Make January Your Best Month

"January is the time where you take your energy and your determination and put them to work," says sales trainer Skip Miller. "Working hard to get ahead of the curve? 2009 looking like the roller coaster we all expect it to be? Up and down, then down then up? Getting meetings but no commitments?" Here's some advice from Miller to help make January a pull month for you:

Ask questions
Find out what is important to your prospect in the first half of 2009. This is not the time to see if they are in the market to buy something that you are selling. Ask them what they are doing in the first half of the year. What's important to them?

Be a part(ner)
Your prospect knows that they don't have a lot of money, and do not want to take on a lot of risk. Fine. What are they working on and how can you be a part of the solution? If you are an oven sales person, your interest should be if they are doing any remodeling in their kitchen, or if they plan on eating in more, not if they are "planning to buy a new oven". There is a difference.

Call high
Need to go broad and deep in your current accounts? Now is the time for your manager to call his/her manager for a 2009 review of what your customers are doing in 2009. They may not mention anything at all on how you can help them. That's the point. Get a good idea of what they are doing differently in 2009...and then thank them for their time. You can get back in short order if you can help them, based on what they are trying to do, just not a 10-slide sales pitch on what you're doing different in 2009. Do you really think they care???

Pull, not push. You will find that your prospects are looking for solutions, not sales pitches. Crank up those listening skills about them, not about you and your products/services, and you will find them wide open to talk, and talk, and talk. That's a good thing.

A recognized authority on the psychology of sales performance, Skip Miller has helped countless companies, already at the height of success in their respective fields, achieve an even greater level of sales productivity and success. Learn more at www.m3learning.com