Maintaining a solid sales network

Attracting and maintaining a solid sales network today is the foundation to tomorrow's success. Your net worth is interdependent on your sales network. The more people you know, or who know you, the bigger and more solid your sales network will be.Because people buy from, and refer people to, people they know and they trust, you will find that your success will come from your sales network. So, what can you do to attract and maintain a solid sales network?To attract a sales network you first need to clearly identify your market, your ideal prospect based on your best customers and their profile. Paint the picture of your ideal prospect, the type of customer / prospect that you would like to see in your sales network. If you can't see them, you cannot attract them into your life.Then you need to come up with creative ways of attracting them, engaging them, creating a relationship and then maintaining that relationship for an ongoing solid sales network.When is comes to attracting or building a solid sales network, your objective is not to sell them something, but to acquire the trust to build and maintain a relationship that will turn into sales.Therefore, stop the selling, start attracting people into your sales network by showing interest in others by getting them talking about themselves, asking in depth questions, showing concern and listening empathetically.To attract prospects into your sales network, you need to be creative and do things differently from that of your competition.Ask yourself this question, "what can I do to position myself in the marketplace as an expert where prospects will come looking for me by name?" List out your creative answers.If you are not different you are the same as everyone else. To attract people into your sales network you need to be different.Let me help you out. Is it fair to say that you know more about yourself, your products and services or your organization than I do? Is it also fair to say that you can educate me on how to buy, generate savings, increase performance, etc. on the benefits of your products and services?Naturally the answer is yes to both of these questions because that is how you are probably selling and building your sales network today. Guess what, everyone else is doing that too. That is not how you build your sales network.What if you were to take what you know and reformat it in a way that is not a sales pitch, but and educational type article, seminar or talk where you give readers or participants added value trough how to tips.In the process you are positioning yourself as an authority, an expert and people will come looking for you by name. Your chasing after prospects to do business with you, will be replaced with being chased by prospects who want to buy from you.This is only one of many ideas. Take the time and brainstorm some ideas for yourself.What about a referral fee program? Remember any behavior that gets recognized or rewarded gets repeated.Do you collect and share testimonial letters? Third party stories and testimonials make a big difference. Are you a member of any network or non profit associations?What if you were to step up and be an active member, like the President, would more people know of you and buy from you? Would you attract more people into your sales network? It is in the effective giving that you gain effectively.

How to sell anything

How to sell anything, to anybody, anywhere at any price was the title of a talk given to me to deliver at the National Achievers conference in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in 2001 in front of over 5,000 participants in each city.Although I was fortunate to share the stage with inspiring speakers like Robert Kiyosaki, I was the only speaker on sales.How to sell is one thing, but to how to sell anything, to anybody anywhere at any price is another. At least that is what I thought when the title was first given to me. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized this topic, "ABC, 123 Sales Results System" covered all the bases.Let's first build a solid foundation for how to sell. How to sell starts with Attitude - a desire to want to sell, with a belief in yourself, that you can sell. How to sell requires you to believe in your organization, it value proposition, it's products and services and the supporting team players.When you believe, others will too. However, If you do not believe in yourself, your organization, it's products and services, the supporting team players, or the market, nor will the prospect. How to sell is based first on beliefs.Your beliefs is your foundation to how to sell successfully or not. Your beliefs determine your attitude. It is our attitude that determines how you feel. How we feel determines the actions you take. The actions you take determine your results.When it comes to how to sell, your beliefs lead the way. Your beliefs are under your control and only you can change them. As an adult you should be able to distinguish between what is real and what is not in your beliefs and clean them up. You need to get your beliefs up to a 10 if you want to succeed in life, not only in sales.The next step in how to sell is to ensure you demonstrate appropriate results oriented Behaviors. Behaviors are your daily habits. First do you have personal goals? If so, great as they are your guiding motivators when it comes to how to sell.If not, how can you ever achieve goals for others, if you first cannot achieve them for yourself. You cannot give something to somebody else if you do not have it to give away in the first place.When it comes to how to sell, our personal goals keep us focused, disciplined and motivated. Our corporate goals also keep us employed, focused, disciplines and motivated when it comes to how to sell.However, when it comes how to sell to the market place, our behavior for results has to be targeted. Targeted to markets and prospects that will give us the quickest market positioning, reputation and results, in the shortest time frame.In others words, how to sell requires you to do some homework and consider your return on time invested (R.O.T.I.). How, when and where can you maximize your R.O.T.I.?How to sell requires the right foundation as we have learned in Attitude and Behavior. How to sell also requires that you follow a sales results system, or sales process. This is referred to having the appropriate Competencies when you are face to face with a client.The Competencies that we are referring to here when it comes to how to sell are communication skills. The art of asking in depth questions and listening, while taking notes is fundamental when it comes to how to sell.With competent communication skills we can build rapport, develop trust and start a relationship. The first competency step in how to sell. How to sell requires that you also qualify the prospect. With trust you can proceed to set parameters, uncover buying motivators, financial ability, and decision making processes, qualifying the prospect.It is at the summary stage that you will know if you can help them with a solution or not. If not, let them know you cannot. If you can, proceed to prescribe them a solution. How to sell up until this point is all about building trust qualifying the prospect. That is the job of a real sales professional.Now take note that you are asking all the questions up until this point putting you in control of the sales process. That is how to sell. How to sell is not about telling - it is not about you, your company, products, services or solutions.How to sell professionally is about engaging the prospect into buying- it is all about them, their needs, their budget and their decision.