The Winner's Sales Strategy Blog

New Webinar: Advanced Sales Closing & Profit Justification Techniques

WEBINAR: Advanced Sales Closing & Profit Justification Strategies

DATE: Thursday, September 26th, 2013
TIMES: 11 AM and 3 PM Eastern Time
PRICE: Only $29

I’m proud to announce that I’ll be conducting my next live webinar on Thursday, September 26th, at 11:00 AM Eastern time, and again at 3:00 PM Eastern time, on Advanced Sales Closing and Profit Justification Strategies.

This will be a LIVE webinar and nothing will be sold. You get TWO HOURS of content that’s JAM-PACKED with powerful techniques you can begin using, immediately, to begin closing more sales – today – using the very same strategies and techniques I used to achieve an astounding 80% close rate in sales.

What You’ll Learn:

- How to achieve an 80% close rate
- How to do proper fact-find to develop a bulletproof proposal
- Step-by-step processes to get prospects to BUY with no hard selling
- How to use Profit Justification to show prospects how your solution puts
money into their pocket
- Why prospects can’t say “no” to a Profit Justified proposal, and how to
do it correctly
- Presentation strategies to make you stand out from the crowd
- … and much more!

Learn how on this webinar! Following my webinar presentation, I’ll open it up for live Q&A, so don’t miss out.

 

-> Register Here:

Click Here to Register for the 11:00 AM Session

Click Here to Register for the 3:00 PM Session

Can’t Make Either Session?

No problem! I’m going to record the webinar as it happens, and you’ll receive a recording the following day. So register anyway to be sure you don’t miss out on this powerful, hard-hitting content.

And if you do attend the live session, you’ll still receive the replay, so you can continually refer back to the material as needed in the future.
 

-> Register Here:

Click Here to Register for the 11:00 AM Session

Click Here to Register for the 3:00 PM Session

 

Feedback from our last webinar:

“I attended Frank’s “Get Hot Leads with LinkedIn” webinar and it was EXTREMELY informative and useful. He was very specific on the steps needed to create and maintain a highly effective LinkedIn networking campaign. I can’t wait to get my LinkedIn functionality up and running. I haven’t been so excited about a marketing solution in a long time!” -Rick Mickunas, Aegis Data

“The $20.00 I spent yesterday on the LinkedIn presentation was worth every penny. I took action yesterday, and I thank you for it. It’s my sincere hope we can connect via LinkedIn.” -John J. Polidori II, MBA

“Frank, I just attended your webinar and found the content very valuable.” -Pablo Pittaluga, VP of Sales, IT ROI Solutions

“I also attended that webinar and found it very helpful. and motivating. I recommend Frank and his books highly.” -Edward Reeve, First Financial

“I would like to say how I enjoyed the webinar which took place on the 3rd October, it highlighted some key points and useful tips.” -Devyesh Patel
-> Register Here:

Click Here to Register for the 11:00 AM Session

Click Here to Register for the 3:00 PM Session

I look forward to seeing you there!

To your success!

Frank Rumbauskas

- See more at: http://www.nevercoldcall.com/blog/webinar-advanced-sales-closing-tactics/#sthash.OtLGanGh.dpuf

How to Make More Sales with Less Sales Activity!

Having spent many years as a top sales pro, and after nine years of analyzing thousands of top salespeople as a sales coach & consultant, one glaring truth stands out above all the rest:

The people making the MOST sales are going on the LEAST number of  appointments! 

This is an astounding statement, especially since it flies in the face of the more activity & more appointments, “more more more” culture of today’s sales management. 

Here’s Why It Happens:

When a sales cycle happens very quickly, the closing rate tends to be very high because the prospect sees the immediate value and the salesperson is able to close the sale with minimal objections, if any at all.

On the other hand, when an appointment is set several days in advance, the prospect naturally builds sales resistance in anticipation, and has plenty of time to come up with logical reasons not to buy.

Notice I said LOGICAL reasons! Not token objections like “I have to sleep on it” or “I need to think it over” or “we need to get 2 other bids first.” I’m talking about LOGICAL objections that even a great salesperson would find difficult or impossible to overcome. 

To illustrate, let me tell you a true story: 

A while ago I sat in a cubicle beside another salesperson, who I’ll call Mike to protect his identity (not his real name). Mike was older and far more experienced than I, and truth be told, a better salesperson. He was a better talker and was better at carrying on a conversation. 

