How to become proactive rather than reactive in sales? In this Expert Insight Interview, Alex Goldfayn discusses a five-minute selling system. Alex Goldfayn is a global sales consultant on creating systematic and predictable sales growth and the author of his new book 5 Minute Selling.
This Expert Insight Interview discusses:
- Being Proactive
- Positive Mindset
- The Power of Repetitiveness
- The Power of Silence
Be Proactive
Most of the salespeople call their customers reactively when the business is not doing well. What they need to start doing is to call their customers proactively. Five minutes is enough for these types of calls. You would start a call with some small talk and then intentionally pivot it to the business. The point is that when you show presence and communicate your care to your customers often, they will be more approachable and rewarding to you.
Positive Mindset
To boost your sales, you must have the right mindset. Thus, you must believe that you have a tremendous value to offer to your customers and then you must act accordingly as well. You must show confidence, boldness, and optimism in your selling technique. However, it is easier said than done. We know that calls are more effective than emails but most of the people still choose to communicate over the email because they did not overcome the fear and discomfort. In that case, leadership needs to step up and focus on mindset work among its employees. Around 90 to 95 percent of salespeople are reactive, so if you learn to use phone calls proactively you will already be in a huge advantage over the competition.
The Power of Repetitiveness
Five minutes sound little for sales growth. But if you think of five minutes as a system that you use every day for selling then the sales growth starts to make more sense. The power of this system is in its repetitiveness. We know that statistically one out of five “did you know…” questions end up in closing a sale. Those 5 questions to ask will only take 15 seconds, so in this context, five minutes sound like more than enough time. So, for 5,000 questions over a year, a thousand will close a sale. And now, imagine 10 people or more doing this system.
The Power of Silence
Many salespeople feel uncomfortable or scared asking their customers for the referrals and the ones who do ask become extremely nervous during the silence period. However, silence is good because it leaves time for thinking. There are two types of silences. The first one is when you ask a question and leave silence for the person to think and answer the question. And the second one is when somebody talks to you, give them a couple of seconds of silence to remember if they have anything else on their mind.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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