There are no instant stratagems to success, only hard work and a great belief in myself and the benefit to the client of the advice we give. To sell effectively, we must be absolutely convinced that what we are recommending is right for the client. We have to buy ir before we can sell it but obviously, we cannot own every type of plan we may recommend. Therefore, we need need to ask ourselves whether we would be taking up the recommendation of the plan in the client’s situation.
The sales process is a continuous cycle with no beginning and no end. It is not complex but we need to work at our skills on each of the stages. It all starts with a name, from the name, we make an appointment. The appointment will hopefully become a meeting, the meeting should result in a sales presentation which logically should produce a sale. The last step is to elicit a name to keep the cycle moving.
However, we will lose a percentage at each stage, not every name becomes an appointment and not every appointment is kept. Not every meeting gives us the opportunity to present and every presentation does not automatically result in a sale. However hard we may try, every client does not automatically refer us. The percentage we lose at each stage will vary from salesperson to salesperson.
It is essential that we see the sales cycle as a wheel – easy to keep moving once it has momentum. If we stop working at any section of the cycle, it becomes like driving on a flat tyre or on a wheel which is not round. We will lose momentum and grind inexorably to a halt. Cutting out any one of these steps in the wheel and watch progress come to a standstill.
The successful people in our business understand it takes more energy, both physical and mental, to restart than to keep the cycle moving along. Successful people are consistent. We can never be our most productive if we have inconsistent activity. Consistent activity is the hallmark of the true professional. Consistency of activity always produce consistency of results.
(Adapted from “It Can Only Get Better – Tony Gordon’s Route to Sale Success”, Chapter 4: The Wheel of Fortune by Tony Gordon)