What Prospect Traits to Use to Select New Accounts? (Dallas)

June 27, 2008 · Filed Under Sales Training · Comment 

Chief Idea Officer of MarketingMeasureJust answered a question on LinkedIn about what characteristics a sales rep should look for in selecting potential new accounts. Aside from the usual profile traits: gender, location, age, income, industry codes and such this is what I offered up:

1. Are they “nice” people? ( I send the mean ones to my competitors.)
2. Is there sufficient profit potential?
3. Are there reciprocal opportunities?

I’ve spent more than 20 years in sales dealing with all sorts of folk and I decided quite some time ago to give the unhappier, fussy ones the opportunity to find a better business partner.

A barely profitable account requires as much or more time and resources as a fat account does. Doesn’t it make sense to size ‘em up first then chase the money?

Since smart entrepreneurs realize the importance of “who you know” or networking, they develop accounts to whom they can refer business if at all possible. The recipients of those referrals tend to be grateful and send more business making the account all the more profitable.

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Phillip Crum is the Chief Idea Officer of MarketingMeasure and is committed to the idea of helping small business owners do a better job of finding their next customer or client. He and his two sons also own a Sir Speedy Printing franchise and employ those additional capabilities in the overall marketing services menu of offerings. Phillip can be reached at 214-213-7445, or pcrum@MarketingMeasure.com

Copyright © 2006-2008 Phillip Crum | Comment | Email This Post Email This Post | JobSearchDocs

Do Your Actions Support Your Statements? (Dallas, TX)

April 27, 2008 · Filed Under Sales Training · Comment 

Chief Idea Officer of MarketingMeasureSo you wanna be in the elite group of sales reps in your industry, huh? You’ve probably told others about your lofty goals, everyone knows it takes a lot of hard work to get there and you claim to be working as hard as you can. But are you really doing what it takes to get there?

Couple ways to find out.

1. First, write down your normal work-day habits and routines. Make sure to include these items:

  • How many days per week do you spend working on your sales goal?
  • How many hours per day?
  • How many hours per week?
  • Are you full-time in your sales effort?
  • Do you attend available industry related sales training?
  • Read at least 1 sales related book every month?
  • Use the interenet in your prospecting efforts?
  • Call other sales reps to compare notes on technique at least once a month?

2. Next, survey a handful of average (sales volume) sales reps and find out what their answers to the questions above are.

3. Call 3-5 of the top performers in your industry and run the same questions past them.

4. Finally, if you have the heart, compare your answers to the average answers for each of the groups in #2 and #3.

The answers to #3 tell you what it takes to become a top performer in your field. Are you doing what it takes to get there or have you been kidding yourself?

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Phillip Crum is the Chief Idea Officer of MarketingMeasure and is committed to the idea of helping small business owners do a better job of finding their next customer or client. He and his two sons also own a Sir Speedy Printing franchise and employ those additional capabilities in the overall marketing services menu of offerings. Phillip can be reached at 214-213-7445, or pcrum@MarketingMeasure.com

Copyright © 2006-2008 Phillip Crum | Comment | Email This Post Email This Post | JobSearchDocs

How-To Sell A Million With a #2 Pencil (Dallas, TX)

January 10, 2008 · Filed Under Sales Training · Comment 

Phillip CrumWhat gets written down gets acted on. Become a master at making and prioritizing lists and your productivity will soar. If it gets written down you can then be assured that the item will be considered and acted on. You may choose to do something with it or choose not to act on it at all, but the point is that you gave yourself the opportunity to ponder the item before making a decision. If it doesdn’t get written down, “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” takes over and a lot of very important details fall throught he cracks. Happens everyday to everybody.

Step 1: You’ll need some form of material that you have almost constant access to. A binder, a planner, Big Chief tablet, use whatever you’ll be able to look at a hundred times a day. It also needs to be available when a thought strikes you that needs to be written down.

Step 2: You should compartmentalize your life into subject-matter groupings. This will help you keep your lists organized. Church, Family and Work are three. Drill down into sub-categories as far as you like or until someone suggests professional help.

Step 3: Plan a time every day when you can review and prioritize your lists. It needs to be quiet and without distraction. Then do it.

Step 4: Having prioritized your list, do the important stuff first. That’s not always going to be the fun stuff or the items you’d rather do first. This is the tough part. Just do the un-fun, but important, things firt and get them off your mind. Then you don’t have them lingering in the back of your mind the rest of the day.

You might consider using a voice-recorder, too. The drive to and from work will produce more list items than you could ever imagine. You’ll get so much done, simply because you wrote it down and don’t trust memory anymore (like all the poor folks do) that people will wonder how you do it.

A #2 pencil and a piece of paper is all it takes to separate yourself from the crowd.

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Phillip Crum is the Chief Idea Officer of MarketingMeasure and is committed to the idea of helping small business owners do a better job of finding their next customer or client. He and his two sons also own a Sir Speedy Printing franchise and employ those additional capabilities in the overall marketing services menu of offerings. Phillip can be reached at 214-213-7445, or pcrum@MarketingMeasure.com

Copyright © 2006-2008 Phillip Crum | Comment | Email This Post Email This Post | JobSearchDocs

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