Author: David Matney

Can you believe it’s March already? Has the enthusiasm of the new year waned some? Sometimes we get into a funk or we get out of sync, and this is a reminder that we need to get back to the basics.

When people get into a slump, I often remind them that you have to repeat the things that have made you successful.

Very early in my sales career, I had great success right out of the gates. The amazing part about it is that I didn’t even really know what I was doing.

However, the most important thing is that I was enthusiastic about what I was selling. My enthusiasm rubbed off on the prospects, and they became enthusiastic as well.

After a while of patting myself on the back and hearing how good I was from others, I started getting into a slump. This made no sense to me because now I felt I had more experience, and I certainly had more knowledge about what I was selling. Thankfully, I was able to sit down with one of my mentors and we reviewed my presentation. He pointed out to me something that was very profound.

My presentation was filled with knowledge and so much information that it became double the length of what it should’ve been.

We talked about keeping it simple, and most of all, keeping the enthusiasm. In other words, he pointed out to me that I needed to repeat the things that made me successful.

This applies to every area of success. Even the most successful people in the world will slip on their daily habits. Because of this, they will find frustration due to the lack of success. What separates them is not their willpower or motivation, it’s the ability to get back on track quickly.

Perhaps you have found yourself not where you want to be or even in a slump. The key is to remember that we all go through this, but the good news is that you will come out of it.

Whether it’s exercise, diet, sales, relationships, or just every day living, let me encourage you to get back to the basics. Do what you did when you did what you did.

Let’s get back to the field of sales again. The other day I was speaking to a newer sales rep. They started out very well and recently hit a brick wall. We began to review his presentation. The amazing thing is that he was doing the same thing that I did at the beginning of my career. He was over explaining things that really weren’t that important. It was almost like he was trying to impress people with all of his knowledge. I gave him the same advice I received from way back then. “Keep it simple, quit over explaining, stop selling, and start helping and remember to be enthusiastic.

In other words, repeat the things that have made you successful.” Incredibly, he’s back on track and doing better than ever.

Once again, getting back to the basics can apply to all areas of our lives. If you have found yourself in a funk, let me encourage you to think about the things you were doing before that allowed you to have success. Always remember the reasons you are doing what you are doing. Every now and then, you have to go back to your WHY.

It’s important that you do not allow any negativity into your life. Be careful what are exposing your mind to. Make sure your circle of influence is encouraging you and not trying to bring you down. Your mind is a powerful tool. Make sure you nourish it with nothing but positivity.

Put the past behind you, and let’s get back to the basics once again. Your future looks incredible. On this great journey of success, make sure you have piles of smiles through the miles of trials.

Happy Selling,

David

Remember as a child how excited you were in the days leading up to your birthday, Christmas or some other big event?

You couldn’t wait for that day to arrive, because you knew it was going to be amazing!

Why not approach this week the same way you approached those special days as a child? Go ahead…do it!  Your sales motivation is depending on this kind of attitude.

As a child in the days leading up to my birthday day or Christmas, it seemed as if everything was a spectacle. I was constantly on the hunt for a clue and some sort of indication as to what my birthday or Christmas might bring.

What a great approach to this week.

Approach it with the same open eyes and open ears, and be on the prowl for those new opportunities and the excitement that awaits.

Sometimes, I can’t help but think that maybe if we all had a little more child-like approach to our jobs, we would have more fun and get more out of those jobs.

With each call you make and each customer or prospect you meet, be looking for the unexpected clue and the new opportunity you may have been overlooking for months or even years.

One of the amazing things about a child and their new toys is the way they play with them.

I can remember on many occasions watching my own children completely disregarding the normal way a toy should be used and using it in a completely different manner.  Yet, despite the fact they disregarded the instructions, they were gaining an incredible amount of fun out of it.

The same can be said with how we approach our prospecting and client relationships. Sometimes we have to throw away the playbook and look at things differently to uncover the unexpected.

Let’s have fun this week. Be looking for the unexpected and making it the expected.

Happy Selling,

David

Good Monday morning everyone, or is it?

With only 2 days left in the month some out there are having a very tough month. with only 2 days left in the month, for many salespeople, that means it’s a mad scramble to get another deal to make a bonus. For others it’s the last days to coast, because of a bad attitude that says the month is shot, so screw it and try again next month.
Regardless of where you’re finishing for the month, there is one thing every salesperson must do, and that is take a few minutes and assess what has happened and how to maximize the month’s to come.

