Warning..this blog is extremely honest! Today I heard of yet another major showroom closing it's doors here at the Chicago Merchandise Mart. At first, I was so sad and then got very mad. Why? Because maybe, just maybe it didn't need to close if they had a stronger sales strategy. Yes, I know the economy kicked the wind out of our sales (get it?). But it seems more and more companies and showrooms are still unable [...]
I'm coaching a great sales person right now. She sells contract product mainly to hospitality and commercial designers. So she is taking my e-course Powering up Your Sales NOW! and had this response when I checked in with her and asked how she was doing? She said she was getting a little frustrated. That it took so much less time making appointments by just calling, showing up and showing product. She said this is taking so [...]
I know it's almost cliche to talk about goals for a New Year, but here's why I still do it. It works...it's a new year, new start and usually new sales year. So why fight it? Instead, let's do it! I am still hearing from so many salespeople they don't write their goals down and are still focusing most of their presentation on the product instead of really asking those great qualifying questions to get to [...]
As long as I have been in sales, (arrgh... more than 25 years) August and September were known as NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH months. As sales people we always knew summer was a slower time, as designers and their clients were vacationing and wanted little to do with designing spaces. But comes late August and the product would come pouring in. To sales people this was our Christmas. Clients want to make their homes ready for the [...]
I was giving my ecourse this morning to a great student! She works for an independent rep group and really wanted to increase her effectiveness as a salesperson. She represents five lines, three of them extremely well known in the design sector. What we were learning today was part of my ecourse 7 Core Principles of Optimized Selling. She's opening her mind to new techniques and using them to get her more sales. And what's so [...]
