YourSalesManagementGuru by Ken Thoreson, Acumen Management Group

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Quick Ideas To Hit Fourth-Quarter Goals

Let's make this interactive -- I will start the list, and then it is your job to add to it. Let's all work together to increase each other's success during the last few months of 2013.

These ideas can be designed for sales leaders or individual sales performers: 

  1. Make a visual list of the largest sales opportunities on a whiteboard and strategize on the best tactics to close each one. A few large wins go a long way toward exceeding your goals.

  2. Schedule twice-a-week formal sales strategy discussions. If you have a larger team, assign salespeople into teams of two or three to increase strategy options. Increase your tempo.

  3. Use a formal check list on all qualifier questions you use to ensure there are no surprises. If you want my "Magic List" of questions, send me an e-mail at [email protected].

  4. Hold a sales training session on negotiating in October!

  5. Increase your relationship contacts. Make sure your executives are involved in a prospect meeting, lunch, breakfast or phone call with your prospects' executives.

  6. Use your customer base for site visits and referrals, or even arrange a conference call with your prospects.

  7. Rehearse key presentations. Just last evening at 8 p.m., I was assisting a client with a PowerPoint program for today's key demonstration meeting. Make sure the message is correct and your team is ready.

  8. Anticipate your competition and think through how you will set them up and move forward.

  9. Execute brilliantly. This is a theme I have used often, but it works. Make sure your sales team has thought through the sales cycle on each opportunity, each day. Get your team to think two moves in advance -- just like chess. Create a poster that says "What can I do to get an order today?" to keep the focus.

  10. Don't forget to prospect market because Jan. 1, 2014 will come up quickly.

OK, my list is done. What are your ideas to help everyone win?

Posted by Ken Thoreson on October 01, 2013


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