New Sales Training Programs Are Needed As Times Change.
(First posted March 2, 2011.) March 2 is "Old Stuff Day."
What old stuff is worth celebrating in your business and what old stuff needs to be gone, like yesterday?
When it comes to marketing your business and making sales I always quote King David,
There is nothing new under the sun."
Then I flip it around a bit and say
What's old is new."
Which is why I'm a big believer and advocator of direct mail, printed newsletters, written thank you cards, and effective sales training techniques, which means they focus on the needs of the customer instead of your needs as the sales person.
Sure, email and text messaging and voice broadcasts have their place in the marketing world but you need to be incorporating physical mail into your marketing processes to really stand out in the minds of your prospects and clients.
However, there are some old things that need to be purged from your sales system forever. Coming in a clear #1 is the Hard Close.
This past Saturday I decided to go check out L.A. Fitness again.
I used to have a membership there but I wasn't using all of their features and amenities so I looked for alternatives. Fitness 19 is closer to my house, is 62% less per month and has everything I need. I've been happily losing weight and staying fit there for years.
But I printed up the L.A. Fitness free 3-day pass and drove out in the rain to workout there anyway. (The pool and basketball court and yoga & pilates classes are nice features.)
That's when I met "the man."
I call this sales manager "the man" because he didn't take the time to even introduce himself.
"The man" just walked over, inserted himself into the conversation, and took over from Tyler, a polite, new, young salesman who was taking his time to follow their system, which included sitting me down and going through their fitness sheet and engaging me in a rather thorough discussion about working out, eating right and overall health goals.
After nearly 15 minutes of letting "the man" ramble on, step away to take phone calls, say hello to passersby, offer me some cheesy bag and water bottle "valued at $150" if I renewed today my decision was made...
I stood up, told Tyler to learn from both "good examples and bad examples of what professional selling is all about," and left.
And a few days later I wrote this blog.
It took three years before I finally re-joined L.A. Fitness and it was only because I agreed to compete and raise money for the Tamp Bay Frogman Swim and I needed a pool I could train in year round.
As I update this post on 11/18/16 2/17/23, countless people have seen it pop up in their searches for 7 years when they considered joining L.A. Fitness.
Do you want your prospective customers finding articles like this about your pushy sales managers and hard closing sales tactics?
Drop the old-school closing taught for 50+ years by your grandfather's sales trainer and learn to engage your clients with the new sales training techniques and mindset Steve Clark taught me:
Selling is a calling.Serving is its purpose.Questioning is the process.A sale may be the answer.
To find out if I may the answer to your sales training needs, contact me here, and let's talk about it.
Now go sell something.