Get Yourself Out of that Sales Rut

Get Yourself Out of that Sales Rut:

Watch out for ruts

If you’ve ever experience mud season (yes, this is a season in some states), you know how bad ruts are for your car. When the mud is soft, you can sink into them and get stuck. When the mud freezes, your tires can get caught in those frozen tracks until the rut ends.

No matter what, they’re a hazard. And when you grow up in that environment, as I did, you are taught early on how to avoid those muddy traps and how to get out of them. (Drivers ed also included driving erratically after a big snow fall to learn how to get out of a skid, but that story is for a different post.)

Vehicles aren’t the only things that can get caught in ruts. As you well know, each of us can get stuck in one—whether it’s in our work, in the food we eat, or what we do on the weekends. We fall into routines that while they can give you comfort, they stifle your creativity, enthusiasm, and drive. In fact, when we know we’re in a rut, often we rationalize why we shouldn’t change.

If you’re a salesperson or a service professional responsible for generating new business, a sales rut can hurt your business. But like you can learn how to get out of and negotiate mud ruts, you can learn how to do the same with sales ruts. Here are some ideas:

1. Examine How You Feel About Selling

Do you feel your services aren’t that great? Use that feeling as an indicator that you need to evaluate the quality of your services, how it compares to competitors’ and how you can make them better, writes Larry Gard in his article Is Your Sales Engine Stuck in Neutral?

Do you feel like your sales approach doesn’t match who you are or doesn’t feel genuine? Reassess your approach. Is it the problem or is it how you carry it out?

“When your sales are stuck in neutral, hitting the gas and trying harder isn’t always the answer,” Gard says. “In many instances you’ll only wind up spinning your wheels. Sometimes it’s better to put yourself in ‘Park’ and really listen to how you feel about selling.”

2. Evaluate Your Marketing Efforts

You might have spent a pretty penny on a snazzy brochure, but that brochure alone won’t give you new clients. What you do with that brochure—or any of your marketing materials—is what generates sales, writes C.J. Hayden in her article Marketing Materials Don’t Close Sales. How You Use Them Closes Sales.

Before you create any marketing materials, know exactly how you’re going to use them, she says. How will you distribute them? Who are you targeting? What methods will you use to distribute them—in person, via email, via social media?

Hayden also warns against waiting to distribute materials or reach out to prospects until you’ve written the perfect marketing prose. If you wait, you will miss out on opportunities.

“Brochures, sales letters, and websites are all excellent and effective marketing tools. And writing powerful and informative marketing copy is a useful skill to learn or hire out to a professional,” Hayden says. “Just don’t put your marketing on hold because you haven’t yet found the perfect words. In marketing your services, actions really do speak louder than words.”

3. Research Prospects Better

If you’re selling to public companies, you could be overlooking important information that can help you with conversations with prospects. And armed with the right information, you can not only win the sale but win a six-figure deal, writes Silvia Quintanilla in her article Selling to Public Companies: 2 Ways to Help Win a 6-Figure Deal.

You get that information from transcripts of companies’ earnings calls with shareholders and analysts and from their investor presentations, she says.

Earnings call transcripts are “chock-full of details regarding the company’s latest strategies, challenges, and priorities for the coming quarter and beyond,” Quintanilla says. And investor presentations “typically provide key basic information about a company, along with strategies and goals.”

You can find both of those easily on the Internet, she adds.

“Use these golden nuggets of information in your emails, conversations, and presentations to your prospects. By tailoring your communications, you will be speaking their language and showing them directly how you can help them achieve their specific goals,” Quintanilla says.

4. Ask Better Questions

You know you need to ask prospects questions to uncover their true needs and determine the best solution for them. However, there are good questions, and there are bad questions. One type will lead to a sale, while the other will lead to your being shown the door.

In fact, Andrew Sobel, co-author of Power Questions: Build Relationships, Win New Business and Influence Others, says chief executives can determine a service professional’s level of experience by the quality of questions the person asks. It doesn’t matter how clever you are or whether you drop names, the questions you ask are what matters.

Sobel shared some of his favorite power questions in a recent podcast interview Power Questions that Get Prospects to Want to Work with You:

You’ve been in this job now for a year. I’m curious: What parts of your job do you wish you could spend more time on? And which activities do you wish you could de-emphasize?

As you look ahead in your business, what are you most excited about?

What’s the most important thing we should be discussing this morning? (Use if your client is distracted.)

“If you are able to ask really good credibility-building questions and then also these kind of interesting and intriguing agenda-setting questions, most clients are going to be highly engaged,” Sobel says.

5. Consider a New Service Model

Sometimes the service model you’ve been offering for several years can not only get tedious, but it can affect your earning ability. You might spend a lot of time and resources on something that gives you little return.

Robert Middleton ran into that problem with his marketing consultancy Action Plan Marketing.

“I used to do a three- to six-month teleconference program and charge a few thousand dollars. After a number of years, I realized I could offer something bigger and more comprehensive,” he says in Gwen Moran’s case study about Action Plan Marketing 2-Tiered Service Program Helps Firm Reach High-End and Mass-Market Clients.

He decided to offer a two-tiered model.

The first level focuses on high-end clients that includes a combination of hands-on consulting and coaching, professional writing assistance, a three-day in-person workshop, semi-monthly group conference calls, recorded teleclasses, webinars, a small “Mastermind Group” comprised of other participants who assist each other with the program requirements, and email support.

For those who can’t afford the Marketing Mastery Program, Middleton offers the Marketing Club. For a small fee, online participants get access to courses, coaching calls, interviews with experts, and a proprietary software system for tracking leads.

By targeting his best prospects and selling a larger program, Middleton has been able to maximize the earning power of his time. His upcoming Marketing Mastery Program is full, and his lower-end Marketing Club grosses more than $200,000 per year.

What ideas do you have for getting out of a sales rut?

Photo by Guilherme Grespan