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How’s Q3 looking? …for both your revenue quota and your skills goals?

As you prepare for another 90-day combat term, remember the classic sales mantra: manage your performance, not your results.

“Results” is represented by your quota goal. Your performance relates to your activity goals…and that’s where you focus on your skills.

By now your manager has dropped your Q3 revenue quota on your head, but today and this week should be spent solidifying your Q3 skills goals.

43 different ways to close business??? HA, made you look…” There’s no magic wand that will help you close business.

But if you follow this formula, you might see a difference in your close rate:

Closing = value presentation + qualify + objection handling ➗ constantly.

More or less.

You can “ask for the business” all you want, but unless you apply the above formula frequently throughout the funnel, you won’t earn high close rates.

A big part of success in selling is based on making it simple for your buyers.

Make it simple for them to understand your value.

Make it simple for them to understand you.

If you can distill the complexity of your offering and present it in a way that makes it easy for the customer, you will win the communication game.

This means cutting down your words and translating for your customers.

Buyers don’t have the time, energy, or interest to cut through the complexity you unintentionally create.

Esteemed Sales Manager Lou Tosto is a great motivator…and he uses a bunch of great lines to inspire his team. One of his best is this one he uses to exhort his sellers as they head out the door for pitch meetings…

“DON’T BE BORING!”

Lou recognizes that part of making a sale means being engaging and yes, maybe a bit entertaining too.

Your buyers won’t base their decisions entirely on your electric personality, but it helps to be charismatic and excited.

Make the customer feel something, and you’re more likely to be remembered.

Try telling stories that make your buyers feel.

Collecting toys and material wealth is not why you’re in sales.

It may have been part of why you signed up for The Sales Life, but in your heart, you know it’s not what drives you.

Ask any senior seller how much they made in commissions two or three years ago, and they won’t remember.

Ask the same seller what s/he’s most proud of in the last few years, and you’ll hear anecdotes of collaboration, fighting through obstacles, and lessons of perseverance. The word “teamwork” will come up.

The only details they’ll be able to recall are the specific names of those they joined arms with on the battlefield.

Thorough and strategic preparation is the foundation for successful selling. You’ve heard that, but do you believe and DO it?

Have you wondered why something as simple and proven as preparing for pitch meetings is often overlooked?

It’s because your “I got this!” kicks in… and makes you believe you do.

The worst feeling in the world is walking out of the meeting mumbling, “I shoulda done more homework.”

Prep is a controllable variable.

Close your eyes and picture yourself around your Thanksgiving table this November, surrounded by family, friends, and great food. Your Q4 will be “in the books” by then.

…the food and drink will taste so much better if you nail the last quarter of the year…right?

The feeling you don’t want to have come late November – or whenever your Q4 selling ends – is that you ran out of time.

Study the calendar hard to understand the time parameters of your Q4 selling season…and then work on Q4 today!

According to the book Marketing Metrics, you have a 60 to 70% chance of selling to an existing customer and a 5% to 20% probability of selling to a new prospect.

However, just because your client bought once doesn’t mean you’ll skate through the renewal process. Often, you’ll need to work harder to secure a second contract.

Your renewal strategy should include the following:
1. Examine the data on how your client used your product or service,
2. Talk to your account managers to learn what they learned from interacting with the client,
3. Dust off your probing and qualifying skills…

Email hit rates will always be minuscule, but it’s a good practice to step back a second before hitting “send” because there’s always the chance you’ll get a response!

Consider these two essential facts about email communication:

1. Quality and accuracy are much more important than reply speed. You get no brownie points for replying to every client email in 3.4 seconds. Take your time to make your notes clear and brief.

2. Email is a lousy conversation tool. (Eeesh…the back-n-forth-n-forth-n-back.) Email convos get soooooo tedious and always create confusion. (Don’t assume you can’t get your prospect/client on the phone.)

How ya feeling…1-10?

It’s okay if you’re closer to 1 than you want to admit…especially if you’re suffering from a Summer Weekend Fun Hangover!

When you feel slow, it’s easy to remain in the slow lane. But you gotta fight that. Remember, you dictate the pace…you establish your sense of urgency.

Easing into a week is not really a thing. You can’t afford to waste a drop of time in this competitive arena. Mondays are 20% of your workweek…more if you’re taking a Summer Friday this week!