Given the headlines and the headwinds, we all might be having a little trouble getting out of our own way. To help, here are a dozen sales, strategy and motivational ideas to help put a spring in your step.
- When preparing for an important customer meeting, ask this question: What’s the MOST SPECIFIC thing this customer can DO to advance this deal? Now base all your work on deserving that action and asking for it.
- Solid sales strategy can be boiled down to four steps. Say less. More powerfully. Sooner. To the right people.
- Attention is not a passive state. To pay attention is, literally, ‘to attend’ – to be present. When you are – and you will KNOW when you are – you will have created the white space where all good things happen.
- Perhaps the most useful acronym of all is W.A.I.T… “Why Am I Talking?”
- Action forms around a point of view. Don’t worry about being right. Bring a humble, specific, generous point of view on your customer’s situation and they will MAKE you right.
- Never bring your erstwhile competitors into the room with you. There is only room for the customer, the problem and how you intend to solve it. Give oxygen and light to your competition and you will get the outcome you deserve.
- We are exactly as good as what we anticipate. And we are able to anticipate quite a lot.
- The seller must be the most specific voice in the conversation. The seeds of vague ambivalence planted during closing quickly grow into an impenetrable jungle of confusion and non-committal.
- A customer will always build something bigger with you than she’ll buy from you. The best salespeople are those who can create a great environment for collaboration and then get the hell out of the way.
- There is no right way to do the wrong thing. Check your intent. If you’re not acting from a place of empathy and service for your customer, you’re just a taker.
- Be your own competition and no one else will matter.
- The past is about either nostalgia or regret. The future is about hope or anxiety. You can operate in neither. Only in the present.
We here at Upstream appreciate the hard job you do. May a look at this list give you the extra lift you need in a moment of challenge.
Wishing you all a marvelous and successful New Year.
(Credits to my friends Christina Cranley Langdon and Charlie Thomas for their inspiration on items 4 and 5, respectively.)
