What’s the difference between good follow-up and being pushy? This distinction is a difficult one because you don’t want to be seen as obnoxious by customers, but you sure want to make sales to pay the bill, give you an income or prove to management that you are making the tough calls for potential deals. The real issue is how much follow-up is just right. Following up is especially important in the early stages of the sales process, before you’ve had a chance to develop a close connection with your prospective customer. At this initial point of the sales cycle your relationship with the customer is generally a transactional one. What you want it to develop into is one of trust.

No matter what you are selling, you will receive objections to your proposition and sometimes even outright rejection. This rejection can be personal or impersonal. It is particularly prevalent when using the phone for cold calling. Whether you are selling a service offer, a strategy, a concept, an idea or a product you will be rejected in your endeavours on the phone to gain appointments. To lessen the capacity for rejection when you cold-call for appointments, particularly on the phone, keep this fundamental idea in your mind

In the sales process you may have many interviews, meetings and encounters before pen is actually put to paper to complete the deal. These can be face to face, electronically, sharing of paperwork, memorandums of intent or by phone. It can be frustrating and energy sapping for the sales person when things take longer than anticipated. Yet the last thing you want to be seen as is a pressure point in your prospects working lives. Pressure on them to make a large decision can jeopardise the outcome you are looking for, which is a sale Think of the sale as an array of small decisions the prospect makes to reach a major decision to buy your product or service. An array of small decisions on a range of minor points is far easier for most people to make than just one large decision.

Winning all the business all the time is impossible. Look at great individual sports people who stay at the top of their game. The point here is that they win more often that they lose. Sales people have a much longer career than elite sports people though. Their intuition, skills and experience can be distilled down to a unique phenomenon called Sales Intelligence.

Waiting is a voracious devourer of productive time for sales people. Sales people need to have a variety of fall back positions to fill their time when this annoying but normal part of their lives happens. This article shares some of these tactics and strategies

Successful sales people understand how important it is not only to be aware of the impact you make on the potential client in an interview, but they also have the capacity to intuitively critique themselves in the physical interview process while it actually taking place. This title gives you simple by critically important sales interview principles

Successful sales people understand how important it is not only to be aware of the impact they make on the potential client in an interview, but they also have the capacity to intuitively critique themselves in the physical interview process while it is actually taking place. This title shows how to deliver those skills

Buyers of services and products need help to make decisions. Some of the ways to help people reach a decision are covert, some are overt. This title shows as the introducer of the advice, solutions and information how to build the capacity to reach decisions naturally for potential clients.

As you gather prospects, earn and are given referred leads it is important you understand the processes you will have to go through to get to see the people whose names you have acquired. The first sale you will ever make to any prospective client is to sell them the benefits of an interview with you. It is not about product, service or concept, but why they should give you their valuable time.

Improving sales is not necessarily about “pounding the beat more”, seeing more people or sending out more contact devices (hard copy or electronic). In fact to successfully organically grow your business there are more subtle and cost effect ways to increase the turnover.

Are good salespeople born or can they be made through training and practice? Good question, but there is no concrete answer. There are some areas that all people involved in sales can apply, learn and experiment with to improve their capacity to deliver more business for themselves or their employers.

There are many ways to increase sales capacity for companies and individuals. The following things will enhance your chances of covering potential opportunities, making sales that stick and having people happy to recommend you and your services.