Recently, we sent an email to our ReThink clients with Key Times to post on Social Media, as well as when the optimal times are to send Emails, Text, and Phone Calls to clients.  And we wanted to share the exact same information with you!

We hope you enjoy the article and are able to apply these strategies effectively.  Make it a great day!

- Brandin

Marketing – Best times to post on social media outlets and email, text, call
Based on personal experience and a lot of research, here’s the most effective time to post on social media, and when to send emails, text messages, and phone calls.

INSTAGRAM;

Sunday @ 5:00pm / Monday @ 7:00pm / Tuesday @ 10:00pm / Wednesday @ 5:00pm / Thursday @ 7:00am / Friday @ 1:00am / Saturday @ 2:00am

• The peak level of engagement of all-times is Wednesday @ 5:00pm
• Remember to document your day, don’t force the content
• Source – http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/get-instagram-likes_n_6751614

FACEBOOK;

The best time to post on Facebook is between 1–4 p.m., late into the week and on weekends.

• Saturday and Sunday at 12–1 p.m.
• Thursday and Friday at 1–4 p.m.
• Wednesday at 3 p.m.

When to post on Facebook in general to increase your shares and clickthroughs:

• 1 p.m.
• 3 p.m.
• 9 a.m.

Source – https://coschedule.com/blog/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/#facebook

LINKEDIN;

The best days to post content on LinkedIn are between Tuesday and Thursday, either early in the morning, lunchtime or early evening, with an additional, bonus sweet spot between 10am and 11am on Tuesday.

Different content for different days – There are good reasons for targeting Fridays and Mondays, this is especially true when you’re aiming to vary the mix of content that you share, in order to drive ongoing engagement throughout the week. Fridays, for example, may not deliver the highest absolute engagement numbers – but they are still a great time slot for releasing light-hearted, inspirational or accessible ‘chocolate cake’ content that can engage people as they power down or relax over the weekend. Likewise, the Monday morning mindset, when people are focused on tackling challenges for the week ahead, could be a great time to release content that helps them solve particular problems.

Source – https://business.linkedin.com/en-uk/marketing-solutions/blog/posts/B2B-Marketing/2016/Whats-the-best-time-to-post-on-LinkedIn

TWITTER;

The best time to tweet daily is between Noon to 1:00 p.m. local time, on average for each time zone. The highest volume of tweets occurs between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., peaking between noon and 1:00 p.m. The fewest tweets are sent between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m.

The pro to tweeting during peak times is that you can relate your tweet to the most current or highest trending hashtag for more views. However, for more engagement, you might find it more beneficial to tweet during the down times, but that means tweeting between 3:00am and 4:00 am, not exactly ideal.

Tweets sent between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. earn the most clicks on average. The highest number of clicks per tweet occurs between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m., peaking between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. The fewest clicks per tweet happen in the morning (when tweet volume is particularly high), between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.

Source – https://blog.bufferapp.com/best-time-to-tweet-research

EMAIL;

Personally, I’ve found the highest level of engagement and response from email when I send one later in the evening. More often than not, I’ll receive an email back that night, or first thing the following morning.

Here are the optimal days/time to contact a client via email;

Tuesday: This is hands down the #1 best day to send emails according to the majority of the data from these studies.

Thursday: If you send two emails a week, choose Thursday for your second day.

Wednesday: While no single study showed that Wednesday was the most popular, it came in second place several times.

10 a.m.: While late-morning send times were the most popular in general, several concluded that the best time to send emails is at 10 a.m. Another notable time is 11 a.m.

8 p.m.-midnight: I bet you didn’t expect that one. It looks like emails generally receive more opens and clicks later in the evening. As Campaign Monitor notes, this is likely due to people checking their email before going to bed.

2 p.m.: It looks like you might be successful by sending your emails later in the day as people are checking out of work mode or looking for distractions.

6 a.m.: I guess this makes sense since 50% of you begin your day by emailing in bed. Before you even stand up, you’re opening emails. Good morning.

Source – https://coschedule.com/blog/best-time-to-send-email/

TEXTING;

I’m comfortable texting a client during business hours as it seems to be most effective. If they engage in texting after business hours, then that gives you permission to reply to their message.
Best Practices for Text Messaging would be to keep them short and to the point, professional yet personal which is a fine line, here I’d recommend mirroring your client’s language to make them feel comfortable, don’t text after business hours unless your client texts you first.

