In our first article on goals for 2022, I talked about overcoming the obstacles that prevent you from accomplishing those goals.
In this article, I am going to talk about, spending time each day to help you stay on track and chunk down the activity you devote to achieving your goals.
Do you know that every day you can create an hour to help fulfill your goals and keep you on track?
The answer is “start” each day a little earlier than your fellow workers.
And plan tomorrow today…
One of my early mentors and previous partners at NRS Media, Brian Duffy, taught me this valuable tip.
Plan Tomorrow Today – I first met Brian when he was a consultant to one of the first media companies I worked for.
He would always sit me down on his visits and ask me this simple question:
“Have you set goals for what you are going to achieve tomorrow? More importantly, have you looked at what you have achieved today and congratulated yourself?”
This piece of advice has stayed with me to this day. Most days I plan what I am going to do the next day using this simple method.
At the end of each day, I review what I have achieved for the day, taking about 30 seconds to mentally pat myself on the back.
Even if I only managed to get a couple of tasks done, this simple exercise gives you a sense of achievement. If you don’t do this, you honestly feel as if you have achieved nothing.
Acknowledge your achievements no matter how small they may seem. Every day is a path to appreciation of self.
I then look at what I have not been able to achieve due to timing and other factors and place them on my plan for the following day. No judgments.
I then look at all the meetings and appointments and place them on my plan for the following day as well.
Finally, I take about 10 minutes to study what my priorities are for the month, quarter and year. I select 3-4 goals I want to achieve as soon as I return to my office that is in alignment with these goals.
It works for me; it just might be the tonic for you.
Have fun selling your stuff in 2022.
Mike
PLUS: Whenever you’re ready…
Here are 3 ways I can help you make more sales in your business – whether you businesses is big or small.
1. Try the new 7 Days to Sales Success Framework.
Make more sales in 7 days. The framework of everything you need to get started in making more sales in your business. The Sales Success Framework is based on a simple 7 day challenge. Click here to find out how you can grow your business by making more sales.
2. Join our Private Facebook Group – The Salesmindset Inner Circle. Get all the latest up to date sales ideas.
Every week we do Facebook Live updates on all things sales. Tips, ideas, free coaching, and much more. Join me by clicking here.
3. Work with me One-on-One.
If you’re a business owner, small or large or in the professional services you might just be a few strategies, tactics and tools away from doubling your lead flow, revenue and impact. Jump on a FREE 15 minute Brainstorm call with me by clicking here.
Several years ago, when attending one of Robert Kiyosaki’s courses, he told the group the story of the Black Door.
It was about a young man and a Persian general.
The young man, it is said, was a prisoner of war, and the general was a very fair man. When the day arrived to decide the fate of the prisoner, the general had the prisoner brought before him.
The young man was certain of death, but the general generously gave him two choices.
On the young man’s left was a firing squad, guns poised ready.
On the right was a plain white wall with a large black door in the middle of it.
The young man was given a few moments to determine his fate…the firing squad or the black door.
The young man made his choice and in a short while a volley of shots rang out and the prisoner crumpled to the ground.
The general shook his head and commented to his aide that in all his years he had seen only a few men choose the black door.
“May I ask, sir,” the aide queried- “what lies beyond the black door?” “Freedom.” The general replied.
“The black door leads to freedom, but I have seen only a few men choose it because they are afraid of what horrors may lie beyond.
Most would rather choose a fate that they know, even if it means death, than experience the unknown. The man brave enough to choose the black door deserves to be free.”
Today, in the world of sales we know that change is upon us all the time.
The sad thing is that many salespeople would rather stick with what they know, than what they don’t know.
We experience change in our lives every day, it’s a part of life.
Sales is no different, there will always be an underlying principle to selling, but there is also the unknown.
What does that look like? – It comes in many forms, the approach to selling, discovery, understanding your client’s needs.
These are often driven by them, not you.
The most successful sales people I know are constantly learning; loading up on new information.
Dan Sullivan, at Strategic Coach has a great saying. “Our eyes only see and our ears only hear what our brain is looking for”
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
Showing people how they can personally profit from your product can be one of the more creative parts of the sales process.
Consider the Dream Room at Gardner’s Mattress & More store. The Dream Room is a private mattress-testing room that allows a unique opportunity to try before you buy.
The room is essentially a sleep sanctuary, adjacent to the showroom. The space is totally private and void of salespeople and other customers, so you can snuggle in and get comfortable. Gardner’s is the only mattress store in their area that offers such an experience.
In fact, I have never heard of any other mattress company offering such a service. You make an appointment, pay a $50 deposit, and spend time in the Gardner’s showroom with one of their sleep consultants.
The consultant helps you narrow your mattress options down to the one you feel best suits your sleep needs. Their team encases your mattress in a proper allergy- and bedbug-proof zippered cover and tops it off with extremely high-quality, fresh sheets and pillowcases, all for you.
