Are you a sales professional trying to adapt to the current economic challenges? I would like to offer some free advice how our start up company's (Lets Go Banners) sales reps are thriving in only its first year of business.

We started Lets Go Banners in March of 2008. After approximately 6 months of planning, we hired our first two full-time sales professionals to direct sell to businesses on the Big Island of Hawaii. Hawaii has experienced drastic declines in tourism and commerce, so we knew we had major challenges to overcome.

Our first two full-time sale representatives joined our team in October of 2008. Prior to our first sales staff, I personally generated our sales revenues via direct sales. We also ran some newspaper campaigns that produced very marginal results. We also are developing our seo link strategy for web results which lately has started producing decent numbers.

Our direct sales numbers are soaring from our first two reps, and we recently added a third full-time rep, and are recruiting our fourth and fifth full-time reps. I'm going to give you free advice how we accomplish incredible numbers with our direct sales team.

First, we give our sales reps incredible training on product knowledge and (more importantly) sales techniques. I set up a website to share our training techniques (cycleofsales.com).

Second, our direct sales schedule is the true secret to any company's success. Our schedule is as follows:

1) Monday morning meeting at 9:00am prompt. We cover positive news, concerns, sales numbers, prior week's appointments, and set goals for the following week. We attempt to cover at least one sales technique, and some weeks we offer "sales spiffs" to help motivate the team. This month's spiff is a dinner for two at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for every full time employee if we hit $32,000 or more in sales. We're on track. (I love Ruth's Chris, so I'm extra motivated to help our team hit our goal.) Each sales person has their goal and the company has an added-sales number contribution via internet and call-ins to help contribute. After our Monday morning meeting, our sales reps spend a lot of time doing administrative (non-sales related activities) and setting appointments if they fell short on the previous Friday (see below.)

2) Our direct sales team's Tuesday-Thursday objective is to perform as many calls and demos as possible and to close as many of their qualified appointments as possible. Last week, our team was 8 for 24, which is a 33% closing rate. I'm used to a 50% plus closing rate (with my previous company) so we're on track. This means that our sales reps closed 1 out of 3 of their appointments.

3) Fridays, our sales team is all about setting appointments. Now let me warn you, (if you're a sales manager or owner,) this is the hard part. So we make Fridays FUN! We meet at 9:00am and have a quick positive meeting. The 9:00am Friday meeting is not meant to be a sales meeting, just a light-hearted meeting to set some quick goals, give direction, and to exit the meeting as fast as possible.

After the meeting, we start making calls to attempt to set qualified appointments for the next week. (see cycleofsales.com for more info- this is not a sales pitch- I have not attempted to monetize cycleofsales.com!) Our team is trained how to make the sales calls, what to say, whom to call, and we work off a prioritized list how to proceed through prospects. We no longer make many "cold calls." Cold calls are difficult (but effective,) but we prefer to get the grunt work out of the way early.

Our team shoots for 6 to 8 extremely qualified appointments. Once reaching this goal, they are free to start any end of week administrative duties and to leave early if possible. We sometimes ask our sales team to assist our marketing department with finishing mailers that go out periodically to our current customers and prospects.

Our sales team lists their appointments set for the following week on a traditional paper list which is submitted to the sales manager (me for now,) and they turn in a weekly worksheet that is invaluable to tracking results.  The sales team also calls in their daily stats to our customer service department so we can analyze what's going on.

I know the above information is mostly about schedules and habits, but this is the secret to job security and success during any economic period.  We are cranking!  We're growing like crazy and are excited to work everyday.  We have visited over 1500 businesses IN PERSON since last quarter, and let me promise you, there is business to be gained.  You just have to follow a regimented schedule and go for it.

I would like to give you a quick theory about this article.

I have followed this schedule for 16 years without fail.  It has worked for me in many different industries.  I do believe we have put a "hurt" on many of our local competitiors.  And if there is a finite group of customers, than I'm proud that we're finding and keeping this pool of customers.  But we are also proud to generate new business from suggestive selling and from diversifying our product range as we find needs.  Our current business model fits the marketing-signs-banners-web sites-forms idea, but we have found and delivered many additional products including event tickets, search engine, product labels, business cards, car magnets, and more.  Our team has learned a "we can" attitude EVERY time we find a need that even "somewhat" fits our current model.

So please stay open-minded to this article.  If you're a sales rep, first start to practice a regimented schedule as described above.  Second, learn to be open-minded and to offer superior customer service to clients who wish service (we've found MOST of them need service.  They're so busy working in their business, they don't have time to do everything!)  And third, try to offer a wide-range of products or services as you find the needs.  If you are an entrepreneuer or work for a small company, this could be one of your greatest advantages.  Lets Go Banners (our main company) has diversified across many semi-related fields over the past few months.  It's so rewarding being able to offer our prospects and customers MANY solutions to their marketing needs.  They really appreciate working with ONE company versus MANY companies.

Thank you for reading this hub, and good luck!  Stay on track, stay positive, and visit CycleOfSales.com and LetsGoBanners.com for more sales and marketing FREE advice!

Yours,

Chris Anderson
CEO, Lets Go Banners dot Com
CycleOfSales.com
866-267-5814