The Heat is On
As the temperatures soared last week, did you manage to keep your cool and have a productive week despite the heat? What were the highlights for you? Looking back, is there anything you might do differently if the same circumstances arose again?
This kind of self-reflection is a handy tool, and if you travel a lot as I do then using time in the car for this kind of analysis can be a great self-improvement tool… and there’s air conditioning!
Go West
I took full advantage of the in-car aircon on Thursday of last week when I travelled down the road to give a presentation at the Somerset Ladies in Business July networking event in Taunton. My topic was “What price should you charge? 4 steps to valuing yourself correctly for sales.”
As well as providing a formula for pricing services at the right level, I reminded people of the importance of not undervaluing your own abilities. Plenty of us can run up against “imposter syndrome”, where we suddenly worry that we’ll be “found out” as being not as competent as people think we are. Confidence and self-belief are essential parts of sales success, so remember to value yourself as much as the product or service you’re selling.
We’re All Going on a Summer Holiday
In my Saturday Sales email last week I gave some tips you can use to improve your chances of closing some deals before August when seemingly everyone on your prospect list goes on holiday – or at least that’s how it often feels.
Using Emotional Sales Intelligence (ESI) can really help – you can watch my video on this here:
I spoke about 4 great ESI techniques you can use to help your prospects feel ready to buy now:
Use FOMO – Fear of Missing Out Remind your prospect that opportunities to take advantage of your product or service are scarce, and you have a limited capacity to get them what they need when they return from holiday.
Who wants hassle when returning from a holiday? Remind your prospect that getting things done now means one less problem to deal with when they get to their desk. Just this week a customer told me they had one thing left on their pre-holiday “to do” list. This was to agree on a deal with me for a piece of work. We did, and they went away happy knowing that they’d cleared everything and could enjoy a well-earned break.
Incentivise to get it done I don’t believe you should offer discounts. You’re basically admitting to your prospect that your product or service isn’t quite as valuable as you’ve made out. It can also smack of desperation and can seem unprofessional.
A better incentive is to offer an additional service or add-on if they sign up before a specific date. Make sure that what you offer is both deliverable and attractive to your prospect’s needs. Classic examples could be to provide an extended warranty or some additional operator training. Make sure the offer is timebound, though.
Just be honest If you’ve built up a good rapport with your prospect over a longer sales cycle and you have a good relationship, then why not just be honest? Remember, you won’t get any business if you don’t ask for it. Use your ESI to leverage the rapport you’ve built and just ask for the business.
A word of warning, though – don’t do this too early in the sales process. If you haven’t yet built sufficient rapport, you’re better off trying to win the business in September than lose it now by jumping the gun.
Ready for the Week Ahead
Where do you think your Emotional Sales Intelligence skills currently sit? Do you feel they need polishing up, or do you have any questions about how to use ESI to your advantage? I went into more detail about these in my Saturday email, so if you’d like to get more weekly prospecting and selling advice then don’t forget to sign up to the mailing list below.
This Saturday’s email will be about some really constructive things you can do during the quieter summer months to get your prospecting tools in order, but also how to build a “Sales Engine” to drive new prospects to you.
For questions on this or any other sales topic, please do get in touch with me by email via hello@jameswhite.business or through any of the social networks: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube – just search for ‘jameswhitesales’.
Don’t forget to let me know if there are any specific topics you’d like me to cover in the Saturday Sales mails, my blog, or on YouTube channel.
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