Once you enter this Dream Room, you quite literally take a nap. This is your opportunity to “try before you buy.” The proprietors encourage you to bring a good book and simply relax. For couples, they encourage cuddling, although they ask that the bedroom activity stop there; out of respect for the room and future sleepers.
You can even bring pyjamas and your own pillow and sheets if you want. This is a very creative example of the lengths that a business can go to in presenting its product.
For them, every sale is well worth it. Gardner’s average mattress costs around $4,000 and prices go up to a staggering $18,000. How do they do that? What they have created in their business is a sleeping experience, not just a price experience.
By now, their system will sound familiar. They know their product, match it up with the client’s needs, offer some advice customised to each client, and make a presentation that clearly shows the customer what’s in it for them.
From here, all they have to do is ask for the business and negotiate a price. If you look at their website, I challenge you to find price anywhere.
The dollar signs are simply not there. Gardner’s whole strategy takes you out of the price war, and into your personal experience.
There are, I am sure, plenty of mattress companies all over that town that sell off the floor at cheaper prices. Make no mistake, those stores have a purpose; what they sell and how they sell it is fine.
Wouldn’t you still want to make the experience a little better and have more chance of building a relationship?
Positioning your business this way tips off the consumer that what you sell might be something special.
Would you not want your client to know you offer an exceptional experience? The customer-savvy company has a better chance of selling their mattresses than the person down the road.
They get a commitment from you the moment you make an appointment in the Dream Room, strengthen it with a small deposit, chat about what you want, and then take a nice cosy nap.
That’s a sales commitment. More importantly, that’s the best presentation you can make.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and in 11 languages generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions which include rugby, travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY ME!
In my previous blogs on The Selling Journey, I talked about the importance of having the right mindset, knowing your product, finding out what the clients’ needs are and how you can have a conversation around those needs.
Now it’s time to present your product.
By now, you have learned about your customer’s needs and you are preparing to make your pitch.
You will want to build on the questions you have already asked. Each question, and its answer, will help you clarify your customer’s problems.
Throughout the process, remember that you are not pushing a product; you are matching up the customer’s needs with the right advice, or the problem you can solve for them.
Before you begin to give your advice, you need to be absolutely clear with your customers that the product or service you are going to offer them is the right one.
Getting clear on this is often called qualification. I also call it checking in.
You can use a simple system to “check in” with clients to make sure the advice you are giving is what they need and want to hear.
Checking In
Step 1: After asking your clients several questions about what they want to know about your product or service, you check in.
This means you actually feed back to them your understanding of their problem.
Your queries may include questions like:
“What you are telling me is?”
“I understand that is what you are wanting? Is this correct?”
“So, what you are asking me is?”
“What you are wanting as a result of using this product is? Correct?”
“If I understand you, is what you want to do? Yes?”
As you can see from the prompts above, you are clarifying before you give any advice. Checking in is really an extension of what we have been doing all along, which is asking lots of questions, finding out about a need, and getting clear on the problems and their solutions.
Now the conversation needs to lead to giving the right advice to move the sale forward.
The Presentation
This is where many salespeople fall down. They forget to qualify.
Salespeople tend to think that if a client walks in the door or phones to ask about their service, then this customer must want to buy. These days we know that our consumer is better informed than ever, so it is vital that you check in or qualify your client.
I have seen hundreds of salespeople waste their time simply because they did not ask qualifying questions.
They missed exactly what the client was wanting. We often assume we know what a person wants. Feeling confident, we launch into “sales spiel” mode.
The client hears it and thinks, “Here we go. I sense a salesperson here, and I am being sold.” they shut down, put their defenses up, stuff their wallet back in their pocket, and say things like, “thanks, I want to think it over.”
Then they’re gone. Qualify hard and do it early enough that the sale practically closes itself.
Qualifying a client early in the process makes the closing part super easy because the path has been so well groomed, that you expend little extra effort to travel the last mile. Try the check-in exercise at the end of this chapter to see what I mean.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and in 11 languages generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions which include rugby, travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY ME!
A successful sales relationship hinges on the ongoing conversation you have with your customer. The dialogue starts, strangely enough, with the conversation you have with yourself. You can listen to others more effectively when you know how to listen to yourself. I first learned this years ago at my first media company job.
They sent me to a conference in Houston, Texas. I had just come out of a long-term relationship, and to be totally honest, I felt a little bit lost. I remember sitting in a hotel room and coming across an infomercial featuring a very youthful Tony Robbins promoting something he called “personal power.”
I was intrigued enough to buy what Robbins was selling. When I got back to New Zealand, there was a box waiting for me with Tony’s signature on it.
