Top Gun Business Academy Blog

7 Steps To Your Better Future (Part 2)

wayne — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 02:14:21 +0000

Special Offer

If you’d like more information on our Top Gun Sales Coaching Program and would also like to receive a free Wayne Berry Audio Program valued at $49 AUD on “How to Increase Your Sales by 30% in 90 Days”, then complete the contact form below:

Have a great week, make it a great week.

Wayne Berry

PS: For information about sales coaching by Wayne Berry or to find out about sales workshops that you can do on-line from anywhere in the world Visit our website www.topgnba.com.au. You'll be guided and coached by your own personal Top Gun Sales Coach who will talk with you and tailor this training for you.

7 Steps To Your Better Future (Part 1)

wayne — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:16:44 +0000

Special Offer

Have a great week, make it a great week.

Wayne Berry

What to do when they want to think it over

wayne — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:48:14 +0000

Following up by phone

So what do we do when we have made a presentation with a client, but they won’t commit to going ahead? I am often asked this at seminars and I explain that there are basically four reasons.

Reason 1. They don’t yet see the value.

A prospect will determine whether your proposal is value for money or not, by weighing up the benefits they perceive, with the investment you have asked them to pay. It is a real skill to explain the benefits and relate them to the needs of your prospect. It begins with good questioning to uncover their logical and emotional needs. We haven’t the time here now to go into this. I’ll cover this in another Blog, or take a look at our on-line TOP GUN Sales Coaching System.

Reason 2. They have an objection which they have stated or one that is hidden.

Again, it is a very important skill to have to uncover objections and answer them. More on this in another Blog.

Reason 3. There is a condition that stops them from buying.

A condition is different to an objection. It is an unalterable set of circumstances that prevents the sale moving forward. eg. no money and can not borrow it. Leaving the company. etc.

Reason 4. They really do want to think it over or discuss it with another decision maker or influencer.

Some people really do need time to think it over. So how should we follow up on this prospect? More often or not, this is done with a telephone call. So when should we make that call and what should we say? I’d suggest you ask your client this question and gain a commitment as to when they will have made a decision, so you are being told what day and what time you should contact them again. You tell them you are putting it in your diary and will phone them or even better, see them face to face again on that date and time.

Making the follow up call

The first point I’d like to make here, is actually make the call! I know some sales people have call reluctance when it comes to following up, but what I know for sure, is that in many cases…

You are just one phone call away from getting the order.

Haven’t you had this experience yourself? You have spoken with a sales person and you do want a little time to consider your decision and now you’ve decided to go ahead but the sales person doesn’t call you. They were just one phone call away from your order and they didn’t make the call.

So when you have made this follow up call and you are talking with your prospect, what should you say? Firstly be sure that you are in a confident mind-set before you call. Remind yourself of how much you’ll be helping your prospect when they go ahead. Review the benefits in your preparation and be able to discuss them. Consider any objections they might have and be prepared to address these. Now you are ready to speak with your prospect. Be assumptive. That is assume they are going to say yes. Prospects can hear it in your voice if you are expecting a “no”. They may be ready to say yes, but because you don’t seem sure about their purchase, you plant doubt into their mind.

So what do we say?

I’ve got a list of 10 different ways to gain commitment. If you want these drop me an email I’ll give you details or look at our TOP GUN Sales Coaching System. Here’s one way you might do this.

“Hello Mr Prospect, how are you? You told me to call you today so we can take care of the details and move ahead, so you can start to benefit immediately from what I’ve recommended. I’ll get the balling rolling for you today, and to be sure everything is organized properly, I’d like to confirm a few details…”. Then go ahead and go over your check list of details which may include arranging to take a deposit or what your invoice should say and who it should be emailed to, which is the best date for delivery etc.

So what if we can not get them on their phone?

Maybe you suspect they are avoiding your call. It happens. So how many messages should you leave. Certainly leave a message with your name and number. If they do not respond after a reasonable time, leave another message if you can’t get to them, and talk about helping them move forward and again be assumptive. Now here’s another two ways to reach them and follow up on your phone message.

Send them an email or SMS

You’ll find that sometimes it is a time pressure causing them not to return your calls. An email however they can read and respond to after hours. Similarly SMS messages often gets a quick response as many people are conditioned to respond quickly to an SMS. In your SMS or email, tell them you have left a phone message for them and ask them when you can see them face to face (if that’s what you want) or when you can call them. It sometimes takes a phone message followed by an email or SMS to get a response where a phone call alone will not be enough. Have a look at the video here to see some examples of what I suggest you say. Also look at what I say about the way you should leave your telephone number.

