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The secret to successful sales

Dear all,

If there is a secret, I would not reveal I guess, but the key to doing business with any company, is acknowledge that there is a ' favour factor' .

If people do like your style and reputation and the services your company has to offer is good enough, there is a bigger chance in succeeding than otherwise.

If there is anyone that thinks otherwise or has interesting theory on this, please share!

Willem H. van Wijk

Catagorisation of Buyers / Prospects

There are many ways of catagorisation of Buyers / prospects. The catagorisation like - User buyer; the commercial buyer; the technical buyer the Influencer etc. The others being the buyer behaviors at the Growth Mode, At the overconfident mode, the even keel mode etc. OVER TIME THERE HAS BEEN A MAJOR SHIFT... No prospect or Customer or buyer should be branded to a type or in other words should be Typecast.

This is an important change.. which means that a Salesperson should not visit a buyer even during the selling cycle with a pre concieved idea of the person. There are TWO implications to this.

1. The salesperson lowers his guard as he goes with pre-concieved notions of the buyer, thereby is taken off guard and cannot react to sudden changes;

2. The Sales person as is not alert and inveriably misses out on other signals that are off pattern to the typecast.

This concept is very well explained by  the Hindu concept of Sthan, Kal and Patra - meaning Place, Time and Person. When either of the three change ,there is a change in the overall combination and therefore it would not be right to expect the same situation / behavior at different times or different places by the same person.

To summarise - a sales person should always remain in the state of Concious Competence and should never move into the quadrant of Unconcious Competence.

MY FIRST MESSAGE

This is my first entry to not only this weblog but I think any of them. Can someone guide me through a method to this madness we all seem to possess to commuincate? I believe it is absolutely wonderfull and may be one of our biggest  deterrents to long term turmoil in the world however slow it may develop. Communication is the single most powerful weapon we have to preserve ourselves. I briefly looked at the categories and find interest in more than several of them. Any input or help?

The Myth of Multitasking and the Power of Focus

Multitasking is a myth. In last spring's issue of The New Atlantis, Christine Rosen delved into the developmental implications of multitasking on focus, thinking, and attention span for our current generation of young people. It's a fascinating read. But what caught my attention was something more immediate and relevant to my everyday life. According to Ms. Rosen, "workers [take] an average of twenty-five minutes to recover from interruptions such as phone calls or answering e-mail and return to their original task."

Imagine summing the costs of all those stops-and-starts over the course of a year. By one account, they top $650B annually in the United States alone. Can we really afford to be so scatterbrained? What can be done?

Relationship Selling

I am compiling information on relationship selling and all I find typically in my research are simply sales techniques.  Generally, it follows that the better you get to know your clients needs/wants the better you can tailor your solution.  However, that really doesn't speak to the relationship.  Does anyone know of any material quality material on the relationship in relationship selling?

Thanks

Drew Bennett

Dangers of Sole Propretorship for Sales Professionals

Attention Sales Professionals!

Are you operating your business as a Sole Proprietor? Critical information on the dangers of operating a business as a sole proprietor.

Did you know that businesses could save up to 50% on self-employment taxes by forming a Corporation or Limited Liability Company?

Properly forming an Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) can provides critical legal & tax benefits to the owner of either a small or medium-sized business. By forming an LLC the owner can separate themselves from their business through the creation of a corporate entity. Furthe, an LLC is ideal for investors who choose to create wealth through either real estate or liquid assets wherein the LLC provides critical asset protection as well additional tax benefits. Critical LLC Benefits can include:

1. Tax Savings & Reduced Chance of Tax Audit
2. Hidden Benefit of Incorporating
3. Build Credibility with Your Customers Develop Your Professional Identity

We will discuss each of these benefits
Tax Savings & Reduced Chance For Audit: Self Employment Taxes and Deductions
First, in an effort to save money, many sole proprietors may more likely to file self-prepared, incorrect returns & therefore, under report revenue or over report deductions. For these reasons, the IRS has audited a much higher percentage of sole proprietor tax filings than corporate filings in recent years. In fact, in the 2006 tax year, a Schedule C filer (non-farm sole-proprietors) stood a 1 in 32 chance of being audited. For non-business filers, the odds were around 1 in 124. Sole proprietor's are required to pay self-employment tax on their business profits which currently is at 15.3%. What does this mean for you if you’re a sole proprietor? You have a significantly increased chance of being selected for audit.

Hidden Benefits of Incorporating: Personal Asset Protection
Liability Protection: What Do You Have to Lose?
Have you considered the massive amounts of ‘what if’s’ associated with being a sole proprietor? What if an employee is injured at work? What if you can't make payroll? What if you can't pay your suppliers? If you’re running your business as a sole proprietor, your liability for business debt is unlimited. By operating your business as a sole proprietor, you function without a corporate veil, which as a shareholder may completely ensure that you’re not liable for the debts of the corporation. However; as sole proprietor, all of your personal assets such as your home, personal bank accounts, and other valued assets may be at risk.

What does this mean to you personally?
Simply, it means that if something catastrophic occurs in your business such as downturn in the business wherein your business suffers financially, your creditors can seize personal property such as your home, retirement savings, bank accounts, stocks, cars, or any other asset you or your spouse own. Unfortunately, we live in a litigious society, in which businesses are being sued in an increasingly higher level therefore, it is becoming ever more important to limit your personal exposure and protect yourself from liability.

In 1991 an Illinois appellate court made the following statement:
"[t]he universal rule is that the sole proprietor is personally responsible for the activities of the business." (Georsantas v. Country Mutual Ins. Co., 212 Ill.App.3d 1, 570 N.E.2d 870, 873 (1991)).

