I lost 19 of my 20 staff within 30 days.  They either quit or I let them go.  Because I lost my entire sales staff I was not able to generate enough money to cover the high overhead that I had.  I closed my office down with 24 months left on a lease that I had to personally guarantee.

When I would wake up each day I felt like pulling the covers back over my head and wishing it would all go away.  Have you ever been in a place like that before?  One day an idea came to me that turned everything around.  It was the exact idea that I needed at that moment.  The idea was to focus on revenue producing activities.

What I realized was fear, panic, and worry was not going to make my situation any better.  Worrying was not going to manifest money or sales.  When the thought hit my mind “to focus on revenue producing activities” my next steps became clear.

My revenue producing activities were:

-Generate leads

-Set appointments

-Close sales

I started to focus on the activities that would produce revenue…and guest what?  The money started coming in.  It took me 18 months to turn my situation around and rebuild my company.  What are your top 5 revenue producing activities?  Have you been spending enough time on these activities?  October 1 is in a few days.  That is the first day of the 4th quarter.  Make a decision today to focus on revenue producing activities in October.

I want to invite you to join me for a webinar my top 5 revenue producing ideas that I am doing on Friday, October 7 at 10 am pacific.

Click Here to register for the webinar

Here is a short video of me telling the story I just told you.

Want to learn more?

Click here to read the rest of the newsletter

One of the keys to lead generation is systems. You want to develop multiple lead generation systems.

Lead generation begins with a database. Do you have a database where you are entering leads? If not, then you might be leaving money on the table.

Lead generation begins with identifying your target market. Who is your ideal client? You need to find ways to connect with new prospects, whether through networking, phone calls, or email.

A POI is a Person of Influence!

Eric's number 1 lead generation idea is POI. A POI is a person of influence. Everyone has a network. A POI is a person who has a large network where a % of that network is your target market.

Another great strategy to prospect for new leads is through Top Down Selling. This is another way of describing a POI relationship. You influence the POI to refer you, recommend you, or endorse you to their network.

So, what can you do if you want to reach a POI in an organization? You can use an approach called Climb the Ladder Selling. This is where you know someone who knows the POI. You get the person you know to refer you to the POI.

Another strategy that many people know about, but that few do well is the Reciprocal Referral Relationship. This is where you find someone that you can refer business to and then can refer business back to you. An example would be a real estate agent and an insurance agent.

What are you doing to find new prospects? Select one new strategy to implement and you will be well on your way to finding new prospects.

Sell with Confidence,

Kevin Perkins
Sales Trainer, Eric Lofholm International

Kevin delivers training through conference calls and live training sessions.

So, it should come as no surprise that if you're not getting the results you want, it's probably because you're not doing the right things.

What can you do to improve your results?

There are 3 ways to elevate your results:

• Inner Game

• Outer Game

• Action

The inner game is the mental side of selling. It's your mindset. It's how comfortable you are with selling.

The outer game is the how to's of selling. When you sell. And what you say.

The last area is action. It's moving yourself to follow though on what should you be doing.

Outer Game of Selling

Let's focus on the outer game of selling.

The outer game is the Tactics, Scripts, Leads, and Calendar.

Use the power of goal setting to increase your results. Set goals Daily, Weekly, and Monthly.

One of the ways you can improve your sales results is through modeling. Look for best practices. Find someone else in your industry who is already successful and model what they are doing.

One tactic you can use to increase results is the preframe. Let your prospect/client know in advance what you expect from the meeting. If you are going to ask for an appointment, let them know at the beginning of the call.

There are dozens of ideas I can share with you on the outer game of selling. We're just scratching the surface. In fact, I haven't even shared with you the most profitable idea I have ever learned.

Would you be interested in learning the 3 ways to elevate your results in depth?

I have a program that takes you step by step through the sales process. I will teach you how to develop the mindset of a sales champion. I will teach you proven strategies to increase sales. And I will share some of my best strategies to take action consistently.

Click here to get on the fast track

But, how do you actually ask for referrals.

Here are a few secrets that will help you to get more referrals more consistently.

Write down a referral script.

Human beings respond in predictable ways. Often times what works for someone else will work for you. Think about the people in your company or industry. Is there one person who gets more referrals? You can borrow other people's scripts. Ask them what specifically they say to ask for referrals.

One simple strategy you can use to get more referrals is to set a goal for referrals. Next, get into action. I recommend you ask for referrals at least 3x in the next week. And, ask for at least 1 referral tomorrow.

Here's one question you can use to ask for referrals: Who is one person you know who is a ____________ that you think would benefit from my services?

In the blank space, insert the name of an industry, or characteristics of your ideal clients. If your ideal clients are realtors, then you can ask: Who is one person you know who is a realtor that you think would benefit from my services?

