The top 10 reasons why my sales letters will sell you more stuff!
#10: Before The Sale Comes The Plan
When prospects and salespeople begin the buying/selling “two-step,” there are always two strategies at work, the prospect's strategy and the salesperson's strategy. If you do not have a strategy, then that becomes your “tragedy” strategy.
If the buyer has a strategy, and you can bet they do, why shouldn't you? After all, everything else of importance to sales is planned. Advertising is planned. Products are planned. Production is planned. Policies are planned. And your sales strategy needs to be planned as well.
“But wait a minute” you say, “I've got a plan....Work like a dog and trust my good common sense.”
Some plan.
To graphically illustrate the point I'm trying to make, let's suppose, for a minute that you have a bank robber holding a gun to a hostage's head, and someone hands you a bullhorn and says, “Okay, sell your way out of this.”
It's fairly obvious that if you don't have a plan your hostage might end up dead. It works the same way in any selling situation. You wouldn't trust your good common sense to save that hostage's life, but you're probably trusting your good common sense when it comes to saving your career.
Plan your work. Work your plan.
A successful strategy can make the difference between conquering sales and being defeated by it. Yet it's amazing how often even veteran salespeople skip the strategy step in favor of just seizing whatever opportunities seem to present themselves. As professionals it's our responsibility to head off this kind of behavior. And the single easiest way I've discovered to head off this tempting, yet risky behavior, is to write one strategic letter for each step of the buying/selling cycle.
I've discovered that the planning and writing of effective sales letters will subconsciously force you to develop a selling strategy. Thus, if each day you take time to think —to organize your thoughts and your reasoning as to why someone should make the time see you; enough to put them in writing—the job of selling tends to be less and less difficult. Eventually you become a craftsman—a professional—and you quickly leave ordinary sales behind.
The days of “playing it by ear”, and floating like thistles on a breeze to wherever opportunity and whim takes us, are over. Don't let anyone tell you that selling is so repetitive that the next step becomes a matter of rote. Knowing where you are going may be rote, but getting there requires thinking and skill. Writing sales letters for each step of the buying cycle requires thinking and skill—and quite simply, will prevent you from slipping into the deadly rote rut.
Good luck and good selling,
When prospects and salespeople begin the buying/selling “two-step,” there are always two strategies at work, the prospect's strategy and the salesperson's strategy. If you do not have a strategy, then that becomes your “tragedy” strategy.
If the buyer has a strategy, and you can bet they do, why shouldn't you? After all, everything else of importance to sales is planned. Advertising is planned. Products are planned. Production is planned. Policies are planned. And your sales strategy needs to be planned as well.
“But wait a minute” you say, “I've got a plan....Work like a dog and trust my good common sense.”
Some plan.
To graphically illustrate the point I'm trying to make, let's suppose, for a minute that you have a bank robber holding a gun to a hostage's head, and someone hands you a bullhorn and says, “Okay, sell your way out of this.”
It's fairly obvious that if you don't have a plan your hostage might end up dead. It works the same way in any selling situation. You wouldn't trust your good common sense to save that hostage's life, but you're probably trusting your good common sense when it comes to saving your career.
Plan your work. Work your plan.
A successful strategy can make the difference between conquering sales and being defeated by it. Yet it's amazing how often even veteran salespeople skip the strategy step in favor of just seizing whatever opportunities seem to present themselves. As professionals it's our responsibility to head off this kind of behavior. And the single easiest way I've discovered to head off this tempting, yet risky behavior, is to write one strategic letter for each step of the buying/selling cycle.
I've discovered that the planning and writing of effective sales letters will subconsciously force you to develop a selling strategy. Thus, if each day you take time to think —to organize your thoughts and your reasoning as to why someone should make the time see you; enough to put them in writing—the job of selling tends to be less and less difficult. Eventually you become a craftsman—a professional—and you quickly leave ordinary sales behind.
The days of “playing it by ear”, and floating like thistles on a breeze to wherever opportunity and whim takes us, are over. Don't let anyone tell you that selling is so repetitive that the next step becomes a matter of rote. Knowing where you are going may be rote, but getting there requires thinking and skill. Writing sales letters for each step of the buying cycle requires thinking and skill—and quite simply, will prevent you from slipping into the deadly rote rut.
Good luck and good selling,
Copyright © 1992-2007 Thomas J. Bryan
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Copyright © 1992-2007 Thomas J. Bryan
This site is protected by copyright and trademark laws under U.S. and international
law.
All Rights Reserved.