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Missed & Lost Sales Opportunities

Missed & Lost Sales Opportunities
Free Download - Daring to be Different (part 2) By Sue Barrett
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Not enough new business coming? Sales drying up? Not making a satisfactory impact when in front of prospective clients?

If this is happening to you, consider your sales effectiveness and your sales efforts from these two angles:

  1. Missed sales opportunities.
  2. Lost sales opportunities.
If market conditions are right, and you have good products or services, then you may want to take a look at your own efforts. Your poor sales efforts may be due to:

Missed sales opportunities: Put simply, missed sales opportunities are all about a lack of prospecting activity. If there is little or no prospecting for new business in new and/or existing accounts you will not get sales. You cannot lose sales if you're not there to get them in the first place.

Remedy: Develop a prospecting plan and get out and see and/or speak to more people in your target market on a regular and consistent basis. Prospecting requires sales people to establish contact with people who might buy your products or services. Whether it's phone prospecting, face-to-face prospecting or group prospecting, inbound or outbound, nothing gets sold until salespeople get in front of and/or talk to potential buyers. Prospecting is... The identification of new business opportunities in new or existing accounts!

Lost sales opportunities: You can only lose a sale when you are engaged in a sales conversation with a prospective viable client. (A viable client is someone who has the willingness and ability to buy from you, the authority to make a decision and a genuine need for your product or service offering).

If the client is viable and you lose a sale, it is most likely due to your lack of capacity to convert a sales opportunity into a sale - and sales revenue. This is usually due to poor selling skills and techniques such as having no logical sales process to follow, poor questioning skills, inability to relate to and empathise with your customer's situation, making poor recommendations, etc.

Remedy: Get trained in a proper evidenced-based sales process that teaches you how to sell well. More than 90% of sales people follow no logical process when selling. They fly by the seat of their pants. Sales people need clear sales communication models, questioning skills, a process to match client needs with their products and make effective recommendations, and skills to secure client commitment and close a sale.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.





Missed Lost Sales Opportunities - To learn more about this author, visit Sue Barrett's Website.

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David Barr
David Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website

David Acheson
David Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns.  David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website

Dave Kurlan
Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development.  He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website

Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website

Linda Richardson
Linda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website

George Ludwig
George Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website

Anne Barr
Anne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website


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 About The Author


Sue Barrett
(Visit Sue's Website)
Sue Barrett is a Thought Leader on 21st century sales training & coaching, sales capability & culture. Sue believes that everybody lives by selling something and that all of us, no matter our background, can achieve excellence through purposeful action.

Sue launched her own business, BARRETT, in 1995 after holding senior positions with a leading consultancy and recruitment company and within two years won the Telstra and Victorian Government Small Business Award. Sue is one of the few female voices commenting on sales today. She is best known for her work in illuminating and defining the elusive qualities that make for highly successful sales people and helping businesses build high performing, profitable, sales teams. Sue has developed a unique position in the Australasian market with IP specifically in the Sales Competency space.

Sue is lead sales writer for www.smartcompany.com.au and has developed a growing, loyal readership since February 2007. Her weekly articles are some of the most widely read on Smartcompany which is listed in the top 10 news publications in Australia. Sue practices as a business adviser, public speaking, consultant, interviewer, facilitator, trainer, coach and writer. Sue has a unique way of getting to the heart of the matter- she combines extensive knowledge, research, insight, and practical experience with a deep sense of compassion for all people to bring forth a more enlightened way of thinking and participating in the world. www.barrett.com.au, Barrett Sales Blog


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