by Matt Valvano Over my 16 year journey of starting my businesses and I discovered my hidden passion. That my friend was in sales! I absolutely love the thrill of helping a customer get something they want or need, but more importantly solving their problem. Even though it is a thrill there is a challenge to this insane game of chess as people never really know what they need, until they meet a salesperson. With that said we’re going to go over 9 PRO Sales secretes I wish I knew during my early year’s of selling
We’re starting out with a banger so get ready to increase your profits!
#9 Have you given up on “”? Subject Line
I stumbled upon this gem during one of my traveling ventures to meet a client. I spend anywhere from 30 min to 3 hours driving and during this time I listen to Audiobooks. One of these audiobooks included, “Never Split the Difference”.
Never used Audible or listened to an eBook? Use this link to secure Chris Voss’s book “Never Split the Difference” for free!
This book provides a behind-the-scenes look about dramatic incidents involving, Chris Voss, FBI’s experience as a hostage negotiator. Chris reveals all of his intense battles developing strategies to win in high-stakes negotiations to save lives.
There is so much more in this book as Chris explanations how to use mirrors to encourage the other side to bond with you, tactical body language reading, developing labels to create empathy and so much more!
In one of the sections of the book, Chris goes over a portion about emailing and getting a response back from someone, who has disappeared. You know what I am talking about, someone that has ghosted you!
You don’t know if you should continue or simply give up after the 8th contact attempt and it is beyond frustrating to get a voicemail. When you’re at this point because it will happen and you want someone to respond, even if it is to say “No”. Try this:
In the emails the subject line type one of the following to draw attention to your email. This will make your email stand out:
- Have you given up on “add your service or product here”?
- Are you walking away from “add your service or product here” ?
- Did you decide to go away from “add your service or product here” ?
Why does this work? Think about it. The terms giving up and walking away are that of a quitter. No one likes a quitter, not even your prospect that is ghosting you!
Now that you’ve got their attention. Within the email write a brief statement about your service or product and how provides that person value. DO NOT, I repeat do not make this about your product, you, or your company. Make it all about them!
By providing value and how your product or service will help solve their problem it emphasizes that you were listening to them and you are here to help them. Upon finishing up the email you then create a clear call to action, whether it is to set a meeting or a phone call to move forward.
A close for my flooring installation services may go something like this:
Subject: Have you give up on your new flooring?
The last time we spoke we discussed hardwood flooring being installed in your living room. Let’s set a quick 13 minutes call to see if your new flooring is the right fit for that area or not. – “Recap + quick call.”
We’ve had other customers in a similar situation that went with new hardwood. It seems like a scary process ripping up an old floor, but that’s our job. Don’t worry about it! – “Calm their worry.”
Over the last 75+ years, we’ve built up an extensive community of installers and products to get the quality you want to be followed up with a competitive price. We’ll get your new floor in no time and if we cannot make it happen in the time-frame you need, I’ll introduce you to someone who can! – “Provide value & offer additional help.”
What works better for you to quickly touch base? Friday, 11th or Thursday, 10th at 11:05 am before lunch. – “Assumptive close.”
Looking forward to hearing back about your new hardwood installation! – “Always use your new… service or product to enforce they are going to own it.”
You’re open rate and response with this email is extraordinary – I’ve had responses within 5 minutes of emailing this out. It may seem odd to providing value and following up with that in a statement that if you’re not the right fit, but subconsciously you’re proving that you’re always here to assist them. You may create something better for your situation, but what I want to do with my email statement is to show how trustworthy I am.
Either way, you will find out if you are what they are looking for and if they’ve moved on or not. In sales, your main drawback is time and this way you won’t waste any more time in this prospect if they say they’re not interested!
This does not mean to completely cut that prospect off. This allows you to follow up with down the road or with email campaigns.
I encourage every salesperson to read this as it was one of my favorite reads of 2020. You’ll thank me later! If you’re considering buying this book, please. Please help the blog out by buying “Never Split the Difference” by using this link.
#8 Stay in contact by giving FREE and very valuable content
Envisioning Gary Vee yelling at both of us about this one, “Content is king, you F*CK… Put it out there as often as possible!”.
He’s right about it and there are ways to go about it without losing to much time creating it. You can use email services like Klavio or Mailchimp to easily run a blog post to your customers about your services or products. What I like to do is provide 4 pieces of valuable content that are automatically sent every 11 days and then follow this up with some sort of offer on the 5th email.