Below are some questions you can ask yourself to help you assess how a bad month just ended:

• What were the successes from this past month and how you can build on them for next month?
• What did I learn during the past month and how can I use it to improve my sales performance next month?
• What activity can I stop doing or spend less time doing that will free up more time to be actively selling?
• How many more accounts do I need to develop in the next 1 month/3 months?
• What is the right mix of accounts by industry/channel that I need to focus on to achieve my sales objectives?
• What is the sequence of things I need to do in the coming month to take full advantage of my time and the resources I have available? 
• ow much more business is out there if I were able to increase my sales effectiveness and my portfolio by 25%?
• What steps can I take to improve my effectiveness and time management? Use a notebook or file on your computer to save your monthly assessments. Two weeks into the new month, take a look at what you wrote and use it as a quick mid-month performance check.
  Going forward, save each month’s assessment, as they will make interesting reading a year or more down the road.
  As you continue to progress in your merchant services career, you will look at past months and be shocked at how much improvement you’ve made.  I encourage salespeople to do this because it then acts as a motivational tool that will drive you even more. This month is quickly coming to a close and the last quarter of the year will be upon us. Have a plan to knock the last quarter out of the ballpark. 

What are some sales tips you use to meet and exceed quota?

Happy Selling,

David 

Prospecting is a game that too many salespeople have already lost because they’re mentally unprepared.

I want you to be successful at prospecting, and I’m going to tell you the top ten things to get your head in the game. 

So in true David letterman fashion,

from the Home office in Prospect, Connecticut, 

Here are the Top 10 Reasons Why Prospecting Is a Mental Game

10. Prep the day before.

You can’t go into anything mentally prepared if you have no idea what you’re getting into. 

– Who are the contacts I’m going to be calling?
– What are my expectations? 

If you wait till that morning, you’re going to waste so much valuable time just getting ready.

9. Set the expectations.

It’s not your job to do the impossible. Prospecting is one step at a time, and you have to be mentally prepared for the long haul. You’re not going to make a couple phone calls and suddenly business is just falling into your lap. It’s going to take time. Set some expectations to prepare your mindset.

8. Immerse yourself. 

If you want to become good at anything, you have to do it. You’ve got to set yourself up for really learning and studying the craft. If you want to become good at it, you’ve got to watch, learn, and listen from those who are good. Investing in yourself is more than just dollars, it’s also taking the time to read/listen and apply knowledge. To sign up for FREE training CLICK HERE

7. Set daily and hourly goals. 

If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there? I love setting daily and hourly goals such as,  “During this hour, I’m going to achieve x.” Set yourself daily goals that you can accomplish. Here’s what I’ve found, success creates success. Achieving these smaller goals propels you forward. 

6. Expect success.

If you go in to prospecting thinking, “Nothing’s going to happen here,” nothing will happen, I guarantee it. But if you go in with an expectation of success, it is amazing how much better you’ll listen. That’s right, you’ll listen better, hear more things, find opportunities. If I put two people in a room: one with a great attitude expecting success, and one a negative Nelly, and I give them the same list, guess what? The negative Nelly will come out of it with zero, and the person who has that success mindset is going to come out of it ahead.

5. Know your contact. Check out Lead Dump Here

The days of just randomly grabbing a phone book and calling people are gone. Okay, now there are some companies out there who still are just given lists. I get that, but that’s becoming a smaller and smaller field all the time. You may not know your contact personally, but do know the industry they’re in. Sure, you may not have had time to do a deep dive into their website, their company, and their personal profiles every time.  But any amount of background knowledge gives you a greater level of confidence. Remember, confidence makes you listen better.

4. Know your outcome.

If you don’t know the outcomes your customers achieve, you’re too focused on the product. Don’t sell the product. Sell the outcome.  When you sell the outcome, the customer is going to understand the value you offer much better and much faster.

3. Play the long game.

Prospecting is not something you do one hour a month. “Well, I tried it for a couple days, it didn’t work, so I guess I can’t prospect.” Nope. 

Mentally prepare yourself that it is going to take time to fill your pipeline. 

