Levels of Intention Predict Sales Success

You know your intention, but how well do you know your levels of intention? Here’s why this is so important for sales success.

First let me ask you this: What does the word ‘intention’ invoke in you? “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” is a quote that’s been in use since the 11th century. That saying gives the word ‘intention’ a bad rap. And in some situations it should have a bad rap. If we don’t fulfill … Read More

Intentional Selling: Why 3 out of 4 People Suck at Sales

I recently read in Hubspot some astonishing statistics on the performance of salespeople: A study by Objective Management Group (OMG) concluded that only 6% of salespeople across all industries are “elite sellers”.

They also reported that 3 out of 4 sales professionals are failing. These numbers aren’t coming out of thin air. They are based on the evaluations of 700,000 salespeople!

However the study was not all bad news. The silver lining is that most of the sales professionals in the 74% bracket … Read More

Intentional Selling : The Power of Intention for Accelerating Sales Results

Anyone who works with me and knows me has heard me rave about the power of intention. It’s no accident that I named my sales process training Intentional Selling. What does the word ‘intention’ mean to you? How would you define it? And what does it have to do with selling anyway?

In my Intentional Selling workshops one of the foundational concepts I establish right at the beginning is the power of intention. When I ask people what the word intention means to … Read More

A Bold Email Template Designed to Get Client Response

Are you having a hard time getting clients and prospects to respond to your emails?

There is nothing more frustrating than when a good sales opportunity stalls because of no email response. If you let too much time elapse, so does energy and connection. If you’re too impatient, then the client feels pressured.

This is when to bring out a good, strong, yet appropriate email template! One that’s designed to get a response so you can move forward or move on.

… Read More

What to Do When Prospects Don’t Answer Your Emails

What the heck do you do when your clients or prospects don’t answer your emails? I get asked this question a lot. It’s especially frustrating when your client initially expressed interest in moving forward with a next step. Now it feels like the opportunity has evaporated into the ether.

What does one do? You don’t want to be a pest and you also want to be persistent in an appropriate way.

For starters, it’s important that you leave strong voice messages and write … Read More

Email Persuasion Tip #4: Less Is More

When it comes to emails that get opened by your clients and get immediate responses, less is more. The less your email looks like a “wall of words,” the more persuasive and effective it will be. Email persuasion requires attention to both email structure (see last week’s post) and formatting. An eye friendly format is key.

Too much information, especially when it’s all bunched together in long run-on sentences with no paragraph spacing, will probably not get read. It certainly won’t get an immediate response.

Why? It’s logical. It will take … Read More

Email Persuasion Tip #3: Use a Recipe to Write a Clear Message

Writing effective emails is like following a recipe when cooking. In my younger years I told my sister I wasn’t a very good cook. Her response? If you can read, you can cook. All you have to do is follow a recipe. I’ve learned over the years this is true.

Using a recipe is not only for cooking but also for sales communications…sales meetings, presentations, emails, voice messages. That’s why I love to use templates.

Here is the template for constructing persuasive emails. … Read More

Email Persuasion Tip #2: Create a Compelling Opening

The #1 essential ingredient of writing effective emails is to create a magnetic subject line that compels your clients to promptly open your email.

The #2 key is crafting a compelling opening sentence. This is so important, yet many people start off on the wrong foot. They forget to put the reader’s needs first, what’s important to them, and what will make them hungry to find out what your email says.

Once opened, the goal is to pull your client … Read More