CAPTURE and repeat your success habits. Easy concept. So easy it’s never used. Salespeople (you included) continue to fight the same battles sale after sale. Price too high, can’t get an appointment, satisfied with present supplier, taking three bids, can’t reach decision maker, blah, blah, blah. I have an idea for you. Study history. No, not American history. You don’t care who Franklin Pearce’s vice-president was do you? Study your own history. Just go back to: • your last 10 leads; • your last 10 appointments; • your last 10 sales calls; • your last 10 sales; • your last 10 repeat sales; • your last 10 referrals; • your last 10 lost sales; • your last 10 calls for service help; • your last 10 customer complaints; • your last 10 lost customers; and • your last 10 testimonials. That’s enough history to predict the future. Actually it’s enough history to alter the future. Your future. That’s enough information to cure all your ills and double your sales. OK, maybe you need to do the list with 25 of each, but that sounds like work. And salespeople aren’t willing to do the hard work it takes to make sales easy. Ten sounds like a more workable number. Start there. And when you ask yourself the question, ask deeper questions and list the answers. The reason for the list is to spot the trend and figure out how to eliminate the mistakes, conserve time and money, prevent the problems from recurring, and focus your energy on what has been successful. Wow! Why haven’t you done this before? Probably the same reason I haven’t written about it for 10 years. It’s so obvious I overlooked it.We’re going to do it in our business this week. Start with the initial history question and take it at least five steps deeper: List your last 10 leads. Then ask yourself: Where did the lead come from? What happened? Did I make the sale? Can I repeat that? What do I have to do? What’s my plan to do it? Is this my best source of leads? What’s the cost? What’s the reward? What’s the repercussion of not doing it? Get it? By simply asking yourself these real-world, obvious questions, you come up with relevant answers to help you win the next sale. Here’s another example Keep in mind that each initial question breeds different ‘depth questions’. List your last 10 sales appointments. How did I make each of them? Where were they held? Which ones resulted in sales? How many total sales did I make? Which type resulted in a sale? How can I repeat my best ones? List your last 10 sales calls. How long was each sales call? What was the presentation like? Was there a decision maker present? Was price an issue? What were the object-tions? How did the sales presentation end? What could I have done differently? How long after the appoint-ment did it take to make a decision? Why did they buy? Other questions could include: Did I have rapport before I started? How was my humour? How did I ask for the sale? How eager was the customer to buy? Did I get a referral? I think you get the idea. Have a team? Get each sales person to do this and your information will be staggering. One more example. List your last 10 sales. Where did each sale come from (what source)? Category? How long was each presentation? How long did it take to complete the sale? What was the amount of each sale? Was I a previous friend? How good was the rapport? Did he hammer my price? How did I ask for the sale? Well, that’s the strategy. And even though I didn’t list each question, I think you can take it from here. This concept has certainly opened my eyes to the probability of making future sales by studying sales your history. It’s a strategy you can implement. And one you make more sales from. You’ve heard the expression ‘history repeats itself’. Well, so does sales history. All you have to do to repeat the victories is study how you won before – and eliminate how you lost. Free GitBit. Want the entire list and all the questions? Sure you do. Well, I’ve got them on my website. Just go to www.Gitomer.com and register if you’re a first time user) and enter ASK YOURSELF in the GitBit box. Jeffrey Gitomer is author of The Sales Bible, and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. He is president of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts internet tra-ining programs on selling and customer service. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com © 2005 All Rights Reserved
