As a loan officer, it is important to keep your pipeline full at all times. For this reason, it goes without saying, that you should be taking as many applications as you can throughout the week.

Obtaining leads to be turned into applications can be obtained in a variety of ways. Such as, networking, customer referrals, family, friends, mortgage lead providers, etc.

Another method, probably the most dreaded in every sales force, but also very necessary to keep app’s coming in is cold calling.

We all know the feeling of rejection over the telephone, but it is very important to maintain your persistence and overcome these obstacles.

I completely understand that there is no way to overcome the objection of a customer hanging up on you. My only advice would be to not dwell on it, or take it personally, just move onto the next call.

Keep in mind, for a lot of people, purchasing or refinancing a home is a huge financial undertaking in a person’s life. Perhaps the biggest, so be understanding if they seem defensive or get cold feet.

I’m sure you are familiar with hearing “I’m no longer interested,” or “I just closed on my loan last week.”

For starters, don’t even give the customer the opportunity to give you an objection.

Remember, you are the expert, so you do the talking.

Your opening line should be something like this:

Hello Mrs. Jones, my name is Susie Smith and I understand that you are interested in a mortgage. I have some great products that I believe would fit your needs and budget. If you don’t mind, I would like to take just a few moments to go over them with you.

This approach immediately takes the pressure off of the customer, and nine times out of ten they will be willing to listen.

Remember, it is all in the approach and the tone of your voice, smile when you talk, it will reflect in your voice. And be nice, relax your customer, make them comfortable, and you are half way there.

One of the most confusing and exasperating activities of being a new sales person is how to organize with new sales leads. You might have tried creating piles by customer type, customer location, targeted product or even time of year. If you are pulling your hair out and are surrounded by shredded bits of paper, try organizing for sales lead exhaustion.

Get it into your thinking that you must consciously attend to these leads that will help you make money in your sales job. Organizing the leads before you start pursuing them and keeping them organized after you have exhausted them is critical to knowing what stage you are at and what should happen next.

Rule: You must touch a lead 6 times

1. Call the lead in the morning. (9:00am to 12:00 pm noon)

2. Call the lead in the afternoon. (1:00pm to 5:00pm)

3. Call the lead in the evening. (5:00pm to 7:00pm)

4. Call the lead on the weekend (9:00am to 7:00pm Saturday and Sunday)

5. Go out and door knock the lead.

6. Mail out the “I Miss You!” card to the lead.

A top sales person will touch/process a sales lead a minimum of six times before the lead becomes exhausted. You make 1 telephone call in the morning, on another day call in the afternoon and another day call in the evening. Do you think your sales job comes to a complete halt at 5:00pm because that is when your boss locks up for the night? Stop complaining, drink an energy drink and splash some water on your face. The second shift starts at 5pm and runs through 7pm so be geared up and on the phone when your customers are able to focus on you in the evening.

Now you get to try one of the top selling strategies million dollar sales people use. They sell on Saturdays and Sundays. If you sell B2B, you should know that small business owners live, eat and breathe their business 80+ hours per week. Even if the sign on the front door shows closed, knock on the door anyway (loudly) and wait 5 minutes to see if anyone opens up. You can always slide your sales brochures and personal note to the night watchman/guard to put on someone’s desk. If you sell B2C, driving out to someone’s home in hopes of catching them there is your goal. You might get lucky and find them watering the roses, watching a movie or reading a novel, but you have to make the attempt and try to set up a weekday appointment or make a sale.

Call Your Leads

You are going to need 12 red, 12 yellow, 12 orange and12 pink pocket files and a black permanent marker. If you sell by location, label a red pocket file, IE, “Memphis – 38002 New Lead-Call Morning” as the title. On a yellow file, make a label that reads “Memphis – 38002 New Lead-Call Afternoon.” On an orange file, “Memphis – 38002 New Lead-Call Evening.” On a pink file, “Memphis – 38002 New Lead-Call Weekend.” See the pattern? Make sure you keep your city or zip code sets in order behind each other.