That’s all for now. Take these ideas and use them and then let me know your success stories using them.

Have a great week, make it a great week.

Wayne Berry

Have You Got The “Right Stuff” To Succeed In Sales In 2010?

wayne — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 03:27:42 +0000

30 Years of Research

I’ve been training and coaching sales people and sales managers for 32 years now, across more that 300 industries and 12 countries. I’ve studied the “Top Guns” and I have noticed that they all have 10 key attributes that make these so successful.

Here are the first 3…

Get Serious

In business, in sport, and in selling, there are a great many amateurs and very few professionals. The amateurs in selling really have not yet decided to become serious about being a true sales professional. That’s why they will remain amateurs.

True Sales Professionals have been made a conscious decision to become professional, and have done, and continue to do, those things that have made them professionals. So what’s the difference between amateurs and professionals? Well firstly, amateurs don’t get paid very much. My friend and mentor E. James Rohn put it like this. “

“In business and in sales, we are primarily paid for the value we bring to the market place”.

Professionals deliver more value to their clients and customers than amateurs. They do this “on purpose” and are rewarded accordingly. Amateurs don’t have the “right stuff”. Their results are average and they rely on luck. Professional make their own luck!

Commitment

True Sales Professionals have at some point in their life made a conscious commitment to themselves to become extraordinary. The important thing here is to realise that it’s a commitment to themselves, not anyone else. Sure they are motivated by what they can achieve for their themselves and their family, even their sales managers Their sales manager may have asked them to make a commitment them, and their company. These things are great motivation, but nothing happens until they take 100% responsibility for their own outcomes in life, and make that 100% commitment to themselves.

Skills

The third attribute for a truly successful sales professional, is that they have consciously made a decision to develop their skills, and they invest every week, every month, every year in developing themselves and their skills.

I am private pilot and have owned 7 aircraft so far in my life. Flying was always a passion for me even as a child. Sadly one of my teachers told me that I would never become a pilot because I was no good at mathematics. For a while I believed them and got into sales rather than aviation.

I can fly and so can you

However in my 20′s I decided to GET SERIOUS about becoming a pilot.

I then made a COMMITMENT to myself to get my private pilot’s license. So I went out and bought my first aircraft. How’s that for commitment? I was not yet a pilot and I couldn’t fly, but I was serious and committed to achieving this goal. So what did I do? Can you imagine what would have happened if I’d gone out to the airport serious to fly and with all of that commitment to fly. Push my aircraft out of the hanger, start the engine, taxi out to the runway, and push the throttle forward and expect to fly like the professionals? That’s called being crazy! I most likely would have crashed and burned.

But isn’t this what most sales people do? They decide to try out sales. They drive their car out of their driveway, go to see some prospects, and because they have not had any skills training they make few or very little sales.

They crash and burn

Why on earth would any sales person do that? Why would any sales manager expect their sales person to succeed? But they do. I’ve spent more than 30 years now coaching and training sales people. I’ve helped thousands of sale people to develop these three attributes and realise their success. They have become “TOP GUNs” in sales.

All over the world

For the last 3 years, we have been training sales people all over the world through our on-line TOP GUN Sales Coaching Programme and TOP GUN Sales Manager Mentoring Progranne. The results have truly been amazing as you’ll see when you read their comments.

Have a great week, make it a great week.

Wayne Berry

Napolean Hill – Think and Grow Rich

wayne — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:36:09 +0000

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GCaEZscfvA[/youtube]

Rare Footage

I hope you enjoy this rare footage of Napolean Hill, recorded in the late 1960s. In it he talks about the wisdom the billionaire Andrew Carnegie shared with him some hundred years ago. The message of Think and Grow Rich is as relevant today as it was when first published in 1937.

You’ll notice that Napolean Hill spoke about…

THINK and Grow Rich, not work hard and grow rich.

Sure hard work helps, but leveraging ourselves through the way we think and the way we use the knowledge we have, is still the real secret to success.

Every month my team and I coach hundreds of Sales Professionals and Sales Managers around the world…

….through our 12 week on-line Top Gun Sales Coaching Programme. We get to see first hand how learning leading edge sales and negotiating techniques, and then THINKING about how the can apply these 21st Century selling techniques and tactics, can be applied to developing productive relationships with their prospects, resulting in substantial increases to their sales results.

