Ron Karr’s Top 10 Tips for Increasing Sales in 2012

Published on January 17, 2012

1. Not every sale is a good sale. Make sure it is profitable and that you have cross-sold as many products and services as possible. It costs less to sell more to an existing client than to get a new client.

2. Stop creating unqualified proposals. Too much time is spent on creating proposals when deals are unqualified. Prospects like to ask for proposals to get people off the phone. Your time is too valuable. Only create proposals when the deal and prospect are properly qualified.

3. Funnel, Funnel Funnel—- Notice how the word funnel has the word fun in it. When you have a full sales funnel, life tends to be easier. Keep your funnel full no matter what. When it is full, you will negotiate with more power because you not looking to close any deal just to get some business. Enjoy yourself by keeping your funnel full.

4. Every thought creates action, which in turn generates a reaction. If you are thinking negatively about getting a deal, you will engage actions that will produce your self-fulfilling prophecy. If you want the deal, think about what the right deal will look like. Hold that thought and the right actions will come to you.

5. Create vs. Compete. Stop trying to compete against your competition. It is a zero sum game. Find out what is missing for your customer and create a solution for that. At this point there is no competition.

6. Understand your points of power— before going into a meeting, ground yourself in your points of power—-all the things you do and provide that create value for your client. This is critical for you to operate out of a powerful mindset when your customer starts to throw objections your way.

7. Not every customer is right for you—- stop trying to sell everyone. You couldn’t handle the volume if every person wants to do business with you. If you gave it your best shot and the customer resists, move on. You only get rewarded by customers who say yes! Find the naysayers and push them out of your way.

8. Showtime is not Practice Time—- Yes you do get invaluable practice when you make more calls. But you should be refining your strategies before the call, not during the call. The will to prepare is more important than the will to win. You can want to win all you want. But if you are not prepared, it is not going to happen.

9. Less is More—-This maxim is true in all aspects of your life. In talking, get your point across using fewer words. In Power Point fewer words and more graphics are more powerful. Deals are more profitable when it takes you less time to close them. Bottom line, stop being guided by tasks-be guided by your purpose.

10. Forget Tips 1-9. Don’t misunderstand me, they are very important. But if you don’t know what you want to accomplish and are not motivated to do so, Tips 1-9 are useless. We all are equal in that we only have one life and that time on this earth is limited. Let’s stop wasting it and start living the life we really yearn for. At the end, this is all that counts. When you are living the life you crave, then and only then will you be creating the biggest impacts on your customers, family, friends and the world at large!

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Check out this Video on How To Think Big