, I needed to find a short cut.

    I decided to use a more formal approach to the sales process, first I broke the dress code, which at that time in that industry was slacks and a polo shirt with your company logo, and began wearing a sport coat and tie. Industry lore had it that you would be kicked out of most shops if you showed up in a tie, well in over 25 years, that has not happened once, to the contrary the almost immediate result was that most of my customers began to relate to me on a higher level, than before I made the change.

    Next I began using a simple one-page agenda that listed a few housekeeping items, customer name, account number, sales figures for month, and year to date, and what they spent the previous year. A few carefully crafted open-ended questions to gather information and guide them to what I wanted to discuss. A listing of any promotions or new products, they should be aware of. And finally contact information for the sales desk, credit, corporate office, and myself all on a separate page.

    There are a few subtle cues in this document:

  • The sales numbers for last year are a subliminal reminder that they are expected to beat the previous years total, in fact if we get to the last quarter and some accounts are lagging a little, they will say they need to speed up without any prompting from me.

  • If I want the customer or prospect to ask specifically about an item, I will sometimes include it in the list of promotions, I will highlight it, but skip over it as we go through the list, almost without fail the customer will point to that item and ask “what about this”, any sales professional knows that if the customer asks first about something, they own it.

  • On the contact page, I include all possible way for the customer to get hold of me, business phone, cell phone, home phone, home fax, and email addresses. This implies that the customer is really important to m
    20 Great Kid Friendly Marketing Ideas for Your Restaurant – Part 3
    It was not very long ago that the only place that thought about kids were the big fast food chains, and even then limited by offering a small toy with the purchase of a hamburger. These days if you don’t create an amazing experience for the twelve and under demographic you will lose their vote!!! So let’s look at a few ideas to get them on side in part 3 of this article:12. Have family nightsThese are a great idea for a slow Monday or Tuesday nights. You could show family TV
    of time to form some relationships, and after you had been around a long time you would get the business, I needed to find a short cut.

    I decided to use a more formal approach to the sales process, first I broke the dress code, which at that time in that industry was slacks and a polo shirt with your company logo, and began wearing a sport coat and tie. Industry lore had it that you would be kicked out of most shops if you showed up in a tie, well in over 25 years, that has not happened once, to the contrary the almost immediate result was that most of my customers began to relate to me on a higher level, than before I made the change.

    Next I began using a simple one-page agenda that listed a few housekeeping items, customer name, account number, sales figures for month, and year to date, and what they spent the previous year. A few carefully crafted open-ended questions to gather information and guide them to what I wanted to discuss. A listing of any promotions or new products, they should be aware of. And finally contact information for the sales desk, credit, corporate office, and myself all on a separate page.

    There are a few subtle cues in this document:

  • The sales numbers for last year are a subliminal reminder that they are expected to beat the previous years total, in fact if we get to the last quarter and some accounts are lagging a little, they will say they need to speed up without any prompting from me.

  • If I want the customer or prospect to ask specifically about an item, I will sometimes include it in the list of promotions, I will highlight it, but skip over it as we go through the list, almost without fail the customer will point to that item and ask “what about this”, any sales professional knows that if the customer asks first about something, they own it.

  • On the contact page, I include all possible way for the customer to get hold of me, business phone, cell phone, home phone, home fax, and email addresses. This implies that the customer is really important to m
    The Graphic Problem
    Digital printing has revolutionized the sign industry. Current printers can reproduce an image at 1440 dpi (dots per inch) at virtually any size. But they are worthless if the original image is of low resolution. We define resolution using pixels. A pixel is commonly thought of as the smallest individual unit of an image (tiny dots if you will). If the pixel content is low, the image will look fuzzy. Anyone that has blown up a picture in a popular program like Adobe Photoshop has experie
    ge agenda that listed a few housekeeping items, customer name, account number, sales figures for month, and year to date, and what they spent the previous year. A few carefully crafted open-ended questions to gather information and guide them to what I wanted to discuss. A listing of any promotions or new products, they should be aware of. And finally contact information for the sales desk, credit, corporate office, and myself all on a separate page.

    There are a few subtle cues in this document:

  • The sales numbers for last year are a subliminal reminder that they are expected to beat the previous years total, in fact if we get to the last quarter and some accounts are lagging a little, they will say they need to speed up without any prompting from me.

  • If I want the customer or prospect to ask specifically about an item, I will sometimes include it in the list of promotions, I will highlight it, but skip over it as we go through the list, almost without fail the customer will point to that item and ask “what about this”, any sales professional knows that if the customer asks first about something, they own it.

  • On the contact page, I include all possible way for the customer to get hold of me, business phone, cell phone, home phone, home fax, and email addresses. This implies that the customer is really important to m
    What is an LLC ?
    LLC is an abbreviation for Limited Liability Company, which describes one way in which a business owner can choose to register his or her organization. The specific rules that govern the founding and maintenance of an LLC vary from state to state, but in general an LLC is a company that exists for the duration of a partnership between two or more businesspeople, whereas a full corporation is an independent entity that can have a rotating leadership. Although an LLC is not as permanent as
    lagging a little, they will say they need to speed up without any prompting from me.

  • If I want the customer or prospect to ask specifically about an item, I will sometimes include it in the list of promotions, I will highlight it, but skip over it as we go through the list, almost without fail the customer will point to that item and ask “what about this”, any sales professional knows that if the customer asks first about something, they own it.

  • On the contact page, I include all possible way for the customer to get hold of me, business phone, cell phone, home phone, home fax, and email addresses. This implies that the customer is really important to me and gives them confidence that they can get me. In over 20 years of including my home phone, only 2 customers have ever called me at home, and they were true emergencies.

    • Has this worked? It has been a part of my overall sales strategy for more than 20 years, in that time I have firmly established myself among the top 5% of sales people in my field.

    Finding and implementing ways to differentiate yourself from the competition is a sales skill you must develop and use.

    HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
    <a href="http://www.iadvice.info/article/39406/iadvice-Sales-Skills--Tools--Use-Agenda-for-Presentations.html">Sales Skills & Tools – Use Agenda for Presentations</a>

    BB link (for phorums):
    [url=http://www.iadvice.info/article/39406/iadvice-Sales-Skills--Tools--Use-Agenda-for-Presentations.html]Sales Skills & Tools – Use Agenda for Presentations[/url]

    Related Articles:

    Finding The Right Financing For Your Business

    Do you own a growing business? Do you need financing. Read this article to learn about some easy to get financing options.

    New Business, New Life

    This article is about my first year starting a homecare business.

    Managing From The Side - 7 Great Ways To Lead People Who Don't Report To You

    How can you get results when managing a group of people over whom you have no authority? Manage from the side. While heading up a project group - by definition - involves directing individuals who do not report to you, in an increasingly competitive, rapidly changing business world, even in day-to-day management, the conventional approach of issuing orders and delegating down is giving way to a lateral style. where one leads by facilitating - rather than directing - the contributions of others. This how-to article gives 7 great tips for effectively leading non-reports.

    Bookmark it: del.icio.us digg.com reddit.com netvouz.com google.com yahoo.com technorati.com furl.net bloglines.com socialdust.com ma.gnolia.com newsvine.com slashdot.org simpy.com shadows.com blinklist.com