Updates Galore!

Good evening, folks! I made some updates to the site, some of which are immediately noticeable, some of which might not be. Here is a quick rundown.

Welcome to DavidJDotson.com!
The first thing you may notice is that you are no longer at peoplesales.blogspot.com. I decided it was time to move on up to the proverbial "East Side" of the Interhighway, so I purchased my own domain name. If you've been getting here from the old URL, you may have noticed you have been redirected. DavidJDotson.com will continue to be your resource for advice to steer you towards business excellence, with a focus in the sales field.

Twitter Updates
To your right, you will now see current updates from my Twitter account. I encourage you to follow me for insightful blurbs about business, sales, life, and anything else interesting I feel like sharing. I am determined to mine every bit of social media value out of this interesting little microblogging program, so if you are on Twitter, I would love to follow you as well!

Links to Blogs I Like
There are a lot of fantastic and relevant career blogs out there that I am a huge fan of. This section on the sidebar to the right is where you will find links to some of my favorites. Occasionally, you will even find non-career oriented links here as well, so long as I deem the content fascinating enough.

I do have plans for expansion of the site in the future, but for now, enjoy People Sales as you previously have, only now with these few minor upgrades.

Why You Can't Close a Sale, and What You Can Do About It

Do you know a salesperson who never seems able to close a deal, no matter how hard they try? They may be very outgoing, they may have more product knowledge than the engineers, and they may be tossing around discounts left and right, but they are missing out on some of the keys of selling in a modern market. Inc. Magazine recently had a good article that detailed a few critical mistakes that young salespeople often make. Here are a few more tips from my personal experience.

1. Shut up. Your prospect is the important one in any sales call. They should do most of the talking. Most communications experts agree that one key to building trust in any relationship is to listen before you talk. Asking open-ended questions and keeping a lid on it allows the prospect to share information with you, which a) creates a bond, and b) helps you figure out how you are best able to help this person.

2. Sell a relationship, not a product. The goal is to sell yourself and your company, not your product. If you engage your prospect as a human being, learn things about them (not in a psycho-stalker way though) and make realistic promises and always over-deliver (as a friend would), you will have a repeat customer for life.

3. Most great sales are a marathon. Sales are not a sprint. Strong business relationships, like strong personal relationships, are not made overnight. I find the most effective strategy is to start out small with a new customer, especially one who is timid about switching suppliers. Sell them something great and inexpensive, then call them after they’ve had time to use it and ask them how it’s working out for them. Inform them that, if there is anything they need, you are only a phone call away.

What habits and tips do you find useful when trying to make sales? Can you name any other mistakes people make when courting a prospect?

Pay Attention to Which Career Doors are Opening and Closing

So much of the career/money/business advice out there focuses on unwavering persistence and determination in the face of seemingly impossible odds. However, if you always seem to be swimming upstream when it comes to goals on one particular career path, maybe it is time to reexamine your priorities and your likelihood for success.

Last weekend I had a very relaxing getaway in Dallas’s friendly neighbor to the south, Austin, where my main purpose was to visit a couple of very close friends of mine. I was asking one of my friends about her current career interest (which she pursues very adamantly), because it is so completely different from the field in which she initially studied and worked. She told me that, in a heart-to-heart with her dad a few years ago, he advised her to pay close attention to not only the doors that seem to open easily, but also the ones that always seem to close. No matter how hard she tried, she never seemed to get anywhere with her first vocational choice.

This situation would seem unfortunate, but it actually made her reexamine her talents and interests (in addition to a number of other areas of her life), and ultimately led her to her current career, which she loves and excels in. I learned a lot from speaking with her last weekend. Most importantly, I realized that, while hard work, determination, and a drive for success are very important virtues, so are self-knowledge, humility, and having realistic aspirations.

When you are young and career-minded it can be so easy to get stuck in a one-track mind and not pay attention to the clues that life is subtly (or not so subtly) sending your way. Have you had a wake-up call that made you reexamine your career choices? Or do you think it is more important to pick a dream, go after it full-throttle, do-or-die?