Go Out And Door Knock

If your sales calls at these times are not producing, move on to the good, old-fashioned door knock method #5. Make a plain, manila pocket file and label it “Memphis – 38002 New Lead-Door Knock.” Be sure to have all your notations on each lead current and up to date. There should be a line note on the date and time of each morning, afternoon, evening and weekend call made to the lead written on the paper. Now, some sales people will label them out as morning or afternoon door knocks so decide if you need that detail. Other than that, make the attempt to visit the prospect face to face.

Mail Out The “I Miss You!” Card

At your local discount general merchandise store, search through the packs of the greeting cards until you find the ones that are blank on the inside. They are probably about a dollar for 12 so get 60. Be sure to get the ones with colored envelopes so they stick out like a sore thumb in the mail. People open up colored envelopes first and if it looks like an invitation that inspires curiosity.

Your handwritten message must be about saving them money, saving them time or making them smarter. It must inspire them to urgently get in touch with you. You have to hand write the address on the envelope. Do not stick on a preprinted label.

“Mr._____,

I have been trying to reach you. The new Widget 2000 is going to save you hundreds of dollars each year and I have it for you! Call me ASAP so I can put this into your hands and you can cut production costs!

Regards,

Your Sales Person

Phone Number To Call Anytime”

The Exhausted Lead

Don’t throw that lead away! Make yourself a storage box with hanging files by city or zip code. Put an “Exhausted-Month-Year” tag on the hanging file. Optionally, you can put a “Revive-Month-Year” tag on the folder and make a note on your mail calendar to take another look at them.

We’ve spoken about this before, but in case you’re new around here… let me give you a quick primer on the almighty sales funnel.

Sales funnels or marketing funnels are just graphical representations of the relationship that you have with your customers or prospects. Your sales funnel maps the journey of your prospect into your business from Prospect to Lead to Customer.

There are three main stages to a marketing funnel:

Stage 1: Awareness

Stage 2: Engagement

Stage 3: Conversion

Just like a relationship between you and your significant other… sales funnels have rules.

So when we have marketing that doesn’t work… it’s usually because we broke the rules.

So let’s do something a little different and talk about the rules. If you know the rules – you can go back to any failed marketing campaigns that you’ve EVER run and see why they weren’t as successful as you hoped.

So let’s dig in.

Sales Funnel Rule 1: We Have To Start At The Beginning

We can’t enter a relationship in the middle it just won’t work. If you’re at a bar and somebody you don’t know walks up and says “Will You Marry Me?” – you don’t even know this guy’s name – that’s not going to work out very well and that’s exactly what a lot of people do with their marketing.

“Hi, my name is Richard… Wanna buy some stuff?”

Don’t do this… Don’t be a Richard.

The Solution: Be cool and introduce yourself first. Our goal with our sales funnels is to have our online relationships follow a similar path to our offline relationships.

Sales Funnel Rule #2: We Can’t Jump Stages

You can’t go straight from Stage 1: Awareness to Stage 3: Conversion. Well, that’s not actually true. You can do it, and most people do, but your results will not be great.

If we go back to our dating analogy, that would be like getting married after the first date. You may hear a random story here and there about it but for all practicality – that won’t work either.

The Solution: Engage with the user before you ask them to buy something. This is often called “nurturing” the lead.

How do we do that? Easy… Just be nice and ask questions.

Get to know them.

Find out their likes and their dislikes

What they really want in life

What drives them absolutely crazy

What challenges are they currently trying to overcome

After all of that, if you feel like what you have to offer will help the customer… by all means – Take the relationship to Stage 3 and make them an offer.

Sales Funnel Rule #3: We Can Speed Up The Journey

This is my favorite rule of all because I’m a huge fan of “hacking” systems and trying to figure out where the balance is between efficiency and overall results.

By understanding the rules and what is needed to proceed from one stage to the next – we can speed up the journey that our customers take through our funnel.

This is where the challenging part kicks in… What is required to move a user through YOUR sales funnel is most likely going to be different from what is required to move a user through MY sales funnel.

To take this even one step further – for a given company that sells multiple products, the journey might need to be different for each product.

