Whether you’re an entrepreneur or just an independent contractor, you’re a salesperson. So when somebody says, “I’m not a salesperson, I’m an entrepreneur,” they don’t really understand the meaning of entrepreneur. Every entrepreneur is a salesperson. So today I want you to look at this from the perspective of asking yourself where in the sales process you mess up.
Over the years, every single time my sales dropped or I saw someone outdoing me, I always asked myself where in the sales process I had a problem. At what point in the sales process was there a challenge or something that needed improvement?
The reality is that sales is about discipline and details. Discipline includes things such as work ethic, diligence, and follow through. And details are the points we get into in today’s video.
Without those discipline and details, you’re just winging it, and you don’t want to wing sales. A lot of people may disagree, but sales is guaranteed to work. When people tell me they didn’t make it in sales, I can guarantee that they lacked discipline or didn’t pay attention to the details.
So let’s get right into the selling process, and while you’re reading or watching this, ask yourself where in the sales process you mess up.
#1: Prospecting
So let’s start off with the first one, prospecting. So what is prospecting? A lot of times people think prospecting is going out there in the cold market and trying to get someone to buy something.
No. There are multiple ways to do prospecting. I’m going to get into them and you need to ask yourself which type you’re good at.
First of all, there are really three different types of people in the world of prospecting that you know:
- People you don’t know
- People you do know
- People your people know
From the lowest to the highest, the lowest percentage of conversion is people you don’t know, then it’s people your people know, then it’s people you know.
You’ve got to look at prospecting as multiple different ways of catching a fish. So you can’t just have one way of doing it. You need to have multiple different nets out there and one of them is generally going to work for you.
People You Don’t Know
This is your cold market.
Regardless of which product you’re selling, you can figure out ways to get into other markets.
Pick any product. I don’t care what product it is. Pick any product you’re selling. You can figure out ways to get into other markets.
How can you do that? One is social media. Whether you’re on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – on any of these you can do sponsored posts.
You can also go to networking events. This is especially good when the events attract the market you’re primarily targeting.
Regardless of the events you go to, be sure to follow the tips in this video I did the other week:
Another one is going into cold market prospecting. You just meet people randomly and you approach them. In this case, you have a script.
People You Do Know
This is your warm market. These are people you already know, and when nurtured, the people you met from while networking can also go from being strangers to friends. I call this friendship farming. Here’s an example.
I don’t know John, but eventually John and I become best friends because we have lunch at 12:00 and every day we talk sports. Six weeks from now we had four beers together and I already know his life’s story, and his family. Our wives know each other. I know his kids. I’ve met his parents. We go from being strangers and having a cold relationship to being friends and having a warm relationship.
People Your People Know
This is my favorite market because there’s nothing like getting into this market.
Who my people know make for the best prospects, specifically when I tell them what type of clients I’m looking for.
I do what I call center of influence prospecting. Here’s how.
Make a list of the top 20 people that you respect in your community. Contact each of them and ask to have a cup of coffee with them.
Use a script like this: “Hey, I really value the fact that you’re a successful entrepreneur and one day I’m planning on being someone like you. I would love to treat you to coffee or lunch one of these days. When is a good time for us to go out? It’s on me, I just want 30 minutes of your time.”
Over the course of the months following that, give whatever you can to them, and they’re going to give back to you. They’ll ask how they can help you, and they’ll connect you with the people they have a relationship with.
#2: Approach and Contact
Once you have someone’s phone number or email address, you reach out to them. Or you may befriend them on LinkedIn, and send them a message.
There’s a specific script you use in this type of scenario. Listen in here to hear an example of the script I used at Bally’s.
Most people say, “I don’t like scripts.” But they work. Why? We are all basically the same. My body and your body are made up of skeletons that are the same. You may have longer or shorter legs than me, or bigger or smaller feet, but our skeleton is basically the same. So start with a script and inject your own personality into it. This works whether you’re reaching out to someone on email, Facebook, LinkedIn, or on a phone call.
#3: Presentation
A lot of people are great when it comes to presentation. Listen in here for my thoughts on how this does — and does not — matter.
#4: Follow Up
Remember how I said that there are two reasons people don’t make money in sales? One of them is discipline, and the other is details. Follow up is all about both discipline and details.
Why are discipline and details important in follow up?
Details are important because if you’re following up with me as a customer, and you don’t remember the details of our first conversation, it tells me you don’t pay attention, and you’re just trying to get the money. But if you do have the discipline to follow up and you remember specific details of what I told you the first time, I’m very impressed. It shows me that you value my time and I’ll want to do business with you.
The biggest sales, the biggest commission checks, the most profitable opportunities that I’ve had in my career as an entrepreneur, typically happened after I reached out to the customer or the person seven to 10 times.God knows how many times I reached out to certain people before I made the sale.
When following up, I had very simple scripts that I used when calling people. Listen in here to hear the script that I used.
After listening to my script, you may say, “Oh my gosh, Pat, are you really like this?” Yes, because this works. Sales is so easy. I am amazed when some people are not making a quarter million dollars a year selling. This is the easiest thing you’ll ever do. But the details and discipline is really what it’s all about. So follow up.
#5: Referrals
Listen in here for my thoughts on referrals and how to go about getting more referrals.
#6: Maintain Customer Relationships
This last one is so important. But it’s boring. Let me explain why it’s boring. I’m going to use an analogy because it’s effective. A lot of times we want new things. It’s kind of cool to have a new girlfriend or a new boyfriend. We want new, new, new, new — everything new. We want a new industry, a new product to sell. It’s so exciting.
But the most powerful people in the world – sales people, business people, leaders, influencers — they generally chose one route and stuck to it. They maintained the industry, the relationship.
So maintaining your customer relationship is when you go into saint status. What do I mean by maintaining relationships? I love to maintain people that stay with me for a long time. A strong team is very important to me. So my job is to make sure the company is doing very good. My job is to make sure that the environment is a great environment. My job is to make sure that everybody’s growing, we’re developing, and I’m outgrowing everybody because I’m leading them at the front. My job is to make sure there’s an edge going on and we’re competing, we’re growing, everyone’s coming up with ideas. Why? Because I want to maintain relationships with my home office, with my carriers, with my vendors, with my following, with you.
I want to maintain a relationship with you. I want to have an edge you’re part of our community. You’re very important to me. I listen to you.
I get letters and gifts from people all the time. Listen in here to see a gift and hear me read a letter I received from one of our viewers.
I was really impressed by the letter and gift. It tells me that he probably treats his customers this way and by doing so, maintains the relationship with his customers.
In the world of business, regardless or what type of business you’re in, you’re selling people. And unless you maintain relationships, you won’t go to the very top.
The Most Important Part of the Sales Process
People often ask me, “Pat, based on your opinion, which one do you think is the most important?” Let me tell you which one, without it, nothing exists. If you don’t do prospecting, you can kiss everything good bye.
You know what’s crazy? What’s crazy is, some of you are incredible at everything from presenting through maintaining, but you’re so frightened of prospecting.
Unless you face your fears and start prospecting, and approach and contact, you’ll never make it big. Because that’s where the money is. And you know what guarantees the money? Follow up, referrals, and maintaining. A lot of people focus on presenting, but it means very little. Your phone should run out of batteries twice a day, not from playing games, but from making phone calls. If you’re a rookie entrepreneur, and you’re not making 200 calls a day, you’re not really hungry. You’re just kind of winging it. You’re hoping this thing works out for you, and you get lucky. There’s a guaranteed formula to this. It starts with prospecting and it ends with maintaining relationships.
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