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Tag: sales tips

Training Tuesday:Initial Approach

Posted 6 years ago

A good initial approach to a prospective customer is a crucial part of the sales presentation. All the selling skills in the world won’t matter if you don’t get your foot in the door.

Up front you should state your name, the company you represent, and the particular transportation services you’re there to sell. Unlike a lot of salesmen and saleswomen, you shouldn’t beat around the bush. You should work on concept selling, tell the prospect, “I’d like to share an idea with you. I’m in the transportation business. I’m assuming that you’re always looking for ideas that will help your company ship or receive goods in a way that will make your company more efficient, improve customer service, and increase profitability. I’d like to run some ideas by you.”

This statement opens the door and informs the customer that you’re there to add value. It’s intended to create interest, but of course, you have to substantiate your statement in your presentation.

The first moments of your sales call should create initial interest by making a statement. “My company is in the business of providing solutions for a variety of different transportation needs. Technology is moving very fast, and I deal with many companies similar to yours. You need a transportation provider which can handle, not only your current needs, but is also working on your needs for the future.” Another great opener is, “My main goal is to enhance your productivity.”

Early in your initial meeting, be sure to mention the names of several of your satisfied customers. This is done to establish credibility, as it lets the prospect know that your shipping solutions have benefited leading logistics decision-makers that came to the well-informed decision to trust you and your ideas. You should always make it a point to discuss other customers in their industry who are working in similar environments. For example, mentioning how your company handles shipping needs for a company like Microsoft to a small locally owned computer software company won’t necessarily be helpful. Their needs are so different that the prospect won’t be able to relate to an organization that is so vastly different from their own. Speaking about familiar customers who have found the solutions to similar shipping problems through your company will get the prospect’s immediate attention.

When you use a prospect’s competitors or companies in similar industries as examples, it creates an opportunity to use another great opening approach…the referral. Even if you don’t have a referral, you can mention the name of one of the prospect’s competitors who’s a client of yours. Now, it’s highly unlikely that their competition would have to talked them about you, but it is still an excellent way to break the ice. And you can bet that the prospect is interested in all of the transportation services that are available to their competition.

Breaking the ice, gaining credibility, and earning enough trust to ensure the prospective client will listen to the benefits of doing business with you is a must. These represent just a few of the many ways you can get a customer’s attention in a short period of time. Getting your foot in the door is the first step in building a long-term, profitable relationship with a new customer.

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Training Tuesday:Time Management Tips

Posted 6 years ago

Salespeople who don’t value their own time will end up wasting valuable selling minutes that can stretch into days or even weeks. Before they know it, they’re down on quota and up on stress. The time management tips below can help you make the most out of every selling minute.

Tend to Business, not busyness. Don’t waste working time with office gossip, reading newspapers unrelated to work, or daydreaming. When you’re at work or on the road, spend your time wisely engaged in sales and selling-related tasks only.

Accept responsibility for the use of your time. Don’t blame others for your pressure or your slacking off. Be in control of your schedule. Don’t let the needs of other cause you to stray from your course – stay focused on your goals and plans.

Delegate. Don’t let others dump their work on you. Give away work that someone else can do better. Keep your sales goals the primary focus in front of you.

Enjoy your work. Have fun with your customers. Be someone they welcome because of your bight and cheery personality. Create genuine connections with your customers that will allow you to provide better service in the long run.

View time as your friend. Imagine time as a clock in your pocket. You can spend the entire day carrying it around and it will always be working for you and with you. And remember, tomorrow is always a fresh start with another 24 hours to make work for you.

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Training Tuesday– Prospecting

Posted 6 years ago

No matter what you have scheduled for any particular day there is one part of your job you should do every day – prospecting. There are no sales without customers and there are no customers without frequent prospecting. To keep your trucks full of freight, you have to keep prospects in your pipeline. Set a daily or weekly minimum number of cold calls or prospecting contacts for yourself – your success depends on it.

There are many resources that cover the best ways to be successful in prospecting, and some of our top tips are below:

1. Talk to and develop relationships with everyone you meet in your industry. Make sure your competitors know you and what you do. Share information. Never give away company secrets, but sometimes you can help each other achieve goals and gain new business you might not have uncovered without the others help.