For example: A business sells a variety of marketing training programs and “Done For You” marketing services. They range in price from $7 up to $50 K+/year.

The journey that prospects take before they buy a $7 video-based training program is drastically different that the journey a prospect takes before they are eligible for private coaching.

Guess which one takes more time?

In every company, the people who sell, deliver, and develop relationships with customers are its most important assets. They are the conduits to the company’s ultimate asset: the customer.

The sales leadership team is the organizational owner of this collective asset, and is obligated to manage and nurture it in a way that produces the best sustainable results. The team’s discipline promotes the sales agenda for every opportunity and engagement. Their commitment, persistence, and energy cultivate best practices and encourage the right actions in salespeople to realize consistent sales success.

Sales leaders must demonstrate discipline and predictable rhythm in their actions, and cascade that discipline throughout the customer-facing organization. Faced with more initiatives and programs than anyone can handle, sales reps look to their leadership for clues to determine which behaviors, activities, or programs are most important. This is why it is critical for sales leaders to communicate what they expect, and then inspect what they expect.

A Checklist for Sales Leaders

Great sales executives translate their personal skills and the best practices they have observed into a repeatable discipline for those they lead. They create and activate a process within their sales organization that is not dependent solely on sales heroics, but rather on repeatable, predictable, outcome-based activities that can produce extraordinary results for their company.

So how does a sales organization know if it has the management discipline that is essential for success? Here are some good questions to ask.

• Is there a standard scorecard or dashboard to regularly assess the progress of opportunities through the pipeline? Does the dashboard include documented customer outcomes? Is it readily visible?
• Is there a calendar in place that triggers management account reviews and pipeline reviews? Or do they pay attention only at the end of a quarter?
• How do sales managers/executives identify the most important things to help salespeople perform beyond expectations? What process is used?
• How effective are sales managers and executives in coaching sales teams to outstanding performance? Does the coaching occur regularly or only sporadically when a big deal is underway?
• Does the management team reinforce the use of selected account management tools by personally using the tools in real account situations?
• Are sales managers disciplined in the way they interact with their clients, ensuring that their role is integrated with the account team, or do they insert themselves only when the deal is in trouble?
• Are salespeople held accountable through their annual SMART or performance goals?
• Is adherence to the sales process a factor in assigning or not assigning resources?

Eight Attributes of Sales Leadership Discipline

Successful sales efforts, with rare exceptions, are collaborative endeavors on the part of many talented people. Team members can make contributions to the collective effort based on their own special competence. They have to deliver extremely well within their mandated responsibilities to make the collective effort a success.

With the right discipline, management can get the same people to produce twice the output. Our research has identified eight attributes of sales leadership discipline:

1. Customer-focused. Grounded in desired customer outcomes
2. Sales-process-based. Guided by a documented sales process
3. Intentional. Requires prescribed actions of customer-facing teams
4. Developmental. Promotes relationship and people development
5. Accountability-driven. Focuses on what leaders expect and will inspect
6. Performance-motivated. Makes clear to teams how their performance is measured and rewarded
7. Competence-focused. Emphasizes coaching sales teams at sales process stages
8. Calendar-driven. Establishes expectations and follows a timeline

Management rhythm demonstrates predictable, reliable, thoughtful leadership. Sales leaders must cascade discipline throughout their organization so that every level of the organization is flying in formation-disciplined in their actions and united in purpose.

Bra and underwear sales are on the decline. The economist gauge our economy by, you guessed it, underwear sales. The economy has been hurting for the past few years. People are buying less and holding onto things longer. However, there are many reasons to buy now.

There are great bra and underwear sales going on. Many companies are having big sales. Lingerie shops have traditionally gone by the suggested retail price recommendations. Recently, they are ignoring them and a price war is going on. These stores need to move inventory and are drastically lowering prices to get rid of their stock.

You need to take care of your health. Elasticity of bras wear out. Support declines with wear. You need to replace your undergarments at least every 6 months. Bras are meant to hold up your breasts. They reduce the bounce and prevent tissue and cartilage damage. Bras help support your breasts and they takes pressure off of your back, too. Newer bras have better elasticity and support than older, stretched, worn out bras. So, ladies do not hold onto your bras. You are stay healthier with newer bras.

