The 5 R’s of Sales Success

Here’s how the five R’s – Relevance, Receptivity, Recognition, Responsiveness, and Relationship – can help you differentiate your company’s product and services:  Make your message more relevant. Top marketers are using their customer information to find better ways to make their messages and communications more relevant to the customer. By knowing customers’ needs, behaviors, and perceptions, marketers can target specific […]

Don’t Forget the Powerful Sales Letter

In spite of the multitude of communication options available today, the sales letter remains a viable vehicle for reaching your prospects. Here are a few tips to help you revive this “ancient” art to your advantage: Use an arresting headline. Your prospects will continue reading if the first line they see is something like “Outsmart your […]

Seven Tips for Qualifying

Your goal in professional selling is straightforward: determine the customer’s needs, offer solutions, and successfully conclude the transaction as soon as possible. This necessitates qualifying prospects. Here are seven reasons why it is essential to qualify your customers: Qualifying determines wants, needs, and desires. Once you discover there is a distinct need that can be fulfilled […]

Accentuate the Positive

Consultant Joyce Weiss advises unmotivated salespeople to get out of their comfort zones and reevaluate the way they do business.  “When things aren’t going well, it’s easy to blame the marketplace or the economy,” she says, “But you have to stop whining, look in the mirror, and force yourself to address the problem squarely and […]

Ten Commandments for Better Sales

When he was named Xerox’s district manager for Cleveland, Frank Pacetta vowed to turn his district into number one in the region even though it had finished last the year before. He did it. Here is his Top Ten List on customer service:  1. Prepare customer proposals on weekends and evenings.  2. Never say no […]