Savvy Selling - sales speaker for professional meetings, keynote motivational business speaker

1. A Belated Happy New Year!
2. A Funny Holiday Business Photo
3. Sales Ideas We Can Learn From Our Children
4. The Readers Write
5. Most Recent Savvy Selling Column - Prioritize! It's a Matter of Urgency
6. Motivational Quotes to Inspire You
7. How You Can Help Us Help More People and Distribution Details

ISSUE 105:

1. A Belated Happy New Year!

'Hope you got off to a good start of 2006 without me. I took a few weeks off of work so I could move from Houston, Texas to Reno, Nevada and get settled in. I gave a speech just before Christmas and another on January 4, the day my moving van arrived at our new home, so it's been crazy around here. All good.

Please note that my email address and toll-free # are the same. Just my mailing address has changed.

I was speaking at a trade show for the National Ground Water Association just before Christmas and one of the booths had a Christmas tree decorated with the water filters that they sold. Perhaps you could use this idea to display what you sell 11 months from now. (Yee gads!)

--Sorry, I tried to insert the photo but the Web-gods aren't cooperating today. I think you "get the picture."

3. Sales Ideas We Can Learn From Our Children

My previous column, From the Mouths of Babes talked about how we can learn some important selling skills from our children. The Holidays may seem a long time ago but if you need a good laugh, or at least a smile, read it at: http://www.savvyselling.com/free-sales-articles-121605.htm

I share this letter to inspire you to look for the difference you can make in other people's lives just by doing a good job at whatever you do best.

Dear Michelle -

I've been reading and sharing your columns with my clients for the last year. (Whenever they ask me sales questions, I find your advice that applies most and send it a long). I've been a high-tech marketing person for some 30 years (starting with the big Silicon Valley firms - (names withheld) then startups and for the last 5 have been on my own doing marketing consulting - which I love. I've always avoided selling - just call me chicken heart.

I have been working with a great client - 3 engineers - who have a fantastic product and a good set of first customers. After "selling" their product to editors successfully during their launch, they asked me to help them with sales.

In the past I would have said no, argued for my limitations, and insured them that sales and marketing people can't be in the same brain. Instead, because of you, I said yes. So, next week I start selling -- just one day a week (fortunately I have a full set of marketing clients keeping me busy in case I bomb).

Your columns have taken some of the mystery out of sales and helped me understand that many of the skills I have are a good match for the sales. I pulled from your columns to build myself a roadmap for setting up a sales program from scratch. Next week I'm taking my favorite, very successful, sales person friend to lunch to help fill in the gaps.

Thank you for the inspiration, information, and courage to take on this new world.

Frances Mann-Craik

5. Most Recent Savvy Selling Column - Prioritize! It's a Matter of Urgency

Please remember my columns are copyright-protected. Feel free to print a copy for yourself but please do not reprint them for distribution without contacting me first. Thank you.

By Michelle Nichols

All sorts of obligations demand our attention, but some are more vital than others

While the Declaration of Independence proclaims that all men (and women) are created equal, not all selling tasks are created equal. If you want to sell more and close faster, some activities are much more valuable than others. Once a year, it's a good idea to evaluate your various selling activities and decide which ones to continue at the same pace and which ones you want to increase, decrease, or stop doing altogether.

There's a simple exercise to tune-up your selling process and identify which activities are the most valuable to you. To begin, think back over the last month or two and write down a list of all your various sales activities. Then rank each one in terms of urgency and importance.

At first glance, it may seem these two characteristics are the same, but let me clarify. A task is urgent if it seems as if the world is screaming for you to do it right now, like an insistent toddler. For instance, making out the payroll checks or paying your quarterly taxes when they are due are examples of tasks that are urgent but aren't important in the big scheme of developing your business.

FOUR COMBINATIONS. On the other hand, a task is important if the quality of the job could dramatically affect your sales. Long-term planning is an example of a task that is important but rarely urgent.

Let's look at all four combinations and explore how you can use them to increase your sales results. An hour or two of time invested in this analysis will help you leverage your time and energy over the year ahead.

Obviously, you should spend most of your time on activities that are both urgent and important. The best example of this is time spent selling to qualified prospects. Just imagine how your sales would soar if you spent 100% of your selling hours in front of folks who need what you sell, at the price you're offering, and wanted to purchase it today.

Mind-boggling, isn't it? And yet, most of us spend an embarrassingly small percentage of our selling hours in this category. Resolve now to spend more time in front of customers who can buy and your sales are guaranteed to grow.

