“An identified path is half travelled.” – The Selling Champion
Successful selling is intentional. You must define what you want to achieve from the beginning. This is how to achieve your sales target. In defining your direction, you must take note that viable prospects and customers are everywhere in your territory. Your main duty is to discover them.
Intentionally inconvenience yourself
In my years in the field as a salesman, I met my targets at unexpected territories. I visited places other salesmen avoided. Some of these places were in the outskirts, where salesmen who loved comfort wouldn’t want to visit. Once I identified these places by means of environmental scanning, I moved in like a battle-ready commander, who had the territorial map of his targets.
My experience taught me that prospects and customers doing business in the remote places desire that salesmen visit them because they want to be receiving goods in order to ensure going concern of their businesses. Unfortunately, most salespeople avoid these places because it takes more effort to do business in such areas. Because they are located far away from the city and you have to travel for hours to get there.
Most companies have their head offices located far away from these remote places and many salesmen in these companies find it tasking to go that far for sales activities. Only few sales folks who know the secrets of success go the extra mile to identify these remote areas.
Viable prospects are closer than you think
As a salesman who desires to succeed, investing the right efforts in the right places is imperative. I remember how I closed a lot of sales, visiting Ojo and Badagry areas in Lagos, from Ikeja. I was in the pharmaceutical industry, covering Ojo to Badagry. The place was quite a distance. It took, at least, two hours to get to Badagry from our head office in Ikeja those years. It will take longer time today because of the state of the roads.
I visited the territory once in a week and my customers prepared to receive me each time I visited them. They bought and paid immediately. I spent reasonable time to develop the market when I discovered the cluster of a lot of viable prospects in the area. I also took advantage of the opportunity provided by skeletal visits of salesmen in that area.
Ojo and Badagry boosted my monthly sales figures and I was the best salesman in our company for a long time. I cannot tell my field sales success story without mentioning Ojo and Badagry Territory.
I have come to learn in life that the bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward. If you want to attain higher heights in life, don’t run away from bigger tasks. Tasking situations come with bigger gains. You can take this to the bank!
Sell differently
There are places that will guarantee milestone sales. The issue is spending the required effort that will get you there. Some salesmen stay in their comfort zones for a long time. They are comfortable with the number of customers they are selling to, without necessarily doing anything to increase their figures.
The things that will ensure greatness are not found within the comfort zone. If you do the same thing all the time, you will likely get the same result. If you sell to the same people, using the same sales strategy, you will likely arrive at the same result. This is an indisputable fact.
It is also ideal to discover ways of selling more to the same people. Up-selling and cross-selling have their uses in selling. Apply these strategies where necessary. Buyers can buy from 50 per cent capacity to 70 per cent, 80 per cent and even 100 per cent. A customer who buys toothpaste can also buy toothbrush. The one who buys soap could also buy soap dish and sponge.
See a way this applies in your industry. Try to expand what a current customer is buying at the moment. Most customers have the capacity to buy more from you. Buyers can buy more when you give them a variety of good choices. It is your duty as a salesman to identify how to sell more of your products to your customers.
You also need to find out ways to explore untapped areas that will be viable for your products. Inactions do not make champions. You need to take actions in order to arrive at desired result. Learn how to do things differently to get a different result. Go to places that will give you preferred results and stop counting the efforts you need to invest in such places. You must strike on target to achieve results.
Reach us on www.thesellingchampionconsulting.com, 07060559429 or 08186083133.