PHONE CALLS;

After struggling with getting voicemail with no callbacks, I shifted my thought process and looked at it from the clients’ perspective. The reason why I was getting voicemail was that I was contacting them during business hours. If I’m at work, chances are, they are too. I started calling at coffee breaks, lunch hour and even into the evening from my home phone. It’s amazing to hear responses from clients when they see you’re calling them from your home phone number. In my experience, it shows that you’re prepared to go the extra mile for them. I wouldn’t recommend cold calling someone after business hours from your home phone or cell phone, but for the clients you have on the go, this has proven to be an effective time for me in the past.

Instead of calling them at 5:00pm with the news that we adjusted the price $500, I’d wait until 7:00pm and call them at home to share the news. It seemed to have a higher impact which led to more sales.

BONUS RESOURCE; 

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk!

I’ve never been known as a “closer”.  What is a closer anyway?  From what I’ve read and heard from others, it’s someone who doesn’t take no for an answer and pushes through a series of high-pressure questions at the end of the sale until they get the yes they are looking for. 

When I was a Sales Consultant, I often focused hard on becoming a better closer but I struggled because I wasn’t comfortable putting added pressure onto a client.  There had to be a better way other than the “5 No’s before they go!” rule that we were taught.  But I didn’t know what that better way was.  All I knew is that I felt more comfortable “closing” in the first minute of the sales process rather than putting the added pressure on myself and the client during the last minute of the sale. 

Now that I’ve read multiple best-selling sales books, followed the best salespeople in the world, and seen them work live in action, I’ve concluded that closing is really a series of questions that start at the beginning of the sales process, not at the end.  They dive deep into investigative questions to unlock their clients most desired needs and from there, they begin affirming the clients’ needs, then being to explain the benefits their product and/or services offer.  By focusing the majority of their attention on investigative questioning, they allow the client to make the decision for them.  They know whether the client is going to buy before they ask for the sale and in some cases, the client even tells them they are buying without the Sales Consultant asking. 

If you don't consider yourself a “closer”, don’t worry, I wouldn’t want to be known as one anyway.  Work on investigative questions as it will allow you to provide more value to your client and answer the real reasons as to why they are there to see you in the first place.  Your goal shouldn’t be to close a sale, but rather, open a relationship.  Think of it this way and I promise you’ll find more success.

If you've read any of my writings, you know that I view commissioned Sales Consultants as Small Business Owners.  During my meetings with clients from ReThink Selling, I'm finding that they are unaware of what they can claim for expenses throughout the year.  I wanted to share some suggestions for those who are paid on commission (running their own business) so that you can leverage tax savings.

Start collecting receipts for the following items;

Vehicle Payment/Maintenance

Fuel

Food (don’t abuse your individual meals)

Alcohol (in the form of gift cards)

All forms of clothing

Laptop and/or iPad

Cell Phone

Cell phone bills

Books

Gift cards 

Gym Membership

Here’s a Canadian link that you can review to claim as many expenses as possible.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-229-other-employment-expenses/commission-employees.html

I wanted to share with you an email I sent to a client of mine through ReThink Selling.  The concept comes from Memory Expert and all-round good guy, Jim Kwik;

Hey bud!

One of the most, if not, the most, important skill of networking and building relationships is to remember someone’s name.

Here are a couple techniques to help you remember a client’s name;

Think M.O.M.

Motivation - It’s funny how simply finding the right motivation to remember something is so crucial to actually remembering it. When I started to pay attention and provide a motivation for remembering something I remembered it!  Knowing that a client was providing food and clothing for my family was all the motivation I needed.

If you need additional motivation, think of it this way, you’re at an event and you meet 10 people then you’ll likely not remember all 10 names. But if before the event I was to tell you that if you remembered all 10 people’s names then they would each pay you $10,000 Cash – you’ll likely remember all 10 of them. You have a motivation. Motivation helps memory.

Observation - Ever misplace your car keys? The chances are you didn’t misplace them, you simply didn’t notice where you put them in the first place.

When I started paying attention to the things around me and I became more present in my daily life I started to forget less. I had less moments where I didn’t know where something was, or why I was in a room, or what I was looking for. Simply by observing life around you, you will start to remember more.  Plus, being observant pays dividends when you’re noticing what not to do and what to do from those around you.

Observation is all about noticing this things you want to remember.

