Do's and Don'ts of Sales and Marketing - Part 3

Execution - Sales Activities that Drive Results: here are some very specific tactical things that you should pay attention to...


Do

• After an interview with a target, schedule/calendar a plan for the next follow up – don’t leave an appointment without setting the next one


• Make 1 hour of outbound phone calls daily to targets and other prospects of interest
  (if you think about it this is only 12.5% of a 40 hour work week. Make it mandatory for yourself or for your reps. (you can make between 15-25 calls in an hour – if you use 5 call blocking)


• Interview broker managers every other month to get speaking engagements and other opportunities


• Sit with Closers while they make customer phone calls (they will not do it otherwise). Help create 'message' – empower them to make warm calls (not cold) – in fact here are 5 areas to call: Orphaned Clients, Lender in the middle, Non directing Agent, Best clients to ask for referrals, Cheaters


• Internal public relations – regularly/daily inform your Closers of all sales activities
  I have seen reps live and die by their ability to communicate with their closing/branch teams. It will be very difficult to over communicate what you’re doing as a rep to gain new business. It’s very easy to under communicate


• Ask for the sale. Ask for the appointment. Ask for the next step. Don’t rely on “accidental” results. (Know and) ask for what you want.


• Learn to Listen

Don’t

• DON'T deliver anything if you can convince an EO to do it. Get EO to set drop off appt with agents.


• DON'T spend time creating marketing flyers; or limit it to one hour a month.


• DON'T spend more than 30 minutes on your email per day.


• DON'T do lunches, unless that is the only way to get a target to talk to you. Quite coffee houses are better. Best case scenario, get them to meet you at your office.


• DON'T join committees or task forces that have little or no exposure to top producers, unless it is your first year in title sales, and even then be choosy.


• DON'T talk too much. Know when to shut up. People like to hear themselves talk...ask questions that get your prospect talking and let them go...continue to ask follow up questions to show that you are engaged.


• DON'T Sell the same way to every person. Be skilled in reading others, and then make sure you can flex your style to best suit your prospect.

In sales it's all about the execution - make sure that you're DOING the right things with the right people.

Happy Selling!

Do's and Don'ts of Sales and Marketing - Part 2

Planning and Strategizing - Make it happen...don’t be happy with accidental results!

Do

• Know what activities are most productive for YOU and understand your activity ratios...they may be different from other people on your team. Most top producing sales people can tell you their highest gain activities (things they do that pay them the most amount of money). In our business those activities typically are:
  Asks (referrals and for orders directly)
  Face to face appointments / interviews
  Conversations with prospects
  They can also tell you that metrics like, “I need to set 10 appointment to have 7 show up” and constantly tweek those metrics.
• Set goals and create a daily activity plan to achieve them...look for incremental successes to celebrate, not just the final “close”. Spend 10 minutes at the end of each day planning your strategy for the next day. Ask yourself how much different your days would be if you spent just a minimal time the day before planning what you’d like to do. Someone said, not having a plan is planning to fail… I think they’re right.
• Measure and track your progress and results, know where you are daily so you can tweak and adjust your plan. Don’t over do it (but I really meet great sales people or marketers that overdo tracking), typically it’s the other way around. Make it simple and just track the four things I mentioned above on a daily or weekly basis. The simpler the better.
• Have a daily contact and interview goal: minimum 2 per day.

Don’t

• Wake up without a defined plan/strategy for your day – based on our recommendations for what to DO – this goes without saying
• Go a single day without any selling activity. Keep your skills sharp and your pipeline full by making sure that every day has purposeful selling activity included.
  Literally, if we’re not living for getting new clients and doing something everyday that puts us in a position to get a new client we’re missing the boat

Do's and Don't of Sales and Marketing - Part 1

I constantly get asked to describe the do's and don'ts of sales and marketing for our industry. As easy as the question may sound the answer I've discovered is somewhat complex. I've divided the the answer into four areas or four parts each having a brief list of what we consider at RightNow, the do's and don'ts of sales and marketing:

Attitude and Demeanor - Acting and Dressing “The Part”: this is about how to “be”, behaviours and attitudes that will positively affect, or detract from your sales results.

Do

• Think and act positively. Negative self-talk will only reinforce negativity. Good sales people are by nature positive and this attracts (Law of Attraction) positive results.


• Make sure your outer appearance matches your inner self...always dress professionally and make sure you look polished. Appearance matters, whether we like it or not – marketing and sales people are the “face” of your company. Don’t be afraid to set expectations or standards about how you want your companies image portrayed in the market place.


• Constantly evolve your skills, mindset and perspective. Read voraciously, “interview” other top performers in other industries, try new things, recognize stagnancy, try and be ahead of the curve when change is imminent. Don’t be afraid to learn and keep learning, sharpening your saw (if you’re the president of a title agency on this call, ask yourself when is the last time you made a cold call or when on a sales appointment with a new prospect – hopefully it’s been recently, if not schedule sometime to make some calls this week


• Be accountable to YOURSELF first. Remember this... “If it is meant to be, it is up to me.” You can only be accountable if you have committed to measurable objectives. Get clear on how much you want to make, how many orders you want (the results), then work backwards to the activities you need to do to get those results and hold yourself accountable to the activity that you can control.
  

Don’t

• DON’T get stuck in price wars-it is not about price, it is about perception of value. This is easier said than done, but with few exceptions when we can demonstrate value to our customers, they are willing to pay more – and at the end of the day they’re not paying anyway…)


• DON’T “buy business" or get stuck in that sandbox. If you’re in TX – P53 pretty much lays it out for you. Find ways to add value through your knowledge or tap into the knowledge of your company and it’s employees to create mutually beneficial relationships in an ethical way.


• DON’T believe that anyone is off limits…everyone cheats! This is all about assumptions. Assumptions about our prospects without actually asking or finding out for sure leads us to inaction. It’s typically us looking for an excuse not to do something out of our comfort zone so for example instead of asking and hearing no, we assume a target is off limits and don’t ask.


• DON’T do it ‘because everyone else is doing it’ Otis spunkmeyer cookies… need I say more


• DON'T Work for someone else. Create the mentality that you are “self-employed” regardless of whether you have a base pay or not, and plan and work your day/month/year as if no one but you were responsible for the results you achieve and the money on your paycheck

Next we'll dive into Planning and Strategizing do's and don'ts

Happy Selling