Jeff Cowan's Blog

December 9th, 2009

Selling From My Perspective

By Jeff Cowan

“5 Things You Can Do To Significantly Increase Your Income in 2010.”

Every year as the New Year approaches my email and telephone light up with a common question for this time of year;

“How do I significantly increase my income throughout the coming year?”

This is a great question and one that can be quickly and easily answered. What follows is a list that will give you an immediate impact and that is very simple to execute. The hardest part will be summoning the discipline to do so.

1. Start showing up to work 15 to 30 minutes early. This will ensure that you have plenty of time to prepare yourself for the day ahead and will guarantee that you are ready for your very first sales opportunity (customer). My Uncle Carl who once owned a chain of liquor stores in Indiana (one being the largest in the state at that time) said it best; “Show up right on time and you set yourself for mediocrity. Show up 5 minutes early and you create job security. Show up 15 minutes early and you will likely someday be in management; Show up 30 minutes early and you will likely own the company someday.”

2. Stay past your scheduled quitting time. As indicated above, I found Uncle Carl’s advice to be sound, but until you own the company or become part of management, by coming in early and staying late you will be stunned at the amount of extra sales that you will generate. How many times have you shown up early and had people waiting to get inside your store to do business with you? How many times at the end of the day have you witnessed someone pulling into your parking lot to do business at quitting time as the rest of the staff heads home? You may not get an extra sale every morning and evening but you will be stunned at the number you do get over the long haul. I have experienced this first-hand and still do to this day. Some of the biggest sales I have ever made have come prior to opening or just after closing.

3. Make 3 telephone calls a day to a past customer who declined work with you to see if they have changed their minds. It astonishes me how many Service Advisors or Service Departments never follow-up on a customer who declined services and repairs on a prior visit. Conservatively speaking, 20% of these calls will ultimately generate a sale. To do this right, your contact with the customer must be within 3 days of the visit, by telephone and followed up with a short email. (Contact us for the word tracks on this.)

4. Become the “T.O.” or “Turn Over” master. Every time a customer declines a service or repair that you offer them, send in a manager or co-worker for a second pass. Likewise, become the “go-to-person” when others need help. While turning over a sale is regularly practiced in most businesses and sales departments, it is generally not done on Service Drives. You will be impressed with the results that turning over the sale will garner. Even if it requires that you give up a percentage of your commission, it is worth it. After all, half of a sale is better than no sale at all. In every sales position I have held I regularly turned over sales and took turned over sales from other sales people. It usually accounted for around 30% of my annual income. On Service Drives where this is regularly practiced it is not uncommon to see a 50% closing rate from turned over sales. At Pro Talk all the sales staff, trainers and even I turn over sales to one another on a regular basis with very consistent success.

5. Train. Train, train, train, train, train. Never stop training. You should always have something that you are reading that will help you increase your skills on the job. You should always be looking for the next workshop, seminar or webinar that you can benefit from. Even if your training consists of only 10 minutes of your daily time being spent on this most important point - train. Don’t wait for your factory, Dealer, Department or anyone to get information to you, instead, seek it out and make it part of your daily routine. Training should become synonymous with who you are. I have studied many people who are the best at what they do and although there are several common traits among them, the one consistent similarity that they share is the commitment to an ongoing training regime. Stop waiting and train. Every day is an opportunity to learn something new and become better. Or not.

Of course this is a short list and there are many other things that you can and should do to help you increase your income, but I can guarantee you that if are you not already incorporating these suggestions into your regime, the 5 simple suggestions will have a huge impact on your income.

As you venture into this next year it is not a question of if you can improve your financial situation or not, it is a question of will you do what is necessary to do so? Will you have the discipline to do so?

Only you can answer that and next year’s W-2 will tell the tale. Right, wrong or indifferent, that’s way I see selling from my perspective.

If you would like more information on great selling tips, techniques and insights that are proven to work contact us at 800-248-2931. Or write us at info@jcowansprotalk.com. We will be glad to answer all of your questions.