I saw something in town the other day that just really struck me as funny. Not only that, however, it really nailed home a strong lesson for me about how to make more money.

I was driving down main street past this old building. I don’t know exactly what the building had been used for, possibly a warehouse or something along that line.

The thing that was funny about it, however, was the sign it had mounted on the front. It was a sign that had been there for some time, but I’d never really noticed what it said before.

Turned out, it was a “for sale” sign.

Now think about that. This was a permanently mounted, bolted to the wall, unchangeable “for sale” sign.

Yes, the salesman entrusted to sell this particular building is SO confident in his sales ability that he felt the need to spend $150- $200 on a PERMANENT “for sale” sign!

Doesn’t that strike you as funny? I mean, where is the logic in this move? Who would put up a permanent “for sale” sign on something?

Someone planning on taking years to get the job done, that’s who. Someone assuming no one really wants what he has to offer.

Huh-uh. Wrong. Totally backwards and self defeating attitude.

Don’t assume there will be problems when you are marketing your product. Don’t assume you’ll have to talk people into making a purchase. Don’t assume a long hard road.

Assume the sale!

Even a simple little thing like a permanent “for sale” sign can create a negative image in your potential customer’s mind. It makes them wonder what is wrong. Why hasn’t this place sold already? What are they hiding?

People feed on the self confidence of others.

No one wants to buy from someone who seems unsure about what they are selling.

Speak, show, and exude confidence in your sales approach. Whether in your sales copy or just an email message to a potential client, assume they are interested in and WILL buy what it is you are offering them.

Now, this is not to say that you need to be overbearing, pushy, or rude. Those are all negative factors as well.

Simply approach a potential sales situation as if there is no doubt in your mind that whoever you are presenting your product to is completely interested in it and preparing to make a purchase.

Undoubtedly, they are at least considering it or they wouldn’t be there in the first place. Your confidence, attitude, and demeanor all play an important role in convincing them to advance to the next step and commit to buying your product.

It’s no trick, no devious tactic. It’s just plain common sense. What you bring into the situation rubs off on those who are listening and influences their decision.

Now, one last important point. Going back to the permanent “for sale” sign. Like I said already, I know that sign had been there for some time, but I’d never really noticed what it said before.

This means that not only can the wrong attitude not help you make more sales, it can actually keep you from being considered in the first place!

Scary thought, huh?

===============

About The Author

Phillip Fuller publishes both Biz4Profits and Quick Pick Ads. He gives you a wealth of resources, opportunities, tools and fresh ideas that will help you start or grow your business. Learn what you need to succeed ~ Subscribe today!

http://ebizprofits4u.com

It’s summertime!

1. No one wants to be bothered.

2. It’s too hot.

3. It’s a beautiful day; everyone is out.

4. No one is thinking about work.

5. Prospects are getting ready to go on vacation.

6. Everyone is on vacation.

7. Prospects are just returning from their vacations

8. I’m preparing to go on vacation.

9. I’m on vacation.

10. I’ve just returned from vacation.

11. My assistant is on vacation.

12. Their assistant is on vacation.

13. No one is in on Mondays.

14. No one is in on Fridays.

15. Prospects are catching up midweek.

16. Prospects leave the office early.

17. Prospects go to the office late.

18. Prospects take long lunches.

19. No one makes appointments till after July 4th.

20. No one makes appointments till after Labor Day.

Print this list out. Send it to your competition. Then, get on the telephone!

Life and work continue, even in the summer! If it’s too hot, then your prospects will be in their nice, air-conditioned offices—where you should be, too, making calls. If it is a beautiful day, some people may be out. The rest will not.

Everyone is not on vacation every day. If you happen to call someone who is

on vacation, call them back when they return. If they are planning a vacation, schedule the meeting for when they return. If they have just returned from their vacation, schedule for a time when they say they will be caught up. If you are going on vacation, schedule for when you return.

Prospects are in the office on Mondays and Fridays, early and late. They are frequently at their desks during lunch—especially when you are calling the boss.

Prospects make appointments all summer long, just as they do in the fall, winter and spring. If a prospect asks you to call back after a holiday, suggest that you “pencil in a meeting for after the holiday.” Promise that you will call to confirm it. Do so!

Have a wonderful prospecting summer!

