Softer Side of Selling | Page 6 of 13 | Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling

In Fundraising First, Get The Meeting

01/23/2020 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

In this series of blogs I’m looking at the similarities between professional selling and volunteer fundraising. Great salespeople know the first step is to convince the prospect to meet with you. Likewise in fundraising, getting a visit with the donor is the first step. I’m reading the book “Asking” by Jerold Panas. In chapters Seven, Eight and Nine, he outlines his process of getting a meeting. Writing to set up a phone call to set the time then calling to convince the donor to meet is the same process great salespeople use to arrange meetings with prospects.

Both Selling And Fundraising Are About Getting People To Part With Their Money

Salespeople and Fundraisers Are Skilled At Asking People For Money

Why Send A Letter?

Panas recommends sending a letter to set the stage for a phone call to arrange a time to meet. The purpose of the letter is to prepare the donor for the phone call. Like in professional selling, the fundraiser needs to present an overwhelmingly compelling reason to meet. The letter should be personal. Take a paragraph to promote the organization in need of the donor’s money. Briefly describe why the campaign is important. And here are the most important sentences: “I promise not to ask for money during this visit. All we will discuss is the program and your good counsel and advice on what we should do next. What comes next is up to you.”…

Secrets of the Softer Side of Fundraising

01/16/2020 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

After retiring from 45 years as a successful professional salesperson, I thought I could contribute to my community by helping organizations with their fundraising. Not having much experience in fundraising I wondered how different asking people to support a valuable community organization was than asking someone to make a purchase. I was surprised to find out there is very little difference between the process of closing a sale and getting a donation.

Salespeople and Fundraisers Are Skilled At Asking People For Money

Secrets Of A Successful Fundraiser

While cleaning out our bookshelves, my wife came across the book “Asking” by Jerold Panas. Mr. Panas in a few short pages (there are only 108 including the appendices) outlines the process a successful fundraiser uses:…

Time For A “Toolbox” Check Up

01/09/2020 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Did you ever take a look in the maintenance bay of an auto repair shop? See all those large toolboxes? One at every workstation. They contain the tools a mechanic needs to do his job. Like the mechanic, great salespeople have a “toolbox”. It’s a collection of the attitudes, behaviors and knowledge a salesperson needs to find, win and keep good customers.

Red tool box illustrating salespeople need to keep their sales tools organized

Are Your Selling Tools Ready To Go?
Photo Courtesy of Snap-On Tools

What’s In Your Tool Box?

Those big red toolboxes a mechanic has have lots of drawers and those drawers are filled with specialized tools to do a particular task. Great salespeople, too, have lots of tools. We have techniques to keep ourselves motivated and optimistic. Each day we go out and do the things needed to find, win and keep good customers. Great salespeople know their products and how those benefit their customers….

The First Work Day Of The Roaring 2020’s

01/02/2020 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

It’s here!! The first business day of The Roaring 2020’s. How are you spending it? Hanging out with your associates comparing holiday stories? Staring glassy-eyed at your territory goals for 2020? Or getting to work on meeting those goals?

Begin the new year with resolve to be the best salesperson you can be

Time To Get To Work!
Image by Annalise Batista from Pixabay

Let’s Get To Work

It’s important to keep and build relationships within your company. So at the end of the business day enjoy some time with your associates. But when the customers are working, you should be selling….

A Christmas Gift

12/26/2019 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

When I was a kid, my friends and I would get together after Christmas. The usual question was: “What did you get?” Then we would show off the new model airplane or train or kick around a new football.

It’s Better To Give Than Receive

As I grew older I found more joy in seeing how gifts I gave were received. Yes, I still enjoyed getting the new sweater or a good book. But for me the giving was more rewarding.

The Best Gifts Are The Ones You Give Because They Are Golden

The Best Gifts Are The Ones You Give
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

In Business, Too

I found my success in selling depended greatly on what I gave. Whether it was a commitment of time to be sure the solution I was proposing was a perfect fit or referral to a colleague, I found those investments in giving were satisfying and ultimately profitable….

What’s In Your Future?

12/19/2019 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Well, here it is again. The end of another year. How did you do? Reach all your sales goals? Spend quality time with family and friends? Improve your golf game? Catch the big trout? Now that we have cataloged the successes of the past year, it’s time to look ahead. Great salespeople create their own future. They evaluate their successes and failures to understand what knowledge and skills need updating. Then they develop a personal improvement plan to make the changes needed to insure future success.

Do you have a crystal ball to tell your future?

Do You Control Your Future? Or Leave It To Chance?
Image from Pixabay

So How Did You Do In 2019?

Great salespeople have realistic goals. As time passes they reassess the goals to keep themselves on track. What were your 2019 goals? How did they change throughout the year? What prompted the changes? Did you measure your activities? How many sales calls did you make? Were you able to win new customers? If you lost a sale what did you learn? Most importantly did you keep records of your performance in 2019? When we track what’s important to success, then we can measure our performance and compare the actual to the desired. Then learn from what we did well and what needs to improve.

Are You Ready For 2020?

