Contact Knowledge Center

Our Articles on Communication

1. Virtual Selling: Set Expectations from the Beginning

   One vitally important aspect of virtual selling is the facilitating of 2-way communication. In other words, you do not want to set up a video meeting with no agreement on how the meeting should proceed, and then jump right into the meeting with a sales pitch. They will not like it any more than you would if you were the prospect.
   
   What you need to do is to work with your prospect to set up expectations before the video meeting or call.

2. Always Be Contacting

   Traditionally the “ABCs” of sales have meant “Always Be Closing.” But as we show throughout our training, literature, and workshops, closing is never the problem. Failed closes come about from neglected sales process steps prior to closing.

3. In Virtual Selling, Preparation is Everything

   Another vitally important factor in virtual selling is preparation. Just as with in-person meetings, you are going to have a limited amount of time for your presentation. But unlike in-person meetings the prospect is not right in front of you—it is harder to see their reactions, and it is much easier for them to just leave the meeting if they so desire.
    

4. Where Is Your Attention: On You…or Your Prospect?

   In training salespeople, one trait I see very often is the salesperson working very hard to force attention onto themselves—their personality, their product, their features, and so on—instead of putting their attention on the prospect, where it should be. 

5. Cold Calling: To Do, or Not to Do?

   One common method of contact, of course, is cold calling. And if there’s one thing salespeople fear and hate, it’s cold calling! But sometimes you have no choice but to pick up that phone and start calling potential customers. It’s a fact of life, and most of us have had to go through it at one time or another, just to get prospects...

6. 10 Steps to Exceptional Lead Generation

   To start with, you need to make yourself known. Get out there and start networking every which way you can. Communicate in an ever-widening sphere. Give your potential prospects the opportunity to learn about you and find you.

7. In Virtual Selling, Flexibility is Vital

   In this new environment, you should allow yourself a bit of freedom to adjust to it. The steps we have provided in the blogs earlier this month should allow you that freedom and arm you with enough confidence to begin winning in virtual selling. When you have gained that confidence, you should then focus on being flexible.
   
   What does being flexible mean in this context?

8. Communicate Far and Wide

   You make money to the degree that you can attract attention to your product or service. You attract attention to the degree you communicate outward, in an ever-widening sphere. Communicate as far as you possibly can…and then keep going.

9. Getting Your Prospect Talking

   A vital part of contacting a prospect, especially a new prospect, is getting them talking. If you neglect this step, you’re not going to make it any further, and you certainly won’t make it to the close.

10. Virtual Versus In-Person Selling

    As we begin discussion of this topic, we must begin by busting a myth about virtual selling: that the sale sales process which applies to in-person selling does not apply just the same to virtual selling.

11. Refocusing Your Sales Team

    Anxiety causes a person or company to withdraw—and promotion is an organization’s way of reaching out, which is the opposite of withdrawing. Not only will you feel better, but once you have really been promoting, you will begin to start seeing leads once again, and having opportunities roll in the door.

    So now we come to this question: What should you do once you have promoted, and business is picking up again? The answer: You should refocus your sales team.

12. Promote Your Way Out of Stressful Situations

    If you look at yourself and others in an uncertain, dangerous, or threatening environment, what is usually the reaction? It is to withdraw. 
    
    Your prospects and customers are in a state of anxiety, too. They remain withdrawn, afraid to reach out and purchase.
    
    It is an uncertain economy, so should they spend the money?
    
    Are they making the right purchase decision?
    
    Will a product or service like yours really help them?

13. Deliver Beyond Expectations!

    Now that a company has promoted, and then refocused the sales team so that it is once again strong and not so anxious, the next crucial step needs to be taken you need to deliver your product and service, and you need to deliver it better than you ever have before. It needs to not only meet–but exceed the buyer’s expectations.

14. Needed Now More Than Ever: Repeat Business and Referrals

    The better your service, the more referrals you will receive, as very happy customers can’t help but talk up your company and products. A referral is someone who comes to you with an existing appreciation for your products and services, having already been partially sold by a friend or associate.

15. Leading the Way Out of Stressful Situations

    If you are a leader of a sales team or a company, the anxiety and uncertainty of the current business environment are most likely hitting you harder than anyone else in the organization. 
    
    Well, the leader or the manager’s job is to ensure that this whole flow—promotion, sales, and delivery resulting in repeat customers—is occurring. The leader’s job is to reduce the anxiety of these times, and this current environment, by doing so.

16. Understanding How Your Prospect Thinks is Vital to Increasing Your Closing Percentage
    (members only content)

    When talking with salespeople I’m always amazed at the fact that most believe that they “know” why their prospect should buy their product or service.

17. Sell More by Discovering Interest Before You Attempt to Qualify the Prospect.

    Salespeople work exceptionally hard at prospecting and attempting to qualify the right prospects. This quest for the right client, the time it takes to find them and the stress involved in making that first contact, is the reason why selling can be so difficult for so many.

18. Is Cold Calling Necessary as Part of the Contact Step?
    (members only content)

19. Why Did the Prospect Contact Your Company?

    What is the very first question you would ask a prospective client that made the initial contact?

    Well, prior to asking this question start by asking yourself what you really want to know about this prospect.

20. How to get Direct Access to the Final Decision Maker
    (members only content)

21. How does your Contact affect your ability to “Qualify” your Prospect?
    (members only content)

22. Contact Tips and Tools
    (members only content)

23. What Does it Mean to “Qualify” your Sales Prospect?
    (members only content)

Our Webcasts on Communication

1. Why did the Prospect Contact You in the First Place?
   (members only content)

2. Webcast: Rule of Eight
   (members only content)

3. What to do When You Don’t Have Direct Access to the Decision Maker
   (members only content)

Our Videos on Communication

1. Increasing Sales Volume
   (members only content)

2. How to Gain Confidence and Be Proficient at Phone Sales
   (members only content)

3. Benefit From Developing Your Own leads
   (members only content)

4. Think Like the Prospect
   (members only content)

5. The Educational Timeline
   (members only content)

6. How to Get at Least 20% of Your New Business from Referrals
   (members only content)

7. The Use of Sales Scripts
   (members only content)

8. How to Stay Up to Date in Your Industry
   (members only content)

9. Communicating Mostly Through Emails
   (members only content)

10. How to Get More Leads
    (members only content)