2. Remove the negativity.

If you have negative people that you hang out with, you can’t afford it. There may be news sites, things that you listen to, watch, or read that are negative. Get them out because it’s amazing how it eats away at your mindset.  Prospecting is already tough enough. But when you have the right mental outlook, it’s amazing how much easier it is.

And the #1 Why Prospecting is a Mental Game is…. 

1. You need a support person. 

You need a champion, an accountability partner, somebody who can come alongside you.  If you are looking for somebody like that, reach out to me because I have some ways to match people up. Reach out and grab me on that!

Have a great weekend,

David

Today is the beginning of the rest of your amazing life. 

You have dreams deep inside of you that need to come true. The choice is up to you. You can either pursue those dreams and allow them to come to fruition, or let the time go by and live with regret.

It’s important to put the past behind us. The past should only be viewed with gratitude for the good things. Look backward with gratitude and look forward with confidence. Use the past as a launching pad. 

Your future dreams are more valuable than the history of the past.
Never build your future around your past. The past is behind you. Do not make the mistake of letting yesterday use up too much of today. It’s much more important to look where you are going than to see where you have been.

We have all been around people that constantly talk about the past. The reality is that those who do that are going backwards. Those who talk about the present are usually just maintaining and staying neutral. 

The ones that talk about the future are growing. This is why it’s important to be forward thinking. The more you look backward, the less you’ll see what’s in front of you. 
The future scares only those who prefer living in the past. Yesterday has passed forever and it is beyond our control. What is important is what lies ahead of us. It is essential to set goals and start working on your dreams.
I know we all have things in our past that we may regret. Do not allow regrets to control your life. You cannot stay there anymore. The key is to use these past regrets as life lessons.  Put them behind you and understand that today is a wonderful new beginning.
You have incredible opportunities right in front of you and you have some amazing dreams inside of you. You have been gifted with special talents. Today is your day to make that decision to make your dreams come true.  It’s going to take a lot of hard work, dedication and commitment. It is not going to be easy. I guarantee that you will have struggles, obstacles, and difficulties along the way. No matter what happens, stay committed to your goals. 
Do not let regret take place of your dreams.

Take the risk right now, and take advantage of the amazing opportunity that you have. Your future self, and all of your dreams will thank you.
Remember this, your past is behind you. You do not live there anymore. 

You have a bright and incredible future. Now is the time to live out your dreams. It may not be easy but I promise you that it will be worth it. 

Believe with all of your heart that you can make your dreams come true. 

Going forward, you will not say “I could’ve, I should’ve, I wish…” Instead, proclaim “My future looks incredible and I’m excited about where I’m going!”.
No regrets! Your future looks amazing!

Now go get after your dreams and make it happen!

Happy Selling, 

David

Over the last few years, I’ve watched a lot of salespeople come and go. Seems as if everyone thinks sales is an easy gig until they actually do it. I guess that’s a metaphor for life. It’s easier to talk about a task than do it. There are some misdeeds in sales you can’t do, though. I call these the  Seven Deadly Sins of Sales. 

If you commit one or more of these seven sins, If you commit these sins against sales humanity, you shall perish in the halls of HR, wondering why you are forced to perform meaningless chores for money. 

Avoid these Seven Deadly Sins of Sales at all costs.

#1 Not Following Up: Let’s get the most important sin out of the way up front. As a person working in sales, you should know it takes 8-12 contacts in order to close most prospects. If you don’t follow up after the first contact, you’ll forever starve and have skinny kids. You’ll be plagued with empty bank accounts and a miserable sales existence. 

What’s crazy to me, is that all the sinners out there who don’t follow up are the same ones who usually complain about the leads. Look, your prospects just met you. How can you expect them to give you money? Are you a bum? That’s not how this works. You have to follow up. Let your leads get to know you. People buy from people they know, like and trust. Become that person. 

#2 Talking Too Much: If you talk on like a chatterbox, you will get banished to the accounting department to spend the rest of your existence in bean counter hell. If you talk too much and don’t  make sales, they will put you where you can only talk to yourself. I don’t mean an insane asylum either, but an empty cubicle. Hell. Pure cube from hell. 

If you’re yakking away, you’ll talk your way right out of a sale. Your job is to ask questions, answer questions, uncover the problem and provide the solution. Talking too much complicates the process and confuses the prospect. When you talk too much, you give your potential merchant too much to think about. Thinkers don’t make buying decisions. They “think about” making a buying decision.