Next year is coming whether you are ready or not. Great salespeople know the hanging of a new calendar is not a cataclysmic shift. For them it’s just the passing from one month to the next. Like every other month they have tasks to plan, skills to work on and activities to do. Yes, year-end brings holidays, celebrations and more time off for most of us (unless you are in retail!). And traditionally it’s a time to take the long view of the next year. What do you want to accomplish in 2020? Great salespeople set both professional and personal goals. They develop plans to achieve those goals and share them with others who can keep them accountable and help them along the way. Great salespeople take an honest look at their past performance and commit to self improvement.

Did You Make a New Year’s Resolution?

I don’t take much stock in New Year’s resolutions. But I do make lists:

Of my best customers
Of the best prospects
Of what affects the markets I sell into
Of the products I sell both current and new introductions
Of strategies for selling each product
Of the reasons my customers buy from me
Of what my competitors did to win orders I lost
Of activities I have completed
Of the skills I need to improve
Of recommendations from my mentor for training needed

Maybe you would call me an “obsessive lister”. But taken together these lists form my plan. Perhaps there is a particular format your company requires for your plan. Or you have a different planning approach effective for you. Whatever method you use, just remember what General Eisenhower said about plans: “In planning for battle I have found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensible.” Great salespeople resolve to be effective planners and they know the value of the plan lies not in the plan itself but in the preparation and the execution.

What You Can Do Right Now

Resolve to be a planner
Make a plan to achieve each goal
Track progress in the pursuit of each goal
Make changes needed to reach each goal

To learn more sales secrets see Chapter Eighteen, Setting Your Goals, in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales encouragement, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford

Will 2020 Be Better Than 2019?

12/12/2019 By Don Crawford 2 Comments

This year is almost over. Maybe you are completing a few year-end deals to help your valuable customers spend some budget balances. But mostly it’s done. Great salespeople are planning now to make 2020 even better than this year.

Woman jumping across a chasm to illustrate good planning

Never Plan To Leap A Gap In Two Bounds
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

Why Plan?

Yeah, I know no matter how well you plan it never works out that way. My favorite answer to why plan is from General Eisenhower. This is what he said about planning: “In planning for battle I have found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Great salespeople know that the process of planning prepares them for the challenges of finding and creating customers for life….

Sell With Integrity

12/05/2019 By Don Crawford 2 Comments

Lois and I recently spent a few lovely days with Shel Horowitz and his wife Dina Friedman at their home. Lois, my wife, had known Shel for many years but this was the first time we had the pleasure of spending time with them in person. While it was mostly a social visit we did talk about business. We all had the same philosophy to sell with integrity. Shel has written many marketing books. He gave me one co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson: “Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green”. In chapter five they discuss “Sales the Right Way”.

Great Salespeople Have High Ethical Standards and Sell with Integrity
Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

What Is The Right Way To Sell?

Shel, Jay and I have similar views on the right way to sell. Focus on prospects with a high probability to win the work, pay attention to match your communication style to the prospect, ask good questions, practice active listening, and sell with integrity.

What Is Integrity?

My short answer is doing the right things the right way at the right time for the right reason. We have …

Great Salespeople Are Thankful

11/28/2019 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

This blog was first posted at Thanksgiving 2019. Thanksgiving is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. Thanksgiving is also celebrated at different times in many other countries. The early Thanksgiving celebrations were to pause and show gratitude for the harvest of the previous year and the sacrifices making it possible. In our family we gather with friends and relatives to mark the day with pleasant conversation, sumptuous food and of course a glass (or two) of wine. As we enjoy the meal together we take turns saying what we are particularly grateful for.

Great Salespeople Celebrate Their Success

Great Salespeople Are Thankful
Image by GraphicMama-team from Pixabay

A Grateful Attitude

Great salespeople approach their work and their life with a grateful attitude. They don’t presume success as they begin each sales pursuit. But at each step along the path to winning the deal they are thankful. Even when success seems remote, great salespeople celebrate the lessons learned from the failure. Like those early Thanksgiving celebrations for a bountiful harvest, great salespeople appreciate the journey to sales victory. Although we celebrate each accomplishment along the way, great salespeople defer gratification until the deal is done….

When The Buyer Is A I Want To Think It Over Type

11/21/2019 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

There I was in the final minutes of the presentation. Heads were nodding “yes”. The body language was positive. So I asked for the order and got: “That was a great presentation. You answered all our questions. Looks like it will solve our problem. Let us think it over and we will give you a call.” I was young and naïve. I waited for the call that never came. Over time I learned never to accept “I want to think it over.”

Great Salespeople Work Hard To Prevent A Buyer Being A "I Want To Think It Over" Type

Great Salespeople Work Hard To Prevent IWTTIO
Image from Pixabay

The Close Begins At The Beginning

Great salespeople know that the opening sales conversation begins the close. And when the sales process is followed the close naturally follows. So if we have identified a problem we can solve, understand what the problem is costing the prospect, proven competence in solving this type of problem and proposed a solution within budget when we ask the decision maker for the order they just say “yes”. Yep, that’s true most of the time. But when we miss a step or something changes during the sales cycle, that’s when we get stuck in limbo with “I want to think it over.”…