The Best of 2011

Happy New Year to you, and thanks for your readership! I hope that 2011 was a great year for you and that 2012 will be even better.

Many thousands of readers from all over the world stopped by to read my blog last year. Here are the top three articles from 2011 by readership:

#3: The #1 Meeting Mistake I recently ran across a great discussion on LinkedIn that started with the question, “What's the # 1 Meeting Mistake Average Sales People Make? “ I chimed in about the need to prepare well, and of course referenced the chapter in my book that specifically addresses the topic. But there was another response that was so spot-on and so compelling that I asked the author if I could include it in my blog. She was happy to oblige. Here is Eileen Kent’s take on the #1 meeting mistake that average sales people make.

#2: Selling Around/Over Your Contact You have established a great relationship with your customer and have been calling on the same person for a long time. They have been a good and loyal customer. You know that there is more that you can do for them, but your main contact has always stonewalled your requests for meeting with his boss. Now you find out that there may be legitimate threats to the business from a feared competitor. You’ve grown comfortable in your relationship and now find you have zero leverage (or so it seems) to go above him. The boss is pressuring you to “sell higher” in the organization. How do you make that happen? How do you “go around” your contact and get the meeting?

#1: Set More Appointments with Decision Makers A few years ago I was chatting with a very well respected VP of Sales at a software company in Chicago. One of the things he shared with me was that his company had a process for setting appointments that constantly kept their sales reps in front of new prospects. He admitted that he had challenges in other areas of the sales process, but setting appointments was not one of them. They had more appointments than they knew what to do with. He shared his appointment setting process with me and I immediately put it to work with my sales team and the results were amazing. If setting appointments is one of your sales responsibilities and you want to set more, read on.

Many of you found those articles by way of a Google search result. But you may have missed some nuggets in other articles. So, here are my favorite articles from 2011:

The Power of Silence and the Pregnant Pause I had a big scare at the Houston airport last week. But it had nothing to do with travel. I was there with one of my sales reps and he walked up to me with a big grin and said, “I just did a Sam.”

Pick Up the Damn Phone! I love email. I love it so much that I even wrote a book about three go-to emails that have had a dramatic impact on my personal production. The problem is we tend to rely too much on email and over time it has become a crutch.

On Being Authentic I was having dinner with a new sales rep recently and she asked me “What’s the most important thing I need to know in order to be successful in sales?” I wasn’t ready for this question and I had to pause for a minute to think about it. The typical answers raced through my mind; work hard, listen, build good relationships, etc. But this rep was new to selling, having come from the industry, so my answer had to be a really good one. And then it struck me, “Always be authentic.”

And, of course the main driver behind blogging is to support sales of my first book, Click “Send” and Sell. Three Unconventional Emails with Extraordinary Sales Results. I’m pleased to report that sales were brisk and that all reviews were very positive. If you haven’t checked out the book, it’s a great tool to have to help your sales in 2012. The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store. If you don’t have an eReader, click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

Look for more common sense articles in 2012!