The Ultimate Sales MachineTurbocharge Your Business

With Relentless Focus On 12 Key Strategies

By Chet Holmes

“Practice makes perfect.” To become a master at any skill requires repetition and determination. However, most business leaders never apply this simple advice to their sales, marketing, or management practices. Instead, they learn a new skill, try it for a few weeks, and then let it go. But the key to outsell, outmarket, and outmanage your competition is to learn critical skills and master them.

According to Chet Holmes, a corporate trainer and speaker who has worked with large corporations such as Pacific Bell, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and Merrill Lynch, anyone can turn their business into the ultimate sales machine if they concentrate on mastering the essential strategies of business. In his book, The Ultimate Sales Machine, Holmes defines the twelve strategies necessary for running a successful business and shows readers how to practice and utilize these strategies to turbocharge

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their business.

With lessons that focus on time management, superior training, super effective marketing, conducting productive meetings and hiring of top performing employees, Holmes gives you the skills you need to improve every aspect of the way you do business.

Key Strategy #1: Time Management Secrets of Billionaires

Good time management allows you to optimize your actions and reduce repetition. To get the most out of your working hours and eliminate unnecessary steps and wasted time, Holmes suggests following his six time management steps.

Step one: follow the “touch it once” rule. By taking immediate action with everything you touch (emails, letters, memos, reports) you can avoid repeated actions and reduce your overall

workload. For example, the next time you receive an email, letter, or fax, first decide if you have time to deal with the item. If not, leave it untouched until you do. If you have time, open it, read it, and then take the steps to take care of it or file it in an appropriate file such as “to be signed,” “to be sent on,” or “add this information to current project.”

The second time management step: make lists - will help you focus on high priorities and get organized. Holmes suggests limiting your daily to do list to the six most important things that you must accomplish. Begin by making a master list of all the things that you need to accomplish in the near future and choose six items each day to add to your “short list.”

Next, use step three: plan how much time you will allocate to each task - to

ensure that you can address all of the items. Make sure that your item time allotment never adds up

to more than 6.5 hours since you will need flex time each day to handle unexpected issues and emergencies.

Once your list and time allotment schedule is complete you are ready for steps four and five: plan your day and prioritize. By planning your day down to the hour you can ensure that all six of your important tasks get done. And, by prioritizing them, you can make sure that the most important ones get done first.

Make an hourly calendar and place each item in a time slot. For example, if you are the manager of the sales department your list may look something like this. From eight to eight thirty - send client proposal and check email. From eight thirty to nine - review employee weekly performance numbers, from nine to ten thirty - review, revise, and fax contract, from ten thirty to eleven - take care of short meetings and check email, from eleven to

twelve - review new marketing plan, from twelve to one - have lunch with client, from one thirty to two - conference call, from two to three - conduct meeting, check messages and email, from three to five - work on direct mail letter, and from five to six - do a final check and respond to email and messages, plan for the next day.

The final step in Holmes’ time management plan is asking yourself: “Will it hurt me to throw this away?” This will help you deal with all of the emails, faxes, letters, reports, and memos that cross your desk each day. If you will need it in the near future to accomplish another task, keep it in a folder near that other project. If you may need it but can get it again, toss it. If you will definitely need it but not until sometime in the future, file it. If someone else will need it from you eventually, forward it on now.

Key Strategy #2: Instituting Higher Standards and Regular Training

Deliberate and constant training radically improves employees’ understanding of your company objectives and helps to raise and set standards of performance. Everyday your employees encounter one of two situations. Either it’s familiar and they have the information they need to deal with it, or you haven’t trained them on it and they are guessing what to do. Ensure that your employees have the information necessary to excel by utilizing these training tips.

First and foremost, you should always make training repetitious. Holding just one training session on time management will teach your employees a few timesaving tricks and tips, but by holding a time management training session every quarter (where the core material is reinforced, reiterated, and practiced) it will ensure that your

team masters the techniques and actually utilizes them in their daily routine.

Secondly, in order to get the most out of your training sessions, you need to choose your method of training wisely. According to Holmes, lecture format training is a good choice when a lot of data and information needs to be shared. This is usually used for the first training session on a topic.

Group questions training allows employees to clarify information and personalize it to their particular job and responsibilities. In this format information is made more real and employees are better able to remember the tips and steps.

Another effective training method, demonstration training, works well when you need to teach people how to perform a certain task. For example, if you need to teach your sales staff how to follow the new cold call script, demonstration

training will not only allow them to hear the new script but allow them to see it in action and explore the many scenarios that can arise.

This type of training format works especially well when paired with a follow-up session of role playing training. In this format the employees “act out” their role - making a cold call to a prospective client - and you play the client. This allows the employee to practice the new skill set until it becomes routine.

