By Phil Harwood

The largest sale I ever made was actually one of the easiest sales I ever made. One single event made it happen. On top of that, a referral from this new customer resulted in an even larger sale. My #1 and #2 largest sales resulted from a single event. Was this a stroke of genius or sheer luck? You decide. 

The most successful salespeople don’t chase sales. They don’t pursue every opportunity. They know who their ideal customer is. They take intentional steps to create awareness and build trust among prospective customers who fit the requirements of their ideal customer. During the sales process, they ask a lot of questions before moving to the next step. Along the way, price becomes less important--not irrelevant--but certainly not a primary factor in the decision-making process. 

In my situation, a company contacted me after seeing that I was going to be a speaker at an upcoming conference. They had not previously heard me speak and we had not previously met. However, because I had taken intentional steps to create awareness and build trust, they felt comfortable reaching out to me even though we had never met before. 

When we did meet, I asked a ton of questions and listened. If I would have recorded the conversation, the word count would have been 90% their words and only 10% mine. I didn’t need to “sell them” anything. What I needed to do was to learn if they were a good fit or not. As it turned out, they were. Price was never an issue. 

Far too often, salespeople are chasing the wrong people with the wrong message. Instead of creating awareness, building trust, and heavily qualifying with an ideal customer in mind, they are chasing every opportunity as if it’s their last, hoping to close every opportunity even if it’s less than ideal, and focusing on price. It’s no wonder that many salespeople are frustrated and not hitting their goals.  

Neal and I have both benefited greatly in our careers by using a systematic approach to sales. It’s a more consultative approach than most salespeople use. It’s more strategic, more effective, more rewarding, and more fun. If you’d like to learn about this approach, I HIGHLY recommend attending our virtual Sales Bootcamp, starting Feb. 15.

Neal Glatt will walk you step-by-step through the key principles of effective selling in order for you to sell more landscaping and snow services at a higher profit than you ever have before. Each Monday and Friday you will join Neal for a LIVE one-hour workshop to develop these tools for yourself and put into practice the new skills you learn each day from short, on-demand lessons designed to help you sell more in 2021. A company pass for five attendees only costs $89, but space is limited so sign up here today and make 2021 your best sales year ever!