Jerry R Mitchell’s Blog

We’ve all heard the term “sell the sizzle, not the steak”. Well, if you’re selling anything, you had better pay attention to the “sizzle”. In today’s market, your potential prospects have one thing in mind. “What’s in it for them”, and if you’re into sales, you must realize this. While the “nuts and bolts” of [...]

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Like the often-heard sales cliché says, it’s a numbers game. But what do you do when the number of prospects is fine, and the number of sales is not? How does a sales manager deal with slumps, dog days and unresponsive prospects?
One helpful technique involves the concept of “usable rejects.” One of my first sales [...]

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I believe that good forecasting techniques contribute so much to an entrepreneurs overall sales effectiveness. Forecasting, of course, provides the salesperson with a current listing of those prospects who, hopefully, will buy product. Forecasting presents the sales manager with an up- to-date summary of projected business. It also can give the current status of each [...]

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An obvious answer is that you may miss important information, mistake instructions, etc., if you don’t listen. But in addition, when you really listen to people, you’ll find that they are more receptive to your ideas and statements. People like to be listened to. They really appreciate it when someone seems to hear them and [...]

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“We can’t afford to just hold the line; we’ve got to attack the competition” “This new product will help us to penetrate our target market”.  “Smith, you’ve got to defend our position”.  “With this advertising campaign we can outflank”.  “Let’s bring in the big guns from headquarters”.  “The objective of this operation is to.”
The world [...]

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Has this discussion come up in your sales meetings? “How can we increase the volume and scope of services sold to our larger customers? We need to sell more network consulting, needs analysis, configuration, installation, telephone support, and maintenance, but our larger customers have taken on these services internally.
 
Selling services may be the remedy for [...]

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Has this discussion come up in your sales meetings? “How can we increase the volume and scope of services sold to our larger customers? We need to sell more network consulting, needs analysis, configuration, installation, telephone support, and maintenance, but our larger customers have taken on these services internally.
 
Selling services may be the remedy for [...]

Read the rest of How to sell more services to large accounts.

Picture these scenes: An angry customer calls you to complain about a defective system.  Or a customer walks into your office upset because he thought the system you sold him would do something it can’t.  Or you receive a letter complaining about poor service at one of your sales offices.
Whatever the scene, whatever the gripe, [...]

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Today’s customers have exerted a power that threatens corporations and promises to create a new and better way of doing business.
The question: How can you take advantage of this new behavior to connect with these buyers?  One-way: Keep in mind that today’s buyers are radically different from those of the 90s.  They want quality and [...]

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When prospecting for new business, you will find many companies with serious needs for your products.  Of those, only a small percentage will be shopping for an alternative.  The rest will be content using existing methods, tools and systems to accomplish tasks much better handled by the solutions you sell.
Entrepreneurs that are able to activate [...]

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