© 2005 Wendy Weiss

Wendy Weiss, “The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success,” is a sales trainer, author, and sales coach. Her recently released program, “Cold Calling College”, and/or her book, “Cold Calling for Women”, can be ordered by visiting http://www.wendyweiss.com Contact her at wendy@wendyweiss.com. Get Wendy’s free e-zine at www.wendyweiss.com

Please ask yourself this very basic question: why are you in sales as a career?

Is it to earn a fine, substantially above average living? Are you in it for the money, or for some other reason?

Perhaps you like the lifestyle, an expense account, travel, a car allowance, not having a boss peering into your cubicle every five minutes. I don’t put these motivations down.

They’re perks, but really, the number one reason you should sell is to produce a great income, agreed?

If so, you should devise a set presentation, a script, and stick to it. Scripts will more consistently outperform “winging it,” day in and day out, and they’ll deliver a bigger, better living to you.

I’ve seen this happen across an extensive career, as a seller, a sales manager, and as a consultant and coach. A script is a tool that works for you, as much as a shovel that you might use to plant flowers in your garden.

You wouldn’t use your hands to break up hard soil, would you? You need something that has been fashioned for that purpose.

You wouldn’t change tools every day, if the task stays the same. You’d use the shovel, because it has proven its value.

Why try a

rake?

But sellers will change their language from prospect to prospect, even though some word combinations are consistent winners for them. They justify this by saying that they don’t want to sound canned, that they have to appear spontaneous to be effective.

I agree, stilted pitches tend to fail. But just as a Broadway actor brings a script to life each and every night, making it fresh, so can we, with our presentations.

You were probably given the equivalent of a script, long ago, when you first started selling. Dust it off, and try using it, as closely as you can.

You’ll be amazed at how smart such a dumb little device can be!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman © 2006

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. A frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide, Gary’s programs are offered by UCLA Extension and by numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. Gary is headquartered in Glendale, California. He can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

I had my first official sales training by a man who believed in being very assertive, almost pushy. At the time this conflicted with my reserved nature, and for the next 6 months didn’t even make one sale.

I knew I had to change my approach. Meanwhile I realised there were two sales I had to make, first myself, so that my customer “believed” what I might have to say or recommend, then the second sale was the actual service I was providing.

By this understanding I started to work on building rapport. The system I created was so effective I was stunned. Customers would buy virtually anything and everything I recommended. I knew my system worked!

I then proceeded to teach other people in other industries, selling everything from new kitchens to carpet cleaning, from blinds to jewellery and the system worked, beyond my wildest expectations.

The “system” is based on this principle from Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People…

People are 10,000 times more interested in themselves than they are in you (or your product or service).

Too often in sales the sales person asks a few questions to learn more about their customers interests, then with that knowledge makes some recommendations. Then the sales person does the usual thing of “trying to close the sale”.

This process is flawed for numerous reasons. First of all the sales person hasn’t usually earned the right to talk or give an opinion as they haven’t established the first sales step, selling themselves so they earn the right to speak and to recommend.

If you have enough rapport with a customer and I mean as much rapport as you would have with a friend of 10 years, then the customer will “trust” you and your opinion. What typically happens is the sales person creates their own objections by making recommendations too soon before enough rapport was established.

No one likes an opinionated person and this is typically the trap that sales people fall into, not building enough rapport before making a recommendation.

So how you do build massive rapport, in as little as 7 seconds?The best method I teach others to use is understanding the persons DISC Profile. DISC profiles have been around since 1920 when Dr Marston observed peoples behaviour falling into 4 different categories.

These being… outgoing and task orientated, outgoing and people orientated, task orientated and reserved and people orientated and reserved.

What that means is around 50% of the population are task orientated and about 50% are people orientated. Also that 50% of people are outgoing and 50% are reserved.

By understanding these figures I learnt that by being friendly with a customer you could be annoying them as 50% of people are task orientated people that are annoyed by friendly sales people. They don’t feel any need to

like the person they buy from.

While the other 50% of the population are people that need to like the person they buy from or they won’t buy from them on principle. You’d be mazed at how accurate this is, ask your partner or friends about it if you don’t believe me and you’ll see that it’s very true.

Now the secret to building rapport is to be friendly, if they are a friendly or people orientated person. Stop trying to be friendly if they are not reciprocating. It takes time to learn this skill, it took me about 6 months to pick which DISC profile a person is accurately and consistently.

Once I learnt this, the rewards were unbelievable. Even without knowing how to “close the sale” I had customers wanting to buy from me saying things like ‘how do we work together’, ‘how do we get started’, ‘when can we start’, all before they knew the price of my service! I found myself needing to say, ‘do you mind if I outline the investment before we start?’