Old bras and panties are not sexy. Men are very visual. If you want to keep your man interested, replace your lingerie frequently. Holy, stretched out brassieres and panties are not exciting. New ones also help you, as an individual, feel cleaner and sexier. You may want to try a few different styles and colors, too.

Hanging onto your money during a recession does not support our economy. If you spend, you are keeping the economy moving. Since underwear sales are an indicator of the economy, if you spend money on underwear the economist will say our economy is getting better. Psychologically, you will help others feel comfortable spending; thereby, maintaining jobs in the process and increasing the stock index overall.

The sale of bras and underwear is in your best interest. You can get great value for your money since deals are to be had. Newer bras are better for your health. They will help spice up your love life. Plus, you will be helping well being of our country since underwear is a huge indicator of our financial well being. If you support your girls, you and the world will be better off.

Being an effective, quality, real estate agent, requires several skills, abilities, experiences, expertise, judgment, and actions, used together, to make the process, easier, less stressful, and far more efficient/ effective! This process begins with properly pricing a property, from the start, using a professionally designed, Competitive Market Analysis, valuable, properly designed marketing, well – considered, selling, bringing about a sale, and paying keen attention, until the closing. After more than a decade, as a Licensed Sales Representative, in New York, I have come to realize, the difference, the right agent, might offer, and, so, with that, in mind, this article will attempt to, briefly, consider, examine, review, and discuss, some of the key considerations, to understand, during this process, and period of time.

1. Pricing: Often, the initial, listing price, sets the tone, for how well the process will go! The best approach is to price it right from the start. Statistics, and data, indicates, the best offers, come, in the vast number of instances, in the first few weeks, after a property is listed, so, doesn’t it make sense, to attract, the maximum number of qualified, potential buyers, from the start, by pricing it realistically, and in a well – considered manner. Sellers should demand, their agents, explain, their pricing rationale, and closely review a Competitive Market Analysis, and use it, to its best purposes.

2. Marketing: What is the best way, to market, a specific house, and property? Choose an agent, who prepares, a fully considered, well – designed, marketing plan, which includes, the reasoning behind, the best media, for your home, and how to get the most bang – for – the – buck. Included in this planning, should be: the proper combination of media use/ usage; priorities; goals; the house’s niche; niche – marketing, etc.

3. Selling: Selling must be proactive, and, clients and agents, must work together, as a team, in order to achieve the best possible results. How quickly an agent responds to leads, answers/ addresses his client’s concerns, and perceptions, and the quality of his advice, in a well – considered, timely manner, often, differentiates, the right representative, for you, and the rest – of – the – pack!

4. Sales: The process of selling, must close the deal, with the results, which make the most sense! Only when the sale, is completed, and, brough to fruition, has the agent, provided the service, his client needs, and deserves!

5. Closing: Some falsely believe, the process is over, when the offer is made and accepted. However, many things, might happen, between, that step, and the closing, and, thus, experience, expertise, foresight, and planning for contingencies, are essential qualities, needed to be a great real estate agent!

Homeowners should hire someone, to represent them, who will pay attention, to all these factors, and create a scenario, where his client, receives the highest, possible price, in the shortest time period, with the best terms, and the least hassle! SInce, for most, their house, represents, their single – biggest, financial asset, doesn’t that make sense?

There are many reasons why sales effort, a lot of time, allocation of many resources, planning and so much more can still lead to slow and even poor sales results. Having been observing and teaching sales strategies and practices around the world for over thirty-five years and witnessing numerous stupid as well as genius tactics used by individuals and organizations I believe there are five basic reasons why sales decline or are in a slump regardless of the economy, industry, consumer desires, and competitive philosophies, etc.

Many sales trainers and sales experts might suggest that it’s just poor execution of Sales 101 – prospecting skills, poor presentation skills or the inability to effectively disarm objections and close sales. Although all of these traditional sales methodologies are important, I believe that even if you have all of these and lack the following five you will never achieve sustained increased sales results and income. I’ll keep this simple.

