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Ballet is an art form that began in the 1400’s and became more standardized in the 1600’s in the court of Louis XIV. Louis was known as the “Sun King.,” Tthe name came from a role he danced in a ballet. In 1661 Louis XIV established the Acadmie Royale de Danse to train dancers and dance teachers. By the 1800’s the technique was pretty much solidified into a form very close to what we see today.
Ballet, the art and the training of a dancer, has a tradition that is now handed down from generation to generation. The training a dancer receives today is similar to the training a dancer would have received in the 1800’s. Yes, there are differences, stylistic and technical. Certainly better nutrition, better health care, and the ability to start training at a young age has also had an impact on what a dancer today can physically achieve. The engineering of the pointe shoe has also changed significantly, allowing the ballerina to dance en pointe for longer periods of time. The framework for all of this, however, was set in the 1800’s.
Today, if you take a ballet class any place in the world, the structure of the class is the same, the steps are the same and the approach is the same. The timing, the position and the execution of any given step is not open to discussion. Neither is the posture or the alignment or the classical line. Why? For one reasonit works.
Now let’s talk about introductory calling. (You knew I’d get here eventually, didn’t you?) In many of the workshops I conduct, participants are generally opposed to the idea of working with a script. They tell me they feel uncomfortable, canned, phony and insincere. They also tell me that every conversation is different.
Hmmm…..
When you make introductory calls, the only thing that really counts is results. Here are the numbers: If you are calling to schedule meetings, in a given time frame how many times do you dial the telephone? How many decision-makers do you reach during that time? And how many appointments do you schedule? Your feelings don’t count.
Some words are stronger than other words, some phrases are more persuasive. Some words or phrases are more powerful, more evocative, better selling words than others. If you say something to a prospect that works to get the result that you wantwhy would you ever want to say anything else? If what you are doing does not get the result you want then you have to tweak your approach until you get a better result.
It’s easy to recognize what works and what doesn’tcount and keep records. Keep records of the number of times you dial the phone, the number of decision-makers you reach and the number of appointments you schedule. If you are scheduling one meeting without of every three or four decision-makers with whom you speak, you are doing fine. Keep doing exactly what you are doing. If you are not scheduling that number of meetings, find better words and phrases with which to entice your prospects. Track your results. You will quickly be able to figure out what works and what does not. Once you know what workskeep doing the same thingit works!
Every conversation is not different. The reality is that most conversations with most prospects are very much the same. When asking for a meeting, most prospects respond: “I have a vendor,” “Send a brochure,” “I’m too busy” or “I’m not interested.” You need a response to each of these objections and you need a response that works. Once you find a response that worksnote it down and keep using it. It works. (For a complete listing of objections and effective answers see “Cold Calling for Women: Opening Doors & Closing Sales,” Chapter 12, page 121, “Specific Answers to Specific Objections” or “Cold Calling College,” Module 3. To order visit: http://www.wendyweiss.com.)
Great actors have the ability to work with scripts and make them lifelike every time. You can do this too. It takes some concentration. Part of what makes great dancers great is the discipline and concentration to start at the beginning, follow through and continue to do what works. Great sales people are great because they have the ability to plan, think strategically, discover what works and then they have the concentration and discipline to follow through and continue doing what works.
Where do you fit in? Only you can decide.
© 2005 Wendy Weiss
Wendy Weiss, “The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success,” is a sales trainer, author, and sales coach. Her recently released program, “Cold Calling College”, and/or her book, “Cold Calling for Women”, can be ordered by visiting http://www.wendyweiss.com Contact her at wendy@wendyweiss.com. Get Wendy’s free e-zine at www.wendyweiss.com
Selling is not talking. It’s listening. You may have heard the saying “the first person who talks, loses”. And, it’s true most of the time. There are dozens of reasons to stop talking so you can start selling. Here are a few worth listening to:
Let Them Take Center Stage
Most people would rather talk than listen. When working with a prospective buyer it’s a good idea to let their ego take center stage by allowing them do most of the talking. With a few well thought out questions you can learn a lot about how your product or service fits into their needs and wants. Remember, what’s at stake is not your ego but a sale. So, let them exercise their ego for the sake of your sale. Let them talk so you can learn enough to start selling. It’s a win - win opportunity, their ego gets stroked and your sale gets made.
Let Them Load the Gun
Everything you can learn by listening is a potential bullet when it comes to pulling the trigger on closing a sale. As they talk about their concerns and interests you should be listening for the bullet points to shoot back at them during the closing stages of the sales conversation. Don’t make the mistake of talking over the key points people will give you if you’ll listen to them. You want to take careful aim with the bullets they’ve loaded. If you don’t stop talking, you might just shoot yourself in the foot.
Let Them Circle the Wagons
Given a chance, most people will tell you their objections and voice their concerns. It’s only natural to become defensive when you’re in the middle of a decision making process. Again, some pre-planned questions, a good understanding of the key bullet points and a listening ear will help you break through the barriers a person will present. As tightly circled as the wagons of their defense might be there’s always a way into the center of their concerns and an opportunity to close the sale. If you’re too busy trying to talk your way in, you’ll surely miss any openings that exist to make the sale.
