The reality of life is that time is finite. You never get a moment back. If you could complete a task in 2 hours, but you spend 3 hours doing it you have LOST the opportunity that hour had to offer you. You can calculate the cost of that hour very simply. Many people would tell you to take your gross income, divide by 50 (weeks in a year with a 2 week vacation) and divide that by 40 (hours in a week).
I tell people to take the gross income YOU WANT TO MAKE, divide by 50 and divide by 40. That is the true opportunity cost as far as a sales person goes.
Here are my 5 advice points for a sales person trying to attack their market FAST...
Don't spend hours working on a marketing plan - or days - or weeks - or months. I've had clients who have spent years trying to get "the perfect plan together". Call someone who can help you make it happen FAST. Of course I'd like you to call Mail Print - but whether you pay my team to do it or you pay someone else to do it - just get it done.
When you have a bunch of calls to make, get through them as FAST as possible. If you can dial at a rate of 20 dials an hour and you have 100 calls to make, see if you can get it done in 4 1/2 hours. Get somewhere quiet, focus, have your list together and sit down and get to dialing. I know you hate it, no one loves it, but it is the sure path to sales success.
Get a monthly mailing program going to your past clients and key referral sources. YES MONTHLY. Don't waste your effort on quarterly or every other month. Would you spend $8 on a client? Of course you would... That's all it costs to mail to a client every month for a year. Set it up and get it done. Of course, Mail Print can help with that, but whether you use MPI, do it yourself or pay someone else to do it...Make it happen!
Get away from non-winners. If you work in a bullpen setting and there are wannabes around you - you know the type of sales people (and I use that term loosely) I'm talking about - the ones who read the paper and think great thoughts, but never take action and make only moderate incomes - get away from them. Beg your way into another area - or work out of a conference room or at home. Surround yourself with success and it will help drive you forward.
Do at least three specific things each day to generate new business. These must be things that you can control. Decide what those three things are and make sure that you do them. Here are a few things... (the xx's are a number that you determine you can achieve)
- Hand out XX business cards each day.
- Make XX calls to past clients.
- Make XX calls to current clients.
- Make XX calls to prospects.
- Flier XX houses each day.
- Reconnect with one person from your past.
- Send XX hand written notes each day.
I know many top sales people who have a list similar to this that they've created and each day they do not go to bed until they have achieved three of the business generating tasks on this list. They also make a game out of this action that they play with themselves. "Can I get my three business building actions done by noon?"
With all that said... do what you need to do to be successful and do it FAST!
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