Every week, dozens of vendors call or email me to try to sell me something I just can’t do without.  This year, more than 50% of my time is put into selling either directly to clients, or as wing to our own salesforce, analysts and media planners.  All of this serves as a reminder that sales is an instinctual profession: you either have it or you don’t.  Here’s what my instincts tell me:

1. Respond With Stunning Speed (RWSS).  Be superhuman in your timing. When you get an email, write back within seconds; a call should be answered on the first ring. This isn’t high school, so forget about playing too busy and ‘hard to get’.
2. Always Set a Schedule (ASS!).  When you want to talk with someone, suggest a firm time. Don’t say, “whenever is good for you,” or “how about we talk next week.”  Lead! Every time you make the client do the work, you slow down progress.
3. Talk Short. Like this.
4. Write for Handheld. You have to assume what you’re writing is being read on a tiny screen while multi-tasking. Get to the point fast and try to limit the need for scrolling.
5. Always Go Up. The more senior the contact, the more real the deal. It doesn’t always make it more likely to close (although it helps), but it certainly limits being blindsided by information you weren’t aware of or the inability to get senior signoff.
6. Never Stop Hunting.  Sales is not a downtime business.   If you’re sitting at your desk waiting for the next move from a client, you’re wasting time.   Do some research, find someone to call, make a connection.
7. Pause.  If you keep talking, many people won’t interrupt you, even if they have a question.  One question unanswered could be the insurmountable hurdle for a deal.
8. Don’t Be Annoying.  If you have a sales rep who is annoying, get rid of them.  If you are annoying, go get a life coach – being in sales is not for you.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 7:11 am and is filed under Making BzzAgent Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. The permalink to this post is http://blog.bzzagent.com/?p=1314.