#3 Not Knowing Your Product: It’s surprising how many salespeople don’t know their products inside and out. Seriously, it’s an overwhelming number. How are you going to sell without knowledge of every single detail? How does it help your merchant? What problems does it solve? Who’s the best fit for it? Not knowing your product is a sure way to shame yourself out of a sales job.

No one wants to look stupid in front of prospects. Fear of public speaking is the number one phobia in America, due in large part to the fact that people are afraid of looking dumb. If you don’t know your product, you look dumb. If that happens, you’ll be banished to the fiery pits of sales hell for eternity. 

#4 Failing To Prospect: If you don’t work every day to fill your pipeline, you are straight up failing at sales. I mean everyday, 25,30,50 businesses a day. Every deal you close needs to be replaced by at least two more in your pipeline. The ONLY way to fill a pipeline is by prospecting. I always say, “The more hands you shake, the more money you make.”  Prospecting means shaking hands with as many people as possible. 

When you break it down, “sales” translates to mean your future income. Each year, you should be increasing your earnings. Without proper prospecting, you’ll never hit the numbers you want. One of the worst mistakes I see salespeople making is when they have a good month, they’ll slack off the next. Prospecting is not a singular event. It’s an everyday thing.

#5 Not Asking For The Business: You’d be surprised by the amount of salespeople who will conduct a flawless proposal presentation and then fail to complete the most important step. Ask for the business. Not asking stems from fear of rejection. If salespeople don’t ask, they don’t get denied. Seems legit. 

Truth is, if you don’t ask, you also won’t close.

You can know your product inside and out. You could also be the best presenter, but if you don’t ask for the sale, you will never be number one. Not requesting the business will result in working for someone who does. Reality check.

#6 Selling Features: Features are nice. They don’t close sales, though. A true salesman knows that selling benefits and results are the way to riches. When you ignore the needs of the merchant and you talk about how cool Apple Pay or some other pointless feature may be , the prospect tunes out. They might have a ton of questions, which you can’t answer because you’re too busy talking about features to answer them.

Real sales professionals sell benefits and results. Remember this: no one wants a  mortgage. They want a house. No one wants a drill; they want a hole. Find out what they’re drilling holes for, then sell the result. Sell what matters.  The result. Obviously, I can’t say it enough. If you can’t stop selling based on features, you’ll forever burn in the basement of the building in the boiler room of the janitorial department at Walmart.

#7 Not Having A Clear Offer: One of the main reasons salespeople fail to close deals and earn money is lack of a clear offer. Just because you know what you sell, doesn’t mean the prospect does. When you confuse the prospect, you lose the deal. Humans are leery of uninformed decisions. An uninformed decision is a bad decision and most prospects are one bad decision away from peril.

You’ve gotta get clear on what it is you offer, how the offer is presented, and the result of that offer. I’ll let you in on a secret: keep it simple. Over complicating your offer will shrink your bottom line. So, Get clear. Get simple. Get paid. 

Now that you know what the  Seven Deadly Sins of Sales  are, it’s your job to avoid sinning at all costs. You sin against sales and you’ll be losing more than just your tithe money. Let’s be real. We’re all good salespeople, but we can all stand to be better.

Have you made some of these sales sins?

Happy Selling,

David

It’s prospecting month so I’m gonna keep rolling out the post on this topic.

It doesn’t matter how good our products and services are if we want to sell and make money-we must first find people to sell to. Everything you and I want is reachable only if we start prospecting like our lives depend on it. 

You and I could be the greatest salesperson in the world that even knows the greatest sales secret of all-time, we could know how to SUPERFREAK a demonstration, handle all objections like a closing ninja, have hundreds and hundreds of closes in our arsenal ready to use on the spot, but what good is any of that if we have no one to use them on? 

That is the main purpose of prospecting-to get people to know about who we are. Our problem is obscurity. People need to think of our name and our company first when they have a need for merchant services. By prospecting, we can create our own economy. 