2. Join clubs and organizations. You never know where your next big shipper will come from.

3. Subscribe to industry publications. Read your local newspapers, business publications, and national publications. There are many online resources and articles that will provide excellent industry insight.

4. Attend trade shows and seminars. Those that are aimed at trucking and freight, as well as major tradeshows that are specific to certain industries, are a great place to start.

5. Give speeches every chance you get. Don’t sell from the podium, but positioning yourself as an industry expert will benefit you in the long run.

6. Develop and practice networking skills – the most powerful business tool. Mastering networking is the difference between a mediocre and magnificent career.

7. Surround yourself with successful people. It’s the best way to learn how to be successful.

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Training Tuesday– Tips for a Great End of the Year

Posted 6 years ago

As we move steadily towards the end of the year, it is important to continue to work hard to gain new customers and keep existing customers satisfied. Below are some of our top tips to make the end of the year just as strong and successful as the beginning.

1.Call every existing customer you have.

Remind them why they already rely on you. Let them know that you and your staff will continue to provide excellent service through the remainder of the year, and beyond. Also ask them if there are any new projects or additional shipments coming in the next few months that you should prepare your staff for.

2.Call every “hot prospect” you have.

You never know when a prospective shipper may have encountered a problem with their current 3PL or carrier. You may luck into calling them on a day when they are receptive to hearing how your agency can provide better service than what they are currently receiving.

3.Train your team.

Ensure that your team has the knowledge and tools they need to finish the year strong. If they need additional sales or operations training, make sure they get it.

4.Set an “end-of-year” goal.

People find a way to achieve great things when they have a well-defined goal. Review your prior year’s results and compare them to current year-to-date run count and revenue results. Then, set an aggressive, but attainable, goal for you and your staff.

5.Make 10 customer calls per week for the remainder of the year.

By simply making 10 new prospect calls per week, you’ll contact almost 200 new prospective customers by year’s end.

 

Selling is the key to our success; as individual agents, and as a company. Our sales success has a direct impact on our ability to grow, to become more profitable, and to take market share – today and in the future.

 

“It is not your customer’s job to remember you. It is your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don’t have the chance to forget you.” – Patricia Fripp

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Training Tuesday:Maximize Joint Sales Calls

Posted 6 years ago

If you have sales people in your organization, and you’re not making joint sales calls with them, you’re missing out on one of the best tools to grow your business. Joint sales calls are beneficial in many ways, primarily for the less-experienced salesperson on the call, but they also provide an opportunity for the experienced salesperson to build greater relationships with their team members and customers. If you’re going to take the time to go on a joint sales call, there are a few things to keep in mind to ensure that your joint sales calls are most successful. Ask yourself the questions below before planning a joint sales call to maximize the benefits of the call for yourself, your team, and your customers.

1.What do you want to accomplish on this call?

Determine what you’d like to gain from conducting a joint sales call. Are you trying to improve the skills of a new team member? Improve a relationship with an existing customer? Or, make a sale to a new customer? After you’ve answered these questions, be sure to set concrete goals before the call and create a sales strategy that works towards that goal.

2.What action do you want from the customer at the end of this call?

This should be decided before every call to give you and your sales person a direction when making the sales call. If you want the customer to make a purchase at the end of the call your approach will be different than if the purpose of the call is fact finding. There are many different types of sales calls that will benefit the customer and help you grow the account; fact finding, service calls, bid review, sales presentation, etc. Know exactly what kind of sales call you’re making and prepare accordingly.

3.How will this call reinforce the value of your company?

What value does this joint call offer? Does it allow you to emphasize a strength of the company? How can you best take advantage of the time on the call to create value for your customer and the company? Make sure not to waste the customer’s time. Be mindful to accomplish your goals on the call, but more importantly, ensure that the time spent with the customer has value to them and to their company.

4.What am I teaching my salespeople today to help them achieve their potential?

How does this joint sales call allow you to be the best leader and help your salespeople to become stronger? Is this call part of a larger effort to create an encouraging environment for your team or is it intended mainly for sales purposes? Know what the value of joint sales calls is to your sales people. Sales representatives are uniquely different – make sure that the sales person you ride with will get the maximum benefit of your time, expertise, and coaching.

5.How am I creating a motivational climate for my salespeople?