Mechanics - This is all about finding hacks and tips to help you remember better. These are often quite personal as what works for you, may not work for someone else. But there is little point in having the mechanics nailed if you aren’t motivated to remember and you don’t observe that which happens around you.

In order to effectively remember someone’s name, try visualizing something to attach their name to immediately.  For example, if someone’s name is Mike, picture them singing Karaoke holding a mic.  If someone’s name is Mary, picture her with a lamb under her arm “Mary had a little lamb”.  If someone’s name is Bob, picture them in a Bob the Builder outfit, etc.

CRUSH IT!

Brandin Wilkinson

Development Coach

Rethink Selling

www.rethinkselling.co

"Generating Everlasting Momentum!"

When was the last time you asked anyone on your Sales Team why they are in Sales?

Have you ever heard or been guilty of saying "well this is how we've always done it, and it's worked so we're sticking with it!" Or something along that line.  

It's hard for dealers to see value in the intangibles for particularly their young Sales team such as personal development, leadership training, gratitude, finding purpose, personal branding, etc.  And it's much easier for them to see value in the tangibles that traditional sales training courses teach such as sales, closing percentages, lead generation, appointment conversion rates, etc.  

But wouldn't you agree that the intangibles are a crucial driving force behind reaching the full potential of the tangibles?  Especially when we tend to promote from within and have our top Sales Consultants eventually be Sales Managers who later become General Managers and eventually Dealers?  Why do we continuously consciously make the choice to learn the hard and long way about the importance of leadership, purpose, personal development and personal branding?

When was the last time you sent your Sales Consultant or Sales Manager to a Personal Development Seminar or a Leadership Course?  

Tony Robbins who actively owns and advises a dozen multi-million dollar companies, has a net worth of $500 Million+ and is known for working on Leadership and Personal Development training with past Presidents, Princess Diana, CEO's of Fortune 500 Companies, etc. says that in his experience, he's noticed that success is 80% Psychological and 20% Mechanical.  Yet the majority of dealerships buy into the exact opposite model, with 80% Mechanical training and only 20% Psychological, because that's how it was shown to them.  In fact, I'd argue that it's less than 20% in the majority of cases where we actual invest smart money into the intangible assets that set our dealerships up for long-term success.  

Sales Development.... we have it backwards.

As we near the always hectic month-end, I thought it would be valuable to discuss the importance of slowing down to speed up.  This is where the power of focus comes into play.  Having the ability to stay focused on a daily goal, or task, requires asking yourself the following 3 questions;

#1. Why are you motivated to get this goal completed?

#2. What action steps must you take in order to complete this goal?

#3. How are you going to eliminate the distractions that come your way today?

Now dial in and get it done!

There’s a massive difference between a Business Owner and a Business Operator. Business Operators are depended upon individually for the vast majority of the success of the company.  Business Operators typically lack systems and structure where Business Owners intentionally create systems and structure, plus bring on the right people to operate the business, so that the success of the Business isn’t directly tied to them physically being there.

Going from sitting in front of a Sales Manager completely unprepared for an interview, saying that there’s no reason I couldn’t sell what their top Salesperson was doing even though I had zero experience to Partnering into a multi-million dollar Dealership only 6 years later, and now being the Majority Business Owner 10 years after stepping foot in the automotive industry was not easy.

Here are the 5 hardest lessons I learned along the way;

#1. Time Management – Something I wasn’t good at until a few years ago. I was flat out 6 days a week and on the 7th day I would go golfing with a group of friends or spend it with the family, they came second. It’s important to have a strong work ethic but I’ve learned to prioritize my day and control it versus the other way around. I use to be at the mercy of the client, which I thought was the right thing to do, and it is, however, learning to say no and be home for supper with the family with energy rather than showing up at 8 and wanting to hit the pillow actually created more respect from my clients and for my time. I started saying no, I started prioritizing my “Get To Do List” in order of importance, I tracked my time throughout the day so I could determine where I was wasting most of it, and I held my clients accountable to their appointment times much the same as a dentist or doctor would. I held them accountable for creating appointments at 1:45 pm instead of 1:00 or 2:00, and I wouldn’t book any appointments after 3:45 pm.