 Here are some prospecting tips I know you will find useful today: 

1. Start thinking about how you can SERVE everyone  around you.  

You are meeting someone for the first time and they ask you what you do. When you respond that you’re in sales, they immediately hesitate and become a bit guarded. The truth is the greatest salespeople hardly even consider themselves to be salespeople. They think of themselves as people who are there to serve their prospect or merchant. A prospect is coming to you because they have a problem, a need. There is something that isn’t working right that they need it fixed and they have come to you because they hope you will solve their problem. Often times though, a merchant hasn’t diagnosed or even knows about the proper solution to their own problem. That’s why you as the sales person are there. You are there to serve. Look around you. Everyone has problems. Start serving! 

2. Find a way to get in front of people.  

Are your prospective merchants  involved in community organizations, or on the boards of other companies? 

Making connections at meeting events like chamber of commerce, BNI or other local community meetings

can be a great way to get in front of the hard-to-reach decision makers.  

3. Always get referrals.  

Once when I was with one of my local merchants, I showed him a list of about ten people I was having trouble getting in front of. I asked him: “Do you know any of them and can you help me with them?” My merchant quickly scanned the list and offered to call two of the names on it. 

He immediately achieved two appointments for me that I couldn’t pull off for two weeks. Every time you make a sale, get referrals.

Even when you don’t make a sale, ask for them. The bottom line is to be successful in this industry you need to prospect like crazy, follow up continually and always ask for referrals even from your prospective merchant. 

I challenge all of you to spend the next couple of days thinking of creative methods to make yourself positively known to at least 150 new people next week.

Email or text me back what you came up with and what your results were. 

If you’re not yet on our the Free sales training Click Here. You will get detailed information on the techniques to master sales prospecting in person, on the phone,  with ready-made scripts on making sales calls.. Selling is more than just prospecting of course – but without prospecting you won’t make many sales! 

Happy Selling,

David

How’s your prospecting going this month? Mines been going well and I’ve noticed some unique characteristics.

Today I want to talk about selling different types of prospects. Here is a misconception sales people have. 

Sales people think that every sale they make is the same. In other words all they have to figure out is their pitch. Once they have their pitch down they are going to be able to sale anybody. Well that is actually not true. Sorry to burst your bubble if you thought you had the perfect pitch. 

The problem is a pitch may work well with one person, but will not work well with a different person. So one thing I want to encourage you to do. Especially those of you who are a little more advanced, maybe you are already making a few sales a month and you want to get to 20 sales a month, learn to match your prospect. Here are three different types of prospects:

1. The enthusiastic, loud or outgoing prospect

Sometimes you walk into the business and have someone who is enthusiastic and loud. With that type of business owner you need to be outgoing. You need to be excited. If you are immediately stepping back and acting timid, they are going to think, “Who is this person. I don’t want to deal with them.” Instead you have to walk in and say, “Hey, I am doing great! It is great to meet you. I am a local business owner just like you. How long have you guys been here?” Jump right into a active conversation.

2. The quiet, timid, or monotone prospect

On the flip side you might have someone who is really quiet and they speak in a monotone voice. Now to that person you are going to say something like, “Hi, I just stopped by today because I really just wanted to introduce myself. I am a local business owner. We have our business just downtown here in Altoona. How long have you guys been in business here?” Have that measured tone to your voice in this situation. If they like to talk, talk about something. Talk about things in the local community. Try to find things that are not argumentative. Maybe things like the local sports team. Local things that are non-partisan. Things that are not religious in nature. Things that are not going to cause something like a big argument. Have a conversation with them and talk to them a little bit, then move over to what you are trying to sell them.

3. The non-talkative, go-getter, or goal-oriented prospect

You also have people that don’t want to talk. These are people that are your “go-getters.”  That’s how I am. If you are a sales person and you come to try and sell me at my office, I would want you to tell me what you wanted and I would probably spend about five minutes with you. Then I would make a decision if I would want to meet with you again or not. That’s how I am at work. A lot of business owners are like. For those people they hate someone coming and talking slow. Mr. Jones is thinking, “Oh, my goodness, I have things to do…”