The average has been 34% sustained over 12 months…

…but in a great many cases we have seen that by applying a THINK and ACT NOW philosophy, has helped hundreds of sales people to double, treble and even quadrupled their sales results.

For many it has meant the difference between success or failure in their sales career. See their stories here.

If you’d like your own copy of Think and Grow Rich, it has been republished recently by my friend Stuart Zadel. Send me an email and we’ll get one or more copies off to you. They are AUD$30 plus AUD$5 postage and handling.

Have a great week, make it a great week.

Wayne Berry

Make No Mistakes – Risk Reversal – Make More Sales!

wayne — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:47:49 +0000

No Risk Selling

Probably the greatest fear that prospects have, is the fear of making a wrong decision. Haven’t you experienced this yourself?

The what if’s get in the way

And when they do, procrastination can deprive our prospect of the wonderful benefits that our offering can provide them, and we can lose the opportunity to serve them and to have another happy customer. It is much easier to not make a decision, then it is to make a decision.

At the point of decision our prospect’s brain can “flip flop”.

It can flip from “Yes it feels safe to go ahead” to “I’m not so sure, maybe I should give this more thought.”

Fear of making the wrong decision can be very powerful and we can relate to this because we have all experienced this ourselves. So how can we help our prospect…

Remove the fear of making a wrong decision?

Can we take away all of the risks associated with making a decision? I often ask this question of participants in our TOP GUN Sales Workshops. What are the very real fears that our prospect may have in their mind?

If this is not the right decision then I’ll,

Lose my money
Waste my time
Look stupid

In the end, all buying decisions are made emotionally, in the right hemisphere of the brain, while the left hemisphere looks for all of the logical reason why we should go ahead or not.

This is why it is not enough to get our prospect emotionally excited about going ahead.

We must also give them enough logical (left brain) reasons why they should go ahead, in order to justify their emotional decision. This is why we need to ask our prospect questions which evoke both emotional responses, as well as logical responses. We must then present our solution (product or service) so it addresses both emotional as well as logical reasons to go ahead.

So how can we remove any risks associated with going ahead?

I often ask sales people in workshops, what will you and / or your company do if your client is disappointed in your product or service?

Will you take your product back?
Will you refund your client the money they have paid?
Can you make them happy?’
Can you reassess their needs and offer an alternative?

In most cases these sales people say YES we do that now.

So my question to them is does your prospect know this?

“Well I guess they do!” “Or do they?”

If you can eliminate the risk associated with making a wrong decision, then there is no risk, is there?

You want a happy customer as much as they want to be a happy customer

So why not make it clear to your prospect that you and your company will take all of the risk?

This is called RISK REVERSAL

Tell your prospect that you will take all of the risk and they can make their decision risk free.

If you have a money back guarantee, then tell your prospect
If you have an exchange policy then tell your prospect

But won’t some prospects take advantage of us if we do this?

The short answer is yes, some will. We have offered a money back guarantee to our clients for 32 years now on all of our workshops, seminars, coaching programmes, CD and DVD programmes

Have we had clients who have taken advantage of us? Yes we have, but I can count these on one hand. Have we made extra sales and profits through this policy – ABSOLUTELY YES.

Reversing the risk makes it easier for our clients to say yes. So if you have policies that reverse the risk for your clients tell them.

We’ll take it back if you lose your job within the next 12 months

At the time I am writing this, we are facing hard economic times across the world. One automobile manufacturer has taken the unprecedented position of offering to take back their customer’s new motor vehicle, if their customer loses their job within the next 12 months. Will they have to take back some vehicles? Probably yes. However will they sell some extra vehicles because of this guarantee? That’s a BIG YES!

Have a great week, make it a great week.

Wayne Berry

Sell more in less time using VIDEO EMAILS and VIDEO CONFERENCING

wayne — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 03:30:25 +0000

Want to try Video Conferencing for yourself?
Click here to receive a video email or video conference with Wayne Berry.

It is a very long time since I have seen a true breakthrough in technology for sales professionals. A breakthrough which allows us to sell more in less time, while saving money and time.

Face-to-face selling is much more effective than selling by telephone. On the phone we can not see our prospect’s body language, we can not see how focused they are on our conversation, and we can not see buying signals, so we may not be sure if it’s time to close the sale.