Mike spent hours each week setting tons of appointments. He’d look at his full calendar, get excited because he thought more appointments equalled more sales, and he’d go out and work his appointments. 

He made enough sales to cover quota and get by each month, but never more. (In fact I remember him driving an entire summer with no air conditioning - in 115-degree Phoenix heat, mind you - because he didn’t have the cash to cover the repair.) 

Mike was satisfied with that result; after all, he figured that he was selling as much as he could. As long as he kept up that high number of appointments, he’d continue to make 100% of quota and would keep his job. 

And then I came along… 

In this sales office, there were five reps, yet I was bringing in over half of all total sales. That’s right – I represented 20% of the total sales force but brought in over 50% of all sales! (You may remember this story from the 37-page PDF download since my old boss wrote the foreword and told the same story.) 

And not only was I bringing in most of the sales, but I was going on fewer appointments than any of the other reps in the office! 

As expected, this baffled everyone, and all the rumors started – I must have been getting leads from the boss (in reality there were no leads), and all the other usual suspicions when a top sales pro actually knows what he’s doing, but others refuse to believe it thanks to their own self-imposed limitations. 

But it’s true. How did I really do it? 

Simple: I kept each sales cycle as short as possible! I did this as follows: 

1. I only spoke with highly qualified prospects who already knew they needed to BUY what I was selling.

2. I kept appointments to a minimum, which was especially shocking to everyone in an industry where a 3-appointment sales process was standard (an initial, a presentation, and a closing appointment).

3. I kept the sales process as short as possible. In most cases I moved into closing the prospect on that very first phone call and sent over the contracts by fax or e-mail (keep in mind these were very highly qualified prospects). 

There you have it – the three simple steps I followed to outsell the rest of the office combined, with LESS work. 

What did my co-workers do? When they found an interested prospect, they set an appointment. In other words, they took someone who was ready to BUY RIGHT NOW, gave them several days to think of all the logical reasons not to buy, objections that neither you nor I nor anyone else could possibly overcome, and they didn’t make the sale. 

What You Need To Do:

Here’s what I want you do to: I want you to stop going through this silly multiple-appointment process when you don’t need to. When you do it, you’re just taking people who are ready to BUY and give them plenty of time to decide not to. All without your help or input. 

The key to selling MORE with LESS work is to speak only with those prospects who are ready to buy right now, and guide them into buying. 

That’s it. So start doing it. Only work with highly qualified, ready-to-buy prospects, and close them as quickly as possible. 

Read the full article here:
http://www.nevercoldcall.com/blog/less-appointments-more-sales/ 

Avoid This Stupid but Common Sales Mistake

It’s nearing the end of the month, and as always, sales reps are scrambling to make their quotas, and managers are scrambling to finish big to make their bosses happy.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that I’m getting the usual barrage of sales calls, all while I’m trying to work hard and make my numbers great before the end of the month arrives!

But there’s one sales rep in particular who is driving me nuts, because I most likely WANT to buy from him, but he won’t LET me buy. Insane, right?

Here’s what I mean:

He’s my rep at an existing vendor I’ve already done business with. I received an email from him over a week ago telling me that they’re running a hot year-end special but I’d have to purchase before May 31st to get in on it.

I wrote back and said, “Great, shoot me the info and pricing.” His response? “Let’s schedule a call tomorrow.”

Being buried in work myself I never got around to setting up a time with him. But if he’d just sent me the info, pricing, and how to order, I most likely would have bought.

Fast forward a week: I got the same email. “Frank, we need to talk SOON or you’ll miss out!”

At the time, I was in a tire shop getting a new tire for my car – a huge nasty pothole destroyed one of mine – so I quickly wrote back from my iPhone, “Don’t have time. Send pricing and info. I want it.”

Nope. That’s too difficult for him. He wants to play phone games instead. And with family arriving to visit in two days, guess what? I’m not going to get in on this month-end special. Oh well. I won’t miss it.

But him? He just lost a sale!

And the worst part is he didn’t even have to “sell” me – I basically said, “Yeah I’ll buy, send the info,” but noooooooo… that would be too easy. He’s insistent on doing the whole “steps of a sale” garbage and that just cost him a sale. (I used to work with someone who did this all the time, as you may remember from a previous email.)

People are busy this time of year. In fact, most decision makers are always busy. That’s just a fact of life. So when someone wants to buy, let them buy! Don’t botch the sale by insisting and demanding on a meeting when none is necessary. Your sales numbers will thank you for it!