#2. Relationships – I see social circles at various dealerships and although I agree with healthy relationships amongst other Sales Consultants, there needs to be a limit on how much time you spend with them. I found myself caught in the social traps early on in my career because I was striving for people to like and respect me, and I knew that I may need a favor from them at some point so I thought this was the proper approach to take. What I should have been doing, is allocating that time amongst the other departments rather than just the Sales team because it put up this invincible wall between me and the other departments. Because I hadn’t invested any time in a healthy relationship with them, and once I started selling more, I became more demanding with getting my clients vehicles out the door but they weren’t as willing to help because they saw me as another young cocky Sales Consultant. Once I realized my approach was wrong, I started allocating more time to get to know Service, Parts, Techs, and the Business Office, and once we build a relationship up, my stress level went down, and so did theirs. We both got what we wanted.

#3. Managing instead of Leading – Looking back, this was the area I screwed up the most in. But I’m proud to say now that it’s the area I’ve developed the most in. I’m now a Leader, not a Manager. Because I was driven and had a strong work ethic, I expected everyone else to have the same level of hunger. When you’re on commission and you’re essentially a business owner, how could you not be driven to build an empire? How is that not fun? Yet there are people out there who are content with where they are, selling 8-10 vehicles a month and making a decent living. Instead of recognizing that, I got pissed off when the Sales Team wouldn’t work as hard as me, stay as late as I would, or have shitty months. I would criticize, complain, get stressed out, and blame them for their shortcomings. It wasn’t until I started to recognize how the owner starting treating me, which was exactly the same as I was treating the Sales Team, that I started to make changes because I knew how it felt to be one of them. I had little to no support, direction, or leadership training, yet I was responsible for doing those very things for a team of 6, plus myself. I started investing time into Leadership books, videos, seminars, and courses. This gave me a clear understanding of how important leadership was. It started with me and taking ownership of the type of Leader I wanted to have and be.

#4. Patience – This isn’t my strong suit. In particular, when I first Partnered into Woodworth Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Ltd., my Business Partner had essentially started the company from scratch 30 years prior. He had your prototypical response in regards to any kind of change “this is how we’ve always done it and it’s worked, don’t fix something if it isn’t broken!” It took a little over 2 years to start incorporating change and it was in baby steps. I was to the point of frustration where I was ready to walk away from the opportunity I had to pursue something else. But once my Partner saw the positive effect of the change, he started opening up more and giving me more freedom to implement new ideas, structure, and systems. Had I lost my patience entirely, I’m certain I would not have been in the situation I am today. Instead, I should have appreciated his position more and the opportunity he was providing for me and my family. It would have made those 2 years more enjoyable and less frustrating. We can’t have it all now, no matter how bad we want it or how much we think we’ve earned it. I’ve learned to appreciate more what comes my way each day and have accepted everything happens for a reason which has allowed me to be more patient.

#5. Taking care of myself – By far the best investment I’ve ever made. The personal development field is flooded with advice, much of which is bogus and repetitive to the point where you know someone is out to make a buck. What I can tell you about my experience is that I’ve been to the bottom and worked my ass off to what I feel is the top of my game. I’ve lived off soup crackers and tap water from poor life decisions, I’ve said and done the wrong things at work and in my personal life countless times to the point where I lost the respect of my peers, I’ve been called an arrogant asshole more times than I care to remember, and so on. But when I came to understand the value in respecting myself so I could, in turn, get the respect from others, it was a game changer. I started to care what people thought because it was crucial to my personal and business success as they are constantly linked together. It matters what people think of you in this business because people buy you, your character and your reputation. I never cared about that and I was as close to self-destructing as it gets. You know that saying “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone”? That’s where I was, except I was fortunate enough not to lose my opportunity. I’m forever grateful for those moments of second and third chances. Now that I put myself first, I’m better able to lead myself, my family, my Partners and my Clients.

I’d encourage you to make time to pause and reflect on these lessons that I learned the hard way so that you don’t have to. It’s never too late to learn something new or develop both personally and professionally.

Paying silent attention to detail is an undervalued tool in business and in life.  Over the years, it’s what I’ve learned what not to do that has had the most impact on my career versus learning what to do.  When I first started in the industry, I had good mentors and bad mentors.  It took me a while to separate the two and how to learn effectively from each of them.  Once I started paying closer attention to their habits, I started to see success build up quicker and gain momentum because I incorporated the good habits and avoided the bad ones.  They were my greatest teachers without even knowing about it.