And what happens when there are several decision makers?

We have to meet with them face to face or on the telephone. What if we could do this face-to-face with all decision makers regardless of where they are?

Again, when we are on the telephone we can not build rapport and trust as well as we can if we were face-to-face with them.

So what is the solution?

Well we can see if we can organize a face-to-face meeting, and book an appointment. Prospects are often reluctant to do this because a 30 minute meeting will often become a 1 hour meeting once we meet, have coffee etc. If the appointment is in a big city and we’ve got to drive to it, we might spend 2 hours driving there and back for this meeting. So now we have spend 3 hours making that one meeting. That’s about half a day to see this one prospect, and if we have other appointments that day, and we spend even more time in the traffic, and before we know it, we’ve used up the other half of our day.

True consultative selling…

involves a meeting with the prospect to build rapport and trust as we ask questions to identify their needs. Sometimes we also discover that the decision making process involves several people, and a few of these are in another state or city. So we really need to see them too, or at least speak with them by telephone. And what if one or more of these people don’t see value enough to vote yes for the decision, what can we do? Maybe we need to travel and see them face to face too.

Making the presentation

I strongly recommend that as a sales professional, we will get the best possible result if we meet the prospect again face to face in order to present our recommendations. I tell sales people not to send a proposal by mail as the postal people can’t sell them like you can!! So a one hour presentation can take up to 3 hours again due to the travel.

What about if decision makers are in another city or country?

In the past I like you, have traveled to other cities for appointments. I’ve been up at 5.00am, drive to the airport for a 6.30am flight, sit in the plane for another hour or two before getting into the crazy peak hour traffic to arrive for a 9.00am meeting. Sometimes we are exhausted before we even start the day. Maybe we see another client or two that day and even stay overnight to repeat that process all again the next day in either that city, or we fly to another city. In the past we’ve done this as there has not been a viable alternative.

But now there is a great alternative

I get up at 7.30am, have a quiet breakfast and then take my kids to school. I enjoy this. I drive home and sit down at my Laptop and check over my appointments for the day. There are seven scheduled for the day. One in Auckland NZ, another in Perth WA, one in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur because the decision makers are in these 2 cities. I have 2 more scheduled for my home city and one more in Guangzhou, China in the late afternoon. For some of these meetings I put on a business shirt and tie but leave on my jeans on!!

I am able to make all of these meetings on time, no traffic, no airfares, no hotel accommodation costs and what is even more important, I can spend the evening with my family and help my boys with their homework. I’m sure by now you’ve worked it out – I have done all of these meetings through…

Video Conferencing

I have emailed proposals and presentation materials which my clients will have printed out before we meet. They haven’t had to organize coffee for me, or wait if I was stuck in traffic somewhere. They know we will start on time and finish on time.

But video conferencing is expensive isn’t it?

True! Up until recently it has been expensive. You needed thousands of dollars worth of video conferencing equipment in your board room or you needed to go to a company that rents video conferencing time to you.

From my Laptop it’s free

All of my appointments for this day will be from my laptop and from the comfort of my home. The cost will be ZERO! No driving, no parking, no flights or checking in and out of hotels.

But video over the internet is jerky and poor quality isn’t it?

Certainly this was true until now.

A few months ago I subscribed to an amazing “Video Platform Service” through a USA company which has developed this awesome video system which allows me to..

Video Conference with anyone anywhere in the world from my laptop. Up to 12 in the meeting, all able to see each other, hear each other and participant. Another 250 can also participate but will not be on the screen.
Send Video eMails (ie. Vmails) Gone are the days of tying boring emails. Video Emails are engaging and far from boring, and you’ll know when the person you sent it has viewed it
Make presentations involving 3 presenters from anywhere in the world. They can use power-point, streamed video or a whiteboard and their LIVE presentation can be viewed LIVE by up to 450 people, again, anywhere in the word. It might be a sales presentation or maybe it’s a business education seminar, with participants paying to be involved. They can ask questions and get immediate answers.
LIVE Video Classroom. Technical training, sales training etc again with participants anywhere in the world.
LIVE Rep. This is an amazing little logo you put on your web site that says “Talk with me LIVE” and any visitors to your website can click on it, and suddenly they are video conferencing with you or one of your staff. Immediate answers to their questions. Immediate sales!

I’ve been a big fan of skype since it was launched, but this system from Globalpreneurs does so much more.