- See more at: http://www.nevercoldcall.com/blog/never-make-this-stupid-sales-mistake/

Can You Have Too Many Sales Leads?

I know it sounds like a ridiculous question, but it’s true.

Before I explain, let me tell you a story:

As I’ve written previously – and to the astonishment of many of my fans – I used to be a cold calling monster. I’d cold call all day, every day, and forget that I was supposed to be selling something, not just prospecting all day long.

That reality would hit home every time my commission check arrived. The old saying, “Too much month at the end of the money” was all too often the case.

Eventually I figured out how to get leads without cold calling – in other words, I worked out the system that now forms the basis of the strategies and techniques I teach today – and before I knew it, I had an endless supply of hot, qualified leads!

The problem was that the novelty and thrill of being flooded with so many people who were ready to buy right now was almost like an addiction. I kept pushing my lead generation systems more and more and more.

Once again, despite my success in lead generation, my commission check would reflect the fact that I had all the leads I could ever want and more, but never got around to closing most of them.

The Law of Cosmic Habitforce

Napoleon Hill coined that term. Later in life, when he wrote Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude with W. Clement Stone, he explained that it was his 17th law of success – the one missing from the original The Law of Success and Think and Grow Rich.

It took a lifetime of experience and “hard knocks” to learn it.

Likewise, I found myself falling into old habits very recently.

I’ve mentioned that after relocating early last year, I turned into a networking machine in my new city in order to make new business connections as well as friends. I was so successful at it that I even did a webinar on it.

The trouble is, I was having a lot of fun networking. Way too much fun. So much so, that I spent far too much time out of my office going to networking events and speaking at local organizations, that I fell way behind on my work! (And in the process, I picked up even more work through my new connections – pushing me even farther behind.)

I’ve now whittled my schedule down to two groups that I’m a permanent member of, and will occasionally drop in on the Chamber where my company is a member, but that’s it.

The Trouble With Having Too Many Leads

I know I’m not the only person who does this – many people have bought the Never Cold Call Again system, flooded themselves with hot leads, and then continued to fail because they were either having too much fun racking up all those leads, or lost the sales because they never had enough appointments in the past to develop any real selling skills.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: We’re not paid for prospecting. We’re not paid to go to appointments. We’re not paid to go to networking groups, or spend drive time in our cars between meetings.

We’re only paid to make sales. Period. That’s it. End of story.

So MAKE SURE you convert those leads into sales - only then are they worth anything! And if you have lots of leads but not enough sales, re-prioritize your time so you're spending it closing the leads you already have instead of endlessly chasing down new ones!

What Pablo Picasso Taught Me About Sales Success

Last night I went to an entrepreneur networking & learning event that I attend once a month, and the speaker told a GREAT story that I’d like to share with you.

I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it goes like this:

Pablo Picasso was sitting in a diner one evening, enjoying dinner. The waitress recognized him, and asked if he’d be kind enough to draw her a quick sketch so she could have a Picasso of her own.

He said, “Sure,” and for the next five minutes, he frantically sketched on the back of his paper placemat, drawing his sketch.

Once he finished, he showed it to the waitress, and said, “That will be $10,000 please.”

She said, “What? You only spent five minutes working on that!”

Picasso replied, “No, it took fifty years to reach this skill level. That will be $10,000 please.”

Are YOU Worth $10,000?

Picasso’s witty reply about how it took him fifty years, and not five minutes, to develop his skill set really rang true with me.

I thought back to my beginning years in sales, and all the failure, frustration, and seemingly wasted time I experienced.

Like all salespeople, I started out cold calling, because that’s what I was told to do. “It’s a numbers game, and the more calls you make, the more you’ll sell!” my managers told me.

Eventually, I realized that cold calling was NOT working, and continuing to do it would fulfill the definition of insanity. It was at that point that I began a long period of trial-and-error, lasting several years, as I uncovered and perfected ways to get tons of hot leads without cold calling. (And learning what works really surprised me – it was nothing of what I expected!)

I took all that information and knowledge gained through difficult years of trial-and-error, and assembled into a system. And I still use that same no cold calling system to this day, with my own sales reps and resellers in my Dallas SEO company.

I became a top sales pro, enjoying massive sales numbers and a very big commission check each month, because, like Picasso, my years of hard work had finally come to fruition - and YOU can do the same!

Read the original, full article here:
http://www.nevercoldcall.com/blog/a-10000-sales-lesson-from-pablo-picasso/

I Used To Be "The Cold Calling Monster!"