I will give you one of my personal sales stories and I will finish up. Probably one of the first big sales I made was with a guy that had  a few BBQ shops and I sold both his locations. I walked into his BBQ shop at about 8:30 in the morning.  He was there and a few of his employees were there. They were getting ready for the day, they were not open for business but the door was unlocked. So I walked in and as soon as I did he turns around and looks at me and says, “What do you want?” I said, “I want to do your credit card processing guy.” He said, “What are your rates?” I said, “Cheaper than yours.” He looked at me and said, “Alright, what can you do?” I  told him I needed a credit card statement and he said he didn’t have one handy. I asked him if he could get me one later in the week to which he told me to come back Thursday. I said, “Alright, I will be here Thursday at 8:30 am.” I left. I was probably only there for about 2 minutes. Came back Thursday morning walked in at 8:30am on the dot. He handed me a statement and said go see what you can do and come back. I was there for about another 2 minutes. I got the analysis I came back and we sat down at a table. He was a little more relaxed then and I said, “Here is what I can do for you.” The whole style of the sale was really straight to the point. I said, “I am going to save you this much money.” What questions do you have for me? I let him be in control. (Ask business owners what questions they have and let them be in control of the conversation.) They like that control.

So the idea I want to give you today is if you are doing pretty good with sales and have your opening pitch down, start matching your prospects. This will definitely have a big impact on your sales.

Happy Selling,

David

Are you ready for the changes this year is bringing?

As we talked about last month there are numerous ways to prospect, emails, text, social media even door to door. 

Today’s I will give you The Top 10 things that you need to be on alert for with regards to prospecting in this new economy. 

From the home office in Cool, Texas 

Here are the The Top 10 Ways Prospecting has Changed in 2023

10. Engage Everyone 

Does it have to be the CEO? for us yes, but you have to be prepared to engage management, gatekeepers,because  People are more cautious, which means decision-making typically may take longer. That means you better be prepared to get those relationships in place and start engaging people further down the food chain now.

9. Radio silence

Customers are going to go radio silent and you better be prepared to counter it. Since decisions are being slowed and people are being more cautious, there’s a tendency to go radio silent because they want to check out competition. You’ve got to keep in front of them. One of the best techniques that I love to do is automatically send them some insights, or some information to show to them how beneficial you’re going to be to them as an organization. It’s not just, “Hey, let’s talk.” Instead, it’s showing up with value from the get-go. It’s one of the easiest ways to break that radio silence.

8. Be laser focused

It’s going to be tempting to sit there and chase the shiny object, but right now more than ever you better stay in your sandbox.  You need to be laser focused to understand exactly what’s happening in our industry, with your competitive set and your customers, because your intel is going to keep you at the front of the pack.

7. De-educate the customer

Yes, De- educate, hear me out. Customers are trying to do all this information gathering on their own, and as a result, they’re finding a lot of bad information. It’s your job to come in and be able to verify, and when necessary, de-educate. It’s possible what they think they need doesn’t contribute to the solution they’re looking for. Or perhaps it isn’t going to be the best strategy to help them achieve their outcome. You have to de-educate them first so you can educate them.

6. Your personal reputation

It’s not your company reputation, it’s your personal reputation that matters. Let’s not kid ourselves. There are multiple companies out there that probably sell and provide what we provide. 

What’s going to be the distinguishing difference? You. You better be watching and protecting your personal reputation more than ever right now.

5. LinkedIn and social media

LinkedIn is without a doubt a valuable tool since so many people go there. There are still industries out there where people prefer checking you out on Google.  If they’re checking you out on Google, chances are your LinkedIn profile coming up first. Therefore, you better make sure that you’re engaging and not just a ghost profile out there with no posts. 

4. Bigger network

Of course, this isn’t just a game to see how many people you can get to know, but rather it’s a process of staying engaged with people who are in your circle.  A bigger network helps because more people are going to be challenging more things before they make a decision. Not to mention a larger network means greater opportunities for referrals.

3. More contacts

The bigger your network, the more contacts you’re going to have. This is going to work to your advantage because in dealing with a company, you may normally sell to two or three people. Now it may be four to eight people. You’re going to need more contacts within the organization to complete the same amount of transactions as you did last year.

2. In-person engagement

During COVID, we all learned how to sell online. In-person is worth a lot now because it still hasn’t been done in a long time. It could even be as easy as attending a conference or local referral group. I get it, sometimes your customers are everywhere and you can’t go see them all. However, you may have an in-person relationship with someone who in turn has an in-person relationship with your customer.

And the #1 Top 10 Ways Prospecting has Changed in 2023 is …

1. Referrals

Referrals are without a doubt gold. They’re one of the most effective ways to grow your network and amazing opportunities to increase revenue. 

