Recently, a client asked me what he could do right now to produce better sales results. He wanted an easy answer. He wanted me to tell him how to go fast. But, as you may know, I believe fast is slow and slow is fast. I wanted to give him the right answer in the short time we had together, so I told him what I would do if I were him:
1. Spend more time nurturing and prospecting. Most salespeople can immediately improve their results by spending more time nurturing their dream clients and prospecting. You don't close opportunities without first opening them. You can improve your results by providing your dream clients with value before asking for their time. You can open new opportunities by prospecting and gaining that crucial first appointment.
Ask yourself if you're giving prospecting and opportunity-acquisition the attention it deserves.
2. Discover what is or should be compelling. Your dream client isn't going to change without some compelling reason to do so. We find our prospects in one of two states: Either they're dissatisfied with a gap in performance or they don't even recognize that there is a gap in performance. You aren't going to create an opportunity without an underlying reason for change. Either uncover a reason to change or help your dream client understand he has a reason to change. The more compelling the reason, the more certain the change.
