Sales People Should be Full of Positive Energy

Sales professionals must be full of energy and positive energy. They should always think positively and act energetically & enthusiastically.Personally, I have seen that, if I am positive about a deal through out, I have reached to close it.

A sales person works very hard and faces lots of struggle. In B2B space, the sales cycles are typically long and decision making is slow. Unless the sales person is persistent and positive about the outcomes, it is very difficult for him to keep running.

A positive person spreads positive vibrations around him. How to keep yourself positive:

• Understand a positive feeling comes from inside. We must be truly positive and it would reflect.
• Fill up your mind with positive thoughts when you go to bed and when you get up in the morning
• Look around for positive things, discuss those and talk about those
• Keep smiling, remain cool and calm
• Thank people from heart for whatever good they have done (does not matter if they have done for you or not)
• Ignore what is negative thing going on around you and focus on positive aspect
• Do positive things -- be punctual, be ethical, be honest, listen to others, respect others, plan ahead and plan exceptions!
• Be real -- don’t try to pretend or show smart. People would love if you are genuine and real.

No, Rejection or Objections - friends of a salesperson!

As a kid, we listen to the word ‘No’ thousands of time.  If we grow up to become a salesperson, this ‘No’ becomes our best friend and almost always comes in front of us! Rejection means a client or customer saying ‘No’ to your proposal or offer and an objection could be just a clarification or doubt in buyer mind. A salesperson faces rejection or objection very regularly. It is not because the product is bad or sales person does not look good. Generally, people don’t like to get sold and they tempt to say ‘No’ easier than ‘Yes’. People also assume that a ‘Yes’ means end of sales cycle and they would be asked to take decisions. As a sales person, we must be prepared enough before client interaction. We must treat every ‘No’ as a milestone.  We should try to learn from it, ask questions and prepare ourselves for next steps in this deal and future deals.

• Don’t take rejection personally
• Understand that not every customer would say yes. It is part of sales process.
• Fix a time to call your customer and keep yourself very positive and smiling that time. No matters what happen, you will not feel bad!
• Response to rejection confidently and powerfully.
• Try to learn from this rejection and let it not come in your subsequent meetings
• NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming) helps in sales. You can easily find the common ground and make the buyer comfortable. Also, simple technique like keeping them affirmative throughout discussion also helps.
• Give client or customer who also felt the same way but finally accepted your product or service.
• Try to get the depth of the rejection -- ask questions to unearth hidden objections or confusions
• Don’t give up -- just keep trying!

Cancellation of Appointments

It has become a norm in the industry to cancel an appointment. It is not only wastage of time but also of other resources and frustrating. There could be multiple reasons why a meeting got cancelled:

1. Poor appointment setting or planning
2. The client got really busy
3. The client does not know why to attend this meeting
4. Some natural or practical problem
5. You got busy
6. Client does not like you or your company!

Understand that the way we make lots of call to get an appointment, on the other side; client receives equal number of requests for their time. So, when you set your meeting, do not try to set the meeting or appointment with a goal to pitch a product. Find a different reason & try to meet in a different location than client office. Generally, we should do half the sale before meeting, meeting should be just to see the faces and sign on the paper. Make a list of criteria to call for a meeting. Before meeting, send a small text reminder to the client as a reminder and tell them what special you are bringing to the table. Try to take the customer or client out of his work space, maybe even for a lunch or golf or a party.

What to do once your meeting is cancelled?

1. Use this time to meet some other client in that area or some other member of the client organization
2. You can plan your next meeting with the same client
3. Use this free slot to learn new things or to make new calls
4. If you are already there at client place, try to meet other people in client organization
5. In case, you have cancelled the meeting; see if you can do a video conference or a call at least.
6. In case client has cancelled it, take it in positive spirit, show the client that you sincerely want to meet him and ask for a next best slot to meet.

~Mahendra Baid