| January 31, 2018 | Comments Closed |
Six Ways To Stay on Top of Your Game
I recently had the opportunity to see one of my all-time favorite groups, The Temptations, perform in Melbourne.
This group has gone through many personal changes over the past 50 years, yet has kept its amazing harmonies, outstanding choreography and stylish dress. The group’s founder, Otis Williams, is 75 years old, but his voice and dance moves still have all the excitement they always did.
For half a century, The Temptations have been singing the same songs to their fans around the world, and yet it seemed as if they were performing them for the very first time.
This is also a trait of top professionals. The excitement is always there, whenever they have an opportunity to be of service to their clients. They treat every new meeting as a chance to share their knowledge with prospective clients and educate them.
Top professionals greet every sales challenge as if it were their first. When they hear an objection or a question they give it full and careful consideration, even though they might have heard it hundreds of times in the course of their career.
They treat every top client like their only client.
How does your business stack up?
Here are some things you can do to maintain that fresh ‘performance’ for every client:
- Rehearse. Don’t wing it, but carefully prepare every client presentation several days in advance. Practise regularly.
- Partner with a colleague or your significant other to fine-tune your message. This will help you focus not only on what you are going to say but also how you’re going to say it.
- Improve your product knowledge and presentations skills. Find new ways to incorporate visuals and graphics to educate prospective and existing clients.
- Create a file of objections and Q&A. You should never be surprised by an objection a client raises. Build and maintain an objections book, complete with the answers to every objection that a client could raise about you, your company, or your products and services.
- Build a swipe file. This is simply a collection of memorable lines, quotations and illustrations you can use during a presentation. I like to catalogue them, by topic, in a folder and also electronically, using Evernote. It makes it easy to prepare quickly, even while you’re out of the office. Whenever you prepare a client presentation, review your swipe file for ideas and inspiration.
- Review constantly. Set aside one hour every month to review your swipe file and objections book, and to develop new illustrations and client presentations.
Top professionals prepare carefully for every client meeting. They might not need to use everything, but they are always ready for anything.
Top professionals understand that a sales meeting is ‘show-time’. By doing the hard work ahead of time they are able to stay in the moment and make every client and prospective feel like the most important person in the world. This enables them to produce consistent growth results every year and build a thriving business, career and lifestyle.
That’s why they are top performers!
Initially this preparation process will take some time to set up. The good news is it takes only a few minutes each week to maintain.
The payoff is definitely worth it. Just ask The Temptations.
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