I’ve been known as the young successful Sales Consultant, young Sales Manager, young General Manager and as of 4 years ago, young Owner.  What’s overlooked however, is the tedious attention to detail that I was picking up on from over 135 years of experience from the Sales Managers, General Managers and Owners that I worked with side by side for 10 years.  My learning curve was amplified because I wasn’t only learning from my success and failures, but I would pick the brains of others and see what worked for them that could also work for me.  And I would pay close attention to how certain situations were handled and if they weren’t handled in a manner that I would personally like, I would take mental notes and store them so I would avoid making the same mistakes.

“It will be difficult to have success with Rethink Selling because you’re too young and not many managers will want to bring on a young Sales Trainer to train their team.  They’ll want someone with experience.” – This was said to me a few months ago by a Sales Consultant from another dealership in the area.

“I understand how it looks on the surface but how many Sales Trainers are current (still selling cars), were Sales Consultants, Sales Managers, General Managers, Owners, learned from over 135 years of combined experience, incorporate Life/Business Coaching into their Training and make it the majority of what we teach, and how many Sales Trainers have a Business Development Coach hired to help them as we speak and have attended the top Personal Development Seminars in the world, all by the age of 32?” – My answer to him.  The conversation ended quickly after that.

There is no credit or awareness for observation mostly because it’s an intangible asset which are the most difficult assets to build value in it seems. But in my opinion, arguably the most valuable piece to my personal success has been having the ability to be observant.

• Watching the body language of clients around other Sales Consultants

• The tone of voice and physiology of my Manager when I brought a shit deal to him

• How my Manager would handle an irate client in the showroom

• Listening to the top performers in all departments in our dealership to hear how they spoke to clients.  One of my favorite things to do when I first started was go out in the showroom when our top Sales Consultant was speaking with clients and take mental notes of his humor, types of questions, tone of voice, inflection, body language, everything he would do I would note and test on my own until I figured out exactly what worked for my own style

• Who showed up early and who showed up late

• When you start modeling those you admire and respect, and avoid modeling the ones you don’t admire or respect, you start having the same or more success than the one you began modeling

Experience is overrated as many of you know.  It’s the quality of the experience that’s important.  What are your top 3 personal goals right now?  What is your life’s mission?  Why are you in the auto industry? What are your daily habits that lead you to progression, both personally and professionally?  If your soon to be or current Manager can’t answer these types of questions, then they have no right leading commissioned Sales Consultants or any team for that matter, in my opinion because if they don’t have control and direction for themselves, then how are they supposed to Manage and/or Lead others to reaching their full potential?

It’s often said that you’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.  Surround yourself with people who will make you better but don’t forget to pay attention on what not to do for it has the power to be more impactful at a quicker rate than learning what to do from others.

It’s easy to get fixated on numbers.  When we set targets for the month, it’s based around a number.  We want to sell a certain number of vehicles, we want to make a certain amount of money, we want to help sell a certain number of contracts for the Financial Services Office so we can collect a spiff, etc.  The downside to having a fixation on numbers creates one major problem…. Intention.

We approach our potential clients, as well as our day, week, month, with the wrong intention.  We set out to make a certain number of phone calls, emails, text messages, etc., and play the odds that a certain number of people will respond positively to you which in turn will give you another number that a certain amount of those people will come into the dealership and a certain number of those people you’ll be able to write up and a certain number of those people you’ll eventually sell a vehicle to.  We have been taught that quantity is the game you want to play in order to succeed, when it should be quality.

In my experience, quantity follows quality.  By quality I mean, taking the time to make quality, well intentioned phone calls, emails, text messages, etc.  Not just calling as many as you can in a certain number of hours with hopes that you might catch someone at the right time.  When you make high quantity calls, you’re typically following a script, and over time, that loses energy and focus, especially if you aren’t getting results because you’re getting frustrated.  Not to mention, that most of the time, you may think you have good intentions, but really you’re just chasing numbers, thus demolishing any authenticity. 

People will gladly purchase authenticity and pay more for it, plus they are more than happy to refer you which snowballs creating the quantity you desire.  And guess what? Your life gets easier faster.  Much easier in fact, in a rapid amount of time versus chasing quantity.  Your confidence goes up because people are buying you more than they are the product.  We know that Repeat/Referral Clients are King and Queen in the Automotive Industry, so start the relationship off on the right foot by dialing in on quality conversations with the right intention. 

