BIZTIPS: IMPROVE YOUR SALES WITH A BETTER ROADMAP
Turn more leads into deals with these simple tips to help you plan, organize and execute your campaigns better.

1) ORGANIZE YOUR LEADS:
Manage your contacts well. A good CRM tool (Customer Relationship Management) that includes a calendar, trackers and notes are a plus. CRM's (Act, Sales Force, Outlook, Google Calendar) dictate the organization and structure of your sales generation. Other tools include, Excel tracking spreadsheets, OCR business card scanners and a smart-phone access to your online database.

2) YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR WITH SALES TOOLS:
Unless you are a dedicated marketing company (or have one in-house), please " do not go on the CHEAP" by doing it yourself! DO not underestimate (or insult) your prospects with amateur work.  You can convince yourself all you want, but a home-made content is most noticeable especially to prospects who receive them all the time.  There's a drastic difference between Kinkos color copies and professional offset printing. The same goes for any electronic media such as websites and powerpoint presentations. It's your sales...do it right! You have once chance to win them over! 

3) DEVELOP A REALISTIC SALES STRATEGY:
 Before you hit the ground running, take time to map out how you will use your time and budget wisely.  Your plan might include a percentage of the day/week doing face-to-face sales vs. phone follow-ups.  Lastly, a realtistic strategy must also comes with a timeline when you need to audit your progress. Where success means keep going, enough flops may call for a revision of the plan- or scrapping it altogether.

4) SELECT YOUR LEADS CAREFULLY
To prevent a waste of time, vendors and service providers must be careful as to the type of appointments they take on.  Whether you buy lead lists or gather them from a networking event, pre-qualifying your leads with a little research or a preliminary phone conference saves you time and aggravation later.  Spot for telltale signs on how to "sniff out" a real prospect from one that can prove to be a sore disappointment. 

5) SELECT YOUR CLIENTS:
In today's economy, a large stack of unpaid receivables are a good reason why companies may go under. You can produce the best product, have great customer services and bill efficiently and you may have that one DEADBEAT who will challenge a freebie or chew off a major discount out of your bottom line.  Know that practically every single business has been (at one time or another) "stiffed" by a client. With today's research capabilities, you can check on any company online before you enter into contract. Websites like BBB.org, KNOWX.com and other business background checking sites can prevent that heartbreaking nightmare later.

6) OPTIMIZE YOUR SALES MACHINE:
Arm yourself with better presence. Today's sales industry has reinvented itself to KNOW more and to BE more. The “aggressive pitch-and-close quota chasers” of yesterday are replaced by the more highly-informed and refined spokesperson to communicate at much higher quality levels. Today’s sales rep works much harder to earn the client's confidence with more thorough presentations, immediate and more complete answers and accountability from the front end.  They know where to go, how to network and are highly trained to use all their tools to the max. To compete, you need to do the same.

7) ALWAYS LISTEN FOR TRENDS:
 Your sales arena is constantly changing.  Everything from holidays to the weather to a major news event can easily sway widespread market activity in either direction.  Being 'in the know' means paying attention to business news and talking with your local business circles about current economic trends. Be on top of today's technologies, methods, web resources, top industries and where to go for better answers.  Any info that can help steer your sales efforts can save valuable time and resources-- and even your business.