Is a joint sales call the first step to motivating your employees? What else can you do to create a team that is motivated and empowered to be successful? There are few traits more valuable to a sales person than a positive attitude. Be sure when making joint sales calls that you demonstrate the power of a positive attitude to your sales person and to your customer. A little motivation can go a long way. When joining a member of your sales team on sales calls, make sure you demonstrate a dynamic, positive and upbeat attitude and approach to your sales efforts. Your example and sales coaching could be the key to your employees enjoying a successful sales career.

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Training Tuesday:Preparation Before the Sales Call

Posted 7 years ago

How many times have you been confronted by a salesperson that knows nothing about you or your business? Did they launch into a barrage of “situation” questions and expect you to answer all of them? Or, worse yet, the salesperson didn’t ask any questions, but instead jumped right into their presentation about something that you have no interest in. Unfortunately, that kind of sales technique is the norm, not the exception. Preparation before the sales call is critical.

Knowledge is power. You should know as much as you can about your service, your industry, your competitors, and your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. You should also learn as much as possible about your prospective client before you make contact with them.

Below are four basic elements of successful sales preparation:

  1. Know the industry. Technology and trends are rapidly changing and new services are being offered continuously. Read industry specific publications, websites, or periodicals. Extensive and up-to-date knowledge of the industry provides your customers with greater confidence in your recommendations and abilities.
  2. Know your company. Having a clear, thorough understanding of what we do, and how we do it, will allow you to field customer questions and objections more easily. Know what areas need improvement and what is unique and adds value to what we offer. Seek to learn as much as possible about the company history and path for the future. This will allow you to offer an honest and realistic picture of what you and your company bring to the table.
  3. Know your competition. Know the competition’s strengths and weaknesses, and ask your customers what they like and dislike about your competitors. Compare your services, features, equipment, billing process, service levels, dispatching methods, and then use that to determine differentiating factors you can feature in your sales presentation.
  4. Know your customer. Complete knowledge of your customer’s company will show interest, will always impress them, and will represent an important first step in earning a customer’s confidence and business. An understanding of the potential customer’s industry, requirements for service, and general information about the customer’s company and business speeds the vital relationship building process.

You must be mentally prepared before you make a sales call. The degree to which a salesperson can create rapport and build trust is in direct relationship to the amount of preparation that has taken place before the sales call is made. The result of every sales call reflects the amount of time the salesperson invested in getting ready for the meeting.

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Training Tuesday:Building to the Sale

Posted 7 years ago

A good initial approach to a prospective customer is a crucial part of the sales presentation. All the selling skills in the world won’t matter if you don’t get your foot in the door.

A lot of salespeople tend to beat around the bush, differentiate yourself by stating your name, the company you represent, and the particular transportation services you’re there to sell, right away. Capitalize on this introduction by beginning concept selling. Tell the prospect “I’d like to share an idea with you. I’m in the transportation business. I’m assuming you’re always looking for ideas that will make your company’s shipping and receiving processes more efficient and profitable.”

This statement opens the door to your sell and informs the customer that you’re there to add value. It creates interest and you have to substantiate the statement in your presentation.

Early in your initial meeting be sure to mention the names of several satisfied customers, to establish credibility. It lets the prospect know that your shipping solutions have benefited other leading logistics decision makers, and that they can trust you and your ideas. It’s best to mention your other customers that are working in similar environments in their industry. When you can speak about familiar customers that have found solutions to similar shipping problems, you’ll get the prospect’s immediate attention. Using a prospect’s competition as an example piques their interest, because you can bet the prospect is interested in all solutions that are available to their competition.

Breaking the ice, gaining credibility and earning trust are essential to ensuring the prospective client will listen to the benefits of doing business with you. These are the cornerstones to building a long-term, profitable relationship with a new customer.

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Training Tuesday:Mentors and Joint Sales

Posted 7 years ago

Mentors are an important part of becoming a successful salesperson. A mentor or helper could be a co-worker, manager, or someone in a similar field. Find a mentor who can offer advice, tips, experience and suggestions for improving your sales skills.

Here’s a short list of our tips for getting the most from a relationship with a mentor:

Brainstorm. Sometimes you get so immersed in a sale that you can’t see the forest for the trees. Some of the best ideas and proven sales techniques come from a simple conversation. Open the conversation with a simple comment like, “Tell me about your best sales call,” or, “What do you say on a sales call that always seems to work?”