Take a moment now to write down a question you can ask for referrals.

A referral system is a great way to generate leads at zero cost. Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 in the area of referrals. What is one idea you can implement right now to increase the number of referral you receive?

On Wednesday I was in Los Angeles speaking at the Sang Conference and I shared the best sales strategy I know. This was a huge honor for me.  Many of the top speakers and trainers in the world gather at the Sang Conferences.  To learn more about Sang go to www.sang3.com

I was on a panel where the topic was How to Sell in the New Economy.  The panel was Chet Holmes, Brian Tracy, John Carlton, Dave Lakhani, Christine Comaford, and me.  I was given 10 minutes to share my best ideas on how to sell in the new economy.

The best idea I shared at the Sang Conference was to make a list of potential joint venture, strategic alliance, and referral partners.

Once you have the list select the top 4 relationships.

Contact those 4 people to schedule an appointment to discuss how you can support each other.

When I made my list the top 4 people were Brian Klemmer (www.klemmer.com), Loral Langemeier (www.liveoutloud.com), Berny Dohrmann (www.ceospace.net) and Alex Mandossian (www.alexmandossian.com).

I reached out to each of them.

Since reaching out to them here is what has happened over the last 90 days.

Brian Klemmer has become my mastermind partner.

Berny Dohrmann has put me on faculty of CEO Space.

Loral and I taught a seminar together.

Alex and I have agreed to have dinner together.

Take action on this idea.  It is a winner.

Make your list today!

Select your top 4 relationships.

Reach out to them to request an appointment.

Look for ways you can support each other.

This is a great blog post to share with your network.

Thank you for reading this blog post.  We just had the 4th month in a row where more people visited this blog than the previous month.

Warmly,

Eric Lofholm
Master Sales Trainer and Coach

John Assaraf recently interviewed me. Many people know John from his role in The Secret. I have known him for many years and consider him a personal friend.

It was one of the best interviews I have ever done.

Here is the link to listen to it:

http://www.johninterviewseric.com/audio.htm

Enjoy,

Eric

P.S.

During the the interview, I talk about how to use networking to find new prospects in the new economy, key steps to get over the fear of selling and capitalize on the new economy and how to create an avalanche of referrals. I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I enjoyed talking with John.

The recent recession has provided many lessons. Imagine being a company dependent on construction firms or home builders. As the recession of 2008-2009 hit, home builders were devastated. And so were many construction firms. Companies who relied on these industries for business suffered greatly. Don’t make the same mistake!

Here are 5 Reasons to Prospect for New Business:

1. Prospecting for new business creates opportunities

Prospecting is the act of finding qualified sales prospects. You can prospect by phone or in person. You can also prospect online or through mail or email, although that is often considered a marketing activity. In either case, any activity that helps to generate a lead creates an opportunity for a new prospective customer or client.

2. Prospecting for new business helps to sharpen your sales skills

According to Eric Lofholm, selling is a learned skill. To improve at any skill, you need to practice. And that means you need to do it over and over. Sales is no different. To improve your results, you need to prospect on a regular basis. If the idea of picking up the phone to make a cold call makes you nervous, then you know you have some work to do.

You don’t have to make cold calls to prospect for new business. You can call current customers and ask for referrals. You can follow up on leads received through your website. You can follow up with new contacts you meet at events or that you connected with online. Prospecting is an essential skill and one you to take time to develop.

3. Prospecting for new business opens the door to referrals

While cold calls are often challenging even for sales veterans, referrals are often easy to follow up with. There are several ways you can receive referrals. You can receive a personal introduction from the person making the referral. Or, you can receive the name and phone number of the person to contact. Or, someone might provide your contact information to the person being referred.

Whenever possible, ask for a personal introduction. This helps to build trust and rapport with the prospect. But, if that’s not possible, ask for the referral's name, phone number and other details and call them. Referrals don’t just happen. You usually need to ask for them.

4. Prospecting for new business provides an opportunity to craft and test new sales scripts

There is nothing more powerful than a good idea whose time has come. And sales scripts are a good idea for anyone who wants to increase their sales results. As you prospect for new business, you will have an opportunity to try out new sales scripts. Results take as long as they take. But, you can increase your results with a good sales script.

5. Prospecting for new business allows you to book more appointments and close more sales

Do you want more customers? If so, then you need to close more sales. But, how? It starts with booking more appointments. You need to actively prospect for new business. That means picking up the phone and talking to people for the purpose of scheduling appointments. Whether you meet someone in person or run an appointment over the phone, you need to deliver more sales presentations if you want to close more sales.

If you’re not getting the results you want today, then you need to take more action to prospect for new business. You need to generate more leads and book more appointments. You need to track your results and hold yourself accountable.

