I’ve played sports all my life and one of the things I’ve seen is that in sports, DEFENSE is important. However, it’s a bit different with sales. One of the biggest mistakes I made as a new seller was that if I was being pushy, prospects were not going to buy from me. Indeed, that was the wrong way of looking at sales.
What I’ve learned over the years is that…
Sales is not a defensive sport. You have to be on the side of the OFFENSE!
Here are some strategies to keep you on the offense:
Seek first to act rather than to be acted upon.
It is your moral obligation to tell your prospects to call, to give them a quote, to make some follow up calls, and to up-sell them on something they need for the organization. Be a striker. Rater error on the side of being too helpful than on the side of not being helpful. Your clients are busy so your product may not be their focus. So get up and call them. Go out there!
People don’t know what you have to offer, until they know you have something to offer.
Stop being a secret. Go forward and do something about it. Do more! If you want to make money, you have to let people know about you. Pick up the phone. Go to networking events. Connect with people. Help them solve their pains.
Be consistent and persistent.
If you can’t seem to get a hold of your client and have been calling them at the same time everyday, well, call them at a different time. Don’t give up. Go for it and be a play-maker. Make things happen. There is a very slim chance that a person gets offended because you followed up. Again, your client can just be busy so you can’t sit back on the defense.
Just do it.
Sit on the offense and not on the defense. Take some time, a couple hours perhaps, to prospect and find unique ways to get in front of people. It is your moral obligation to let your clients know.
Sales is not a defensive sport. You are an offensive player. Be one.
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