You can't get blood from a turnip.
1) Fake it Til You Make It: This does NOT mean pretend you are something that you are not. It does mean you must carry an air of success and confidence when you are selling your services, which means dressing and acting like a successful business person. You shouldn’t lie about what you are capable of providing, you should be very careful to not appear arrogant, but you should never talk about the issues your company is having, your financial fears, lay offs etc. In my work I come across so many small business owners, especially start ups, who mistake their warm relationship with clients and colleagues for friendships and share too much information.
2) Everybody Loves a Winner Piggybacking on Cliche’#1, people have enough worries of their own to even think about buying a product or service from a company that might not be around for long. This is especially true if your sales are primarily B2B – if your customer’s success depends upon their suppliers and you’re one of them, they’d better believe you will make them look good in front of their customers.
3) Ask for the Sale We’ve all heard the 80/20 rule until we’re blue in the face, but NOTHING is more important to your business success than asking for the sale. It never ceases to amaze me how many of my clients are afraid to go for it and close the deal.
4) Thinking Outside of the Box If you’ve ever been part of a large sales force and attended a company conference, you’ve heard this speech hundreds, if not thousands of times. You can come up with a new way of saying it – be a “Game Changer,” a “Trust Agent,” but it does matter that you are not just accepting the way business is done and always looking for a new or better way to provide your customers with what they need.
ALL of these cliches became over used because they are true to the core; that means you can afford to ignore them.