With this technique I realised I had created a selling system of “how not to get objections”, where you simply don’t get objections! This is in contrast to trying to overcome objections written about in dozens of sales books. Rapport is the key and you build rapport when you’re listening, not when you’re talking.

Obviously there’s a lot more to this system than I can talk about here, in fact its a whole book full of information, but understanding a persons DISC profile is the most powerful thing you can learn in sales, as you are learning how to communicate with people in their own language.

There’s another step to selling with DISC profile, which is to sell to outgoing versus reserved people.

However that’s a lot more involved that space permits here.Try to learn more about DISC profiles and study it. You can get to the stage where you can pick a persons profile in less than 7 seconds, even on the phone! When you know a person’s DISC profile and communicate using it the rewards are fantastic.

Tim Stokes is a professional business coach awarded “Worldwide Coach of the Year 2000″. His understanding about DISC profiles is extraordinary and by teaching others his building rapport selling system his has achieved an impressive list of client testimonials from all industry types.

His best results of teaching someone his sales system was a 357% increase in sales in 30 days for an experienced real estate agent. Another was an increase from 3% conversion rate to a 75% conversion rate with 30% higher prices all in 6 months.

To find out more about Tim Stokes and to see his impressive testimonials go to http://www.bbms.com.au or contact him direct at tim@bbms.com.au

No matter what business you are in, one of the best (and most overlooked) sources of quality sales leads is referrals. Just to be sure we are on the same page, let’s define a referral as an introduction to a potential prospect that is made by someone the prospect KNOWS and RESPECTS.

Respect is a very important issue when gauging the quality of a referral. The more respect the person being referred has for the person who is making the referral, the greater the likelihood the person being referred will make the time to have a MEANINGFUL conversation with you.

Why are referrals such a great source of sales leads?

Think about it – what could be better than a respected businessperson bragging about the quality of your products, services, and/or customer service to their equally well-respected friends and associates? Do you think this kind of input might jump-start some sales cycles? Plus, which is more fun (and profitable): working with prospects who already think favorably of you and your company, or trying to get the attention of people who have no idea who you are, what you do, or the level of service that you provide?

This brings up a very important point, which is that all referrals are NOT created equal! Here are four categories of referrals, ranging from MOST effective to LEAST effective:

1. Live, In-Person Introduction

This is when your contact walks you over to a potential prospect and makes a live, in-person introduction. Ideally, the introduction includes a glowing testimonial about you, your products or services, and your company.

2. Live Telephone Introduction

If time or circumstances do not permit a live, in-person introduction (for example, your contact and the prospect work in different facilities), the next best option is a live telephone introduction. This can be a conference call or a call from a speakerphone in your contact’s office. Your contact may participate in the entire conversation, or they may leave the call after making introductions.

3. Electronic Introduction

If you cannot arrange for a live in-person or telephone introduction, the next best option is for your contact to speak with, leave a voice mail for, or send an e-mail to the prospect PRIOR to you contacting them. When you make your introductory call, be sure to mention that “(Name) recently contacted you to introduce me and explain why he/she thinks it would be a good idea for us to get together.”

4. Authorized Name Dropping

The least effective referral is when your contact gives you a prospect’s name and phone number and permission to mention their name when you call the prospect. This is certainly “warmer” than a cold call, but it is not as effective as the other types of referrals.

Why do we overlook referrals?

Like many of

the activities involved in selling, asking for referrals requires a little practice before it feels comfortable. It is not difficult to ask for referrals (“Hey, Bob, who do you know – friends, family, or business associates – who might benefit from the things we have been discussing?”). But, you need to make a CONSCIOUS EFFORT if you are going to ask for referrals as frequently as you should. Once you get in the habit of asking for referrals, it just rolls off your tongue naturally.

How do you earn referrals?

The absolute best way to earn referrals is by providing great service to your customers. It is also helpful if you set an expectation right up front that referrals are one of your preferred rewards for providing exceptional service.

When should you ask for referrals?

When you do a favor for a customer, ask for referrals. When a customer places an order, ask for referrals. If a customer comments they are happy with something that you or your company did, ask for referrals. When you help a customer solve a problem, ask for referrals.

Customers are not the only source of referrals. Anyone you speak with is a potential source of referrals. If you feel you have built credibility with someone, or they seem interested in what you do, do not hesitate to ask them for referrals.