Strive for Success,

Rick Cooper

Sales Coach and Trainer

What is a sales script?

A script is simply a sequence of words that makes sense. For example the sentence you just read is a script. What isn’t a script is gibberish. It’s word salad. It’s saying things like chair, book, car, dog, computer. These words when spoken in that sequence mean nothing to the listener.

So you are either using a script or you are using gibberish. Now that we agree you are using scripts the real question is how powerful are your sales scripts?

Why do powerful sales scripts work?

Powerful scripts work because human beings respond in predictable ways. Here is one of the first scripts I learned.

“If you do what a millionaire does you will get what a millionaire has. If you invest your money where millionaires currently have their money invested, what will you become?”

I have asked this question of over 1,000 people. Every single one of them has always answered a millionaire. Isn’t that powerful? If you didn’t fully grasp the power of the example above let me restate my point. You can create PREDICTABILITY in your sales presentation.

That is what the sales superstars do. They use the same sales scripts over and over again because they work. Would you like to learn a sales script that generates quality referrals over 95% of the time? I knew you were going to say, “Yes.” How did I know? I knew because human beings respond in predictable ways. Here is the script.

“As you probably know, I work with referrals. A good referral for me is _____ (share with them what a good referral is, for example I say, “a sales manager with six or more people on their sales team). When you think of a good referral think of _______ (jog their memory, for example I say, “other offices in your company, where you have worked in the past). Of everyone you know, who would be the best referral for me?” This sales script produces a quality referral almost every time.

How did I learn about the power of sales scripts?

I was introduced to scripts by my first mentor Danté. I watched Danté deliver his sales presentation over 50 times. Every time he delivered it he said virtually the same thing. He told the same stories and the same jokes. He used the same closes. He handled objections the same every time.

Did scripts work for Danté’? He is the only sales person I ever met who drove a Ferrari to work. I was then trained by one of Dr. Moine’s students, named Tony. Tony taught me the psychology behind how to create a script.

Dr. Moine then trained me. I have been working with Dr. Moine for over 11 years. Dr. Moine is the author of “Unlimited Selling Power.” To learn more about Dr. Moine go to http://www.DrMoine.com.

What kinds of sales scripts are there?

Here is a list of different types of scripts:
1. Objection handling
2. Referral
3. Closing
4. Rapport
5. Identify customer needs
6. Appointment setting
7. Entire sales presentation

The next step is for you to make a list of sales scripts you need to create for your business. Once you have created the list select the most important sales script to complete. Lastly take action.

Success,

Eric Lofholm
Master Sales Trainer and Sales Script Writing Expert

Get Clients

Email marketing is a powerful strategy to get clients. I love email marketing!  There are many different ways to use it.  One way is a 1 to 1 email to a prospect.  In this blog post I will share with you how Patrick Snow brilliantly used this technique to land me as a client.  Let me set the stage.

In one of my public seminars I shared with the audience that I was writing a book.  Michael Price was in the audience.  On a side note Michael is great at helping people overcome fear.  Check him out at www.fearlessthinking.com.

Michael is one of Patrick Snow's clients.  Patrick is a book writing coach and is known as the Dean of Destiny.  Michael referred me to Patrick.  Patrick sent me the following email.

Subject Line:  Referred by Michael Price of Fearless Thinking...

Eric,

I am very impressed with your background and your web site!

One of my publishing clients, Michael Price has referred me to you.   He mentioned that he recently attended one of your workshops and learned of your goal of getting your book published in 2008?

As a best-selling author, and publishing coach, I can help you achieve this goal if you are serious about releasing your book this year.   I will be mailing you a copy of my book and publishing package for your review.    When you get a moment, please call or email if you are interested in a complimentary publishing consultation.

Respectfully:

Patrick Snow

www.CreateYourOwnDestiny.com
www.BestSellerPublishingCoaching.com

Let me share with you some of the brilliance of this email.  The most important thing in an email is the subject line.  He put Referred by.  That was very persuasive.

The next technique he used was flattery.  He started off the email by letting me know he was impressed with my background and my website.

He then offered me a complimentary publishing consultation.  The key here is he didn't try to sell me book writing coaching in the initial email.  He was simply offering a consultation.  I call this stage selling.  I teach my clients to always sell to the next step.  The next step in this case was a consultation.

Boost your Appointments with 1 on 1 Email Marketing!

During the consultation I signed up.  Patrick offered so much value to me as a client I now refer him to anyone I know that needs help getting their book done.

Think about how you can apply 1 on 1 email to boost your appointments.

I need your help.  I am committed to providing valuable tips that can help you make more sales in my blog.  Please share this blog with others.  This will help me and help the people you share it with.

Success,

Eric Lofholm

Master Sales Trainer & Coach