Start by contacting people that may already know, like and trust you, or know someone that does. Your intention will come across as genuine, and if anything, they will feel a sense of obligation to entertain you at the very least. Contact friends, friends of friends, family members, old coaches and teachers, previous co-workers, etc.  And focus on personal branding through social media, reputation and character.  Sometimes it’s nice to have a quick sale, but the quick sale rarely leads to a long-term relationship which is far more valuable.

"Our intention creates our reality" - Dr. Wayne Dyer

Here is my take on 10 things that will never change in Sales.  When you have a clear understanding of how these 10 things work, you'll undoubtedly have consistent growth and success based on personal experience. 

#1. Prospecting.  Your reservoir must always be full of client names.  In order to fill the reservoir early on in your career, you must learn how to market, advertise, leverage social media, email cold leads with a strategic system, etc.  Always be on the offensive.  Know the appropriate times to contact clients to ensure the most productivity.  Example being, send a text message primarily early in the morning before you get to work, plus periodically throughout the day, send emails at night because unfortunately most people check their emails first thing in the morning when they wake up or while they're sitting on the couch at home after supper, so this ensures they receive your information before their busy day gets started, and call during coffee breaks and lunch hour.

#2. Repeat/Referral is King.  Over time, you will gain a loyal following which will lead to repeat/referral clients.  This makes life much easier because new clients are expensive and time consuming.  To ease the stress on your sales career, your last client experience must be the best one in order for your next relationship to start and be effective.

#3. Begin with the end in mind.  The closing process starts when you meet your new client.  It’s important to ask high quality questions throughout the sales process in order to get both you and the client to the end goal in a respectable amount of time.  There is a saying in Sales that goes ‘5 No’s before they go!” indicating that the client doesn’t really mean no until you ask them 5 times.  This is not the right approach.  If you have to ask them 5 times for the sale, you haven’t qualified properly.  The best sales consultants know what the clients answer is going to be before they even ask it. 

#4. Listening will always trump talking skills.  The more intently you listen, the more effective you’ll be at building relationships, and having the client wanting to buy your product.  Talking more than listening results in you trying to sell the client your product which is never a good thing, you want them to buy your product or service.  The best way to accomplish this is by listening to their needs and wants, and creating a solution for them.

#5. Human relationships will never die.  With the volatile change in technology, and the advancement in automation, human relationships becomes that much more valuable and it’s something that will never go away.  This is why it’s crucial to be in a peak state on a daily basis.  You want to make an everlasting good first impression with a client, and build a relationship off of that.  No matter how far technology advances in the future, human relationships will always matter.

#6. You will always be the difference.  There’s always going to be competition in sales, which is a good thing because it holds you accountable to your development.  Quite honestly, the last thing you want is a monopoly because you’ll become content and lazy.  Having competition keeps you sharp and forces you to stay on top of your game.  If you’re up against the competition that has an equal amount of training and ability as you, and offers the same product for the same price, then you’re the difference maker to the client.  You’re the difference between the client choosing you or your competition.

#7. Physiology matters.  This often gets overlooked but the way you physically approach a new client in particular, can often times be the difference between a yes or a no.  They can make a buying decision before you even speak based on how you walk or shake their hand. Pay attention to the pace of your walk, your posture, the way you shake someone’s hand, your hygiene, etc. because it all matters and always will matter.

#8. Embrace the emotional roller coaster.  As you’ve likely already discovered, there are an incredible amount of highs and lows in sales.  What matters is that we anticipate them.  Embrace the fact that they are going to occur and that it’s how you respond to them that matters.  Knowing this ahead of time and preparing for it will help keep your stress level under control.

#9. Logic based selling wins.  Being genuine and honest can often times be the determining factor between the client choosing you over your competition.  Clients are becoming smarter and can see through the typical sales script pitches that are poured onto them.  When you use logic to prove that you have their best interest in mind, you’ll earn their loyalty.  And once you have their loyalty, it’s quite difficult to lose it.

#10. Follow up is critical.  Having a follow up system for contacting clients on a regular basis after their purchase is critical to your success.  How do you think a client feels when you treat them like your best friend during the sales process but neglect to follow up on a regular basis after the sale?  You’ve lost any respect or trust gained during the sales process.  Be their friend, ask about their family, interests and hobbies.  Show a genuine interest in their personal life and believe me, you’ll stand out from the crowd.