Conclusion

Referrals can be one of the most productive and profitable lead sources available to salespeople. However, it takes some practice to get comfortable asking for referrals. Plus, there are different kinds of referrals that produce different levels of results.

If you want maximize the positive impact of referrals on your sales opportunity pipeline, follow these steps:

1. Practice what you are going to say when asking for referrals until it rolls off your tongue naturally.

2. Hold yourself accountable for asking for referrals at EVERY opportunity. If you realize you forgot to ask for referrals during a specific meeting or phone call, no problem – call your contact back as soon as possible and ask for referrals!

3. Keep in mind that not all referrals are created equal! When you ask for referrals, always ask for in-person introductions first. If your contact can’t arrange an in-person introduction, work your way down the list of referral types from most effective to least effective.

Best wishes for sales success!

Copyright 2005 — Alan Rigg

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don’t Perform and What to Do About It. His company, 80/20 Sales Performance, helps business owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales by implementing The Right Formula™ for building top-performing sales teams. For more information and more FREE sales and sales management tips, visit http://www.8020salesperformance.com

I had nothing better to do the other day at the airport than to study the techniques of a fellow who was promoting premium charge cards. It seemed to me he was doing nearly everything imaginable to scare away business.

A gentleman sitting next to me, about 15 feet away from the vendor, called out: “Can I ask you a few questions?”

The reply: “No, I can’t leave my post—well—okay, uh, why don’t I just give you this brochure.”

The next thing he did was to strike up a nasty conversation with a man who was wearing a bold USC shirt.

“They’re going to lose you know,” the card seller taunted.

(His words were prophetic. Texas, as you know, prevailed in the national championship game, later that evening.)

Still, what a bozo!

How can you hope to sell anything by making people feel defensive?

I have seen this behavior not only in salespeople, but also in customer service providers and other functionaries—or should I call them, dysfunctionaries. They inject their

biases and opinions into their business conversations without having a clue as to how offensive they sound.

They should go at it from a very different angle. Even if somebody asks them their opinion, they should say, “Actually, I don’t have a position on that,” and shut up.

They might be pleasantly surprised to find that suddenly they will get along with nearly everyone, and they’ll also close a lot more sales.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman © 2006

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. A frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide, Gary’s programs are offered by UCLA Extension and by numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. Gary is headquartered in Glendale, California. He can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

Here is a question I recently received from a young automobile salesperson:

“I’m a sales rep just starting off. I am 21 years old and have nine months experience at a (auto dealership) store. It is hard for me because I am very young. The rest of the sales guys are at least 40 with many years of experience. I would like to ask you for some personal tips so I can surpass these guys. I don’t have a repeat client base quite yet, but I’m working up to it. I would appreciate if you wrote me back.”

Here is the answer that I provided to this young go-getter:

You can really set yourself apart if you focus on learning how to ask questions to determine the key factors behind your prospects’ buying decisions. If you ask good questions, your age will rapidly become a non-factor as your prospects gain respect for your courtesy and professionalism.

Ask penetrating, insightful questions and listen very carefully to each prospect’s answers to your questions. Those answers will tell you whether the individual is a prospect that is worthy of a significant time investment, and, if they are, how you can best help them buy.

Too many automobile salespeople are focused on trying to cram a vehicle (any vehicle) down someone’s throat. Or, they are fixated on features of vehicles that they themselves admire. Here is an example:

One time when I was looking at cars, I met a salesman that waxed eloquent about a particular car’s engine, horsepower, 0 to 60 time, and other “gear head” specifications. I politely informed him that those things didn’t matter much to me. As long as the car could perform decently when I was passing someone on the highway, that was all I needed to know about its engine and horsepower. I was more interested in the car’s appearance and the quality of its interior appointments. Yet, even though I explicitly told the salesman what my primary interests were, he kept peppering his conversation with “gear head babble”. I found his behavior to be quite amusing, but it didn’t help him make a sale.

That doesn’t mean you never want to discuss engine specifications with a prospect. Just reserve those conversations for people that are truly interested in such things. They will make themselves known by the kinds of questions they ask and

the general focus of their comments.

When someone visits your dealership, a good place to start a conversation is by finding out what brought them into your store. Here are some questions you could ask:

• Why are they looking at your specific brand? Is it because they have some loyalty to the brand, or did some other reason bring them into your store?

• Is there a particular type of vehicle or certain features they are especially interested in?

• Why are they interested in that vehicle or those features?

• What kind of vehicle are they driving currently?

