Top 3.5 Ways to Make a Sale...Quick
We've all been there. It's your 3rd day, 7th day, 11th day, etc. without a sale. You know the question from your manager's mouth before he or she even gets to your desk. You can feel the anxiety building, and the desperation seeping into every new call. Jill just got up and rang the bell on another sale. You applaud courteously, but inside you're awash with jealousy.
'It's time to put up or shut up,' you say to yourself. 'I need to go get myself a sale.' The problem is, you're staring at a pipeline full of 'maybe's' who are ignoring you...and the only other option is the cold hard prospect of cold call's...and you've only had 4 people of 80 pick up today! Where can you possibly go? Don't worry...I got you. These 3.5 plays aren't every day plays...but they are definitely 'Break glass in case of emergency' moves!
Email Everyone Who Told You 'No' or 'Not Now': There are probably hundreds of people who told you either of the above. Spend 15 minutes with your email and/or CRM. Find all of them. If they have had the courtesy to be that real with you, they'll probably return an email. Email them your latest and greatest deal with a 'thinking of you' message. Follow that up with a call campaign. You will absolutely unearth something. You're manager is going to disagree with doing this. I say, 'screw it,'...you need that sale.
Have Your Manager Call Your Pipeline: In 4 out of 5 cases you, salesperson, are not as good at sales as your sales manager. And you shouldn't be. That's why they're the manager. If you're pipeline is looking pretty stagnant, take all your 'Warm' and 'Cold' leads and schedule an hour with your manager. Changing the voice, showing them you care about their business by having a superior call, and finding a creative reason to get back in touch with them are all things that go a REALLY long way towards getting someone to make a decision. And this is you putting all of that together.
Crush Social Media: You have a computer. Your team's have social media accounts. Your fans are talking on your team's social media accounts. All of those fans are taking time out of their lives to talk about your fans. Those seem like good prospects...right? Check the team's that are commenting on your team sites and social media accounts. Check the likes. Check who's commenting on the hashtags. Cross them with your CRM system, and, if they're clean...ENGAGE! Two quick things here: 1) Either engage back through the platform you found the comment...but gently, or 2) Call them as if they were just a regular ticket buying lead. Please do not call them and say you saw their comment on Facebook. Ew.
(BONUS) Game Day: You're not always in season when you're struggling. But, sometimes, you are. If you're struggling and it's in-season, you need to all out attack game days. Here's what I'd do...I'd start the day at the gates and new sales lines. Introduce myself, tell them they bought tickets wrong, and give out business cards. Then I'd camp out at the merch shop. If someone is spending money on merch, they'll come back to a game. Then, when it's my turn to work the sales table, I'll search out confused people and walk up to them, instead of standing behind the table. If they're confused, they've probably never been to our stadium before. Either way, I'm going all out offensive. Our team only knows the names of 25% of the people in the building. I'm finding the other 75%.
If you do these 3(.5) things, you'll find sales. But it's about taking on the responsibility of struggling and being proactive against it. Too often young salespeople allow struggles to happen to them, then they get overwhelmed by it. Your responsibility is to stare those struggles in the face and attack. If you have momentum, you don't need to do the above. If you don't...then break that glass and make some sales!