Salesperson

Establish Your Mompreneur Lifestyle Today

May 3, 2021 By Adriana

The Softer Side of Selling is pleased to present a guest blog post by Leslie Campos at Wellparents.com, a mompreneur. Thanks Leslie for filling in while Don was on vacation! Not a mom looking to start or grow your own business? Show this article to someone you know who is.

Mompreneurs Rock!
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

Mompreneurs Rock!

Are you a mom with a dream of owning your own business? Do you have the motivation, skill, and work ethic required to take care of not only your children but also a company that, in some ways, is like a child unto itself? There’s no time like the present to get started with your own business and live that “mompreneur” life you’ve been dreaming of. Let’s take a look at how moms can start — and grow — their own sales business:

Choose your business model

Do you know what you want to sell? Maybe you make small crafts or knit blankets, or maybe you want to sell your skills as a tax preparation expert instead. Whatever your product or service, you need to make sure you can support it with good business practices. Becoming a successful mompreneur doesn’t happen overnight — it takes time, dedication, and a detailed business plan.

Your business model is, put simply, your plan for how your company is going to make money. In a more complicated sense, it’s a map of how value moves from you to your customers and back to you.

Form an LLC

Creating a limited liability company (LLC) is another business-related activity that you want to consider. LLCs offer several advantages to small-business owners, including pass-through taxes, personal asset protection, and flexibility when it comes to how your business should be run. Personal asset protection (i.e., limited personal liability) is especially important: Essentially, if someone wants to sue your company, your personal assets (e.g., house, car, etc.) cannot be taken from you.

Head over to https://www.virginiallc.net/ because a formation service allows you to avoid hefty lawyer fees. Just make sure you research the regulations in your state before moving ahead as rules can be different, depending on where you’re located.

Cultivate your selling skills

As you’re starting your business and getting your feet under you, you will want to make sure you build up several skills that will make your job easier in the long run. As an at-home salesperson, for instance, you need to be an expert at cold-calling potential customers — one of the things we’ll teach you at Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. It may seem frightening but keeping your eye on the prize and picking up the phone to make initial contact is a great way to make sales.

Make a list of potential customers from your target demographic, write a script for what you’re going to say, and set aside several hours to make those calls. And if you don’t get many bites, don’t get discouraged — even one sale is better than zero!

Taking care of your whole life

Working from home is something else you will have to contend with — and working from home with kids at that. Taking care of your children and your business at the same time can sound like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be scary. Set schedules, make to-do lists, and make sure your children know you’re working at certain times of the day (if they’re old enough to understand).

The elusive work/life balance doesn’t have to be so. The key here is setting boundaries and making sure everyone is respecting them — including you. Focusing separately on family and on work at different times of the day is important. Devoting half of yourself to one and half to the other leaves a lot to be desired on both sides. Instead, fully focus on each at different times. This becomes easier if you have a partner or babysitter to share the burden of watching your children, of course.

Another way to improve work/life balance (and get your much-needed nutrition for the week) is to meal prep on Sundays before the work week begins. This serves multiple purposes. First, you’re getting your meals (or lunches, at least) done so you don’t have to spend time during the week cooking. Second, preparing food has been known to have meditative benefits for some — so this can be a time for you to relax, as well.

No time like the present

The hardest part of getting started is just that — getting started. Take these tips and incorporate them into your plan for getting your business off the ground. Then, all that’s left is to take the plunge and create your successful sales business.

For more tips, tricks, and key tactics you can utilize on your journey in becoming a mompreneur and sales expert, visit Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling and join the sales club.

Thank you! Leslie Campos from Wellparents.com for this article. All you mompreneurs, contact Leslie here leslie.campos@wellparents.com with your questions and insights on starting your own business.

Your Most Important Sale: Me, Inc.

April 18, 2021 By Adriana

It’s that time of year when new college and high school graduates are looking to the most important sale: getting that great job. This year is a bit different as the economy opens up and many who were unemployed during the COVID pandemic are wanting to get back to work. And some of you are seeking a better job. Whatever the reason basic selling fundamentals can win you the job of your dreams.

the most important sale is the one you make to get your dream job

Use Sales Skills for ME, inc.
Image from Pixabay

Three Important Qualities of Me, Inc.