Finally, hot seat training is a good option when you need to improve the skills of your employees in an area in which they have already received prior training. With hot seat training you watch an employee perform a skill (e.g., call a new client with the improved script) then you question them about different aspects of the interaction until they see where they could improve or react differently. Then, you have them call another client

and try again. This format gives the employee personalized feedback and helps them work on their individual weak areas.

Key Strategy #3: Executing Effective Meetings

Most companies hold meetings to communicate news, ideas, or information. According to Holmes, however, every meeting should solve a problem or improve the business. For example, instead of calling a meeting to report a drop in customer satisfaction during the product returns process, a meeting should be held to improve the process and change the procedures and policies regarding this issue.

To ensure that your meetings stay focused you should follow the same format in every meeting. Begin by writing the purpose of the meeting on a whiteboard in question form. For example, for a

product returns problem the question could be: “What solutions can we offer our customers at the point of contact without having to stop and seek manager approval?” Then, have every employee in attendance spend three minutes writing down answers and ideas. After three minutes have employees share their ideas as you write them on the whiteboard. Take a vote to determine which ones work best and offer the best solution to the problem.

Start with the most promising solution. Have your top talent try out the idea. For example, have your star customer service representative take a call from an unhappy customer about a product return and instead of transferring the customer to management when the first suggestion (return the product for a replacement) doesn’t work, have the representative offer a full refund including shipping costs instead (or whatever solution your group has agreed to try out).

Once positive results are seen from the change, set a deadline for testing the concept with your other customer service reps (if positive results aren’t seen after a month, move on to the second idea). After the deadline, document each step of the new process and file it in your training and procedures manual. Once the process is implemented hold another meeting to discuss results and improve further on the idea. Finally, draw up the procedure according to your standard operating procedures format, schedule a training session for the new process, and make it a permanent part of business operations.

As you hold workshop meetings throughout the year you will slowly rewrite the way you do business and continuously make actionable improvements that boost success and profitability.

Key Strategy #4: Becoming a Brilliant

Strategist

According to Holmes, there are three types of leaders: those who focus on tactics, those who focus on strategy, and those who focus on both. A tactic is a method used to achieve a shot-term goal like running more ads to get more sales leads. A strategy is a detailed plan to achieve a long-term goal like continuously training and educating your sales staff so that they close more sales no matter how many leads they have. To be the best and turn your business into the ultimate sales machine you need to be able to design your tactics with your long-term strategy in mind.

One of the best ways to focus your marketing efforts on both strategy and tactics is to rely on what Holmes calls “educational marketing.” Educational marketing goes beyond just trying to sell a product and focuses more on building a rapport with clients to establish a long-term

relationship. For example, if your company is trying to sell shoes by cold calling prospective customers, in the short-term your sales staff will only sell to the small percentage of customers who are actively seeking new shoes. However, if your sales people are cold calling prospective customers with an offer for a free educational brochure on how keeping your feet healthy can impact overall health they can reach the customers who are ready to buy now, they can build a rapport with customers who are contemplating purchasing new shoes in the future, and they can give uninterested customers something to think about that may lead them to purchase new shoes sooner.

A simple sales pitch just serves to prompt your customer into buying. An educational marketing pitch offers your customer something of value, builds rapport and trust, and allows you to sell your product by offering a solution to a problem the

customer now understands and shows interest in.

Using the shoe company as an example, the sales representatives can call or approach customers and begin with an offer for a free booklet on foot health. As the salesperson discusses the information and data outlined in the pamphlet (how pinched nerve endings in the feet can lead to back problems or how extended standing can lead to leg and back pain if the feet are not properly supported) he can lead up to how their shoes can solve these problems. Once a customer is educated on the dangers they face they are more likely to buy the product and feel as though they have also bought a real solution to their problem.

Key Strategy #5: Hiring Superstars

Holmes defines superstar employees as those that you can put in a bad situation with poor tools, no training, and bad resources and still, within a

few months, they begin to outperform your best people in ways you never thought possible. No matter how large or small your business is, or what position you are hiring for, you should always strive to hire a superstar. The following steps will help you find, interview, and hire the employee that can propel your company to success.

The first step in hiring a superstar is designing a help wanted ad that attracts the type of talent that you are looking for. If you place an ad for an average employee you will only get average applicants. An average ad may state: “Customer service representative needed for growing company. Pay based on experience, position includes 401k and health benefits.” However, an ad aimed at unearthing superstars could state: “Outstanding people person needed to take care of our customers. If you are smart, outgoing, fast-thinking, and quickly able to solve problems, we need you in our customer service department.

