RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif., Feb. 20, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- By the end of February, most sales executives will have abandoned their New Year's resolutions. ValueVision Associates, a leader in competency- and process-based training for escalating sales performance, offers 10 tips professionals can use to help them keep their resolutions and achieve professional sales goals.
"Eager sales executives begin each year seeking to sell more by focusing on the basics: better responsiveness, enhanced listening skills, more effective time-management and sharper business skills," said Julie Thomas, president and chief executive of ValueVision Associates. "Within 30 days, however, most have settled back into their pre-resolution routine.
"The key is to make SMART resolutions," Thomas said. "Over the years, we have learned how to set goals that are reasonable and that will lead to success. We encourage sales executives to apply a simple test to their business resolutions. Ask if it's SMART: specific, measurable, activity-based, realistic and time-bound? If they meet these criteria their success will escalate."
The company's ValueSelling Framework is a selling methodology designed to uncover a customer's business issues so that the sales executive can link the unique value of their solution. Based on this methodology, Thomas offers these SMART tips to help sales executives achieve and exceed their goals:
1. Prospect More - The surest way to fill your sales pipeline with qualified prospects is to focus on the potential business issue.
2. Improve Time Management - If you are spending too much time with prospects that result in a No Sale, ask yourself whether you've done your homework. Weed out your prospect by employing facts.
3. Call Higher - Minimize the time spent with prospects who are not in a position to make the final purchasing decision, and maximize your time with the real decision-maker by being prepared.
4. Better Sales Call Planning - You can display your business acumen by intelligently articulating how your product or solution can uniquely impact your prospect's unique business issues.
5. Improve Negotiation Skills - By understanding what the prospect needs and articulating in their language why your solution will deliver the highest value, you are in a better position to negotiate based on that value rather than price.
6. Anticipate the Competition - The most effective way to beat your competition is two-fold:
. Understand your competition and how they match up to you
. Understand your own differences and become a problem expert
for your clients by unearthing issues only your product or
solution can solve
7. Overachieve Sales Goals - Start with the end in mind. Identify your goals and work backward by planning from both an income and activity perspective.
8. Increase Renewal Sales - Existing customers represent the most lucrative business because you've already done the heavy lifting to establish rapport and trust. Its imperative you approach existing customers with the same rigor you would a new sale.
9. Sharpen Relationship Skills - The best sales people are also the most curious, and the most effective way to embed yourself with a prospect is by clearly understanding their business issues and problems.
10. Don't Give Up, Get Creative - If you get a no, move on. Don't get discouraged, but remind yourself to add value to every relationship. They may not be ready to purchase today, but if you show value and understanding, when they are ready to purchase, you'll be at the top of their list.
Note to editors:
Julie Thomas, ValueVision Associates president and CEO, will be a featured speaker at three upcoming events:
-- AIM Annual Showcase on Thursday, February 23 in Irvine,
Calif., http://www.aimglobal.org/events/anmgt06/default.htm
-- Selling Power Sales Leadership Conference on Tuesday,
March 21 in San Francisco, Calif.,
http://www.sellingpower.com/leadership/sf/
-- Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) Annual
Conference, May 7-10 in Dallas, Texas,
https://www.strategicaccounts.org/ac06/main.php
About ValueVision Associates
ValueVision Associates is a worldwide leader in competency- and process-based training for escalating sales performance. Its proprietary ValueSelling Framework is founded on a practical, sustainable methodology that uncovers a prospect's critical business issues and enables the salesperson to link the unique value of their solution to those issues. Through personalized classroom instruction, sales executives are armed with strategies to access and dialogue with executive decision-makers, diagnose stalled decisions, increase forecast accuracy, eliminate discounting and increase deal size. Victory! is a competency-based series of online, multimedia training sessions for sales professionals seeking to sharpen their skills by building their core competencies.