Turn a telephone call into a video conference

What if you could say to someone on the telephone, “Hey can we meet face to face right now?” I’ll send you an email, click on the link and if your computer has a camera we will be video conferencing in under 3 minutes! NO you don’t need download any special software (like Skype). There are a few things I’d like to show you.”

Hey Click here now and I’ll send you full details on this system by way of a Video eMail (Vmail) of course. We can even video conference if you like. This technology is amazing.

But what does it cost to subscribe to this service?

What would you be prepared to pay per month to get all of this feature rich video system?

I paid US$30 for a one off annual licensing fee, and now US$29.95 per month for unlimited use of all of the features that this system has to offer. US$29.95 per month is a ridiculously small price to pay.

This system saves me thousands of dollars every month. No airfares, no driving, no accommodation costs. None!!

Click here now and I’ll send you everything you’d like to know.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I look forward to hearing from you.

Have a great week, make it a great week.

Wayne Berry

Have a great week, make it a great week.

Wayne Berry

Will you make a fortune or go broke in this recession?

wayne — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:20:13 +0000

Some sales professionals and companies will make a fortune during this recession, while some will go broke. Why is that?

The 10 critical skills and attitudes that will make all of the difference.

Click here to discover the 10 key elements that will make all of the difference between success and failure for a sales person or company during this recession.

Fill in your details and I’ll send you your password FREE and you can then open up a module of our TOP GUN Sales Coaching Programme, where you can watch a 45 minute video that will show you exactly how you can thrive during this recession.

My gift to you

Not only will you get the video, but you’ll also be coached by a “live” TOP GUN Sales Coach on how to use these strategies in your business, to beat the competition and close more business than you ever have before.

The normal fee to do this video coaching module is $495, but for you as a subscriber, it is my gift to you, absolutely free. I would also encourage you to forward this TOP GUN Blog to your friends and colleagues whom you feel may also benefit from this video and coaching.

How tough will this recession be?

There is no doubt about it, we are heading into tough times ahead, with Australia already in recession, and a global recession facing us all. There is no precedent to what we are about to experience.

I have seen a number of recessions during my time on this spinning planet. The last big one in Australia was in the early 1990′s where interest rates exceeded 17% and unemployment soared. Companies were going broke every week.

The market for almost every product and service was shrinking daily, as companies and people “tightened their belts” and cut back on their spending. It was in 1991 that we launched a new division of The Wayne Berry Group, and this was our TOP GUN Sales Academy.

During these challenging times though, some sales people will do extraordinarily well, while others will fail miserably.

Why?

In one word – SKILLS.

As I mentioned in the video here, one of our Graduates of our TOP GUN Sales Mentoring Programme, Steve Walton, said something to me last week which I thought was so profound, that it stuck in my head and I thought back to the last big recession. Steve said, during this recession…

Good Sales People will become GREAT Sales People, while the “order takers” will be in big trouble!

So true Steven, and it made me think about our experience in the early 1990′s where we saw this happening every week. The “good sales people” whom we were working with through our 10 week TOP GUN Sales Academy Programme, were indeed becoming GREAT Sales People and highly sort after.

Here’s what happened to Ian Findlay

I remember one of our Graduates, Ian Findlay who was relatively new to sales then, and had come from a Police background. Ian decided to get really serious about being successful in sales. So Ian committed to himself and invested the $s, and 4 hours of training each week, to work with us to develop the skills he needed to achieve his goal.

Ian’s first BMW

Ian became his company’s #1 top sales person nationally. He was selling big contracts to paint commercial buildings. First he started to become very successful in Melbourne, then he went and sold in Sydney too. Overall Ian became the highest performing sales professional in his company and I suspect in his industry.

Think about this…

in the early 1990′s were companies spending money to update the appearance of their buildings? Or were they waiting until the recession was over before spending major dollars like these. Well the truth was...

The market for companies who were using commercial painting contractors was shrinking

Ian decided to go for big orders, despite the shrinking number of companies prepared to spend big dollars. He invested several thousand dollars in himself to develop the skills he needed to…

BEAT THE COMPETITION

He made the commitment to himself to become the very best sales professional he could be. He did our 10 week Sales Academy Programme, and then put the ideas, skills and strategies into ACTION with his prospects. He started winning big contracts in Melbourne and then Sydney. He did this by beating the competition, not by cutting his prices, but by developing a relationship with his prospects, developing high levels of trust and credibility, and by understand their needs, and then Ian sold on VALUE FOR MONEY. It was a winning formula for success and…

This winning formula will work again in this recession

Good sales people will become great sales people, because they will develop better skills to beat the competion and take away their competitor’s market share. They will invest in books, audio programmes and sales workshops to become the very best they can be. And their investment will pay off, big time. The average sales people and companies will do the opposite. They will…

Cut back on spending and will expect sales to go down.