In doing so this will allow you to prospect through your email lists.
Pro Status – No time to create content? Hire interns to help you write them – I was this intern at one point and I would offer my services for free so I could learn. Help provide them with projects for their portfolios!
If you’re just starting out I highly suggest providing free content out as much as you can to keep your blog active. Best of all you can have your email list send old blog posts and track their open rates. If I notice that they’ve opened an email multiple times about re-finishing hardwood wouldn’t you agree that is a valuable lead to call about my company re-finishing their hardwood floor or renting them a sander?
Let’s dive into email tracking customer relationship manager or CRM’s!
#7 Finding a CRM that tracks and notifies you when emails are open
One of my favorite things to use is a solid CRM that tracks emails and notifies you when they are open. There are so many out there now and I’ve used quite a few. Here are two of my favorites:
- PipeDrive – Very simple to use and I use this solo.
- HubSpot – Great for medium-size businesses.
Eventually, I will break out other CRM’s, why I love each one of these alongside there pros and cons. For now, I’ll keep it simple with these two!
I enjoy PipeDrive for the main fact that it is not cluttered like many other CRM’s. PipeDrive is heavily focused on the salesperson and providing them with all of the tools they require to continually put prospects into a sales funnel. This post will not go into detail about PipeDrive, but I will make an article about that soon!
HubSpot is another CRM that I use daily. HubSpot allows you to easily bring in the rest of the team and track everything going on within your website or social media sites. Another thing that HubSpot includes is a very trained customer service hotline that can assist you with anything you’re running into or need to solve. HubSpot is a more advanced CRM and eventually, I will create an article dedicated to how I utilize all of the tools together to get the most out of it!
Both PipeDrive and HubSpot are so amazing. I’ve been using both for a long time and both have made me hundreds of thousands of dollars! Even if you’re running solo or with a team, the very first thing you want to use is the email tracking both of these CRM’s provide.
Make sure to adjust the notifications to ping you on your cell phone and desktop. What I do is set a certain sound for when an email attachment is opened or downloaded. I opted for the “CAHH-CHING” ping because I know at that moment a proposal or contract is being opened.
Right when I hear that money ping, I’ll check the notification. These CRM’s make it so easy to see who it is, your last conversation and they’re now a phone call away.
Within a few seconds of that beautiful sound, I’ll find a quiet place to make a quick call and play what I like to call…”stupid” as the prospect answers my phone call.
I’ll start by saying, “I was just thinking about you and wanted to see how they’re doing over in…” and they’ll reply back with, “Oh… same stuff and I had a moment to look over the proposal. I am glad you called because I have some questions.”
What a coincidence… I think not!
Pro Status – Use the email opening secreted in conjunction with the last two Pro tips. Write out emails that have a call to action in the email about a problem your products are the solution too. If they open that email use this chance as a reason to call them instead of using the dreaded… I’m just following up on old leads!
#6 Always ask for referrals
Why struggle in sales? I cannot stress this enough always, ALWAYS ask for that referral.
Who do you ask you say? Ask everyone! If you’re not asking for referrals there is a very good chance that you’re desperately trying to fill your sales funnel each quarter or worse, trying to line up prospects.
Prospecting is an art that I tend to expand upon with future blog posts as I could write a book about it. A book I encourage you to read is “Fanatical Prospecting” by Jeb Blount is extremely detailed about how to grow your prospect list.
Never used Audible or listened to an eBook? Use this link to secure the Jeb Blount’s book, Fanatical Prospecting!
For now, take a moment to envision this. Every customer you speak with, the person you meet at the checkout lane of the grocery store, extended or close family including your long lost brother-in-law’s best friends uncle, or even customers that chose a competitor’s product over your’s all know someone you don’t.
Never hesitate to ask because you don’t know what doors may open. Sure it may seem awkward at first, but remember you’re a professional!
Speaking of generating referrals…
#5 Use the 250 rule
This pro tip is one of my ultimate secrets to my success over the years and with this we’ll dive headfirst into extracting referrals!
This ultimate sales tip is called the 250 rule and is based around the concept that every person knows at least 250 people that they would invite to their own wedding.
I love this concept as it really broadens the potential of every person you’ve ever come in contact with. As a sales professional yourself, this should have you jumping out of your seat because that’s a whole bushel of new prospects!
