Blog
I used to think that my aspirations or “dreams” were goals, and at the time that was good enough for me.
Then I started to work at Teneo where I learned that having a dream wasn’t going to make it a reality, but having goals would! I have been practicing developing SMART goals ever since!
Having goals is important in every aspect of your life, from professional to personal. You are never too young to start setting and achieving your goals – so get your family involved too! It can be so inspiring to watch and help others achieve their goals and being a part of the goals process can be rewarding in more ways than 1!
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Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
Blog
November and December are an optimal time of the year to conduct Business Review Meetings
with your current clients – especially your top clients. A business review meeting is valuable to your clients too! In my years in sales, I found this to be a game-changer to move my relationships from vendor to a more trusting partnership. You can even ask them to invite others from their company to this meeting –other divisions or department heads, perhaps their boss or even key employees.
Here are 7 reasons how a business review meeting can improve your sales results.
- It is a great opportunity to have a purposeful sales conversation with your valuable clients and find out what is working, what is not working and your recommendations to improve the relationship or the services you provide.
- Understand their goals & initiatives for 2015. This is most important – when they start talking listen for opportunities on how you can help them.
- Position you as a valuable resource to review the year and begin planning for the entire next year, rather than project by project or visit by visit.
- Many companies are in planning and budgeting mode, right now which makes it an ideal time to secure your services for next year.
- Your clients are challenged as to what they are going to do better or differently next year. A business review meeting is a great opportunity to brainstorm with them and provide recommendations. This positions you as a business resource, not just as someone who sells a product or service.
- Your competitors are not doing it!!! This is an incredibly effective way to keep your competitors from getting in the door with your top clients.
- Your client relationship might be a bit rocky. That means a pro-active approach on your part to discuss the current issues and how you can resolve them will position you more favorably.
Here’s how you position the meeting.
I recommend a personal telephone call and you can leave them a personalized voice mail message (yes – they still like it!) and then send them an email with at least 2-3 date options and times.
“We have been working with you during the past xxx years, we would like to schedule a Business Review Meeting with you to review the past year and your plans for next year…”
Business Review Meeting Agenda
Like the idea, but not sure where to start? We have created a Business Review Template for you to use. Click here to download it.
Now…create a list of your top 3-10 clients, pick up the phone and schedule this Business Review Meeting. You’ll be amazed at how well this meeting is received and how you’ll secure a stronger partnership (and revenue) for 2015…or fix a rocky client situation. Let us know how your Business Meetings go with your client. Email me at lisa@teneoresults.com
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
Blog
I just ran my 5th half marathon (21.1 km).
The training and actual sales race allowed me to do lots of thinking during the run and how it relates to sales – especially as we move into the fourth quarter and get closer to the sales finish line.
Let me share what I learned about sales during this half marathon…
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
Blog
During the last year, we at Teneo, have been on a mission to determine what makes sales people good and, what makes them Great!
We began interviewing buyers and conducted two webinars (Cracking the Code) to explore what it takes to secure meetings with busy decision makers. These individuals’ shared key insights that great sales people consistently execute compared to their “good” counterparts.
We then took it a step further and interviewed several sales leaders to find out what their teams were doing well and where they needed to improve. We revealed these insights earlier this year during our “From Good to Great” webinar.
From these interviews and webinars as well as our work in the field with sales reps, we have uncovered some of the characteristics that separate the great sales people from the good ones. Here are some of those insights.
| Good Sales Reps… |
Great Sales Reps… |
| Know their sales cycle & territory plan |
Know your customer’s buying cycle & goals |
| Prepare for their client meeting in car |
Research, industry info, trends to position as expert |
| Provides product solutions with benefits |
Provides business solutions to meets clients KPI with ROI |
| Delivers great service & responsive |
Strategic Partner who is pro-active, valuable resource |
| Find 3- 5 new customers each year |
Are disciplined with their time, pipeline and reason to meet |
| Ask more and good questions |
Ask great & tough questions about client business/future |
What does this mean?
Good sales people will continue to survive. However, it will become increasingly more difficult to achieve sales targets and goals, maintain market share and stand out from their competition.
If you are tasked with goal of achieving double-digit growth in 2015, you may have to step up your game and start making the transition from good to great.
For more detailed information, download our Sales Leaders Insightes Revealed ebook or listen to the “Sales Leaders Insights Revealed-Transforming Sales Teams from Good to Great” webinar to see what you can do to help your team make the leap from good to GREAT!
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
Blog
Last week I had the opportunity to visit several dairy farms with a sales rep (we’ll call him Bill) in the agricultural industry.
The rep was a dairy farmer himself and his knowledge was clearly evident as he met with the farmers, toured their properties, and looked at, and discussed, the cows.
During our final sales call of the day, Bill was talking to a customer with whom he wanted to secure more business. He only had a small share of this farmer’s business and he knew there was lots of potential.
Bill asked the farmer some good questions, listened to the responses and made some good suggestions. However, instead of using his knowledge to increase his value proposition, he quickly offered a significant discount to capture the business.
What really stood out to me was that the farmer never once questioned the price of the product.
After our sales call, I coached Bill and suggested that he ask a few more questions to gain additional insight into the farmer’s buying motives and that he wait for the other person to request a discount or price break instead of automatically offering one.
Price is a factor in every sale…I will never, ever deny that.
However, it is seldom the primary reason behind someone’s buying decision unless the price of your product is way out of line with the industry norm.
When you offer discounts without being asked, you set the expectations for future sales opportunities with that customer and limit your ability to sell your product at its full value. Not only does this erode your profit margins and commissions, it discounts the value, knowledge and expertise you bring to the table.
Before conceding to a discount think about the impact it will have on your business. Make the other person work for any and all concessions. Resist the impulse to offer quick discounts. And above all, don’t give away the farm in order to capture a sale!
Avoid 32 negotiating mistakes that cost you money. Download our latest eBook here.
By Kelley Robertson
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
Blog
If you have attended one of our sales training workshops or been a coaching client or even read this newsletter for a while you probably know that at Teneo we’re big believers in setting goals.
As we wrap up 2014 and head into another selling year, I’d like to offer a couple of reminders and suggestions that will help you achieve and exceed next year’s sales targets.
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Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