This position is in the furniture industry, but we hire star performers, not backgrounds. Pay based on performance and many bonuses and incentives are available for top performers. If you know you have what it takes, contact us at...”

Once you have a few prospective applicants the second step to superstar hiring is conducting the interview properly. Once the applicant has given you some concrete information about their skills and background, it is time probe a little further in order to determine if they have the personality and character that will enable them to excel.

The purpose of the probing portion of the interview is to determine the candidate’s personality strong points. For example, a candidate with a strong ego could be great in a sales position. However, this personality type would probably not work well in the customer complaints department where a more empathetic, patient personality would excel.

Ask questions like: “What are some of the biggest challenges in your life, Tell me about a time in your life when the odds were stacked against you but you overcame them and succeeded, and Tell me three or four things of which you are most proud.”

These questions will help you determine if a person is self-confident, self-reliant, empathetic, influential, dominant, or compliant.

If you feel that you have found the perfect employee, it is time to close the interview with an attack. According to Holmes, this practice helps you determine if the applicant really is a superstar employee. Superstar employees know they are great at what they do and will not back down easily in times of challenge or crisis. See if your applicant has what it takes by stating: “You seem like a nice person, but I really need to hire a top performer for this position. To be truthful, I don’t get the impression you’re really a superstar.” If the

applicant thanks you for your time and leaves, they were not a superstar. However, if they disagree with you, take the opportunity to further sell themselves or their skills, or even outright argue the point, you may have found the right employee. Superstar performers have tremendous faith in themselves and believe that they can succeed at any job. These are the employees that can take your business to the next level.

Key Strategy #6: The High Art of Getting the Best Buyers

In order to increase sales and reduce sales effort you need to determine who your “best buyers” are.

Think about who your prime target should be. For example, a business that sells research aids to law firms might be pitching their product to the law firm’s librarian (since this is the section of the business that uses the research aid) but the real

“best buyer” would be someone who can make the actual decision to buy now. In this example, the key to increasing sales would be to tailor your marketing and sales pitch to the management committee at the law firms.

A great way to uncover “best buyers” is through an affiliate program. Who sells to the exact buyer that you want to reach but doesn’t sell your type of product or service? By teaming up with that company you can instantly gain access to your dream clients without spending a fortune on advertising.

Key Strategy #7: The Seven Musts of Marketing

According to Holmes, every outstanding marketing program includes seven “musts,” that if utilized correctly, can effectively turbocharge your sales efforts. The seven musts of marketing include:

advertising, direct mail, corporate literature, public relations, personal contact, market education, and the Internet. Let’s touch on a few of these.

For real marketing success every business needs a solid plan for advertising. High response generating advertising (print ads, billboards, direct mail, and corporate literature brochures) is distinctive, attention grabbing, value-focused, and includes a call to action. Make sure that your ad stands out from the crowd (using color ads on a page otherwise filled in black and white), has an attention grabbing headline (a healthcare company could ask: “How much would you pay to save your own life?”), contains value-focused copy (“Without our insurance you could be out thousands of dollars, or worse yet, never get the treatment you need to survive”), and finally, forces your potential customer into action (“Tomorrow could be too late, call now for your free quote.”)

Public relations is a great marketing avenue that can quickly increase sales. Get newspapers, television news programs, and magazines to cover your business and advertise for you by researching timely topics and writing educational articles for them. For instance, a company that sells healthy snacks could write an article about the dangers of childhood obesity for inclusion in the newspaper. At the end of the article, boost marketing efforts by including the line - For more information on this life-threatening trend please visit www.healthysnacks.com.

Finally, you should use the Internet to build a relationship with potential customers, not just increase sales leads. By offering free newsletters, articles, events, or products, you build brand loyalty and make your name more recognizable. This way, when a customer is ready to buy, they naturally think of your business first. The key is make your website information based so that

customers see it as a factual source and not as a giant ad. If your site contains useful information customers will return time and time and refer others to do the same.

Key Strategy #8: The Eyes Have It

Carefully crafted sales presentations are critical to your success. But remember, how you present your information is sometimes more important than the information itself.

• Increase the impact of your presentations with the following tips.

• Use color to emphasize important information.

• Only use three to four bullet points per slide.

• Never spend too much time on one section. A faster pace keeps your audience more interested and focused.

Always include factual information at the beginning

of the presentation that teaches your audience something new and establishes credibility or relevancy for your product.

Use stories and corresponding pictures or graphs to help your audience personally connect with the problem you solve and the benefits of your product.

Use the presentation to focus on the needs of the individual customer and ways that you can help them solve a problem, not on the great benefits of your product or service.

