How will it go for you in 2011?
What will you achieve in your sales life and in your personal life?
I’ve gathered some sales predictions from my crystal ball, a bunch of people you think are hot prospects, a few irritated customers, a couple tightwad purchasing agents, and a sales manager in a pear tree. Some are tongue-in-cheek — or are they? Some are painful. Some are a cold slap in the face, while others will give you all the confidence you need to make it your best year ever.
Here is what I predict will happen in 2011:
• Your phone calls won’t get returned.
• The prospect who says “Call me Tuesday at 10AM for the answer,” won’t be there when you call.
• The prospect for your most important sales meeting will call to reschedule — several months from now.
• You will be kept waiting.
• People will tell you “No.”
• You will think of switching jobs more than once.
• Someone will tell you your price is too high. Once a week.
• You will be outsold by a competitor. And blame the customer for making a bad choice.
• You will blame other people for not making a sale (and it was your fault).
• You will quit early on days you make a sale instead of pushing for another one (like you know you should).
• An unexpected bill will come up that could have been paid had you made one more sale (see above).
• Your parents or spouse will ask you when you will get a real job.
• Your prospect will ask you a question you don’t know the answer to at a crucial time in the presentation.
• At some point you will think everyone is stupid except you (and you will be wrong).
• You will think about reading a book, put it off, and reach for the remote.
• You will miss selling opportunities at dinner and parties where people ask you what you do, because you have not practiced (or created) your 30-second personal commercial, and you forgot to bring a business card.
• You will be with a group of salespeople and everyone will be bragging about sales they made, and they will all be lying.
• You will send your customer to a competitor without knowing it, (poor service) and wonder why you never got repeat business.
• You will make several statements you will wish you never said.
• You will wish your prices were lower. Once a week.
• You will complain about your prices to your boss. Once a week.
• You will finally realize that price is not the issue. It’s value.
• You will think, “This place can’t make it without me.” And you will be wrong.
• You will get angry at someone else’s voicemail and wish it didn’t exist. Then your company will install automated attendant and make all your customers angry.
• Your mother will call your company and the temporary receptionist will say they don’t know you.
• You will have your hot prospect call what you think is a happy client. Your client will say they haven’t done business with you in a while and have since switched vendors.
• You will be treated rudely by someone else in sales.
• Someone in your company will lose a client for you through lack of action because they felt “It wasn’t their job”.
• Someone in your company will argue with an angry customer. They will win the argument and lose the customer.
• Your competitors will come out with a better quality product than the one you are selling.
• You will have a big sale fall through. At the end of the month.
• Someone will cancel an order and ask for a refund.
• Someone will call in a big unsolicited order. You will go around bragging how you made the sale.
• One of your co-workers will make a sale and a commission for your work. And they will take all the credit for it.
• You will bump into one of your big customers at a networking event and forget his name. (And he will be the only guy with out a nametag.)
• You will lose a sale because you failed to listen.
• You will lose a customer because you failed to listen.
• The boss will offer you a free seminar on “listening” and you’ll say, “I don’t have time.”
• Someone in your collections department will make a one-minute phone call to a customer and destroy a relationship that took you a year to establish.
• You will get some free word-of-mouth advertising from a happy customer (this will only happen if you work hard).
• You will win a sale from your competitor. You will see him later that day and gloat.
• You will resist the urge to down the competition even when the opportunity is ripe.
• You will make 40% of your sales before 9AM and after 5PM.
• You will be recognized by the president of your company. (It’s not clear if its good or bad — seems like that’s up to you.)
• You will invest in a laptop computer (and contact management software). Finally.
• You will invest in an iPhone. Finally.
• You will invest in a personal website to learn more about the web before it’s too late (HINT: 2009 is too late).
• You will listen to sales and attitude CDs in your car instead of talking fools on the radio.
• You will attend a seminar that will change your selling attitude. It could change your career. All you’d have to do is take action.
• You will be talked about after you leave a sale for “Having done all the right things.”
• You will celebrate with your customer after a big sale because they were as happy to buy as you were to sell.
• You will just “be yourself” and make a sale.
• You will start 2011 selling with renewed enthusiasm.
• You will have a healthy, happy, prosperous New Year. And all your marginal sales will come through — just before the end of the month.
Source:
http://www.gitomer.com/articles/ViewPublicArticle.html?key=ajcdMibak3O3bzabMIbCgQ%3D%3D