Plainly speaking this means that if someone or another company files a lawsuit against your business & you're functioning as a sole proprietor then the lawsuit generally must be brought against you individually as the owner & not against your business.

Why you ask?

For the simple fact that a sole proprietorship has no legal existence apart from its owner. (As handed down in Cashco Oil Co. v. Moses, 605 F. Supp. 70 (N.D. Ill. 1985)).

My family has worked in the marine diesel engine repair industry since the early 1960’s. Interestingly, this industry is predominantly occupied by a vast network of small service companies with my family’s business as part of this network. Despite my constant badgering, my family continued to run their business as a sole proprietorship; finally this caught us with them as a partner stole their business out from under them & their legal standing is in question. Not only did running a sole proprietorship cause undue anguish but they left themselves open to being personally sued by an employee had one been injured onsite.
Correctly incorporating your business creates an impenetrable corporate veil between your personal and business assets thus helping you protect your personal assets from risks or debts associated with running your business.

Build Credibility with Your Customers Develop Your Professional Identity
It is critical that you distinguishing yourself from the competition by establishing a professional identity which helps increase credibility with your customers. Operating as a sole proprietor may lead a potential customer to assume that you’re not in business for the long haul whereas, incorporating proves legitimacy to both customers and suppliers. Adding "INC." or "LLC" after your business name gives you the credibility and professionalism that many customers are looking for. But you have a company to manage, and forming an LLC takes time. We suggest you let Intuit MyCorporation save you time and hassle when you use Intuit's expert document filing services to take this next step.

We make LLC formation easy & affordable
Our limited liability company (LLC) formation services start at just $149 (plus required government fees). Remember, LLC formation lawyers can charge, on an average, over $200 per hour. For any business, $200 dollars an hour can best be used elsewhere in your business. With Intuit's document filing services, you'll know exactly what you need, what you are getting and how much it all costs from the very beginning.

Intuit's MyCorporation take the bureaucracy out of forming an LLC
You could file everything yourself, but when you consider the time needed to file, administer and maintain all the documents necessary to keep your business running legitimately, why would you? MyCorporation offers you serious savings when it comes to your time and resources. Once you decide to form an a limited liability company (LLC), simply fill out our online application and let Intuit take care of the rest.

In conclusion, forming an LLC is critical to not only protecting yourself & your company from liability & will increase your business credibility.

__________________________________________________
Darrell Weaver is a seasoned sales & marketing expert with 15 years of international speaking & sales experience.
To learn more, visit our site: AlwaysMakingMoney.com Learn From Experts, Grow Your Wealth.
Article is Copyright, 2008 Imagine Works, LLC

New to SalesLab

Hello my name is Alba Henderson and I new to SalesLab.  I look forward to being a great part of this community amongst greatest marketing and sales professionals.

I am sure it will be a wonderful experience.

Best

Alba

Big Box Retailers

At what level do you need to get to actually get a  purchasing decision made for services in a big-box retailer environment?

Business Market Management: Understanding, creating and delivering value

In today’s fast-paced business environment, companies that deliver the best business value to their clients are those building and leveraging their business market management processes.  The Value Model Method for understanding, creating and delivering value identifies the stages, phases, activities, and tasks for accelerating business market process strategy, formulation, and sales deployment.

The Value Model Method is an iterative process.  Based on your clients business requirements, you may be working on any one or more stages within the model at a given time. You will help tailor the methodology to your sales and marketing organization, and collaborate with them to develop an action plan based on your goals and priorities.

The first phase of the Value Model Method is to determine, with your sales and marketing departments, which markets, and segments within them, are of greatest interest to your companies short and long-term revenue goals.  Market potential “identifies the maximum units of a defined product or service capable of being purchased within a designated geographic area, during a designated time period”.

Monitoring competition is essential to understanding your client’s market offering and value.  Business market managers use knowledge about competitors in crafting their own firm’s market strategy, and anticipating the competitors’ reactions to it, and in deciding what reactions to make in response to competitors’ actions in the marketplace.

The second phase of the Value Model Method is in assessing the value to the customer of your current offerings for a particular market segment. 

“Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it.” 

Publilius Syrus, First Century, B.C.

Value assessment is the process of obtaining an accurate estimate of the worth, in monetary terms, of some present or proposed market offering. 

Understanding the value relationship between a technology investment and the bottom line, by defining the value generated from the business process to which it is applied. And documenting the relationship to maintain the measure of value and achieve agreement on the value of a technology investment from four perspectives within a company; and seeing and comparing the investments within a company as a portfolio, grouped by type of investment, business process affected, bottom line contribution, and a company’s key value equation.

Not until an organization identifies its value equations (CEO); business processes and measures (COO); and technology investment (CIO) can it begin effectively utilizing this model. A company then attains this information and examines how business processes affect sales, cost, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction, which then calculates into the value equation.  Companies are also capable of exploring how their technology investment is applied to these business processes.

I would be interest to know how many sales people understand how to create a value statement and a value proposition that explains how their product or service delivers value above the cost of capital.

Regards,

Mark

mbills@rcvalue.com

Topic is understanding how to develop a repeatable sales model, a six step process to Value Creation.

A series on my Blog - Coaching Sales Champions

I want to thank the community for inviting me to particpate in blogging on this wonderful site. To start, I wanted to invite you all to read my series on Building a Plan. I have a trackback to the first post in the series.

Also, here is the link:

http://karlgoldfield.blogspot.com/2007/07/building-plan-performance-expectations.html

I am avidly looking for people who would like to get involved and throw their experience, knowledge, and opinions into the soup we are cooking up for hungry young sales mentors to devour.

Please let me know if you would like me to continue to link back to my posts from here.

You can also quickly get to my blog:

Coaching Sales Champions

http://karlgoldfield.blogspot.com

I wish you all a happy 2008!