Key Strategy #9: The Nitty-Gritty of Getting the Best Buyers

Key strategy #6 showed you how to identify your best buyers. This strategy gives you the step-by-step, day-to-day tactics to land your top tier ideal clients (what Holmes calls your Dream 100).

Steps one and two: Choose gifts and create your “Dream 100” letter. To get noticed and remembered by your dream clients, Holmes instructs you to send them small gifts at least once a month that get your message across. One suggestion is to send a small, inexpensive stopwatch to the clients identified on your best buyer list from strategy six with a letter that says: “Every second that you don’t get our free executive briefing, ‘The Five Most Critical Insights in the Software Industry Today,’ you are losing money.” Finish the letter with information on your educational market offer and contact information.

Steps three and four: create your Dream 100 calendar and conduct Dream 100 phone call follow-ups. First decide what you will send your dream clients each month: a gift, a newsletter, PR articles or press releases, promos, or a survey. Then, create a calendar with a mailing date for each promotion and the prospective clients

name and phone number. Send out some form of communication every month and then follow that mailing up with a phone call. Use the call to elaborate on the message from the mailing and answer any questions the prospective client may have and attempt to set up a meeting where you can present your information in further detail.

Once you have the meeting, it is time for step five: Present the executive briefing. Your notes promised a briefing so now is the time to deliver. Follow the format about educational marketing explained in key strategy #4. For our stopwatch example, the salesperson would conduct a presentation on “The Five Most Critical Insights in the Software Industry Today” and end with a subtle solution to the highlighted problems using the product he is selling.

Key Strategy #11: Follow-up and

Client Bonding Skills

Now that you have your foot in the door with a dream client, you must make the most of the opportunity. Start by building rapport. Do you know how many children your client has? What their hobbies are? If the answer is no, now is the time to learn the answers. The deeper your bond with a client, the closer you move to being friends, the harder it will be for another company to steal their business.

You must also learn their buying criteria and frame your product to fit those criteria. For example, if you sell magazine advertising you can ask questions like: “What are the three biggest problems you are currently having with other print ad placement?”, “How do your non-magazine subscribing customers find out about you right now?”, and “What is the amount of your average sale resulting from those other print ads?”

The first question will uncover their needs, the second question will help you discover how your advertising can improve on or replace their current methods, and finally, the third question will help you justify the ongoing cost of your service.

The more a client feels a need for your service or product the more apt they will be to keep buying. Create desire by educating the customer about the dangers of doing business without your product or service. If your client balks at the idea of spending an additional amount on an add-on service, show him the facts that support a real need for the service and how buying can save him money in the long-term.

Once a need is realized and all objections have been overcome, it is time to close the sale. Do this by assuming the sale (asking, “Do you want to take it home today?, or Where do you want us to ship this?), or offering free add-ons (Since you are

buying today you are eligible for a free gift. Which bonus would you prefer?).

Keep in contact after the sale. For example, if you just sold a client six software bundles to increase productivity you could send them a letter thanking them for their business and letting them know that you are currently putting together a list of other software services that could save them even more time and money.

With your follow-up phone call let them know you are still looking at the additional software but give them a tip on how to save time using their existing software so they feel as though you are trying to help them without selling them something.

Next, call them in a few days and tell them that you have the information about that other software ready and would love to give them the information over lunch or dinner. A few days after the meal, call again and this time mention another associate

that you feel they could benefit from knowing. This gives you another opportunity to help them without selling them anything.

Finally, after the appropriate amount of time, extend an invitation to dinner to thank them for the opportunity to work with their company. In a short amount of time you will have moved from salesperson to friend and industry expert.

Key Strategy #12: All Systems Go

With this strategy Holmes focuses on measuring the effectiveness of your efforts on the previous eleven strategies and helping you tailor your goals to achieve continued success. First, he suggests that you turn your goals into daily affirmations. Repeating these affirmations keeps the goals at the forefront in your subconscious and helps ensure that you are continuously striving to achieve them. “I love making cold calls

in the morning, My new time management skills are vastly increasing my productivity, I excel at delivering intriguing presentations.”

Second, Holmes recommends that you write down your goals because this act forces your brain to immediately begin creating that reality. Good examples include: “I make five sales every day, My business grows by X percent every year, and I only hire the star performers.”

Finally, measure your effectiveness regularly to help keep your focus on business improvement. For example, a salesperson could make a chart that includes space to write in the total number of calls made per day, the number of yeses, nos, and maybes, and the total follow-up calls. If after one month he sees that his nos never decrease he will see that he needs to step up his skills at overcoming objections.

ConclusionTurning your business into the Ultimate Sales Machine doesn’t take a lot of money, or complex ideas and practices. With the information included in the twelve key strategies and a lot of determination and practice, your business can outsell, outmanage, and outmarket your competition in no time.