A couple years ago, my Dad and I were talking about their upcoming Bull Sale (male cattle for the urbanites reading!). My Dad made the nonchalant comment, “I hope the sale goes well”. My father and I have an amazing relationship and are always challenging each other and have the ability to shed light on the other side of nearly any discussion! I replied, “Well, what are your expectations? What do you hope to average?”

The moral of this example, is how do you measure success without setting goals? In order to feel satisfied with the outcome of an event, whether you’re a rancher selling livestock or a sales representative marketing shoes, you need to set realistic desires, to compare the results to. 

WRITE your goals down!  The key to achieving your goals is to physically write them down on a piece of paper!  After my Dad came to a number, we wrote it down in big numbers on a piece of paper and stuck it to a board in the house!  Under the average – I wrote down his desired total income from the sale of his bulls.

Not everyone is a numbers person, so I’ll give you a visual!

Example of a GOAL:

$2500 Average 
# lots – 20  
$50,000 Income ($2500 x 20 lots)

The day after the sale, we were eating lunch and I asked my Dad, “So, are you happy with how the sale went?” His response was, “Kind of, we brought home a couple more bulls home than I hoped for!” Fair enough I thought, because no one wants to sell bulls from home, after you’ve invested all the money into producing a sale. However, I had already calculated the numbers! 

The ranch had a higher average than my Dad was hoping for and had exceeded the Total Income we recorded before the sale!  Therefore, the bulls that came home, was just above and  beyond the goal! 

What an amazing feeling to exceed a goal and know that you can still increase your revenue, when you sell the remaining bulls!

Have an optimistic attitude and attract what you’re looking for!  Don’t be upset that you brought 2 items home – you’re already ahead!  Just think – the buyer you’re looking for just doesn’t know you have the item you’re marketing, for sale yet!

As my husband mentioned in a previous FarmOn.com blog, treat your customer like a friend and your friend will always be your customer!  Your clients are buying YOU and their relationship with you. There are lots of bulls (or whatever you’re selling) – you have to set yourself apart with your personal touch!  I’ll talk more about this soon!

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Tags: FarmOn.com, Sales

The success of your business has nothing to do with you and everything to do with the people in your life! We all do business with those we know, like and trust. Treat everyone in your life with respect, because you never know who you’ll do business with OR who they will refer you to!

I recently bought a new car – and WOW was I ever shocked by my experience! After visiting 5 dealerships, I was ready to launch a Car Selling 101 course! When you arrive at a business – to buy a tractor, a new herdsire, fertilizer, or even to get a bank loan – you probably want to test drive a particular model OR have an idea of what you want/need in a product. How impressed are you when the salesperson (don’t always have that title – don’t get tricked!) was trying to sell you what THEY thought you should buy? Every salesman I interacted with in my car buying was closing the deal in their mind and was focusing on themselves (i.e. – calculating their commission instead of my payments in their head or dreaming of the bonus they were on track to get – apparently I have $ signs on my forehead) INSTEAD of getting to know me!

If this describes you when the perfect person enters your life that you just know will want to buy your product, they will quickly become the “would have been” client, if you don’t ask enough or particularly the right questions! When you ask someone a question, even a simple question – such as “How are you?” – are you sincere (soothing tone of voice, eye contact)? Do you really care what their answer is? You were born with 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason – as the salesperson or just a human at that – you should listen more than talk!! Have you ever left a conversation and felt amazing about it – that usually means that you did most of the talking. You want your client leaving the visit feeling warm & fuzzy inside and thinking that person really cared about me and that is achieved when people are given opportunity to talk about themselves! LISTEN and you’ll find the answers you’re looking for!

First impressions are everything – you have to value and respect THEIR time – who cares about your time; focus on getting to know your prospect. What product are you offering? Customer service – once a client, always a client. Ask questions that will start to answer your bottom-line question, “How can the product you’re offering benefit them” – without even having to ask! Selling is fun, if you want it to be!

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Tags: FarmOn.com, Sales