It will become a self-fulfilling prophesy

Ian believed business would be good for him and it was. Ian became a Generation 4 Sales Professional, and then a Generation 5 Sales Professional. His prospects and clients saw him as their “Friend in the business”. There is more on Generation 1, 2 and 3 in the video here. Ian won so much profitable business that his company rewarded him by providing him with a…

Brand New Series 3 BMW

To say his company valued the business he brought in is an understatement. So he was rewarded with this BMW. Over the next 12 months Ian repeated his success during the recession, while his competitors were going broke. His company was so pleased with him that they upgraded him to a..

Brand New Series 5 BMW

Through his participation in our TOP GUN Sales Academy Programme, Ian had discovered the 10 key characteristics of all high performing sale people professionals and committed to himself that he would develop these 10 characteristics. Simple as that, and I’d like to invite you to learn what these 10 characteristcs are.

To watch our 45 minute video on “How To Develop The 10 Characteristics of All High Perfprming Sales People Who Will Thrive During This Recession Click here

Have a great week, make it a great week.

Wayne Berry

How to share expert tips with your clients and sell more

wayne — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:33:27 +0000

Using a video blog like this one below is just so easy to do these days. It does not require sophisticated equipment or big expense to create your own video blog.

[youtube]http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=6peEqs9JcyE[/youtube]

Why create a Blog?

A Blog is a great way to keep in touch with your clients and prospects and unlike an email newsletter (which I have used for about 8 years now, to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales) it grows, one blog after another, so when a client or prospect reads your blog, they can scroll down and read all sorts of tips from your previous blogs.

Build relationships

Your purpose is to build a relationship with your clients and give “content rich” tips and ideas that will interest and help your clients with their business or career. It will set you apart from your competitors. You should not try selling anything in the Blogs, just make them interesting and relevant to your clients. This will keep them looking at them. It is acceptable to put links in your Blog or down the side of your Blog so clients can link to your web site if they want to know more about how you can help them.

Frequency builds the relationship

If you render this service on a regular basis, you will be upper most in their mind and your credibility grows and grows, and when they need what you can offer, it is likely they will contact you. You become like an old friend and an expert in the business, while in many cases you may never have even met them yet.

Have you got a client/prospect data base?

If you haven’t, then create one. Ask your clients and prospects would they like to receive useful tips and ideas from you and start your own data base of people that you will send an email to at regular intervals, with a link to your latest Blog tip. See if your company will help you do this, if not why not do it yourself? Just be sure your company does not mind.

I started my data base of clients and prospects about 20 years ago and when I launched my email newsletter it only went to about 20 people who had email addresses. It now goes to more than 23,000 people and all over the world, many of whom have been to my seminars and workshops. And some have not. We now train and coach sales people and sales managers all over the world through our on-line TOP GUN Sales Coaching Programme and Sales Manager Mentoring Programme. so our clients can be anywhere. How about you? Could you extend the reach of your company and generate more sales from outside of your own city or country?

Why a Video Blog?

Many people today are “time poor”. Given the choice of reading your tips versus watching a 3 minute video, many will choose the video. If you’ve read this so far, then you are one of the people who will watch the video clip AND read the Blog. You’ll notice that my written Blog article adds some extra ideas not in the video clip. If people can see you, they feel they know you well. You become like an old friend.

One Blog I’d like to recommend to you

About 2 years ago I met an American Speaker by the name of Terry Brock and we exchanged business cards… and you guessed it, we both put each other onto our email tips list. I’ve been getting Terry Brock’s Blog ever since, and I never miss watching his 3 – 4 minute video. He travels a lot like me, and I’m always fascinated to see where he is now and what new and interesting things he’s come up with this time. Have a look at his Blog at http://www.terrybrock.com and you’ll see what I mean. Subscribe if you like. I think Terry is terrific!

I hope you’ve found these ideas of value. I’d appreciate any feedback that you’d care to give me, and any questions you’d like me to answer in a future Blog. Until then…

Have a great week, make it a great week.

