You wouldn’t just show up at your dentist’s office without an appointment. You wouldn’t start cooking without checking to see that you have the proper ingredients. You wouldn’t go on a trip without packing first. In both life and in sales, proper preparation is everything. You need a plan, and then you need a dedicated time frame in which to execute that plan.

I suffer from telephobia. Look it up! It’s a real thing! The truth is A LOT of people suffer from the same affliction. It’s just not a fun thing to do! Unfortunately, many of those people, myself included ARE IN SALES! Phone follow-up is a critical part of our jobs. I’ll share with you my tricks for getting over telephobia.

Think about the things in your life that might be personalized: a letter or greeting card, a meaningful gift from a loved one, an article of clothing, maybe even a house. Why do we love personalization? It’s because it makes us feel special and important. Are you making your customers feel important throughout the sales process?

The truth is most emails (even mine!) get deleted before they’re ever read. I think it’s safe to say the excitement of hearing “you’ve got mail” is gone. Today, you’ve got to do a lot to stand out and command attention. And that’s especially true of your follow-up emails!

Do you close every sale on the first customer interaction? If so, congrats! For us mere mortals, we must view follow-up as our response to hearing “not yet.” In its best form, follow-up is a continual conversation that begins at the first customer interaction and continues through the purchase process. This means, as sales professionals, we must do everything possible to shorten the buying cycle and get to the close as quickly as possible.

If you’ve ever watched poker on TV, or even if you just saw the movie Rounders, you’ll learn something about the game. It’s not “gambling” in the traditional sense. Yes, there’s definitely an element of luck in it. But really great players know that it’s much more about strategy than chance. No professional player sits at a table and just hopes the cards are great. They know how to make the most of EVERY hand, good or bad. Do you have a strategy for making the most of EVERY follow-up opportunity?

Resistance comes in many forms and goes by many names. Procrastination, fear, lack of confidence, excuses, distractions . . . all are the handiwork of Resistance. If you want to be successful, it begins with understanding that Resistance is a mental construct inside your own brain. You must take control of your own mental approach. Here is the good news: You can.

One of the most important concepts you must understand about your customer’s journey is what goes on in the buying brain. You need to understand Emotional Altitude (EA), which can be defined as the level of positive emotional involvement in a situation or a decision. Buying a really cool jacket or a piece of sports memorabilia or a new car—all should be times of high Emotional Altitude.

A customer’s motivation is the most important piece of information a salesperson can have. But not every customer is begging to share their motivation with you. Sometimes it takes a little digging, picking up a piece of their story at a time. Great salespeople need to know how to connect the dots…

It’s been about eight weeks since we’ve all been sheltering-in-place and over that time I think I’ve been on (let’s see… crunching numbers… carry the 3…) ONE BILLION PHONE AND VIDEO CALLS. And I never want to be on another conference call that doesn’t have a set agenda and purpose! And… NEITHER DOES YOUR CUSTOMER!