Here are the five reasons –

-A lack of consistent execution of a proven process.

-Reliance on a single marketing approach.

-Poor product/service messaging.

-Over or underuse of specific communication techniques.

-A lack of execution integrity.

-A lack of consistent execution of a proven process.

To achieve sustained and lasting success a process is required. It doesn’t matter if it’s cooking in the kitchen, operating in the hospital or building on a construction site. Wherever you see success I will guarantee there is a process that is consistently being followed to ensure positive results.

The sales process is no different. If one minute you are selling this way and the next minute you are selling differently – I will guarantee you will get inconsistent results. Let me give you a quick example.

Let’s say you have a prospect who needs and wants your product or service and you have been trained to sell it a certain way. But you have decided because this person seems more available or affinitive to you – you decide to adjust your approach and get a bit more friendly than normal, open or whatever – as a result, you create a different sales environment that deviates from your standard approach – one you are unfamiliar with and one the prospect may feel is a bit forward. You have abandoned your process. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you shouldn’t tailor your sales message to the style or interests of each prospect, what I’m saying is if and when you abandoned proven sales techniques, strategies, and approaches for something new or different you will get less than historical proven positive outcomes.

I’m not implying that any or all processes are successful or the best approach or that any process should not be open to change, improvement and updating. And, I don’t want my heart surgeon sticking with the process when it’s his or her instincts to adjust or adapt but I do want them to stick with protocols when situations or circumstances warrant it.

If you don’t have and stick with a proven sales process, I will guarantee you live with a great deal of frustration, uncertainty, unknowns, disappointment and even regret from time to time.

-Reliance on a single marketing approach.

Yes, you need a website if you want to succeed and compete. Yes, you need to do Public Relations from time to time. Yes, advertising can help your sales efforts. Yes, emails are necessary occasionally and yes, you also need to pick up the phone once in a while. Get it – You need a successful blending process when it comes to marketing and its support and endorsement of your sales efforts.

When sales efforts rely on a single marketing approach, they will achieve fewer positive responses. When sales activity is not foreshadowed with some market exposure or not supported by follow-up activity you are relying only on the efforts of the sales effort. To get better and more consistent positive results from any sales actions it is a wise move to have both pre and post-sales activity that reinforces the basic fundamental sales message and customer benefits. Think about it – if salesperson A shows up for an appointment to sell – whatever – and the prospect has never heard of his or her organization or product or service – they have got a lot of work to do. When salesperson B shows up for their appointment and the prospect viewed one billboard, heard one radio ad and read one ad on a website they were searching prior to the sales meeting – which of the two appointments do you think will tend to have a better chance of success?

-Poor product/service messaging.

Have you ever watched a product or service commercial and when it was finished you were shaking your head thinking – “what was that all about?” Well, I have – almost every day. I’m not sure how some of these stupid ads make it past management but someone needs to wake them up- they are stupid and don’t do the product or service justice. No, I’m not going to site-specific examples as I’m sure you have seen, read or heard your share of them. I just want to point out that if your messaging is confusing, contradictory or can be perceived or interpreted as negative or derogatory in any way it will not contribute to your sales success in any way.

-Over or underuse of specific communication techniques.

Technology wants us to believe that the only way to sell to people today is with social media, emails or the latest Techno Whiz. Yes, these are important and can often be an integral part of lifestyle today but let me assure you “word of mouth” has not lost its impact on the buying public or process. When the average customer has a negative product or service experience, research tells us – they will, on average, tell 9 people. And, those 9 people on average will tell five people and this process just continues on and on – so let me ask you how many people over time do you think will get that negative message and how much money do you need to spend on promotion and advertising to counteract this negative exposure?

Just ask any organization that has lost customers, market share, and even gone belly-up due to negative press and I’m not talking about “fake news” and in hindsight, they will admit they failed to anticipate the negative consequences due to this negative experience.

