Which got me thinking that sales calls take inspiration as well. The inspiration part is like a kite on the beach it is the raw potential for having fun, laughter, joy, success.

• Without you to hold the string – inspiration will just fly away
• Without the wind to fill the kite – ideas will not go anywhere
• Without the the two together – you can’t soar

The wind in your sales call is the prospect you’re with. Hold on by asking questions that make them think. You’ll be amazed at the beauty of that flight.

Find your sales inspiration!

Today make sure you take control of your kite, run down the beach a little to get it to lift and soar.

Without her love of skiing, I wouldn’t have my own passion for the sport. I do believe that “Gravity is love and every turn a leap of faith” ~ unknown

How about in your sales career, who has helped ignite your passion? Help you find your way? Believe in your success before you believed it yourself?

For me the list is long and includes people who know the affect they’ve had and others who probably have no idea the impact they have had on my career.

Choose someone on your list and call them up. Say thank you. Share what they have meant to you and your career.

Then spend the rest of your day making sure you’re living the kind of inspiration they gave to you – pass it on!

That’s it for today; I’ve got to go call my Mom, along with a sales mentor who doesn’t have any idea the impact he had on my career

In the TeleSales Twist I give Two Important Safety Tips & a little hint.

ONE - think about the notes you enter into your CRM system like a book: what is the subject? chapter title? heading?

Now you can easily refer back to information you need weeks… months… years from now.

TWO - if you’re hit by the metaphorical beer truck on your way home, will your coworkers be able to help your prospects & customers while you are convalescing?

Make sure your notes make sense & help people who return your calls to be quickly assisted.

Little hint… if you can type while you’re talking, taking notes that way will save time! BUT the person on the phone needs to know you’re not surfing the net… Tell them you’re taking notes about THEM.

Then my friend Debbie Mrazek (of The Field Guide to Sales fame) sent me a note…. with an additional idea that I have to share with you: One other thought for “notes” is that with voice recognition software becoming much better and more affordable you don’t even have to be able to type fast enough to capture notes you can simply speak them and the computer transcribes them as you go!

How cool an idea is that!

I recently recorded a show on Questioning for Better Communication for my Sales Coaching over Coffee radio show (it will air in March), where I talk about the 5 Ps of good questioning.

1. Plan
2. Prepare
3. Practice
4. Ponder
5. Patience

Although I’m not going to go into, that whole concept here (stay tuned for the show). What I would like you to notice are the FIRST THREE Ps…. plan – no wings here, prepare – still not winging it, and practice – certainly not winging it.

To be successful in sales we have to have objectives for our calls and a plan of how we are going to achieve our objective. This doesn’t have to be unique for each call – rather many calls we make will have a shared objective and plan.

Need an example?

• My Cold Call Objective – determine how what I do would fit into their existing sales training program.
• Prospect Objective (this is my objective for what action I want the prospect to take) – they and one other person on their team to listen to a 15 minutes quick tip teleclass and have a conversation with me about it.
• Opening Statement – ___________, Most people I speak with are trying to increase their sales numbers YET don’t have time to spend with the people who are already good salespeople WHO with focused attention could be fantastic.
• 1st Question – May I steal 3 minutes of your life so we can both decide if having a conversation about sales improvement for this segment of your team makes sense?
•  Crafted Qualifying Questions – I’m not going to share these here but rest assured I have them!

My questions in the conversation might never change, what makes it interesting is the prospects side!

This doesn’t mean I don’t tailor my objective with Trigger Events (thanks Craig Elias) or insert info I know about the company into my questions. It does mean I don’t spend hours figuring out my objective, prospect objective, opening statement, and first question for each cold call I make!

Make sure you’re ready to have a great conversation every time someone answers the phone…. or you are kicked to their voicemail. The only one’s who can soar through winging it are the birds.

Sales Coaching over Coffee

at 1:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m. NY Time

Upcoming shows include:

• Goals, how to reach them on February 9th
• Sales Success on February 16th
• Negotiation Rules! author Jeanette Nyden interview on February 23rd

It happened while I was making cold calls… no kidding! Joyfulness and cold calls aren’t necessarily things I think of together either.

