Hi %FirstName%,

It’s time for my Saturday Sales Tips. I’d love you to use this opportunity every Saturday to reflect on your week, and either hear some new ideas, or refresh your existing knowledge of sales. Have you taken my Sales Success Test yet, to see how you are getting on?

Another busy week here, visiting clients, shooting this week’s sales tips video (subscribe to my YouTube channel to make sure you don’t miss it), and more writing for my book. How has your week been?

This week I want to talk about two qualities that are crucial for success in sales.

Persistence and determination.

As an avid golf fan, I was pretty excited to see the comeback of the century this week!

Do you follow golf? Even for a non golf fan, it is pretty well known that Tiger Woods had a monumental fall from grace in recent years.

After being forced into taking a step back from golf in the 2013-2014 season due to back injury, he quickly spiralled downwards. He underwent spinal surgery, was arrested for drink driving, was found to have traces of marijuana showing in blood tests, received treatment for sex addiction, and got divorced from his wife between then and now. Phew, busy boy :)

The world, understandably, thought it had seen the last of Tiger Woods: Professional Golfer.

However… we have been proved wrong! You may have seen in the news this week that Woods has made an almost unbelievable comeback, to win the Tour Championship; with the BBC describing it as ‘A tale of implausible redemption it is hard to resist’ (read their interesting write up here).

All I could think of when following this return to success was just how much sheer persistence and determination Woods must possess. How easy would it have been for him to have faded into a quiet life, away from his past controversy and embarrassment? And yet, here he is.

We could all learn a thing or two from Woods’ rise back to the top - watch my video, ‘3 Lessons You Can Learn From Tiger Woods’ Comeback Win’ here.

As I mentioned above, two qualities - persistence and determination, are crucial to be consistently successful in sales. A study completed a few years ago found that 80% of sales take place after 5 - 12 interactions with prospects. I have no doubt that that figure could be higher now.

So, what does this show if you give up too early? Yes, you’re right - it means you miss the boat and miss the chance to win your own sales competition.

One of the questions I get asked a lot is “How do I know if I’m being too pushy?”.

I know you will have probably wondered this at times too.

This question tends to arise when people haven’t qualified their prospects properly.

When you approach your prospect, never assume that they are interested in you, when they actually may not be.

You could have a conversation with them, let them know what you are offering etc., agree to follow up at a later date, all when your prospect was not really interested in the first place. By doing this, you are wasting your own time, and theirs.

Qualifying your prospect PROPERLY stops this situation occurring. The way to qualify them is to understand their:

Budget

Do they have the budget necessary for what you are offering?

Authority

Are they authorised to make this decision or is someone else involved in the process?

Need

What does your prospect actually need? What problem, need or want do they have that needs solving?

Timeline

What has prompted them to address this issue now? What time frame are they looking at?

I have talked about BANT a lot in the past and for more on qualifying your prospect, check out my video; where I provide an in-depth explanation of the process.

I provide advice and even supply the questions you can ask to qualify your prospect, over on my website. Whether you choose to take this advice and ask these questions is up to you!

Another must-do to move a sale along, and stop you feel like you are being too pushy, is to always, always, agree when you are next going to speak to or meet your prospect. Never walk away from an encounter without having this next point of contact planned in.

I like to say that it is not your prospect’s job to contact you; it is your job to follow up with your prospect.

Let’s face it - people get busy. Life happens.

You may not be at the forefront of your prospect’s mind, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t want, and need, what you have to offer. If you have qualified that the prospect is relevant, and they really have a need/desire for what you can offer, you should be persistent. Too many people give up too early in the sales process because they think that after a few calls, the prospect isn’t interested.

Don’t make too many early judgements like this IF you have qualified them properly and built a good initial rapport. Tiger Woods had many times when he made a comeback which didn’t quite work out and he could have easily given up. He didn’t though. He was determined to get himself back to where he once was.

If you have a vision and a set of targets you know you HAVE to achieve and you know what it will take to achieve that vision, determination and persistence are the keys to making it a reality. You already know you want to increase sales. Being clear on what actions make that possible means that you can work towards making these actions habit.

A little example of how powerful good habits can be...

Back in September of last year, I set myself a goal. I really wanted to walk 12,000 steps a day, every day, for a whole year. I started on that same day and I built it into my routine until it became second nature and I didn’t have to give it much thought.

And now, a year on, I am pleased to say that I achieved my initial goal, and I have walked 12,000 steps every day for the past 365 days. (No excuse not to carry on now!).

I know that this wasn’t an insurmountable challenge, but I knew from the start that if I didn’t turn this into a habit, I would struggle, and ultimately, would fail to reach my target. And I would have felt pretty lousy about that.

If you can set your vision, plan what you need to do to achieve that goal, and create habits to help you take steps towards achieving your goal, every day - you will get there. All it takes is dogged determination and persistence (just ask Tiger Woods).

And on that note, I’ll leave you with the realisation that we are using Tiger Woods as a role model…

Don’t forget to check out a recent video I did on how to get a prospect to call you back.

Have a great week; Show persistence and determination and any goal you have is yours to achieve! Stay positive and keep doing what Tiger did! Believe in yourself.

See you here next Saturday,

James

www.jameswhite.business

Sales Trainer and Mentor

I specialise in working with successful service businesses who want even greater sales success