It’s summertime, and everyone is taking it easy … but selling is hard.

 

Summer can be a slow season for salespeople. Prospects are on vacation. Every email a rep sends seems to gets an automated out of office reply. Calls go unanswered. LinkedIn connection requests remain pending for days. It’s a rough time for people whose job revolves around connecting.

 

But if you’re in the midst of a summer slump, the worst thing you can do is panic. Your selling power hinges on your mindset. Letting yourself succumb to despairing thoughts such as “I’m never going to close a deal until September,” or “No one’s going to pick up the phone today” works against you in the long run. Your negative expectations become self-fulfilling prophecies.

 

Instead of lamenting your sad situation, take the following 7 steps to get yourself back on track.

 

1) Prospect, prospect, prospect.

No movement at the bottom of your pipeline? Take some time to refill the top. The secret to beating quota month after month is to maintain a consistently full pipeline. This way, even if you miss your number once, you’re laying the groundwork to crush quota in the future — and possibly make up for your slow period.

 

2) Seek referrals.

Referrals are approximately 50% more likely to close than other types of leads. Unfortunately, salespeople don’t seek referrals nearly as much as they should.

If your prospects are unavailable, call up your customers and ask if they know anyone who could benefit from your product or service. Because you’ll be kickstarting your relationship with the referred prospect with a personal recommendation instead of having to earn trust from scratch, the deal can close that much faster.

 

3) Upsell.

Call your existing clients and see if there is anything else that you offer than can benefit the client. The call will reconnect you with your client and offer a chance to upsell additional services.

 

4) Revisit old deals.

Remember that prospect who said it wasn’t the right time a few months ago? Well, it just might be the right time now.

 

While it’s unlikely for deals that have been in the pipeline for six months or more to close (53% of closed-won deals wrap up in the first 30 days according to Implisit data), it doesn’t hurt to give it one last ditch effort.

 

5) Set a goal.

Of course, you have a quota to hit — the ultimate goal. But if you’re in the depths of a summer slump, it can be helpful to set a few mini goals as well to sustain a good amount of activity and keep your spirits high. Maybe you want to make three connect calls by the end of the day. Perhaps you’re striving to present five demos this week. Whatever it is, a smaller goal can keep you pushing ahead — especially when quota seems hopelessly out of reach. You might just find that the big number becomes a lot more attainable after you soar past a handful of smaller hurdles.

 

6) Remind prospects about upcoming obligations or deadlines.

Okay, it’s a bit of a buzzkill, but there’s nothing like reminding a prospect about a looming fall deadline to ramp up the urgency. It can be hard to concentrate on and plan for the months ahead during the dog days of summer. If you know that the prospect has a drop-dead date they need a solution in place by, or an upcoming goal they’re at risk of missing, gently nudge them to take action now — before it’s too late.

 

7) Ask your director about sweetening the pot.

Every business goes through sales slumps, and it’s the job of sales managers and directors to formulate a company-wide strategy to combat them. Odds are, if you’re having a dry spell, some of your colleagues are too. Approach your manager about levers you can pull to get more prospects biting — discounts, freebies, relaxed contract terms, etc. Just be mindful that these options should only be used as a last resort. You should always strive to sell buyers on value, not price or terms.

 

You might go through a sales dip in the summer, but don’t let your shoulders slump. Model your disposition after the weather — the sunnier, the better :)!

 

Happy Tuesday & Happy Selling!
Kevin

Summer Sales Slump?

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The biggest mistake people make that gets in the way of their own success is thinking that becoming a millionaire is impossible. They simply don’t think it can happen.

But it can.

The first step is simply deciding on your goal.

Your second step is to do the math.

 

Did you know that most people will produce or be in contact with a million dollars in their lifetime? If you earn $50,000 a year for twenty years, you earn one million dollars.

For any goal to be achievable, you must believe in its possibility as a realistic and doable goal.

How many different ways can you earn one million dollars? You should figure all of them out.
Let’s take an example of someone who wants to collect a million rubber balls.

How would you collect a million rubber balls? First, you would ask if there are a million rubber balls on planet earth. Second, you would ask who has them, and third, you’d ask, “What do I need to do to collect them?”

Do the math to create possibility, then create strategy.

After doing the math many people suddenly realize how achievable their goal really is. People say, “I never did the math!,” or, “There are so many ways to get there!” They could finally see what they had to do.

Change your mindset, and do the millionaire math. Keep it simple. The strategy will come after.

Here are 13 ways to a million dollars:

  • Salary of $50,000 for 20 years
  • Salary of $100,000 for 10 years
  • Salary of $250,000 for 4 years
  • Earn $114 per hour, every hour of the year
  • 5,000 people buy a $200 product
  • 2,000 people buy a $500 product
  • 10,000 people buy a $100 product
  • 1,000 people buy a $1000 product
  • 5,000 people pay you $17 per month for 12 months
  • 2,000 people pay you $42 per month for 12 months
  • 1,000 people pay you $83 per month for 12 months
  • 500 people pay you $167 per month for 12 months
  • 300 people pay you $278 per month for 12 months

So how are you going to make your million?

Happy Tuesday & Happy Selling!
Kevin

How to Make a Million Dollars

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card_declined

Here at Banquest Payment Systems we often get calls from our merchants asking us why a credit card transaction was declined? They claim to have entered all the information correctly and yet it was still declined. Why???

 

Well, most of the time the issue tends to be on the customer side rather than the merchant side.

 

One of the most straightforward reasons for a credit card transaction being declined is because the cardholder reached their credit limit that was set by their credit card issuer. The issuing bank simply won’t let them borrow any more money until they’ve made a payment. There are many types of limits; daily, monthly, per transaction, etc… and it may be that a customer has reached one of their preset limits.

 

Another reason may be due to today’s credit card companies advanced fraud detection tools. If a purchase is being made outside of the customers usual geographical area, the credit card issuer may decline the transaction due to fraud concerns. They may also decline transactions that are significantly larger than usual or out of habit for a particular shopper.

 

All of the above declines are “Issuer Declines” for which as a merchant – there is not much you can do. The cardholder would need to either make a payment (in the case of reaching credit limit) or contact their credit card issuer (in the case of a fraud alert).

 

There are however credit card declines that can be due to the settings put in place by the specific merchants business. Some merchants will set rules to decline orders with billing addresses or security codes that do not match the correct information on file. Such declines are really not a credit decline (the card may actually be approved and authorized for the amount requested) it’s the merchant who is choosing not to capture and go through with the transaction.

 

We are always available to help you determine the reason for a decline. Feel free to reach out anytime to support@banquest.com or 855-323-8300.

 

Happy Tuesday & Happy Selling!

Kevin

 

P.S. Our very own President’s credit card was declined when dining out in NYC! Click HERE for the story.

Card Declined

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As we discussed last week, the average person sends 120 emails per day. That’s 120 opportunities to market yourself and your business in those individual emails you send, every single day!

I’ve already shared what an email signature should NOT look like. Here are a few great examples of what an email signature should look like.

sig1

From displaying their company logo, offering a product demo, announcing a future event, or directing people to a personal blog – each signature is doing more than just signing a name.

sig2

 

Creating your own signature is not an easy task for the non-web-designer. The signature must be created in html format to layout nicely. You can either ask your web designer to create a professional email signature for you, or you can go to fiverr.com where you can get one done for $5 – $10 (search for “html email signature”).
Happy Tuesday & Happy Selling!

Kevin

Check Your Email Signature (Part 2)

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