In our customized sales training, we help sales people understand that persistence and passion typically go hand in hand. A good sales person is passionate, backing up his business solution completely.

None of this “all talk, no action” stuff for this sales rep — he’s hungry, motivated and competitive. He doesn’t pass the buck and blame the economy or blame his product or blame the competition’s lower prices.

It’s sometimes easy for sales professionals to take their client relationships for granted, and vice versa!  Even when you already have a good working client relationship in place, you can’t help wanting to take it to the next level, and that means earning more of the business your clients are giving you. Here’s a good question to get the ball rolling:

“If you could enhance one thing about our business relationship, what would it be?”

As a sales professional are you ready to meet customer expectations for the future? Kiplinger Washington Editors released their latest published report about future customer needs in relation to new jobs — the outlook looks promising.

According to the December 18 The Kiplinger Letter, over 60% of businesses say it’s difficult to find qualified workers, despite a loss of about 8 million jobs. And that’s because many skills are in short supply (machinists, programmers, engineers, scientists, healthcare workers, pharmacists, network specialists, etc.)

Have you ever called on a customer who shared with you a problem about his existing vendor? He’s unhappy and asks you if you could help — is that a buying signal or what? But wait! Instead of saying yes and launching into a spiel about how great you and your company are, respond with:

“Yes, I believe we can help you, but first let me understand your current situation…Can you tell me exactly what happened that’s causing you to look at other options?”