Chris Williams is a world-class marketer and salesperson. We have known each other for years, and we both have a love of sales in common. Everybody wants more customers and that comes down to sales. Everyone looks to the marketing community for leads, but even if you get those leads they aren't going to convert unless you know how to sell.

Today, we discuss the most important part of sales, and how many people are afraid of the follow-up. We also talk about Facebook sales strategies, how to have that all important sales conversation, time-blocking, some of the most important things you can do to get more sales, and more.

You can find Chris here:

Wide Awake Business on Twitter
Wide Awake Business Website
Chris Williams on LinkedIn

Show Notes

• [01:20]  Chris Williams began selling when she was nine years old and sold more Girl Scout cookies than anyone else for three years in a row.
• [02:02] At her young age, she understood the advantage of leveraged time and got friends and relatives to sell the cookies for her.
• [03:14] The most important part of sales is follow-up. 80% of business owners and sales reps never follow-up after the first interaction. Also, 80% of people don't make a decision until after the 5th interaction. If you don't follow-up it's never going to happen.
• [04:46] People often fail to follow-up, because they don't want to bother people or they have a sales problem.
• [05:16] There's nothing wrong with calling people when you have a reason to call them.
• [05:59] Gracious follow-up strategies include visiting or dropping something off with a potential client every 3 weeks. Otherwise they will just forget about you.
• [07:06] Once you identify a potential prospect find them on LinkedIn and Facebook and have a conversation with them. A handwritten note with a sticky note on an article that's appropriate for them is a great way to follow up.
• [07:49] Don't stop following up. Follow-up until they tell you no. I love it when people say no not now, because I immediately make a date to follow up.
• [08:42] Get used to no, because it just means not now.
• [09:23] Most people get their business from no not now and taking advantage of the follow-up.
• [09:48] If your why isn't clear enough, and you're not doing something for a specific reason then you can get your feelings hurt all day long.
• [10:31] Get clear on your big why and what gets you out of bed every morning. Understand the consequences of not accomplishing what you set out to do.
• [11:43] There are a certain amount of people that have to get through your funnel in order to have a conversion. If you have someone who's just a phone dialer they need to do a hundred calls a day. Understand how many people you need to get through the top of your funnel in order to make two or three productive cells.
• [12:59] How many brand new people did you talk to last week?
• [13:21] 98% of emails go unread, and most people at networking events just chat with their friends.
• [13:40] The sales process. Always ask open-ended questions. Start with how or what not why. Always leave the conversation.
• [14:07] Ask situational questions. Understand what the person's problem is by asking open ended questions that begin with how or what.
• [15:49] Ask if I could... would you? Go out and ask five people.
• [16:33] Talk about things from a sales perspective not a subject matter perspective.
• [19:09] Most people don't make all of their money from online sales. People buy from people.
• [20:15] New Facebook strategy. Post your blog on Facebook and then once a week give out a tool or PDF. Get them in your database. Then do a little Facebook Live to augment that.
• [22:12] Get people out of the social channels and into your database.
• [23:47] Integrity and making money when you say you're going to make money.
• [24:28] Challenge: go over the last two weeks of your calendar and highlight everything that's personal time. Then highlight everything that's revenue-producing in green.  Figure out where you're spending your time. Don't waste time, make money.
• [25:39] Have a power hour where you block out an hour every day where you are making sales calls.  Providing you have a list of people to call.
• [26:35] Final words: Power Hour, If I could would you?, and highlight revenue-producing time in your calendar.

Links and Resources:

Wide Awake Business on Twitter
Wide Awake Business Website
Chris Williams on LinkedIn