• What do they like about their current vehicle?

• What would they like to change when they acquire their next vehicle?

• How will they go about making their vehicle purchasing decision?

• How do they prefer to acquire their vehicles (purchase or lease)?

• What is their purchasing time frame?

• What factors are driving their purchasing time frame?

People make buying decisions for an astonishing and ever-changing variety of reasons. Your mission is to determine the particular combination of reasons that is driving the buying decision for each of your prospects. Be sure to avoid generalizations or stereotypes and treat each person as a unique individual. Just because someone is a certain age, gender, ethnicity, etc. doesn’t mean they will make their buying decision for the same reasons as others of the same or similar age, gender or ethnicity!

If you ask questions like the ones noted above, you will prepare yourself to provide the best possible service to your prospects. In many cases you will also help them clarify their own thinking about how they will make their buying decision.

Remember, people don’t like to be sold, but they DO like to be helped to buy. Facilitate the buying process, help your buyers rationalize their purchases, and help them make choices that fulfill their needs and wants. When you do this, the end result will be happy, satisfied customers that buy from you repeatedly and provide numerous referrals!

Copyright 2005 — Alan Rigg

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don’t Perform and What to Do About It. His company, 80/20 Sales Performance, helps business owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales by implementing The Right Formula™ for building top-performing sales teams. For more information and more FREE sales and sales management tips, visit http://www.8020salesperformance.com.

Keeping up with what words are in and out isn’t hard. Yet,

with all the other more important things on our to-do list,

it doesn’t get remembered easily.

1. Any archaic, stilted words, such as: hitherto, whereby,

thereby, herein, therein, thereof, heretofore.

2. “Kindly advise.” As opposed to not kindly advising.

3. “Whereas.” Instead use “where” or “while.”

4. “Pursuant to.” This is too informal for 2004. The

express expired in the 1980s.

5. “As per your request.” As per any other way…dah?

Shorten to, “as requested” or “as your requested.”

6. “As of today, we are in receipt of” or “we are in receipt

of.” Instead, “Today we received.”

7. “Please don’t hesitate to call.” Again a term that went

out in the 1980s. Update it with, “feel free to call.”

8. “When time permits.” This is great

language for a poem

but not sales information. The adjective “time” doesn’t

have anything to do with permit. It needs to match people.

Only people use time.

9. “Enclosed please find.” Honestly, I don’t know when this

one expired, yet it did, so don’t use it.

10. “Of even date.” This one I thought went out in the

1950s and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I received not one

but two sales letter with it included last week. So, I

thought I would put this one for those that missed it back

then.

Bonus: Yet and so — use them conservatively and only for

impact. They are on their way out as well.

Catherine Franz, past managing partner, now certified life

and business coach specializing in marketing and writing,

Internet and infoproduct development. For other articles,

and ezines: http://www.AbundanceCenter.com.

When selling a product to a consumer, one of the things we tend to overlook, is that it is as equally important to sell ourselves.

A consumer wants to know that the person behind the product believes in what they are saying, and they want to be convinced that the person making the presentation would use this product themselves.

Not to long ago, I went to get my oil changed at one of those fifteen minute quick lubes you might find along a major highway.

I watched the mechanic as he pulled my car into the bay and began to prep my car for the oil change.

Not long after I had begun reading my magazine, the mechanic came into the waiting area, and asked me to step outside so he could go over a few things in reference to my car.

While standing under the hood, gazing down at my car engine, the mechanic began to explain to me, that due to the high mileage on my car, it would be in my best interest to have my transmission fluid changed.

This made sense, however, the entire time he was explaining, he never once looked at me, only the engine, as though he was speaking to the car and not to me.

He than began to explain the process of changing the transmission fluid. He began by telling me that some part of the transmission would be “TOOKEN” off.

Stop! Hold everything!

“TOOKEN”

When I heard this word come out of the mechanics mouth, a red flag went up.

My first thought was, “tooken” is not a word in the English language.

I very politely declined any further work on my vehicle. After all, I had only come in

for an oil change.

I did appreciate the fact that the mechanic took the time to point out these possible problems with my car, and although he sold me on the transmission fluid change, he did not sell himself, and lost me on the sale.

The point to take into consideration is that a minor flaw, perhaps one you don’t even know exists, can make all the difference in your sales presentation. One small chink in your armor can loose you the sale.

If that mechanic had looked me in the eye, and used the word “taken” instead of “tooken,” his company would have made an extra $79.99 that day.

