Friday, December 19, 2008

Building Wealth in an Economic Downturn I

Building wealth may be a hard thing to think about during a time when most people are having a hard time paying their bills - for everyone else. For sales people and entrepreneurs, there's not much else to think about when it comes to financial pursuits. The question isn't whether or not we will be successful, it is how we will be successful.

Protect your base. Make sure you keep in touch with customers already doing business with you. Treat every one of them like they are worth the full amount of your base. Your base is also the best source of new business. Sometimes your extra revenue comes from selling the existing customer and sometimes people are so happy with your product, they can't wait to tell others about it. Why not ask, just in case?

Finally, learn something from the Mortgage boom:

Don't spend like you're a rockstar because you had one good month. Or even 6 good months in a row. The problem with overnight success has always been lack of long term planning. It will take time to realize the ups and downs of your pursuit and to gauge when the big money comes and when you will have to "tighten your belt." Within those extremes, you can find some consistency.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Recession Selling

This is my very first Blogger post, and i want it to be great. I know it will only get two views today (if you count mine while I'm writing it and my loyal wife). I have less experience than many of my peers and colleagues, but I have a lot more passion and stick-to-it-ive-ness. Tony Robbins would say Passion can substitute Experience, so I'll take it.

I care about people and I don't want to lie to them. Some would say that bars me from being a successful salesman, but I couldn't care less and I don't wish to hang around those people anyway. The payoff for me (which holds secondary importance to the clean conscience I have) is the relationships I create with customers and other business owners.

I may not be good at pushing people into buying, I do often get calls from people ready to buy.

How many voicemails do you get that sound like this:

"Hi, {agent name}, I just called to let you know I have the credit card information and the copy information for the ad. Call me back when you're ready to take it."

Closing deals over the phone has gotten harder. This is because of the dishonesty in the sales world, especially in the phone sales world. Am I a telemarketer? Absolutely not. Am I a sales professional who uses the phone to sell? Yes I am. As such, I have the same challenge as everyone else. It's not new, it's just more popular right now.

The Economy!!!

There are plenty of reasons to be cautious in a time like this. Money is tight, consumers are keeping their wallets closed, and us business owners still have to pay bills.

This would be a perfect time to talk about how we market to owners by talking about the importance of advertising during economic downturn. Only the strongest survive, blah blah blah.

How are YOU protecting your bottom line? Are you letting the hard times get you down? Are you talking yourself out of sales?

Always build your leads, always refine you selling strategy. Cold calling tips are abundant and sales coaches will always have steady work. At the end of the year when sales are slow anyway, take time to brush up on techniques. The 2009 Sales year can be great, but only if you show up prepared.