If you think you are going to hit a home run every time with a campaign of a new product or service relying only on your investment in technology exposure – you are living in “fantasy Land”. I can hear some of you now, “NO, Tim you are living in “Denial-Land” and just don’t get it – how people are buying today.” OK, you are not listening – I didn’t say you didn’t need to use these media sources to improve sales, I said you need to not rely ONLY on them.

-A lack of execution integrity.

Talk is cheap today. People seem to throw commitments, promises and so many other things at customers, clients, friends, and even family members that in some ways they hope will happen, but are never 100% sure they will. Ever left a message for a supplier who said they would get back to you in 24 hours and after a week, you still hadn’t heard from them? Ever have someone tell you they will meet you for; lunch, a meeting, coffee at a certain time and twenty minutes later they finally showed up? Ever been promised a refund by a supplier who said it would only take 24 hours and after a few days you are still waiting? Enough examples – I could give you thousands. The common thread in all of them is a lack of integrity. There are far too many reasons and contributors to this issue in today’s sales (and general relationship) environment so let me just cover one simple concept – does this lack of consistency, integrity or commitment in your opinion, contribute to; poor customer loyalty, poor customer relations, poor repeat business, poor references and/or referrals, poor word of mouth and just a poor reputation in general?

If you want to avoid any of these “poor” issues (outcomes, results, consequences) – it’s simple – here are five things to consider (yes there are many more) – 1) start meaning what you say and saying what you mean. 2)Stop making excuses – just do it. 3)If you can’t do it or are not sure whether it will happen – don’t promise it. 4)If circumstances that are beyond your control cause a promise or commitment to not be delivered – fix it quickly. And 5) Learn from your communication mistakes. Stop repeating the same stupid behaviors that are doing nothing to improve your image and sales results whether as an individual or an organization!

If you are a B2B business owner, make sure you reevaluate your sales strategy from time to time. Since this is the age of the Internet, product/service related information is easily available to B2B buyers. Given below are a few tips and tricks that can help you put together a solid sales strategy.

Research your Customers

First off, you may want to call your prospective leads right away. Actually, you should give them some time to do their homework before you ask your sales reps to contact them. You can take a look at their sites and then follow them on major social media websites, which will give you a pretty good idea of which leads you should target.

Train your Sales Reps

Also, make sure your sales representatives have good knowledge of your products and services. In other words, they should have solid know-how of the features and functions of your products. With this knowledge, your sales reps can find it easier to convince your customers.

Ask Questions

Once you have done your research, you can give a call to the qualified leads. The idea is to find out more information about them and the problems they have been facing. For the resolution of their problems, you can recommend your products or services.

Listen More

Make sure you can communicate well with your target customers. Learn to listen to them and then present your services as a solution to their problems.

Here, it’s important to keep in mind that an effective sales strategy should revolve around the customers instead of your products alone.

Have a Consultative Approach

If you want to grow your B2B sales, make sure you have something to give to your customers. For instance, you can provide good advice and general tips that can help your customers grow their business using what you offer. You can even recommend good online courses, blogs, and books.

Develop Relationships

If you have some customers who show some interest in your offers, don’t push them to sign a deal. Instead, give them enough time to think about the deal. Offering a free of charge demo is also a great idea.

Remember: developing a strong business relationship is a lot more important than the deal. What you need to do is work on building a strong reputation as an honest business advisor.

Have a Customer-Oriented Approach

As far as a B2B sales strategy is concerned, it’s important to show empathy towards your customers. The more you do it, the better. Also, make sure your teams communicate with each other to find out more about what your customers want. This will help your teams get equipped with more knowledge.

In the same way, make sure your sales team knows everything about what they want to sell. Ideally, they should have the industry knowledge as well. So, you may want to train them to keep your customers delighted.

Long story short, if you use these strategies, you can attract a lot of B2B customers, which will grow your business at the end of the day.

How much does a lack of sales proficiency cost your company every year? Do customers know more about your products and how to use them than some of your own salespeople? Mishandled situations and blown opportunities are the result of unskilled and untrained salespeople and cost businesses millions every year.