I devoured the material; it re-ignited my love of knowledge and showed me how to improve my outlook and my self-talk. I did all of the exercises and kept a journal. One skill I learned was how to ask quality questions of myself.
It started with questions recorded in a journal and culminated in a completely new focus that brought better results. The disparity in the quality of people’s lives often comes down to the difference in the questions they consistently ask.
You prime your mental computer to look for a particular type of answer. If you’re asking, “What’s wrong with me?” Your mind will come up with an answer – you are stupid or you don’t deserve to do well.
On the flip side, if you ask questions like, “How can I take this experience and use it to contribute to others’ lives?” Your brain will come up with much more constructive answers.
You will be able to see the path forward, rather than feeling like you have reached a dead end. Here are some examples from my long-ago journal:
What am I happy about in my life right now?
What about that makes me happy and how does it make me feel?
What am I most excited about in my life right now?
What makes me excited?
What am I grateful for in my life?
What am I committed to in my life right now?
Asking these questions helped me see clearly how positive questions lead to a growth mindset, which leads to better results down the road. When you think in terms of constructive, positive questions, your brain goes off and works on them even when you’re not thinking about the answers consciously.
For example, consider the difference between “Why does this always happen to me?” and “How can i learn from this experience?” They are simply worlds apart in terms of choosing your next step.
Develop a pattern of questions that empower you. If you seek a shift in your life, make this part of your daily routine. Over time, asking these types of questions changes how you question your clients. Here are some sample business questions that evolved from my personal questions:
What am I most happy/excited about in my business?
What am I most proud about in my business?
How does it make me feel to employ other people?
What am I committed to doing to improve sales systems?
How/why do I value my customers?
Set up systems to formulate these questions for your sales team, so their conversations with customers flow more naturally from a foundation of self-knowledge.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and in 11 languages generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions which include rugby, travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY ME!
In my last blog, I talked about the importance of knowledge, of knowing your products and your clients’ products strengths and weakness better than your competitors.
If you did the exercise, you will now be armed with more tools to sell your product or service.
So far, in the selling journey we have had Mindset, Insight, and now the Path-Evaluating clients’ needs.
The next stage in the selling journey is the Path.
Every sale involves some type of discovery. At this point, you have adjusted your mindset and achieved solid insight into your product or service. You are now ready to get on the path to a sale.
The next step is discovering what your clients’ needs and wants really are. You are not ready to seal the deal, but you are looking down the road ahead of you, mapping out the territory that will lead to the sale.
You will cover this ground alongside your client, by focusing on your clients’ needs and how you can move together down the path toward fulfilling them. Think of “the path” as the discovery process behind every sale, where we find out how we can match up our product with the needs of the customer.
I sometimes put it another way – “Stop selling your solution, and find out their problems.”
We should understand that the intersection is not reached all at once, and the journey is seldom the same twice.
Clients’ needs differ depending on many variables, including timing and general willingness to buy. Our job is to discover the underlying need or want, and to be there when the timing and willingness converge.
We can do that by creating events and taking actions that position us in the clients’ path, so we are there when they are ready to buy.
You can only be truly ready to provide solutions to your clients’ problems if you develop a deep understanding of their wants and needs.
In the first instance, you do this by asking questions. We’ll explore that some more in the next blog.
Evaluate emotional needs
Remember this: Every one of your clients has a need for your product, usually at an emotional level.
What I want you to do is a simple, quick exercise.
Either spend some time with a notepad, or just answer these in your next sales meeting, or do them now on your own.
Why do my clients buy this?
What result does it give them?
What does it do?
What am I really selling? (Are you fulfilling a pent-up desire?)
How do they feel when they buy it?
What emotions trigger a sale?
What are the motivations for them buying your product or service?
There are several more exercises you can do to construct valuable tools and these are found in Chapter 5 On the Path: EvaluatIng Clients’ Needs (Link). Selling is not optional – How to master the most important skill in business and life.
Here are 4 ways I can help you make more sales in your business – whether you businesses is big or small.
Become a Sales Mindset Blueprint Member. Every month you get access to an exclusive coaching session with me as well as full access to my sales programme. Get the deets here.
Try the new 7 Days to Sales Success Framework. Make More Sales in 7 days. The framework of everything you need to get started in making more sales in your business. The Sales Success Framework is based on a simple 7 day challenge. Click here to find out how you can grow your business by making more sales.
Join our Private Facebook Group – The Salesmindset Inner Circle. Get all the latest up to date sales ideas. Every week we do Facebook Live updates on all things sales. Tips, ideas, free coaching, and much more. Join me by clicking here.
. Work with me One-on-One. f you’re a business owner, small or large or in the professional services you might just be a few strategies, tactics and tools away from doubling your lead flow, revenue and impact. Jump on a FREE 15 minute Brainstorm call with me by clicking here.
One Hour a day to Accomplish Your Goals.
