You're Closing Too Hard, Too Soon and All Wrong (Alice Kemper)

About Today's Guest on The Sales Podcast

Alice Kemper doubled her income the first day of getting into sales. (She was a public school teacher.) She went into sales for American Greeting Cards and Harte Hanks as a “token woman.” (Out of 800+ salespeople she was the 9th woman hired.)

She became a student of selling because after her two weeks of sales training with the company she was on her own. She knew as a teacher you “can’t wing it," so 31 years ago launched Sales Training Consultants. (Not a big difference teaching 6th graders and salespeople! Doh!)

She's been building her business by helping others build theirs ever since.

Rubber-Meets-The-Road Sales Tip

• Preparation is key to sales success. It’s the most overlooked action salespeople mess up on.
• They express needs and desire to do something about it.
• “How will I launch this conversation?”
  • There is no more time anymore.
  • They don’t want to know about you.
  • No 3-martini lunches.
  • You have to prepare more than “in your head.”
  • You need to write it down and practice it.

Preparation is key to sales success. It’s the most overlooked action salespeople mess up on"

• Buyer. Seller. Observer.
  • salespeople never get up in front of the room in her training.
  • Everyone brings a sales challenge to work on and the training is done in context.
  • Her clients must agree to work with her for a minimum of three months with weekly 90-minute, interactive calls to reinforce.
  • That’s how she can guarantee a 5% to 35% increase.
• Many sales managers are not naturals with innate sales management skills so Alice created “30 Minute Sales Meetings.”

Your sales training must be done in context"

• Past Prospecting failures can cause pain that keeps you from doing more prospecting.
• You have to learn from your mistakes, conduct better research, prepare your words and prospecting processes more thoroughly and continue to grow.
• “The close is the easiest part of the conversation…if you do all of the steps leading up to it properly. Establish yourself as a strategic partner. They don’t need another vendor. Business people need strategic business partners.”
• Ask the right questions. Remove barriers.

Ask the right questions. Remove barriers."

Links Mentioned

• Follow Alice Kemper on Twitter

Tools To Thrive

• Make Your Marketing Magnetic: This is where it all began for me. You can attract qualified, eager buyers like clockwork when you master the concepts in this valuable program.

Market like you mean it.
Now go sell something.