DOUBLE UP. Next in importance are tasks that are important yet not urgent. They would include the above-mentioned long-term planning or taking some sales training, whether from a class or a recent book. Prospecting, networking, creating marketing programs, and anything else that falls under Steven Covey's rule, "Sharpen Your Saw," belong in this category. These jobs must be done by you personally or in conjunction with other professionals.

Be careful not to spend too much time on this group. I've met sole proprietors who spent a year writing policy and procedures manuals when they should have invested more of their time in front of real, live customers.

Explore, if you can, multitasking two or more of these activities. For me, developing my spirituality and my body are important because they make me more effective. These tasks are also tempting to put off until tomorrow. I solved this by starting each day with some spiritual and business reading while walking on my treadmill. In fact, I've renamed my treadmill my "Education Station."

"SCRAP TIME." I set my treadmill on a sensible 3 miles per hour pace, crank up the incline to get my heart pumping, get out my religious books, and study away. After my lesson is completed, I read key stories in the morning newspaper. I keep a pen, a highlighter, and scissors nearby so I can clip out stories to either forward to customers or use to update my selling spiel. By the time I've walked a few miles and burned a few hundred calories, I have put myself in the right frame of mind, worked up a healthy sweat, and been brought up to date on issues that affect my business and my customers.

For marketing calls, carry a list with you of folks you want to contact during "scrap time," that is, time that would otherwise be wasted waiting. You can use the same idea for brainstorming on sales campaigns, brochures, Web pages, and more. If you get to an appointment early, you can work from the car. If a customer is delayed, ask for an empty office or quiet spot where you can complete these important selling tasks.

Ranked third are jobs that are urgent but not important. These are great to identify so you can outsource them. Accounting, cleaning your office, and updating your Web presence are some examples of this. They have to be done, and they have to be done well because they reflect on your company -- or keep you out of jail -- but they don't have to be done by you. Identifying as many jobs as possible that you can hire a professional to handle to your level of satisfaction is worth the time of finding, hiring, and managing that vendor.

GET STARTED. Last in importance are activities that are neither urgent nor important. Sometimes these are just plain fun, like doing a crossword or Sudoku puzzle. There's certainly a place in life for fun and relaxation, but use these activities as a reward, after you've completed your selling tasks.

This "tune-up" of identifying and ranking urgent and important sales activities is important but not urgent. However, it can only help you sell more if you stop now and take the time to work your way through it. You might want to select an activity from the last category as a reward for completing the task. Even better will be the harvest of increased sales you'll reap. Happy selling!

"They (your customers) may not remember what you said but they will remember what they heard."
- speaker Roger Crawford

“All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.”
- poet James Russell Lowell

“I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love, and abundance. Then, whenever doubts, anxiety or fear try to call me, they keep getting a busy signal – and soon they forget my number.”
- Edith Armstrong

Q: What did the sales manager at Cingular tell his employees?
A: To go "cell" phones.

If you have a sales joke or motivational quote that helps you sell more or live better, send it to: :michelle.nichols@savvyselling.com

A. Meeting Planners that need to hire a great sales speaker
B. Frustrated sales folks who need some sales tools with fresh ideas
C. Sales VPs or Business Owners that need to hire a sales consultant
D. Editors that need a steady stream of high quality, reliable sales columns to reprint

..to my website or have them call me. Let's connect!
or mailto:michelle.nichols@savvyselling.com

**If you're in a business, sales, or networking group--and you want details on how to bring in Michelle Nichols to do a fund- raiser for your chapter, or you want me to host a teleseminar customized just for your group, contact me at michelle.nichols@savvyselling.com or call toll-free (877) 352-9684.

***Attention Meeting Planners: If you're booking speakers for spring or summer conferences or events, keep me in mind--even if you have a last-minute cancellation. I deliver high-content, interactive programs that are lots of fun. I give away great, savvy door prizes. And, most importantly, I'll make you look good.

Call toll-free (877)352-9684 or michelle.nichols@savvyselling.com

Permission to reprint:
You may reprint any items from "The Savvy Selling Sales Newsletter" in your own print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Savvy Selling Sales Newsletter," a free newsletter featuring ideas and strategies for generating more sales in less time. Subscribe at www.Savvyselling.com .

If you like this newsletter, please send it to your friends, clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The Savvy Selling website at www.SavvySelling.com or you told me you wanted to receive it.

Privacy Statement:
Savvy Selling International will not give, or sell your Email address. The only exception to this is if we sell our email business. In that case, you will be given at least four week's notice and two notices so that you can opt out before the sale. For more information. read our privacy details.

Michelle Nichols, Savvy Selling columnist, BusinessWeek Online
Sales Speaker and Consultant www.savvyselling.com