Inspirational stores abound these days because of the magic of the Internet and people wanting to share these stories. From Ralph Metcalf to Dr. Howard Kelly to Winston Churchill, we read of stories where individuals gave of themselves or received heart felt kindness from others. These stories or ones that you make up can be easily woven into your own one on one presentations especially if you use relationship selling.
If your goal is to increase sales, then you probably attend a lot of networking events. Maybe you do a lot of speaking to demonstrate your expertise in your field? Whatever the case, if you are using relationship selling, you also should have two to three inspirational stories to share with your audience.
Inspirational stories allow you to show the depths of your feelings and to begin to authentically connect with your suspects, prospects or centers of influence. What you are doing is building emotional intelligence with your audience and this act is very critical within the relationship selling perspective.
Stories allow us to share similar thoughts without putting our personal meaning into them. They give the audience freedom to make their own connections. By using stories, you are respecting and encouraging your audience to think using their own emotional intelligence. And we all know that people buy on emotions.
So,
What are your inspirational stories? How can you use inspirational stories to strengthen your unique selling proposition? What inspirational stories move you?
Some of my inspirational stories along with their focus include:
Four wisemen and the Secret to Success Representative Metcalf and the Meaning of Purpose Everyday grocery list and value of planning and goal setting Old cowboy and Law of Attraction
Try to use this sales tip to increase sales. Even if you do not realize immediate sales results, you will definitely know a lot more about the world that you live and work in. And that is always a good thing.
By: Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Posts Tagged ‘Effective Sales’
Free Sales Letter Templates
April 1st, 2010
Have you tried writing a sales letter only to be thwarted? Luckily you have found one of our free sales letter templates! It can sometimes be hard to find effective, free sales letter templates. Many sales letters are too generic to be effective in the real world! That is why it is important to have a unique sales letter!
When you write a sales letter that sticks out from the crowd, you’re half way to creating a successful sale. Capturing the attention of the audience is the most important part of writing a sales letter! You would typically open your sales letter like this:
“I just earned $4,000 in one second!” That line is extremely corny, but also rather interesting! After your attention grabbing headline, it is important to follow up with some content. This is where you explain a little about your product or service.
After you make a few statements about your product, it is extremely important that you follow up with some testimonials. Testimonials are the ‘life-blood’ of your product’s sales letter! This is one aspect that you cant take from free sales letter templates, you’ll have to venture out into the world and find your own testimonials.
To gain additional testimonials, people often offer free trials to people in exchange for a testimonial. In addition, some people also state that its effective to just gather testimonials from your friends and family.
You’re half way to writing a super effective sales letter! We promise you that this is one of the most effective free sales letter templates on the web! You are sure to see great success following our strategies!
By: Bryan Locke
Sales – Sales Contests Don’t Work
March 27th, 2010
Have you launched a sales contest and generated no lift or a meager increase in results? Well you are not alone! Putting together an effective sales contest takes time, money and a concentrated effort.
The following tips can help enhance the overall effectiveness of your next campaign.
1. Measurement. It is imperative that you have measurable results. Far too many times contests are developed that have no defined objectives. It’s like making up a game but not telling anyone the rules. To assure your team knows what and how they need to perform, set specific goals with a measurable outcome.
2. Stale. Often we get lazy as contest administrators and we try to extend the life a contest for as long as we can. Unless you have a very long sales cycle, you should not run a program more than 90 days. Employees will lose focus and the contest will lose steam. If you want to keep a creative theme for long periods of time, you can – just make sure to refresh the goals or measurement window at least every quarter.
3. In the money! Many contests fail because the team already knows who is going to win. The best sales reps continue to be ranked 1, 2 and 3. To avoid discounting the majority of the team, set objectives where at least 60% of the staff can win something. You can tier your prizes and rewards according to performance but engage as many participants as you can. A little bit from everyone is a lot better than a lot from one or two people.
4. Time. Quick contests are nice to kick start results. However be careful that you allot enough time for the behavior to change. If your sales cycle is 6 months, a 1 day contest is somewhat pointless. A call center may be a great place to run a one day campaign but keep in mind that habits take a while to form. If you want to drive good behavior (with good repeatable habits) it is important to allow the time necessary for the team to adjust.
5. Creative. I know it is a pain to come up with creative themes and games. However if the management team fails to put much energy into a program, you are pretty much guaranteed that the team will not put much energy into the program either. Be creative; try something new. Make it fun and interesting!
6. Prizes. The good contest should construct the payout as a true pay-for-performance campaign. This means you don’t pay anyone unless you get results. However often we find managers trying to move mountains and then not offering enough compensation to show true thanks to the team for their contribution. Bottom line – handing out company pens for a 10% lift in quota is not enough to get the job done and vice versa handing out a new car for showing up to work is too much.
7. ROI. Throwing good money at bad is the worst mistake we sales managers make. When a revenue gap exists, we are often pressed to “do” something to try and make up the revenue. However before you spend more company money or take away your valuable time, be sure to review the ROI of such a program. Sometimes an alternate plan such as adding a sales channel or investing in a marketing campaign is far more effective and can help augment your selling efforts.
A contest is a great way to motivate short term results. Used effectively you can see up to a 20% increase in your sales results.
By: Laurie Alm