To make your most important sale you need attitude, behaviors and knowledge. Let’s look at each of these traits of a great salesperson.

Attitude

You must have a positive attitude to make your most important sale. Be confident but not cocky. Believe you will be hired. And be prepared at each step of the search process. Your attitude will be most obvious in the interview. Whether video, by phone or in person you need to be self-confident. Remember the company is interested in learning about you. And you are deciding whether you really want to work at the company….

Sales Skill: Achieving Goals

April 11, 2021 By Adriana

As great salespeople we are all achieving goals. How do we go about it? We focus on the most important task at the time. That important task is determined by the immediate goals we have for achieving the long-term goals. So we plan goal achieving activities. Next we perform them. Then we check to see whether we are achieving goals.

Great Salespeople Are Expert At Achieving Goals
Image from Pixabay

Achieving Goals Starts With A Vision

Pick a future time: 3 years, 5 years, 10 years. Where do you want to be personally and professionally then? This “vision” you have for the future is the basis for setting your goals. Great salespeople know goals must be realistic and measurable. You may want to double your sales in 3 years. If so you can measure current sales volume against previous to see the growth. If the market size is adequate for achieving your goal then it is realistic. As long as you know how to do it….

Sales Skill: Cold Calling

April 5, 2021 By Adriana

Well great salespeople I’ve been doing cold calling lately. Since the pandemic hit I’ve been working with our local Small Business Development Center. When a new program to help small manufacturing businesses was offered, I agreed to recruit companies for the initial cohort. So here I am again doing sales calls to create interest in the Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program for Existing Enterprises. I’m a sales professional who relies on the fundamentals of good selling. I’ll tell you how I prepared for this new challenge.

Be Happy! Make Cold Calls!
Image From Pixabay

What Is Cold Calling?

Great salespeople have lists of prospects matching their current best customers. They have done some research about the person they are about to call. There is a purpose to the cold call. Then they dial the phone. For the salesperson it’s part of their days work. For the person you are calling, it’s intrusive. I know the person who answers the phone is not sitting around idly waiting for my call. No when they pick up the phone and realize it’s a “cold call” they usually feel ambushed. That person on the other end of the phone wants to escape from this call as politely as possible. And you great salesperson, want to achieve your purpose for calling….

Sales Skill: Laser Focus on Selling Activities

March 29, 2021 By Adriana

Great salespeople know they have to maximize the time spent on selling activities. The salesperson’s primary job is to close sales. Any activity that interferes with selling needs to be either minimized or eliminated. Great salespeople are laser focused on prospecting, qualifying, closing and following up.

great salespeople focus on selling activities

Always Focus On Selling Activities
Image from Pixabay

Discipline Is The Key

First set goals for selling activities time and other stuff time. My goal was to devote 60% of my week to activities which resulted in sales. I measured the time I spent in meetings with prospects, other contacts with prospects (email, phone, text, etc.) and travel time to prospects offices. At the end of each week I evaluated my selling time. When it was less than 60% I refocused my selling activities for the next week. Great salespeople are passionate about focusing on selling activities….

Sales Skill: Buyer Listening Style

March 7, 2021 By Adriana

Your buyer has a preferred listening style. And you do too. Great salespeople know how to determine the buyer listening style. Then they use that style to make it easy for the buyer to understand the message. In a previous post, Fundamental Communication Styles, the four basic styles in which people communicate. In this post I focus on how best to present information so the buyer understands it.

Everybody has a preferred listening style

Know The Buyer Listening Style
Image From Pixabay

The Buyer Listening Style

Many studies have shown each of us has a preferred listening (or learning) style. Some of us prefer listening and speaking. We are known as auditory learners. When we learn from illustrations, graphs, written words, we are visual listeners. We learn best by seeing the information. Sometimes we learn best by actually touching or experiencing the information. Then we are kinesthetic or tactile learners. Kinesthetics learn best by doing. Great salespeople know when they present to buyers in the way they learn best they are more likely to favor us….