The moment came while “doing my thing” I asked a question that made the prospect THINK and our conversation opened up.

That is when I got giddy – I realized that I was in control and you can be too:

• by asking insightful questions…..
• questions the prospect hadn’t had time to consider before we talked….
• questions that change you from a salesperson into a human being…..

each of us is in control of our own joyfulness in sales.

Today take a look at the questions you ask your prospects and customers then ask yourself

• Will this question make the prospect THINK (or do they have a canned answer prepared)?
• Does the prospect care about the answer to this question?
• Am I bored when I ask this?

If your answer is no – no – no OR even if there is only one no… reword the question until your answer is yes – yes – yes. Get giddy, be joyful, by having better conversations.

Oh and if you ‘wing it’ never mind, wait… that will be next week’s post

First comes a product or a service. Then you need people to sell and people to buy. And everything that’s done in the service of selling from that point on is considered sales pipeline activity.

A sales pipeline starts with creating opportunities, and ends with closing deals and everything in between is aimed at maximizing revenue.

The right sales tools can impact your sales team’s ability to maximize revenue. CRM systems are usually the first tool employed to optimize sales pipeline activity. But it shouldn’t be the only tool you use.

Prospecting tools, proposal tools, electronic signature tools, sales motivation tools, and sales reporting tools are a few other tools you should consider.

And now is the perfect time. Smart Selling Tools with the support of six leading sales software providers are giving away more than $100,000 dollars in sales productivity tools.

The promotion is going on now and will last through the end of March (no purchase is necessary). Click here to register

Now is your chance to win one of 3 prizes to help you meet your revenue goals in 2012. Click here to register

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z is represented as:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26. 

• then…
  H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
  8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

• and…
  K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
  11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

• but….
  A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
  1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

• AND…..
  D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E
  4+9+19+3+9+16+12+9+14+5=100%

This is something I saw (that made me wonder who has the time to figure this stuff out) and started thinking What is most important to your sales success? Hence this month’s issue of A Chip Off the Block. One of my customers responded “BUT what about belief – no way is that only 34%!“

So today, let’s talk about belief & sales success.

I admit that the alphabet math was something that struck me – not what I completely believe is true in and of itself. Mike’s right – belief is a huge piece of sales success, let’s break it down:

• Belief in YOURSELF

Hands down, this is the #1 factor in sales success.

I probably shouldn’t stop there, the reason Belief in YOURSELF is #1 is that is where all belief begins for sales success. Inside your mind, your heart knowing that there is value in you as a person. All the things that make you YOU are what are important.

Let’s face it the first sale you make is not your company, product, service, or solution – those come after a prospecting buying into you.

• Belief in your company

Of course that doesn’t mean you don’t need to believe that the company you’re working for (regardless if you own it or not) is a good choice. Your belief in your company doing what they say they’ll do will come across in each and every thing you say. Plus your credibility is what is on the line (again they buy you first) when you make a promise or commitment to the prospect.

• Belief in your product/service/solution

As you move into selling ‘stuff’ – you know your product, service, solution – there has to be a belief that it is the right thing for that particular prospect.

If you’re not sure…. they will not be sure either. Ask insightful questions to learn what the prospect want and needs (because those are NOT the same thing) to figure out how your ‘stuff’ will fill them both. If you can’t perhaps it’s time to walk away from this particular business opportunity.

Maybe no one can do it all and you can figure out how to help them believe you are the best option. You can’t get there if you don’t believe it yourself.

• Belief in the business case

Here is a crazy idea – if you believe in yourself, your company, your stuff…. you still  have to believe there is a good business case to achieve sales success.

I’ll share that I had a conversation where what I did filled a want and need my prospect had BUT there wasn’t enough ROI to actually justify doing anything. The cost of my ‘stuff’ to fill their want and need, didn’t give them a value either of us could monetize.

No finance person in the world will sign off on something UNLESS you don’t just believe but can prove the value to the company - cost of the stuff = positive #

• Belief in your ability to deliver

To some, this might seem like a duplication of either ‘company’ or ‘product/service/solution’ – I would disagree. There are times when you know you’re the right choice but your prospect’s expectations aren’t going to be met from a when perspective.

