How To Prevent Prospects From Wasting Your Time
and Boost Sales Commissions

This article is designed to show businesses how to make money by offering promotional products to their customers and also to help those already selling promotional products to be more effective.

Let's address a problem that has probably cost you a lot of money, time and aggravation over the years.

I'll preface this by saying that many of the prospects and customers you deal with in your career will likely be good, honest, hardworking people. But even the best, most honest, hard workers, will occasionally, either intentionally or unintentionally, waste your time.

As a professional in this industry, your time is the one thing you can't afford to waste. If you run out of money, you can always make more. But if you run out of time...all the money in the world won't help you.

So there's a good argument to be made for the notion that time is much more valuable than money.

Have you ever been in a situation where you sat down with a prospect, talked over their needs, determined their budget, brainstormed some good ideas, made some recommendations, and were asked to contact them back in a week or so?

A week later, you can't seem to get through. You leave a message, but you don't get a call back. You try to follow up, but the prospect is always either on the phone, out of town for the day, in a meeting or just on the way out.

Weeks go by, and when you finally happen to slip through the phone defenses and get through to the prospect, you find out they "decided to go with someone else." When you ask them why, they say your pricing was too high, or they had to make a decision quickly, or they went with someone they had been dealing with for a long time. And very likely they ended up ordering a product that you recommended, though you're the one who deserves that sales commission.

This scenario is more common than anyone would like to admit. In an effort to bring in a new client, you want to give them your best. You're eager to share your knowledge, your ideas, your experience and your recommendations.

So you make a very common mistake. You "spill your popcorn in the lobby." You make your best presentation, recommendations, and suggestions before getting any sort of agreement with the client that he or she is committed to purchasing from you.

To get such a verbal agreement, sales trainer Zig Ziglar recommends trial closes at the beginning of the meeting, such as: "If I could recommend a promotional package that would help you to attract new business and reward your existing customer (or whatever the customer's goals are), would you be willing to place an order with me today?"

Now whether or not you want to use that particular close is up to you. But before you start laying out your best ideas, you had better make sure that, first of all, you're talking to the right person. Second, that person is capable of making the buying decision. And third, if you propose a solution to his problem, he will be willing to invest in that solution, from you, today!

In the Sandler Selling System, they refer to this as getting an "upfront contract."

Whatever you want to call it, in the promotional products business, some type of upfront contract is essential, before you start 1) consulting with the client, 2) determining his or her needs, 3) doing the research, 4) comparing vendor pricing and 5) making recommendations.

According to Carolyn Dixon, coauthor of "Managing Sales Leads," about 45% of sales leads will turn into sales in the next 12 months. Between 22% and 25% will convert into sales in six months. HOWEVER, these sales commissions can go either to you or to your competitor!

So get an upfront contract...a verbal agreement that the prospect is the right person to talk to, has a need for your products and services, has the money to pay you with, is empowered to make a buying decision, and is willing to give you a yes or no answer now, today.

This topic is covered in depth in the Top Secrets of Promotional Products Sales audio program. For more details about how to close deals and reap more sales commissions, check our online store.

For More Information Contact:

Joe McVoy
Profitable Marketing Systems, LLC
1100 Nautilus Court
Lafayette, CO 80026
Web: www.ProfitableMarketingSystems.com
Email: Joe@ProfitableMarketingSystems.com
Phone: (720) 890-8760
Fax: (303) 604-6839

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© 2006 Profitable Marketing Systems, LLC