The Ultimate Sales Machine - Chet Holmes

Question 1

1st strategy - use hours deliberately

Answer 1

• “Touch it once” – Make a decision when choices first appear. Don’t revisit them.
• “Make lists” – Use prioritized lists to stay focused.
• “Decide how much time to spend on a task” – Too many activities become time sinkholes. Decide how much time a task needs and work within that limit.
• “Plan the day” – Use your list to schedule your day and optimize each minute.
• “Prioritize” – Twenty percent of your activities provide 80% of the benefits. Drop activities that contribute little but consume lots of time.
• “Will it hurt me to throw this away?” – To reduce information clutter by 80%, dispose of paper and files that are available elsewhere or are no longer directly relevant.

Question 2

2nd strategy - teach sales teams new skills

Answer 2

If you aren’t teaching your sales team new skills, you are losing ground.

Question 3

3rd strategy - workshop style meetings

Answer 3

Workshop-style meetings result in more buy-in because everyone is involved.

• First, make sure everyone feels the pain that necessitates the change.
• Next, hold a workshop to get staffers to buy into the need for change and to generate solutions. Draft a concept for solving the problem.
• Then ask a leader or someone your staffers admire to test the idea within a defined period.
• Document the entire process carefully.
• Review the test with demonstrations and role playing.
• Hold a follow-up workshop to improve the idea by incorporating the test’s findings.
• Monitor and measure the new activities yourself to make sure that everyone understands them completely.

Question 4

4th strategy - use market data

Answer 4

Use your expertise and market data to set the criteria for selecting customers.

Find or generate market data on your products or services. Use it to invite, educate and stimulate prospects to become customers, and to get customers to make new purchases

Question 5

5th strategy - challenge potential sales staff

Answer 5

Use challenge and rejection when hiring sales staff. Superstars will fight back.

Question 6

6th strategy - find 100 new best customers

Answer 6

Find 100 new customers just like your very best buyers and your sales will soar.

-Send a short, compelling letter with each gift. Put your dream-100 marketing push on your calendar, and send prospects a gift and letter every two weeks. Keep them aware of you and involved in your message.

Question 7

7th strategy - 7 marketing weapons

Answer 7

1) “Advertising” – Use distinctive ads with headlines and text that hold attention.
2) “Direct mail” – Be regular and consistent. Put your message on the envelope.
3) “Corporate literature” – Focus on your customers and spark their curiosity.
4) “Public relations” – Get publications to write about you; develop media contacts.
5) “Personal contact” – Face-to-face contact gives life to your work with clients.
6) “Trade shows and market education” – Get noticed to gain traffic and leads.
7) “Internet” – Build relationships, offer “webinars” and convert traffic to sales.

Question 8

8th strategy - visual elements in presentations

Answer 8

Use visually stimulating elements in your presentations

Question 9

9th strategy - 7 intense sales skills

Answer 9

1) “Establish rapport” – Most great salespeople have clients who are also friends.
2) “Qualify the buyer” – Use questions to identify your dream customers.
3) “Build value” – People are likelier to buy if they see your offer’s worth.
4) “Create desire” – Take clients through questions and stories that intensify their sense of need for your products and services.
5) “Overcome objections” – Great salespeople avoid taking “no” for an answer.
6) “Close the sale” – Getting orders requires knowing when to stop selling, stop talking and hand the customer a pen.
7) “Follow up” – Stay close to your customers. Don’t let anything come as a surprise.

Question 10

10th strategy - what to focus on

Answer 10

Focus on goals, effectiveness and action.

Question 11

11th strategy - bond with clients

Answer 11

Find an excuse to contact the client to share an amusing or interesting story. Invite them to your parties, take them to lunch and find every reason to build a strong personal connection. Use faxes, e-mails and cards in addition to letters.

Find a fun activity that can include the customer’s family. If you bond with someone’s family, your connection becomes even stronger

Question 12

12th strategy - measured

Answer 12

What gets measured gets managed, and what is not measured is invisible.