This is the perfect time to have an expectation conversation with the prospect – it will put you forward as trustworthy, not just a salesperson who will say or do anything to win a deal. Let’s face it – the worst would be to win THEN disappoint them.

I guess there is a lesson about belief itself after all…. share what you believe, if they believe you that is when you know the prospect will become your customer.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”  ~ Thomas Edison

It sounds so easy when Tomas Edison says it, but today – in our own lives – sometimes it isn’t so fun to think about. Being an avid skier I can’t help but use a few fun winter time metaphors. In a Go Big or Go Home way I’m  starting with one that most people would call an epic fail not a stumble:

Yard Sale
On the mountain this is when you fall so hard you lose all your equipment – polls, skis, goggles… your hat (if you’re not wearing a helmet). I’ll share that there are actually home movies of me somewhere (from the early ‘70s) going from graceful to yard sale in seconds!

© Alexander Ishchenko

In sales this can happen quickly too, regardless of how skilled we are.

• Not addressing the prospects needs and concerns in your presentation.
• Sending out a letter that you didn’t change the ‘dear’ salutation to the right name (yes I actually saw that recently).
• Giving a verbal quote instead of a ballparking number and losing the deal.

Crash
These hurt! It is when you are going fast enough that the impact of your fall knocks the wind out of you. Although you haven’t scattered your equipment all over the mountain, you can’t get up and people you don’t know stop to check on you with genuine concern.

© Rares Pulbere

In sales, crashes equate to the times that:

• You fail to meet a critical customer deadline
• The first order is a total screw up
• Something (it feels like everything) you do seems to make the prospect angry

Fall
These are a little easier to take, you fall down & go boom – no one feels the need to stop and make sure you’re ok. You pick yourself up, brush off the snow, and keep going.

© Monner

You might recognize a couple of these sales falls:

• Having to say “I’m sorry I missed that” on the phone
• Not meeting one of those little commitments that leads to trust
• Messing up on a quote, but getting a chance to fix it.

Stumble
Well in skiing I’ve never heard someone call it a stumble, because if you’re not down on the ground it doesn’t count. BUT when you’re skiing under a lift with everyone watching you – looking uncoordinated and like a fool isn’t much fun even if you catch yourself before you fall.

© Brenda Villarreal

As a salesperson this might be:

• Blowing a voicemail completely and not having a delete option
• Calling without a good reason (from the prospect/customer perspective)
• Asking a question, that the customer already answered – and they say that

Whether you stumble, fall, crash, or have a yard sale; the important thing is to not lay there in the snow. Eventually you have to pick yourself up, so don’t lay there getting cold GET UP. Plus when you’re skiing, you have to at least make it to the bottom of the mountain so you can go home.

If we translate that into goals – instead of

• Deciding to NEVER call an account again, because you feel stupid.
• Not calling anyone for the rest of the day because the phone weighs 10,000lbs.
• Calling YOURSELF mean names in the car on the way home.

Take a moment to remember that stumbling, falling, crashing, and yard sales don’t mean you will NEVER achieve your goal…. unless you give up. What matters is learning a lesson so you don’t make the same mistake again,  continuing on, and having fun – it’s your day on the mountain!

• Skills/Knowledge: what do you already know… or know how to do that will help you achieve your goal?
• People: who do you already know that you can use when you need help, support, information
• Information: are there books you own, websites you’ve visited, blogs you read, publications – etc

Now that you’re thinking about what a resource list might be – here is the exercise:

1. Write your goal at the top of the page.
2. Without thinking too much – write down all the things you already KNOW that will help you get to your goal .
   (for the extroverts out there – talk about this over lunch instead of staring at a blank page)
3. Now write down all the places you would go if what you know isn’t enough.
4. Plus all the people you would talk with to learn more.
5. Who are the people who will be supportive?
6. How about the people who will challenge you to be your best?
7. What else would help to have notes about later when you’re facing obstacles on your way to achieving your goal?

There you go – now you’ve created your own arsenal of resources to help you achieve your goal! All that you need to do now is take action… yes I mean right now, go do something.