Sales Skill: Sticking To The Sales Process

March 1, 2021 By Adriana

Every great salesperson knows sticking to the sales process is the way to win the sale. The fundamental elements of the sales process are: building rapport, finding the pain, determining the budget, understanding the decision-making process, making the presentation, asking for the order and following up on the sale. Each of us has adapted the fundamental process as our own. We use the process in ways that fit our personality and skill set. So let’s explore ways to stick to the sales process.

Salespeople win sales by sticking to the sales process

The Sales Process Yields The Win
Image from Pixabay

Building Rapport

People buy from those salespeople who they like, respect and trust. So salespeople set about building rapport with buyers by getting to know them as a person. Everybody has dreams and goals. Your job as a salesperson is to find out what drives the buyer. At the same time building a relationship with them so they are comfortable with you. As an integral part of the sales process, each encounter with the buyer is well-planned. A salesperson who hears the buyer say: “I’m not interested” has a response planned. Perhaps it’s: “OK. Since you agreed to meet can we talk about (insert something of interest to the buyer)”. Great salespeople are prepared to respond to anything the buyer might say….

Sales Skills: Great Salespeople Are Adaptable

February 19, 2021 By Adriana

That salespeople are adaptable might seem like an obvious statement in light of what we have had to do since the Corona Virus pandemic created chaos. But weren’t we great salespeople always adaptable? The Corona Virus has affected the whole world. But for as long as there have been buyers and sellers, there have been disruptive events changing the status quo. Some events affected whole populations. How many of us now have a land-line phone in our home? Other events are more narrowly focused. Have you ever had to deal with your favorite buyer leaving a great customer only to be replaced with one who wanted to make their own mark?

Salespeople Adapt To Change
Image by PixelPixieStudio from Pixabay

What’s It Mean Salespeople Are Adaptable?

The world changes daily. Some changes are small others cataclysmic. Great salespeople understand the implications of the changes affecting them. And they react to accommodate them. But they also know the fundamentals of the selling process never change. How those fundamentals are applied and who the buyer is may change but the fundamentals are, well, fundamental. We say salespeople are adaptable because they continue to apply good fundamental selling practices even when the situation changes….

Sales Skill: Improve Your Closing Ratio

February 15, 2021 By Adriana

Great salespeople have an attitude of continual improvement. Have you ever looked at your closing ratio and thought: “I need to do better than this?” A salesperson is always tracking their performance. So to improve your closing ratio start by considering how well you do the three essential tasks to closing more sales: Prospect, Qualify and Follow-up.

Improving Closing Ratio Earns More Money

The Key To Earning More Is Boosting The Closing Ratio
Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

What’s Your Closing Ratio?

Simply put your closing ratio is the comparison of the sales you made to the sales you attempted. Say you presented an opportunity to purchase your product or service to 20 decision makers in a moth. Of those 20 presentations ten decision makers agreed to buy from you. Then you could say the closing ratio is 10/20 or 50% of the deals pursued. Another way to figure closing ratio is by the value of sales won compared to the value of opportunities presented. If the 20 pitches totaled $100,000 and the orders were $40,000 then the closing ratio would be 40%. Great salespeople have a consistent way to measure their closing ratio….

Sales Skill: Keeping Your Sales Plan On Track

February 8, 2021 By Adriana

So here it is mid-February 2021. Some six weeks into the new year. How are you doing? Great salespeople take time to review their personal sales plan. What’s working? What hasn’t gone according to plan? Take an inventory of recent successes and failures. How do those compare to what you had anticipated for this year?

Great Salespeople Check Their Sales Plan Often
Image from Pixabay

Refine Your Vision

There is a lyric from the song Happy Talk in the Musical South Pacific: “You gotta have a dream, if you don’t have a dream,
How you gonna have a dream come true?”
Vision or dream, whatever you call it, how you want to see the future is important. Your sales plan is written to make your dream come true. Take time every couple of months or so to reflect on and revise your vision. How long has it been since you wrote your vision? Yes wrote it! Of course it’s nice to have the dream but when you commit it to paper something happens. It might be magical but those who have taken the time to write out the vision and step-by-step goals to achieve it are those who succeed. The vision and goals are the substance of your personal sales plan….