Have a game plan. Based on your personal styles, or the nature of a particular sale, determine in advance the roles that you and your partner will play in each sales call you make together, whether in person or not. You can have your mentor/helper make a follow-up phone call to your customer and ask how you did, if you asked the right questions, and if you provided a real solution. Team selling is one of the most effective ways to approach customers and a great way to close more sales.

Learn. When you go on a sales call with a proven sales professional, be sure to keep your eyes and ears open. Study their selling techniques. Pick out things they say that fit your style, and then use them on your next sales call.

Be selective. Use your sales mentor to your best advantage on difficult sales calls or for negotiations where you are at a stalemate. For some reason, you may not click with a particular customer, but your mentor may be the key you need.

Try making a joint sales call with your mentor today!

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Training Tuesday– Silence and Sales Listening

Posted 7 years ago

Often the most important part of your sales pitch is when you are completely silent. We often rush through all the great benefits of why a customer would buy, without really listening to them tell us what they need…why they might buy from us. Silence is often uncomfortable and we feel the need to fill the space, but silence is often one of the most important pieces of the sales puzzle.

It’s not what we say that makes the sale, it’s what we can get the prospect to say.

Begin with Questions

Think about how many times you launch right into your presentation thinking you know what the prospect wants. Sometime later, often too much later, you find you’re on the wrong track. The prospect has an entirely different need – one you might have uncovered by asking open-ended questions that required more than a yes or no response. Then you could have focused on what the customer wanted instead of what you had to sell. Stop thinking so much about what you are going to say and concentrate on what the prospect is telling you.

It’s a paradox: the more we try to tell the prospect up front, the more barriers we create to the purchase. The more we listen to why he or she wants to buy, the more we can tailor our delivery to providing very specific information concerning how our product or service fits his or her needs.

Ask More Questions

The opening question is merely the first in a series of questions that guide the dialogue. If we want to involve someone – the first step in convincing that someone – every comment should end with a question that solicits more information. After you ask a question, let the prospect answer, don’t be too anxious to fill the silence.

Don’t Rush in with Answers

Break yourself of the habit of jumping in too quickly after the prospect finishes. Instead, train yourself to wait several seconds after the customer has stopped talking before they begin. That gives you ample time to think about your response and answer in a way that reflects the customer’s concerns.

Get in a habit of paraphrasing what the prospect has said. This reduces the likelihood of misunderstanding what was said, and it boosts the prospect’s ego.

Learn to Listen

You need to learn to listen with your eyes, ears, and entire body. Use body language that shows you are paying close attention and your listening habits will automatically improve.

And finally, listen for buying signals. You’ll never remember a buying signal from the customer when you’re doing all the talking.

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Training Tuesday:Questions for the Sales Call

Posted 7 years ago

Knowing the questions you’re going to ask before you arrive at the customer’s desk or get them on the phone is essential to a productive sales call. The information you can collect from the customer through asking targeted questions with increase your chances of putting together a winning proposal after you’ve made your consultative sales call. You won’t have the opportunity to ask all of the questions outlined below, but over time the information you secure will allow you to earn more and more of your customer’s business.

Some of our best questions are below:

What does your company specialize in? Manufacturing? Distribution?

What do you ship? In what quantities? Expedited? Truckload? LTL? Intermodal?

In what lanes do you ship, and how often?

What is the average value of each shipment? Would you be interested in our ability to purchase affordable shipper’s insurance?

What service level is required? To where?

How is your product packaged? Palletized? Shrink wrapped? What is the average weight of each shipment?

What is the normal pick up time? Do you have any unusual pickup requirements?

What is the frequency of your shipments?

What is your average monthly cost for freight transportation?

How do you feel about your current freight transportation service? Pricing? Efficiency?

Would you benefit from adding shipping services that are not available with your current broker, carrier, or 3PL?

What services would you most like to add? What is the benefit?

What is most important to you: service, stability, technology, or something else? Why?

What would cause you to begin using a different carrier or broker?

 

After asking some of the above questions, be sure to wrap up the appointment by asking for the next appointment and initiating a trial close. The trial close, something like “I’d like to prepare a customized program for your company. Would you be able to commit to giving us a shot to prove that we can offer the kind of service you need?” lets the prospect know that your next call will include more of a sales push. It prepares them to say “yes” when you come back later and ask them to buy.

Good questions lead to profitable answers!

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