Selling Fundamentals – Back to the Basics

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A few weeks ago I was asked to coffee by a young man who I knew who was struggling a little bit with his selling. He was looking for some pearls of wisdom and probably a quick fix. I should also mention that, while he had a CRM, he rarely used it and did not do so with any consistency.

While he had a number of years of sales experience, it quickly became apparent that he had strayed from the fundamentals. This is not all that uncommon. We can find ourselves in a rut sometimes and we need to be reminded of the basics.

In my experience, there are 3 areas that are critical to selling success …

  1. Prospecting – The ability to go out and to find new business.
  2. The Selling Process – Now that you have found them, what are you going to do with them?
  3. Closing

Closing is overrated. The close is the natural culmination to a selling process performed correctly. I can help with that. While there are a number of ways to improve your prospecting skills, all are entirely contingent on … you first making the calls. I can’t help anyone with that. If you can’t, or won’t, make the calls … we have nothing to work with. 

What follows were my down and dirty quick tips to my young apprentice …

Keys to selling success

  1. Be R.U.M. (Remarkable, Unique, and Memorable).
  2. Be responsive! If somebody calls or emails you with a question, you should respond, even if to say that you got their message but are working on an answer … within a few hours … tops!!
  3. Gather testimonials and LinkedIn recommendations. You need to have proof available that your services work!
  4. Take good notes and tell them that you are doing so because you want to make sure that you get everything right!
  5. At the end of the call, review the notes and ask them if you got it right.
  6. Be prepared.
  7. Clarify and confirm.
  8. Inform the client of “the process”.
  9. Set timelines that meet both of your needs and then exceed them.

Develop consistency

  1. It’s muscle memory. The more you do it, the easier it becomes.
  2. This applies to all aspects of selling.
  3. Make the calls! Set aside time daily, weekly, to do so and stick with your schedule.
  4. Compete with yourself! Make it a game and remember that every “No” you get is worth the same as every “Yes”. 
  5. Focus on numbers to start with and then shift to ratios (fewer calls with better results). For example, if it takes you ten calls to get two “yes” answers now … what will it take to raise that 2 to a 3?

Steps to take having identified a potential prospect

  1. Understand why people buy from you and your company. What kind of returns (dollars or otherwise) as a result of investing in your services?
  2. Research on LinkedIn etc. to find key contacts, What are their interests? Do you have any commonalities? Do you share any first degree connections who might refer you?
  3. How are they spending their dollars now as they relate to your services?
  4. Do you have accounts that you can reference that are in their same industry?

Develop Power Partners

  1. Power Partners are referral relationships that you develop with non-competing salespeople who call on your same target market.
  2. They do not take the place of your other prospecting efforts until, if and when, they have you so dog gone busy that you cannot do anything else.

What about your CRM?

  1. It’s there to help you to make more sales!
  2. Take good notes. Everything goes in your CRM!
  3. Review notes before making your next call.
  4. Use tasks and reminders. Complete a task, set the next one. This is part of planning out your next steps.
  5. Create a pipeline that tracks your sales process. There are several steps in your sales process starting with the initial opportunity all the way through a successful sale. As you go through each step, your % probability of a close increases.
  6. The probability % is applied to the deal value to come up with a “weighted value”. A $10,000 opportunity at 50% is worth $5,000. Your weighted value should meet or exceed your target sales for that month. Note, that is the weighted value of deals that should close this month!

I left my charge with two assignments … Your first two goals for consistency are making the calls and working your CRM! We can work on the rest once you have accomplished these two goals! Would you care to add anything to these lists?

Craig M. Jamieson

Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services
Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!
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