Yes, it's true - even though you know me as the "Never Cold Call Again" guy,  I used to go by the nickname "cold calling monster"!

That's  because when I went into sales, I had a fierce determination to  succeed. So I took the advice I was given - to cold call - and I took it to an extreme.

I  made no less than 100 cold calls, each and every day. Sometimes it was on the phone, sometimes in person (canvassing), and sometimes a  combination of both. But I never fell short of my 100 calls. Cold calling was my life.

And I got leads - tons of leads! Yes, despite what you've heard from me  about cold calling falling to get leads, I have to admit I was swamped  with them. I was setting appointment after appointment, to the point where it was difficult to find enough time in the day for my 100 calls, but I always figured it out.

My confidence in this plan was bolstered by stories from managers and 'old  timers' about sales reps who were making over a hundred thousand  dollars a year, by blocking out time every day to lock their office  doors and make a hundred calls.

I knew my success was guaranteed!

And so I went on with my 100 calls a day, believing that it would not only  work but the longer it took to pay off, the more I'd succeed in the end.  My schedule was hectic, and I still remember one particular day when I had seven appointments and still did my 100 cold calls, mostly by canvassing the buildings where I had the appointments and then making up  the rest on the phone.

It was a really great feeling to go home after such a busy day, with a feeling of accomplishment that I'd really done something. Slow boring days always gave me a lot of anxiety about not getting anything done, so a crazy day full of a hundred calls plus a bunch of appointments really made me feel good.

This went on for a long time and my high activity levels kept me really pumped up all the time.

But there was a problem…

The huge sales numbers never came!

That's right - I was barely closing enough sales to scrape by, let alone make  the big killing that I had been promising myself and that all the old  timers said those 100 calls a day would bring me.
And so that brings up the next question…

Do more leads = more sales?

Of course more leads equal more sales. That's only common sense. You can't get a sale without first having a lead - leads are the starting point  of all sales success. No lead means no prospect, which means no one to sell to and no one to close.

However, there's a catch. (Isn't there always a catch?) The problem is that all leads aren't the same.

There are good leads and bad leads. And that brings us to one of life's basic truths:

Quality always trumps quantity!

We all know this! Yet in sales, the drive is always on to get more and more and more leads, with no regard to the quality of those leads.

It's natural to want to rush out to meet with anyone who will give us an appointment. After all, the basic mindset taught in all sales training  is that sales is a numbers game. If you close 20% of your prospects,  then doubling your number of appointments should double your number of  sales.

But it doesn't really work out that way.

I failed miserably when I started in sales, not because I was a bad  salesperson, but because I was spending my days as the "cold calling monster" trying to rack up as many leads and as many appointments as  possible, without regard to the quality of those leads.

The Three Categories of Leads

Later on, when a top sales pro took me under his wing to mentor me, I finally learned that there are three categories of leads. Most salespeople are  spending time with the two wrong ones - people who either will never buy  from them, or people who are undecided and never make a decision.  (Those are the ones who string you along endlessly with 'check back in 6 months' or 'we need to think about it first.')

That third category consists of people who will most likely buy from you, if  they only knew about you and had the chance to meet with you.

When I learned about that, I soon had fewer leads and fewer appointments, but far more sales.

Best of all, I had a lot more free time. I was selling more by doing less work - by focusing only on people who were pre-disposed to buy from me, I was closing 4 out of 5, instead of my previous record of 1 in 5 when the leads came from cold calling.

After I had mastered this concept and developed a system of lead-generation  strategies that brought me an endless supply of hot leads - people who  were ready to buy right now - I began teaching that system to others, and you know what they told me?

The same thing happened to them: They began selling a lot more while doing far less work.

And since most salespeople spend nearly 100% of their free time  prospecting, you can see what a huge improvement happens to your  schedule when cold calling is eliminated.

(Oh yeah, and your stress level goes down. Way down.)

Imagine never having to make cold calls, and meanwhile, your sales come in each  month, since leads are filling your inbox on autopilot. It's a great feeling - I know, because I achieved it.

And now it's your turn. All of that knowledge is ready and waiting for you right now. All you have to do is make a decision to get it! Whether you choose to learn by reading blogs, online discussion forums, attending a seminar, going to a Meetup or master-mind group with fellow salespeople, THE KNOWLEDGE IS OUT THERE! Now it's time for you to go out, acquire it, and learn how to succeed without the drudgery of cold calling!