Stu Schlackman

Price concerns are typically the most common objection. They typically come up when the client doesn't see your value. I believe one solid strategy is to refocus the client to what's their most important priority when looking to invest. When price comes up, it's important to bring up your service, expertise and capability. This can differentiate you from others in your market. When you offer great service and communication, your clients will know that you have their best interest at heart. Your expertise is worth its weight in gold when you give your clients a solid strategy based on your past successes. This is where you can get excellent referrals. The goal is to have long-term relationships. I believe clients get what they pay for.

Your strategic plan is your "how." How will you achieve your goals on a consistent basis? How much time will you spend on prospecting. Prospecting, depending on your industry should be a minimum of ten hours a week. A important responsibility of salespeople is to build a robust pipeline to ensure your success. I believe a strong pipeline should be 5X your opportunities if you close 33% of your prospects. The more the better. The goal though is quality. Part of your sales plan should be to define your ideal prospect. What is their size, their needs and how do they define the value in your products and services? Remember quality customers want value over low price.

I shared in my sales training on building your sales plan that your sales objectives will build up to your goal. Objectives can be one month to eighteen months and goals can be two to five years. Objectives should be SMART. I believe if they are realistic and focused on specific times and measured in increments, your goals will be achieved. What's very important though is your process. A good process that is followed with discipline will assure make your goals on a consistent basis. Great sales leaders have their people disciplined on following a sound process that leads to ongoing success.

I believe another important aspect of sales coaching is understanding the personality styles of each of your team members. I use a color coded tool I developed called the "Four People Personality Assessment" you can take from my website at stuschlackman.com. Once your salespeople understand their style as well as you the leader, you can assess their strengths and weaknesses more accurately and better coach. For instance, two styles, Gold and Green are more process driven and analytical. They are you left brain styles. The other two styles are Blue and Orange and they are relationship driven and more big picture versus detailed. Two styles are more aggressive - Orange and Gold and the other two, Blue and Green are more passive.

Practicing your sales skills is crucial to the success of every sales individual. Just like playing golf or tennis, the more you hone your skills, the greater potential for success. I believe in self assessing where I can improve. It might be asking questions, handling objections, or your presentation skills. Role playing with a colleague is the best way to improve your skills. Sales training is essential but typically we lose 80% of what we learn in the first month if those skills aren't practiced. Customers want to do business with salespeople that are confident and enthusiastic. When you practice and hone your sales skills, your confidence level goes up and the customer takes notice.

When it comes to meeting goals time and time again, I believe it's about breaking down your process and fine tuning how you run your business. Many salespeople look at their quarterly goal and monitor how their doing against it as the quarter moves forward. If you break done the process into what you are doing on a weekly basis, it will help you to stay on track much easier. Your goals are the "what." Your strategy is the "how." How will you achieve your goals. Your action plan is the step by step actions that will help you achieve your goal. That's where your process lies. It should also align with your strategy which can be to prospect more, or potentially focus on existing accounts for more revenue.