Win More Sales With These Tips

These 10 marketing leadership lessons from Jeff Shore will work for you too.

Initially, I was reluctant of marketing the new set of tools to this client. This is because he has recently made a major purchase from us for his company’s operations. I had to recourse to just making a “reach out” call. Just touch base and show appreciation for his company’s past patronage. Also, reassure him of our commitment to continuous improvement and after sales service..

His reply was a head turner for me. “Don’t worry. I know you’re working hard. You’re unlike the rest of them.” By “unlike the rest of them”, he meant the other troupe of vendors milling round his company’s purchasing department seeking to sell similar and other services and products to his company.

His words sounded like enthralling soothing music to my ears. “You always tell the truth… All the other ones promise me one thing and do another, or don’t even do it at all ,…”

Could there be any greater compliment than this? You can’t imagine how bubbling my day was after that interaction. Remember, this is Nigeria where foreigners assume that every one of my fellow nationals are crooks and fraudsters by default. His words fired me up. Better and more prospects are now on their way.

How did it come about? First, telling the truth and then following up with the lessons I am learning from Jeff Shore’s book, Follow Up and Win the Sale.

Loaded with many insightful lessons, it was the third title I read from my ever expanding 2022 Reading List. The first two books were Antimatter by Frank Close (I didn’t finish it). Bombers Mafia by inimitable Malcolm Gladwell came up next.

I was on track to checking off 5 or 6 books on my reading list. I decided to slow down to a more leisurely “read, learn and practice” pace with Jeff’s book. I’m always learning and preaching one timeless counsel from George Eliot’s The Mill on The Floss where the father of the novel’s heroine quipped; “I can’t do wi’ knowin’ so many things besides my work. That’s what brings folks to the gallows, — knowin’ everything but what they’n got to get their bread by.”

These transformative marketing insights will help you catch and keep more customers, and propel your sales to a higher level. I’ve already shared my personal testimony with you. In retrospect, I discovered I was practicing lesson #9 which is included in my itemized list below:

• Most salespeople do not follow up after making initial sales contacts. And this is where you can set your marketing apart and ahead of the rest. Following up with persistence is a vital ingredient for any marketer who wants to make a significant dent in an ever-expanding space of contending alternatives.
• Effective follow-up is service based and relationship driven. People buy based on emotions and justify their purchases later on. Marketers who find ways of connecting with their prospects at the emotional level are more likely to succeed.
• Because purchase decisions are emotionally driven, lack of, or delayed follow-up means that the emotional response of the prospect quickly wanes. In time, a once-strong prospect will have completely forgotten that he or she was ever interested at all. Why? Blame yourself for your late follow-up.
• Succumbing to our comfort addiction is self-limiting to the point of total defeat. In Jeff’s words, “We all love to be comfortable, and we are all hard-wired to escape discomfort. Until we learn to manage our comfort addictions, we will forever be at risk of defeat at the hands of Resistance. As long as you give in to your comfort addictions you will be stuck where you are . . . at best. Succumbing to prolonged comfort addictions rarely ends well.”
• As a salesperson, do not wait for the customer or prospect to determines what happens next. Jeff advise is, “Own the next action.” Meaning, propose what needs to be done next and follow through by doing what you said you will do.
• Your customers and prospects are actively eliminating vendors and sellers all the time. You may not be able to help this. They also engage in passive elimination which you have control over. To avoid passive elimination where customers drop you from their thoughts completely, Jeff’s antidote is to review all your key customers every day and all your customers at least once every week. If you are not in the front of your customers as frequently as possible, they will quickly forget about you. This is where speed comes in as a “Secret Superpower”.
• Your goal at every sales interaction must be to create or reemphasize the values you are bringing in. Don’t just reach out to your customers and prospects, your sales conversations should be contagiously positive. No matter how excellent your proposals or offerings are, a boring neutral tone approach will wear your customers out to the point of rejecting your product or services.
• Follow-up without delay bearing in mind that the longer you procrastinate the more difficult it is for you to follow-up. And wherever possible, follow up in the early working hours where your customer’s strength and attention are more likely to be at maximum.
• Our natural tendencies to comfort addiction is debilitating and counterproductive in marketing. Challenge yourself. Embrace discomfort. There are calls you may feel reluctant to make. Make them anyway.
• Excessive planning will get you nowhere. Success goes to those who take action and not to those who overplan. “Nodding your head and saying, “Yeah, that’s a decent idea,” will get you nowhere. It is action alone that makes us great.”

Key Takeaways

Follow these steps to stay in the top league of Jeff Shore’s “The 1% Club”.

• Driven: Don’t rest or quit too quickly. Keep putting in your best efforts.
• Methodical: Understand that processes are the bedrock of success planning.
• Focused: You don’t get distracted by what is unimportant.
• Bold: You embrace your discomforts. Face the challenges and follow through.
• Persistent: Don’t give up. Don’t give up too soon.

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