Full Of It Fridays.

Fridays are notorious for being the day salespeople start late and leave early (Especially in Business to Business Sales) - that's if they decide to work at all. Our team is lucky in the sense that they have a Sales Manager who has made every mistake they have made, or will make in the future. Our team is also lucky because I generally know what they are thinking before they think it. I'm a realist - sometimes to a fault.

Every Friday I hear the same lame excuses for why a salesperson isn't working.

- "Josh, I cold called for a few hours this morning and no decision makers are working."
- "Josh, every business I've called went to voicemail."
- "Josh, you know Friday's are horrible for cold calling."
- "Come on, if you ran a business would you be working today. It's gorgeous outside."

Salespeople like the ones above are full-of-it. I've been there though. Early in my career I pleaded with my Sales Manager to let me leave early. I came up with way better excuses than the ones above and the sad part is - my Sales Manager's either bought it or didn't care enough to argue with me.

After being a typical salesperson for a while, going into debt and working too hard; I now see Friday's as fun days. They are the days I write most of my orders. Let me put it this way; all week you've been following up, pitching, tweaking proposals and hammering away - Friday is like the universal 'get 'er done day' (Excuse the Fargo-ian reference). For most people, everything that was on the to-do list Monday, gets scratched off on Fridays. If you're persistent, available and have a good weekly value proposition; you'll ink loads of orders on Fridays.

As with everything in sales; If you THINK you won't make money on Fridays - you won't. If you THINK you will make money on Friday's - you will. It's 11:55 Friday morning and I have a rep who finalized three orders this morning and a another rep who finalized two.

I'll write a piece on the weekly value proposition next week. People generally want to have less things to worry about and they want to have less on their plate. By combining people's human nature with a weekly value proposition; Fridays are FANTASTIC selling days for true Sales Professionals.

Think I'm full of it? What did you do this morning?

The wondeful world of Email.

Now that I run a sales division, I have loads of salespeople pitching me on copiers, trade shows, marketing ideas and whatever else people sell these days. I welcome all sales calls and treat each and every one of them with respect. That is until I get an email like this:

Mr. Haddon,

I just wanted to see where we were at with that proposal...

Sincerely,
Joe Schmuck
XYZ Ltd.
"Useless tag line that offends me"
(XXX)-XXX-XXXX


What are salespeople thinking when they hit the send button after putting such little effort into earning my business? The fact of the matter is, they aren't thinking.

Email is a wonderful and easy way to non-invasively keep in touch with prospects and customers. It allows you, the salesperson, to separate yourself from every other salespeople. You can do this with minimal effort.

Sending emails like the one above; or emails with subject lines like 'touching base' or 'checking in', will fast track you to mediocrity. You must add value to the relationship and show you care. You can easily do this by sending links to e-zines, articles and useful tips that will help your customer with their success. Focus on them, not yourself or the sale. Everyone knows salespeople get paid on commission. Your customers know that every time you call, you are calling to check on your paycheque and see when you are going to get money out of them. Eliminate this feeling by caring about the customer's success and you will never worry about your paycheque again.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. How long have you not been the top earner in your organization? I guarantee if you send every single prospect an email that is useful to them, you will have greater success this year, than last.

Here's a link to some useful links, provided by Jeffrey Gitomer, my favourite sales authority.