Body language is perhaps the most critical part of a sales presentation.

Body language, especially eye contact, can make or break a sale. It gives your customer the indication that you are confident in what you do and what you sell.

Here are a few things to consider when selling yourself to your customer.

1. Body language, smiling and eye contact.

2. Firm hand shake

3. Pleasing appearance, make shore those shoes are shined.

4. Product knowledge

5. Speak clearly and slowly

6. Posture, don’t slouch

7. Take time to listen

If you take these factors into consideration, you will see an increase in your sales productivity. Always keep in mind that you are a big part of the sale. Before the consumer believes in your product, they must first believe in you.

Jay Conners is a former loan officer with more than fifteen years of experience in the mortgage business. You can read more articles just like this by subscribing to his free news letter by visiting his site at http://www.jconners.com a mortgage resource center. He also owns http://www.callprospect.com, a mortgage lead company.

You have a choice. You can stand out or blend in with your competitive landscape. Differentiation doesn’t come naturally, blending in does. We all want to fit in with the crowd, we want to be like everybody else, and we’ve been that way since we were kids. As a professional sales representative you should focus on what makes you different because the similarities will take care of themselves.

When selling there are three principle things you can differentiate: You, your products, and your company. My observation is that most sales representatives do an adequate job of differentiating their products and their company. They neglect, however, to develop a personal brand. Before a customer considers buying your products, they must buy you.

Here are seven ways to separate you from the competition:

1. Your appearance matters. Look the part because your appearance influences your image. You are walking billboard and how you look is what your prospects see first. Belts and shoes should be the same color. Shoes and shoe heels should be shined – every day. When it comes to your wardrobe buy less and spend more.

2. Prepare an effective e-mail signature. Your e-mail signature of course should include your name, a keyword a short phrase – describing your expertise, a telephone number, and your web site. Also periodically include a P.S. and a P.P.S. to emphasize new product introductions, special sales, and special events. In this way, every email provides a branding and promotional opportunity for you.

3. Getting people to return your telephone calls is challenging for everyone. Using a different approach can make all the difference in the world. Mike, a client, shared this with me and it’s guaranteed to be different. If someone very important is not returning your telephone calls use this approach. Buy a coffee mug and print these words on the mug. “Let’s talk business over a cup of coffee.” Put a packet of Starbucks coffee into the mug and include a note with your business card and the times you’ll be available to take his telephone call.

4. Here’s a business card idea. Why are business cards printed one side? Use the blank side of your business to differentiate yourself. You can stamp an inspirational quote. You can stamp the 7 reasons why customers like doing business with

you. Use red ink to make it stand out.

5. This is a small tip though it’s an effective one. Most promotional literature is produced on standard size 81/2” X 11” paper. Since most people are overwhelmed by the amount of work on their desk – they simply create stacks of sales rep literature. Go to an Office Depot and buy brightly colored 9 X 12 paper. Affix your literature to the 9 X 12 paper and it’ll standout in any stack of literature. Use the open space on the colored paper to write a note, a reminder, or even your phone number.

6. Visibility is more important than ability. Every contact counts. Develop a (one-two-three) follow-up system every time you meet and/or talk to a new prospect. Here’s my recommendation – within 24 hours send an e-mail, within 72 hours send a handwritten note, within 10 days send a handwritten note with an article to your prospect. Within two weeks you have a total of four exposures with your new prospect. Now that’s impressive.

7. Prepare creative organizational charts for your biggest proposals. In your business, if you do proposals especially for larger deals, consider using a very creative organizational chart. Think about the five to seven people in your organization who interact with your customers; you, your sales manager, your Vice President of sales, customer service, technical service, you get the picture. Create an organizational chart using boxes and include in each box the following: name, title, telephone number, fax number, e-mail address, and a digital photograph. This introduces your entire team with photographs to your new potential customer. It’s easier for a prospect to say no to a salesperson than it is to say no to the entire team.

The real difference among salespeople is what’s inside their heads – their ideas. To offer generalities when customers are begging for specificity misses the mark completely. Don’t permit generalities to skewer the real differences between you and your competitors.

Being boring, bland, and benign won’t cut it in today’s very competitive marketplace.

If you want to make a difference you have to be different.

Jim Meisenheimer is the creator of No-Brainer Sales Training. His sales techniques and selling skills focus on practical ideas that get immediate results. You can discover all his secrets by contacting him at (800) 266-1268 or by visiting his website: http://www.meisenheimer.com