When under pressure clean your environment

Business can be extra stressful, but surprisingly many entrepreneurs have not developed systems to handle that stress.

One stress reduction technique that is highly effective when your life is out of order is to put your environment in order.

Clean you desk. Clean your files. Clean your office, car and home.

It seem unrelated at first, but many studies have shown an ordered environment has a huge effect on how you feel. To 

remain confident and positive, it helps to feel as if you are in control - and to see order around you makes a big 

difference to that perception.

WIIFM  - This is what the person is thinking that you are trying to sell to. What does this mean?

What's in it for Me?

Therefore if the potential client is thinking WIIFM and you start your presentation out about you and your company. How interested is this person in what you are talking about? NOT AT ALL>>>>>>

So if you want to get this person's attention then talk to them about what they want to hear.

They want to know how you are going to help them and remove some of their pain.

If you can start the conversation with explaining you understand their pain and you have a solution for this pain.

They will be very happy to listen to you.

Next time I want to talk about an "Elevator Speech" I know many many have spoken about it but I will talk about when and where to use it....  

Many companies look at sales training as an expense and not an investment. It is the only training in a company that can show a direct and immediate return on the investment by the company.

Salespeople loathe sales training.  It takes them out of the field and away from closing deals. Manage must show the sales team the value of good sales training. The sales people look at the training taking money away from them

As a sales leader, you know when training is adopted it’s a win-win.  Implemented training is directly related to real sales dollars.  In turn, it makes training a success.  Your value proposition is defined and justifies the need for future sales training.

10. Ask more questions and listen.

You meet with the client in order to learn as much information as possible. The more you know about his or her concerns the more you can help.However, do not forget that it is important not only what you're asking, but how you ask. Their are two types of questions, open and closed. The closed end questions are always answered with a yes or no. The open ended questions allow the client to give a long story for an answer. The more open ended questions the more information you will learn. The goal of obtaining this information is to help built trust in this new relationship. 

People will talk to you because they like you but they will buy from you because they trust you.   At IPS we help you learn with special emphasis on the correct wording of questions to create a smooth conversation and to obtain information to help when you offer your proposal.

It is best to have all your questions written down. Because you will not have to be thinking about what you are going to say and give this time to listen to what your client is telling you. This information is very important. 

Also the last thing is to write down the answers to your questions that your client is giving you. Also be ready with the objections and answers to those objections.

9. Use the " voice-mail "- answering machines.

In the West,  answering machines are more common than in Eastern Europe and India. When you call be prepared to leave a voice message with information about yourself and the issue on which you called. A pre-prepared script will help you avoid long pauses and clearly outline the issue and reason of your call. You want to give the person a good reason to good you back. If you want to leave contact information for customer feedback, dictate to them twice - at the beginning and end of the message.

8. Observe telephone ethics.

The first thing you should always do at a meeting in person or Skype is to turn off your phone. No need to answer the phone during a meeting or communicating on Skype because that would show the client that your phone call is more important then him. If you call a potential client and said to him that your call should take no more than five minutes, be sure to stop at the expiration of the time and tell them that your time limit is reached, but if he wish you can continue the conversation, or you can call him back tomorrow. Thus you show that, firstly, you are responsible for your words, and secondly, appreciate and respect the customer's time. Do not forget that the telephone conversation must be conducted friendly with a smile.

7. Bypass the sharp corners .

Remember that any question can be circumvented. For example, if you are ask, how long have you been in the market and you do not want to answer, that you are new, but the guys are all young and promising ? You can always reply that your co-founder who has been in the business much longer then you and to this day is developing successfully . Any answer to show the client your teams experience using the facts from the past that shows the team successes. Portfolio team and team photos will help build trust . Controversial and difficult moments are better discussed in the second part of the negotiations , when you have reached agreement on some other issues. Therefore for those uncomfortable moments it is better to try and delay them for another meeting in the future.
But I must say that there is never a time to lie. Please this will destroy any trust that you have built up to this point.