Wayne Berry

Referral Prospecting – The Smart Way To Prospect For New Business

wayne — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:44:55 +0000

I’ve been training sales people for 29 years now and I have had so many sales people come up to me during a break and tell me…”I’m really good at selling. Just put me in front of a prospect and I’ll get the order. But finding enough prospects to get in front of is my problem. What advice can you give me?”

Well the answer is obvious isn’t it!

[youtube]http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=y_qGhJay0_c[/youtube]

They need to prospect more.

The problem is that many sales people simply don’t like prospecting. And why don;t they like prospecting? Fear of rejection! And why do they get rejected?

As a young sales person myself at around 18 I told my Sales Manager that so many of the people I approached said they weren’t interested. He turned to me and asked me to role play with him. After my attempt to get an appointment he said “I know what your problem is! Has it ever occurred to you that what you are saying is NOT INTERESTING?”

Now that had never occurred to me, but he was right. My approach and my words were not getting the response

“Wow, how can you help me!”

He taught me the words to use and how to make my approach calls and eventually I was getting a 50% conversion on calls to appointments. Not bad for an 18 – 19 year old “wet behind the ears” sales person.

It really is easy if you know what works and you use it. I’m not going to cover prospecting by telephone in this blog. I’ll cover it in another one but if you want to know more now then click here

Instead I’ll like to share with you a much easier way to gaining appointments with qualified prospects.

It’s called Referral Prospecting

That’s right, one of the best sources of new prospects is from our existing customers and I believe that referrals are “THE GOLDEN CHAIN TO GREATER SALES SUCCESS AND ARE A REWARD FOR EXCELLENT SERVICE”.

So if you look after your customers they will refer new prospects to you. But I don’t believe we should rely solely on these type of referrals.

How about being proactive in gaining referrals?

There are three times when we can ask customers for referrals and here they are.

Immediately after they place their order with you
After they have been using your product or service for sometime
ANYTIME

There are also 2 ways that I have proven to work in asking for referrals

The “Referral Book”
The 9 Referral Cards Methods

The Referral Book

Invest in a quality leather bound book with lined pages and pay a few dollars to have the words “Referrals” gold embossed on the front. When you are with your prospect or customer, simply bring out the book early amongst other items you will be using in the appointment. Then when the time is right (probably near the end of the meeting) simply say to your customer, “Oh… you’ve probably noticed my Referral Book. I find that most of my customers know other people / companies who could also benefit from this product / service. I wonder how many people do you know?”

The important thing is to have some referrals already in the book (we call this social proof) and some columns for name, title, company, address, phone number and why they feel this person would be interested in seeing you.

Just smile, open the book and pass the book over to your customer. Then thank them. By the way it could be useful to ask some other questions and make notes on

How long have you known this person?
Why do you feel they would be interested?
May I mention your name when I call them?
Would it be OK if they called you to get your opinion?

Referral Prospcting Cards

Have 9 blank but lined cards and say ‘Mr Customer / Prospect’, I find that many of my customers know other people who could also benefit from our product / services and are happy to refer me to them. I wonder whom you might know?”

Hand them 3 of the 9 cards and ask them. “Who do you know amongst you circle of business friends who could benefit?” Wait in silence for their responses. Once they give you 3, thank them and hand them three more cards and ask “Whom do you know amongst your circle of personal friends who could also benefit.” Again wait in silence until they have written on the cards. Thank them and take these cards back.

Hand them the last 3 cards and ask them “Whom do you know amongst circle of friends in clubs or association that you feel may be interested?” Again wait in silence and get these 3 cards back.

Now it’s time to ask those same questions again.

How long have you known this person?
Why do you feel they would be interested?
May I mention your name when I call them?
Would it be OK if they called you to get your opinion?

Now the reason we ask about 3 specific groups is that this will prompt your customer to think of 3 different groups and is much better than simply asking, “Who do you know etc…”

If you regularly ask for referrals you’ll never have to make a cold call ever again. So take these ideas and use them. These sales strategies are just some of the tried and tested strategies and techniques that I coach sales people in when I work with them over the 12 weeks of our TOP GUN Sales Coaching Programme which is available to you regardless of where in the world you live.

Hey, prospect the smart way and enjoy more success, and then have more time to take “time out” to enjoy the good life and keep your life in balance.

Have a great week. Make it a great week.

Wayne Berry

Have a great week, make it a great week.

Wayne Berry