The “P” Factor

For many companies, lack of sales proficiency is the #1 factor affecting profitability. This was the premise of a recent keynote speech by Mark Landiak, President of Corporate Dynamics Inc. and author of “Beat Your Best!(TM) A Manager’s Guide to Coaching Performance”; and “Customer Service Isn’t A Department…It’s You!(TM)” To prove his point, Landiak called the offices of two audience members posing as a “highly-qualified” prospect. In both situations, the salespeople took the bait and started talking price and product without asking about the needs of their prospect. One rep didn’t even get the name and number before hanging up the phone!

Located in Naperville, IL, Corporate Dynamics Inc. is a professional training and consulting firm that specializes in helping companies to boost their sales and margins through sales, sales management and customer service training initiatives. Serving as president for 17 years, Landiak has built a reputation of being a leading training resource for sales and service teams in a variety of industries, including business-to-business, retail, and dealer/distributor organizations.

“Every sales organization that is looking to improve proficiency in their sales reps and front line management can benefit from taking a more consultative and value-focused approach to dealing with their customers and prospects.”

Often times, companies don’t define and measure “proficiency” and are not aware that they are losing thousands of dollars due to incompetence. Business owners and managers are often so busy trying to “meet their numbers” and keep up with the pace of business that accurately assessing, measuring, and coaching “proficiency” gets little or no attention.

Definition

CDI defines “Proficiency” as the ability of a salesperson (or team) to profitably secure, grow and retain customers despite competitive pressures and obstacles.

One step toward improving sales proficiency begins with the ability to ask the right questions. Landiak explains, “The key is to understand how to translate responses into applications of how the customer will use a product or service to reach their objectives.” It’s a personal process with the customer, not just a simple transaction. At the end of the interview (sales call), the customer should feel like the rep really understands his/her issues and objectives and that the rep has the expertise and company resources to help meet those objectives.

The consultative selling process begins by understanding and assessing the individual and/or organizational goals, objectives and critical issues.

Through this process, you will develop a solid foundation for building solutions and training interventions.

Coming soon – WiBOC will address:

* Differentiating your company from the competition

* Sales Management/Coaching Tips for Boosting Sales Proficiency

* Strategies and Tactics for Selling Value over Price

* Positioning your company to Win!

Before you can properly tend to your yard, you need to have the right equipment. During the spring and summer months, finding local lawn mower sales sound reasonable. You can find holiday deals on Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. However, if you want to buy the right equipment without spending a lot of money, then you should shop during the fall and winter to get the best deals.

Finding Summer Deals

During the spring and summer months, yard care equipment is in high demand. Everyone is trimming their grass during these seasons. It makes sense for home improvement stores to keep the items in stock and ready to buy during these months.

Because it is the peak season for purchase, it means the prices will be a little higher. Retailers know you need the equipment in order to maintain your yard properly. While they are not going to price tools so high that no one will purchase then, even lawn mower sales will have higher prices during the peak seasons.

You can still find a few holiday offers in the summer, though. These will usually offer decent deals if you need the equipment right away. However, it is best to hold off if possible because, if you wait a few months, you can get a discounted price when the dealers move the merchandise out of their showroom.

Offseason Buying

Reports indicate that the best time to purchase yard-trimming equipment is at the end of the summer season. As retailers transition to fall, they reduce the price on all spring and summer tools. At this time, you can find great lawn mower sales. It’s important to know what features you need and to keep an open mind, so you can find the best price on a machine that meets your needs, even if all of the models are not in stock.

If you want to order online, you will still get your best deals during the fall and early winter months. The added benefit is that, if you choose to order from online sources, you will have a better chance of finding specific brands or designs that may interest you. You will have to pay for shipping, however, which can eat into your savings if you are not careful.

Older Models

You can also save money if you are willing to go with older models for your yard equipment. This does not necessarily mean used, though. Dealers who stock yard tractors year-round will offer deals on models from the previous season. They host these specials in order to clear out older stock before receiving newer models for their showroom.

If you know where to look, you can get a good deal on lawn mower sales. But, by waiting a little while, you can get a great deal and really save some money!