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!
80%……….Of all sales are made after the fifth call
48%……….Of all salespeople call once and quit
25%……….Call twice and quit
10%……….Keep on calling
These statistics are pretty close to the mark in all forms of selling and ring especially true in media sales.
I think that we all know SALES DON’T JUST HAPPEN.
Why do many of the great media salespeople thrive when others do not?
Here are some ongoing practices I observe every day.
1. Always add to your pipeline.
Always add to your pipeline. This is often a mistake that media salespeople make once they have established a strong ongoing funnel. If you continue to add to your pipeline then if that long-established client decides that this month they will not buy, it does not matter because you have potential opportunities in your pipeline.
If you are always taking the position of helping and assisting your client, then your pipeline will increase. If you are only filling up your pipeline when you are desperate then many clients will sense that, and you will come across as desperate.
2. Never assume they need you.
I have noticed that many salespeople leave a message with a client or a voicemail and they think it ends there. They think that they have done what they had to do and then move on.
Depending on the relationship you have with that client, they may or may not call you back.
If you do want to do business with them, you have to plan that call and decide the ongoing strategy to get the person to respond.
Create a proactive message for them to call you back.
3. Sales potty training.
For those that may have had young children there was a time when you had to train them to go to the toilet. In my experience (a while ago) I always used to say, “Pee or get off the pot” In other words, make a decision.
Therefore, there will be times when you have to make a decision to get off the pot, some clients need to be let go, you need to figure out if a prospect is serious about working with you or not. A good pipeline is full of qualified prospects and not “tyre kickers”
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
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!
Is 65 too old to sell? When do you retire? Are you over the hill at 65?
Here is an example which proves that age is no barrier, when it comes to selling.
I have a friend who owns a large real-estate company in one of our provincial cities. The population of this city is around 100,000 people.
It’s a beautiful part of my country and folk flock there in the Summertime for its amazing weather.
Last week, I caught up with him and we got talking about how things were going, sales, management issues, and the usual stuff we chat about when we see each other.
Performance incentive.
As an incentive for his staff, he offers the top ten salespeople for a calendar year the opportunity to win a few days away at an exotic designation.
This is hotly sought after and keenly fought for.
I asked how it was going and he remarked that it had just been announced and he had 10 winners again this year.
They were all excited and were off to a great destination.
I asked what type of people were going, and the mix, were they male? Female? Younger? Older?
Guess what? This year, the 10 winners were nudging 65 and were all women.
That’s right, an age when most of us would be thinking about retirement.
Working Hard.
Make no mistake, the company my friend owns is one of the best in his region, and if you want to win awards, you have to work really hard, and knuckle down to make it happen.
An excellent example.
So, is 65 too old to sell? The lesson I took away from this example was that working hard and carrying out the disciplines of selling was not limited to age, but attitude.
Age is no barrier to success, and these women proved it.
It’s also a great example about avoiding putting people in boxes and stereotyping them.
We often do that with our clients, using phrases like “They will never buy” or “They tried my product once and they said it did not work”
Maybe this week, think about all those women celebrating success because they worked hard and performed well and that age was no barrier.
Well done, I say.
Good selling.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
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!
When I owned NRS Media one of the best sales guys was Michael Botta.
Michael was one of our longest standing staff members at NRS Media, and was based in our Long Beach office, in good ole’ USA.
He was in front of thousands of media salespeople each year, and travelled weeks on end with our NRS Media message.
He understands the importance of work. Here is his definition of W-O-R-K: W: Weighing O: Opportunities R: Repeatedly
(with) K: Knowledge
We come to work, and what makes it frustrating for many of us at times, is that we are challenged to continually Weigh (consider, ponder, create) the Opportunities (challenges, problems, setbacks) that are Repeatedly uncovered during the course of commerce, which then causes us to tap into our Knowledge (experience, success, etc) to fix the problem.
This is a never-ending process.
Work is a gift?
Work should be viewed as an incredible gift given to us that make us more helpful to others. In fact, businesses all over the world are happy to compensate you for your WORK.
Work is the giving of yourself to help another. Work is actually the best thing for us, because, by its very nature it brings out our best qualities, our best inventions, our best solutions.
What work isn’t:
If, on the other hand, one views ‘W-O-R-K’ as: Wanting Others to Replace my Knowhow, then that individual is essentially holding back their unique gift and perspective, and not giving of themselves to help another.
Work for some people is merely something that they have to do, and not something that provides them an open door to use their creativity – or, is not viewed as a unique opportunity to share their creative insight for the benefit of another.
Fear, disappointment, rejection, anger, and blame, is what keeps one from doing their best WORK.
The way in which we view WORK has a significant impact on ourselves, our families, and the benefit of others. By doing our best WORK we can change lives for the better.
Great reason to get up and work every day and do something you love don’t you think?
Thanks Mr Botta!
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
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!
In Dan Kennedy’s book ‘No BS Sales Success’, he talks about a real estate agent called Pebby B.
Here is an abridged version…
“Peggy B gets 70% of her listings from referrals and 30% from advertising. When someone wants to list with Peggy they get put onto one of her three assistants. The assistants then vet the clients to see if they fulfil Peggy’s requirements for listing. If they do not, they are passed onto other real estate agents.
If they do, then a DVD on Peggy’s successes is sent direct that day, to the potential listed property owner.
An appointment is made, but the assistant arrives first (Peggy comes 20 minutes later). While the assistant is there, they go over the data of similar sales in the area, how long sales have taken, price expectation etc. etc.
Peggy then calls to let the client know she is on the way, then arrives and listens to her assistant’s overview of the property. Next Peggy asks if is okay, while they talk, for the assistant to take a few photos of the house. (This is a trial close)
Why would they let her go ahead if they were not interested in listing the house?
Peggy then uses her flip book, and goes over the ten steps they will use together to get the best price for the house. An agreement is produced that has been partially completed by the assistant from the information obtained over the phone.
Last year Peggy listed 92% of the homes where she made this listing presentation immediately, without delay.”
I highly recommend you buy this book to get literally hundreds of ideas for your sales presentations. I personally fight for every referral I can get; I have a system in my book to tease up clients before you present your offering.
This can be done with some planning and understanding of what and how important referrals and structured presentations are.
Please share your ideas on what you do when you first meet a client.
Good selling.
Mike
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
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!
Everyone praises the feats of both Armstrong and Aldrin as the first humans to set foot on the moon, but what about the third guy, and what has that got to do with teamwork?
The third person who went to the moon with Armstrong and Aldrin was a guy called Mike Collins; he was the one that was floating around the moon in the space capsule alone while the other two set down on the moon. In fact, he went around the moon twenty six times, solo.
Lessons about team work
While the other two were down on the moon he had to fly his craft round and round the moon. If he pressed the wrong button or knocked the wrong lever he would leave both Armstrong and Aldrin stranded, to finally run out of air and die. Fortunately that did not happen and history was made.
A couple of great lessons here; the first is that you want to make sure that whoever is on your team you have absolute faith in them to do the job; and secondly you have selected the right person.
It’s a great time to review your team and see who would stand by you or would help you as the year continues to unfold.
Good selling.
Mike
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
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!