The hardest thing to do is to stop talking, but it’s the easiest way to start selling.
Don Osborne is the author of The Profit Puzzle - a website to help you envision, plan, start, run and grow your small or home based business. The Profit Puzzle Directory links small business articles, books, courses, products, services, websites, blogs, and software covering objectives, management, finance, personnel, marketing, operations, production and resources. Use …BizBuzzLinkto easily share your links and quickly build your own knowledge network.
Christmas time is always a bad time for my family - when it comes to eating.
There is always so much to eat and it tastes just divine… overeating really can’t be helped.
And then comes January when we are all on serious detox programmes.
This year was no different, of course.
But with the rushing out to buy all the healthiest, bestest, most organic foods we could find, we found ourselves running out of cupboard space to pack all this healthy stuff.
And at the back of one of our healthy cupboards I discovered… yes - lurking in the darkness in a corner - a tin of condensed milk.
What to do?
That tin had been in the cupboard for about 6 months, completely hidden away and unused.
But now - it could not stay there anymore.
It was sure to lead us into temptation - it had to go!!!
But where to put it?
I couldn’t throw it away!
Eventually, after a long hard think, the only available spot I could find was a little opening on a shelf right above our kettle.
And that was where I left it.
Now - for the big question.
The tin had been hiding in the cupboard for 6 months.
How long do you think it lasted out in the open just above the kettle (a place that gets visited at least 10 times a day for various coffee and tea breaks…)
Take a guess.
How long do you think?
Well, I am ashamed to say that the answer is… a whole 4 days.
So what in the heck does my sweet tooth have to do with your business?
An immense amount actually.
Think about this - the tin of condensed milk never tried to sell itself to me.
No hard sell involved.
It wasn’t being pushy.
In fact - it didn’t even say a word.
But what did it do?
Nothing - it was just there.
It was creating an awareness.
And eventually, when I was ready, I HAD to give in.
In your business, do you have a plan in place to stay in contact regularly with your customers and your potential customers.
Remember - you don’t have to sell to them for them to buy from you.
You simply have to be in their awareness all the time.
Once a week, once a month.
But whatever you do, never drop the ball.
Eventually when they are ready for you (and if you are in their top-of-mind awareness), then you are the only person they will come to.
Put in place a 7-point system to stay in contact (over the next 7 weeks or whatever works for you), and then stick to that system.
You’ll be amazed by how clever a tin of condensed milk actually is.
Rudi Jansen is a Business Growth Specialist and Chartered Accountant.
Get his free e-book, “7 Easy Ways To Grow Your Business” at http://www.kando1-2.com
Referrals are an important part of any successful business.
They’re a great way to keep building your customer base, year
after year, without having to go out and pay for advertising.
Instead, you use the power of your current customers to help you
continue to grow.
Referrals really are ‘golden’. For one thing, in this
time-crunched age where everyone’s so busy, people are more
willing to depend on the advice of trusted contacts. It saves
them from spending time in laborious research.
Referrals also produce a ’snowball’ effect. Happy customers tend
to have a good idea of which one of their friends would
appreciate your product or service. They refer people similar to
themselves… who also refer people they know… and so on.
But one of the best things about referrals is that they’re
easier to convert into customers! It’s fine for YOU to say that
you provide a great product or service — but when someone else
says it, it instantly has more impact… especially when it
comes from a trusted friend or contact. Your credibility and
expertise have been established by the referrer.
However, many business owners assume that just because they do a
good job, referrals will happen automatically. This isn’t true;
people often need a little encouragement to send referrals your
way. It’s up to you to take a more active role in making them
happen.
Go ahead and tell your customers that you’ll do your best to
make sure they’re happy. Then let them know that you would
welcome any referrals — in other words, simply ASK for new
referrals. Encourage them by offering referral incentives.
For example, offer a referral bonus or discount. Offer free
gifts, extra entries into a contest, whatever is appropriate for
your business. And ALWAYS send a thank- you note and possibly
even a small gift to the referrer … regardless of whether or
not the person he referred becomes a customer. This will show
that you appreciate him thinking of you. Everyone likes to feel
appreciated, and he’ll be more likely to continue to send
referrals your way. You never know — someone he refers in the
future might very well become a customer!
Another example of how to generate referrals is to write
articles and distribute them around the Internet. Once again, if
you get published you instantly have more credibility — you
build an “expert” status, so to speak. Many article syndication
sites offer a feature that allows the reader to email the
article to a friend… and articles are often passed around from
person to person through email.
In both of the above cases, your business automatically has more
“clout” than, say, if a prospect were to simply visit your
website. In the case of a referral, the prospect has already
been at least partially influenced by his or her friend or
contact… which makes your job of converting him to a paying
customer that much easier!
A referral-friendly business is one which can continue to send
you new customers day after day, year after year. Encourage it
and reward it!