This does a few additional things like:
- Gives you a reason to call previous customers to see how things are going, how they like your product/services, and then ask for that referral.
- I like, “Who else do you know that you think would like my services/products?”
- Keeps you involved with previous customers and showcases great customer service.
#4 Never Judge
This is one that is dear to my heart because I watched it happen to my father. For the readers who are unaware of my families background is that we have a family flooring business.
There is no way for us to maintain our clothing when kicking in the carpet or gluing down VCT for our customers. In other words, our clothing gets destroyed and some days we look like we’re in shambles from the days work.
My father is one of the hardest working people you will ever meet and has always had a steady flow of income. Plus his credit is above 849 and would be the prime candidate for a new truck!
The day I am describing is on one of our visits to purchase a new work truck and we we’re looking to spend $85,000+ to make it happen. Upon our visit to the dealership I will not name we were greeted by no one.
We walked the entire lot and found the truck we were going to buy on our own. I asked why we were not going in to get someone and my father said it was because he was waiting. “Waiting for what?” I asked myself.
I quickly realized what my father wanted as this dealership’s sales associates walked right by us, clearly ignoring us, one after the other. He wanted to be acknowledged and to be made important for his purchase – Instead he was left frustrated and unwanted!
Instead of one of their sales associates talking to us and having the easiest sale of the day, each one ignored us because of how we looked. After about 27 minutes of this, my father said, “Want to see something funny, come watch this.” as we walked inside.
When we got inside my father asked the first person he saw who the manager on duty was. That person directed us over to a small cubical and we talked to someone who I will not mention.
My father said in a calm voice, “Do a soft pull on my credit” and handed said manager his license. After handing his license he said, “We’ll be over by the vending machine waiting for you”.
We did make it 7 steps before this said manager was rushing over to assist us with our purchase! “WOW,” now you want my business and he followed up with “Thank your sales associates for ignoring me for the past half hour as I was ready to buy that truck”.
He grabbed is ID and my Dad said in a loud tone, “Never treat any of our customers like this, or I will fire you myself.” He then looked back at that manager and said, “Never contact me again!”.
After this experience I do my best to talk to everyone as I would want to be treated.
#3 Always be “closing” Always be PREPARED
- Sorry before you get to this step you have to be prepared.
- Have a binder everywhere you go of what you’re selling
Along with a BACKUP PEN, information about your products or services and the contract or blank invoice
A sale can happen at anytime so ALWAYS have your sword and shield close
#2 Keep swinging for the fences “Don’t stop” – Mindset
- cussed out on Wed and Fri we’re best friends
- Don’t take it personally
- Before you make your call – Tell yourself why you’re doing this. It’s to get your customer what they deserve and help my family in the process! Cheer yourself on because you’re a legend
- People forget you instantly
one of the hardest things and it took me a while to get over this, because you’re probably a lot like me and care about your customers. So it hurts you when things don’t work out as they should
Likewise, you can write the word NEXT and tape it above your computer. After a bad call – Look up and say NEXT. Brush it off and keep on swinging for the fences BABY!
Vision Boards “You’re doing this for them”
HAVING THE WORSE day ever – Write the word Next and tape it above your computer. Take a deep breath with your eyes closed and open them to that word. Move on!
#1 Make it all a game – Count your No’s
- Do this first thing in the morning
- DO NOT Have any distractions turn off computer/sign on the door/ turn off cell phone if possible
- KEEP IT RANDOM and call anyone and everyone
- Make a game out of the amount of No’s you get.
- I print up a list starting at 50
x5 business days that’s 250 calls a week and say 260 business days in a year – That’s 13000 calls say you have a 10% conversion rate of a product that provides commissions of $200 per sale – That’s $260,000 dollars… 5% = $78000
- As I go through my calls at random I start checking away at the 50
BONUS TIP
Take a break ever hr and walk around for 15min
- If you’re following the steps above you’re making 150+ more calls than everyone else
- Get up meet the rest of the team, talk go outside for a little
- this will refill you’re willpower and involve you with others around you
- If you listen you’ll learn a lot about the business and what’s going on “For example let’s say the startup you’re selling you hear gossip that the company is having financial issues and could go under. Even though you’ve been outselling the rest of the team they still fire you 3 days before your surgery. Thankfully because you talked and listened to the rest of the team you took your PTO as medical leave to schedule the surgery!”