The trick is:

 How do I ask for a referral? Just ask, during installs, dropping off supplies or just checking on them. Ask and you shall receive. 

When? ALL THE TIME!

Who? Anyone who you feel can give a good referral source. Fun fact – My barber has given me several. 

A great place to start is your own accounts. Ask them for referrals. Offer them a spiff for someone signing up. Also by giving your own referrals; you have to give to get.

Let me know your thoughts on this Top 10 list.

Have a great Weekend,

David

There is no feeling quite like the one a sales professional experiences when they introduce themselves to a new prospect.

It’s exciting and it is also a constant struggle within our guts, because we know that a sincere, confident opening statement will work best, but even your best line is going to be met with a negative response one out of three times at best. As a result, you are hedging emotionally, bracing yourself for the one liner that could make you feel one inch tall on the way out as you leave in defeat.

One thing that helps, is to understand what the merchant is thinking, but not saying.

A prospect who has never met you, has no idea who you are, or what type of person you are, or what value you can offer.

You cannot take it personally, because rejection in sales is not personal. It feels very personal, but it is not.

When a prospect gives you an objection, you must respond as if they said something else. That’s right, you need to ignore what they said and respond to what they are thinking.

The good news for you is that there are only three things a merchant is ever thinking when they respond to a sales professional, so there are only three objections that matter. Get ready, because these may seem a little harsh!

– I am too busy, and this is not worth my time.

– I don’t trust you, so nothing you say can convince me.

– I don’t like you, and I don’t think I want to talk to you.

One of these three things is what every prospect is thinking when they give you an objection.

Very few of them would ever say it like this, because they are trying to get rid of you in a nice way.

The problem is that because they are trying to be nice, they are not telling you the real reason for their lack of interest. Let’s see if you can match up an objection to the correct thought.

Let’s set the scene. You just finished going over the proposal showing  a $200+ in monthly savings and they say, “Let me think about this and get back to you; I don’t want to rush into anything.” (Which thought are they having?)

Imagine if you get interrupted during the opening pitch and the prospect says, “I’m not interested, we are happy with who we have.”

A prospect is alone in their shop, slowly working on paperwork and you introduce yourself while handing them your business card. They respond, “Thanks for stopping by, but today is just not a good day for me.”

Did you figure out which objection goes with which thought process?

It is easy to figure out. The first prospect sees the savings and if they trusted you, they would obviously sign up as fast as possible.

The second prospect shuts you down before you even have time to get a full sentence out because they just don’t want to be bothered with anything.

The last prospect is clearly not that busy, but they are using that as an excuse because they can’t imagine talking to you for another five minutes.

Armed with this new knowledge about what a merchant is thinking, let’s come up with the best rebuttal for the real objection for the three prospects above.

Prospect # 1 – “Let me think about this and get back to you; I don’t want to rush into anything.” (They don’t trust you.)

Rebuttal - “I can certainly understand that. The last thing I want to do is see you make a decision and then second guess yourself. If I was in your shoes, I think I would want to see some letters of reference from other local clients that took advantage of our proposed savings and then saw those savings materialize the next month on their statement. If I was able to provide you with 2 or 3 references that did end up saving significantly with my service, would that make you more comfortable?” (You should always carry three or four letters of recommendation with you, if possible.)

Prospect #2 -  “I’m not interested, we are happy with who we have.” (They are too busy to talk.)

Rebuttal - “I can see that you are really busy right now. I know you believe in keeping your vendors honest. Can I ask you one question and email you a savings proposal so you can double check your current statement and make sure you are getting a good deal?

I promise I will be walking out that door in less than two minutes, fair enough?” (Ask them their total volume, and that’s all you need to create a proposal using  James Shepherd’s Instant Quote Tool. Click Here.

Prospect #3 -  “Thanks for stopping by; today is just not a good day for me.” (They don’t like you.)

Rebuttal - “I’m sorry, I think we got off on the wrong foot, do you mind if I ask you a question? How long has your business been located here?”

(Start a conversation and ask them other questions about their business, to show them that you are a real person and someone they would enjoy getting to know.)

Take the knowledge gained in this article today and leverage it in the field. You will be blown away by the results. Don’t take rejection personally. Listen carefully to the way rejection is provided and then use their words and body language to understand the thought process behind it, so you can overcome the real objection.

Happy Selling,

David