This week we are proud to announce that our guest blog is by our two new interns, Amanda Seaton and Monica Zutter. This is their very first blog post, and I’ve got to say that I’m beaming with pride! They recently attended the second annual Sierra Sales Summit Conference, presented by the Professional Saleswomen of Nevada, also known as PSN. The conference had three expert speakers; Joanne Black, Vickie Musni and our very own, Alice Heiman. Each speaker took a unique approach to sales. Covering three powerful sales techniques. Amanda and Monica summarized the most important takeaways.
P.S. Show them some love by leaving a comment below!
1. Pack Your Pipeline With Hot Prospects
What if you could boost your close rate to more than 50%, get every meeting with one call and knock out your competition? America’s leading authority on referral selling, Joanne Black, taught us the importance of asking for referrals and how it can benefit your business. One of the hardest challenges, in sales, is producing a consistent stream of qualifies leads. Joanne’s solution is referrals!
Did you know that 83% of consumers are comfortable making a referral after a positive experience (Texas State University)? Are you asking for that referral? Joanne said it perfectly in her presentation, ” You don’t know who people know until you ask.”
[bctt tweet=”#SalesTip: You don’t know who people know until you ask. #Referrals” username=”ReferralSales”]
Here are the 3 most powerful reasons to ask for referrals:
Arriving pre-sold
Earning trust and credibility
Shortening the sales process
Many people struggle with asking for referrals. The most common reasons for not asking for referrals are they don’t want to intrude, they don’t know how to ask and they are worried the person may say “no”. Yet according to the New York Times, over 65% of new business comes from referrals. Referrals are powerful for your business, and Joanne taught us that there are a few traps you should avoid.
Here are Joanne’s 5 referral traps to avoid:
Assuming your clients will refer you
Forgetting to ask
Thinking they don’t know anyone who would be a good client for you
Not implementing a referral plan
Relying on social media to generate all their leads
Joanne mentioned that we are hiding in our emails, text messages, cold calls, and social media. Communicating with people and building relationships is the key to successful referrals. Joanne says, “Everybody knows somebody!” When starting to build your referral strategy start by reaching out to previous clients. According to Neilsen, customers are 4x more likely to buy when referred by a friend. They have to know you, like you and trust you to buy from you!
Want to know more about adopting a Referral Program for your business? Take Joanne’s Referral I.Q. Quiz and get a free checklist for where to start! Or check out Joanne’s two books:
2. Understanding Personality Types will Change the Way You Sell.
Next, Vickie Musni taught us the importance of understanding different personality types and how that can affect your sales.
Knowing your audience and knowing yourself will increase your sales. It seems like common sense, however, many times we fail to take into account our prospects personality type when selling. In sales, personality traits play a key role in how a seller is making a sale or how a buyer is going to buy a product.
Vickie gave us a simple and effective way for understanding these different personality types. She uses four colors to describe the four most common types of personalities; Yellow, Red, Green, and Blue.
What do those colors mean?
Most people are a combination but will quickly relate to one of the colors. Vickie’s stressed the importance of how understanding people better will lead to more sales. She used the acronym “S.M.A.R.T.” during her presentation to touch on how personality goes into these important aspects of business.
What does SMART mean and how do personality colors apply to sales?
Sales
Marketing
Abilities
Relationships
Team-building
You can use what you know about your personality to improve in all of the aspects above. Both in life and work we meet many different people all with different personality types and can build relationships more easily when we consider their style.
Yellow: Make buying fun and social for yellow buyers. To get their attention while marketing; use infographics and try having easily accessible social media connects. In their abilities, they are outgoing and confident. Vickie recommends that yellows should “only share half of what pops into their heads.” She also recommends that a yellow personality should connect with referrals/prospects asap on social media.
Red: Practicality, plans and knowing what they want is what reds like in sales. Vickie explained that reds want their time respected as well. While marketing have clear navigation tools, checklists and bullet points for their practical and organized personality. Since reds can be impatient, while building relationships, Vickie recommends having reds connect with people before an event via phone or social media, to put them in the right mindset to meet people when they arrive.
Green: Being caring, flexible and relatable make green shoppers a bit easier to understand. They look for ease and comfort when shopping (tend to like online shopping), having comfortable backgrounds on websites can add to a green’s comfort. Building relationships can be tough for greens since they enjoy the comfort of their own home more than venturing out. Vickie recommends talking yourself into going to events since once you are there, you enjoy it. Push yourself to have more conversations and Make sure your self-talk is helping you move forward.
Blue: When selling to a blue personality, BE PREPARED. Blue’s do their research on your company/products. Be ready to share testimonials about your business also. Have bullet points and “learn more” buttons when marketing to blue personalities. Blue’s should find an opposite personality to network with to help them meet more people.
Vickie’s presentation can help everyone in business, from nurses (possibly green personalities) to business owners (many are red personalities). It is important when working in sales to consider your customer’s personality type so you can interact in a way that is more comfortable for them, which will lead to a shorter sales cycle. As Vickie stated at the end of her presentation “Better relationships keep the sales coming in.”
[bctt tweet=”Better relationships keep the sales coming in. #SalesTips” username=”VickieMusni”]
To learn more about color personalities read her book:
It was great hearing about how to recognize different personality types and how to apply that to your prospecting to get more sales. You can also apply it to your referral strategy to lead to more referrals!
3. Increase Your Online Influence and Authority to Get More Sales
The last speaker of the day, Alice Heiman, spoke on increasing your online influence and authority to get more sales. Alice reminded us of the importance online influence plays into sales. Whether you are in sales or the owner of a business, your online brand matters. It is important to choose the right social media channels, which depends on your market and ideal customer. Social media allows companies to share great content to attract and engage their customers. This does take time and Alice showed us efficient time-saving tools.
Social selling is networking. It is when salespeople use social media to interact with their prospects to build relationships. As salespeople, we must treat people as individuals. You cannot sell the same way to everyone because people are unique and have different needs. Alice taught us that all good sellers today must be good marketers and have an online presence. This helps them meet prospects and get to know them better and then share the information they need.
It is important to interact with others on social media and make your presence known. Share, like, and comment on people’s posts. This lets you be personal with potential clients, which helps with your personal brand. Your personal brand is your reputation and how people describe you. Your personal brand differs based off who you interact with, however, with customers and prospects it should be the same brand.
The Sierra Sales Summit was a great experience for all attendees. Each and every one of us walked away with more knowledge on how to get referrals, selling to different personalities and how to increase sales with your own brand.
[bctt tweet=”#SocialSelling Tip: Social media delights our clients, not interrupts.” username=”AliceHeiman”]
How will you use the ideas from these knowledgeable speakers to increase your sales? Leave a comment below!
Professional Saleswomen of Nevada is a non-profit that provides professional development, networking and mentoring to sales women and men and donates to organizations that lift women up. One of the highlights of the day was when president Alice Heiman, delivered the check to Women’s Money board member, Julie Macc.
0 Comments