World renowned speaker, trainer and best selling author.
Tim is the President and CEO of Connor Resource Group and Peak Performance Institute. He has been a full time professional speaker, trainer, coach, consultant and best selling author for 33 years. Since 1973 he has given over 4000 presentations in twenty-one countries around the world to a wide variety of audiences.
Each year over 85% of his presentations are return engagements for the same clients on such topics as peak performance management, effective leadership, customer focused sales strategies, personal motivation, value driven customer service and building positive business and personal relationships.
Each year he also facilitates a number of strategic planning events and meetings for many of his clients and presents several public Boot Camps. He is a results oriented business coach and consultant working with a select few clients each year helping them improve their individual and organization performance.
Tim has been a member of the National Speakers Assn. for over 25 years and he is one of only 400 Certified Speaking Professionals in the world, a designation given by the National Speakers Association since 1979.
He is the best selling author of over 60 books including several international best sellers, Soft Sell, The Ancient Scrolls and Your First Year in Sales. Since 1981 his books have sold over 2 million copies and are in 14 languages and sold in 23 countries.
Tim’s international clients range in sales from 5 million to over 50 billion a year and come from a wide variety of industries including; food, manufacturing and distribution, housing and construction, financial services, hospitality, technology and communication, and personal and professional services.
His presentations are filled with insightful and contemporary ideas and are presented in a riveting and entertaining style.
To discuss hiring Tim for your organization, contact him at:
704-895-1230 (Voice) 704-895-1231 (Fax)
Sooner or later, every salesperson experiences a down period of sales results. These periods, where your continued activity seems to yield less than satisfactory results, are normal and to be expected. None of us can keep up a pace of 200 miles per hour day after day, month after month, year after year. The key is to keep your attitude positive, your focus on what is working, and your activity levels high regardless of the results.
In my best selling book, Soft Sell, I share the idea that there are a variety of sales slumps. In this short tip, I will only discuss four. They are:
1. An attitude slump.
2. A prospecting slump.
3. A presentation slump.
4. A closing slump.
An attitude slump is where you find it difficult to maintain your confidence, poise, commitment, dedication, persistence and motivation. This can be due to a number of causes. Some of them are: a) you have lost belief in your organization’s products or services. b) you are not reaching your goals or objectives according to your schedule c) You are under a great deal of stress due to deadlines, expectations or loss of control of the sales process, and d) you have other issues in your life that are impacting your attitudes.
A prospecting slump is where you lack adequate qualified leads and are spending a great deal of time calling on poor prospects. As a result, your close ratio is a disaster. This could also be caused by your poor prospecting strategies: i.e. you are still (after several years selling your products/services) spending a lot of time cold calling.
A presentation slump can be caused by your lack of up-to-date product knowledge, poor presentation skills, or poor communication skills: i.e. listening, speaking or writing. This can also be caused by your lack of knowledge of the prospect’s needs, use of, or applications of, your products/services. You, therefore, give an organization-driven rather than a customer-driven sales appeal.
A closing slump can be caused by your lack of control of the sales process, poor prospecting, poor sales presentations, or many of the items in the attitude area we have already discussed.
As you can see, there are a number of areas where you can experience a down cycle in your sales approach. The thing to consider is that all of them are related to each other. In other words, if you are experiencing an attitude slump, it will have an impact on your prospecting, closing, etc. If you are in a closing slump, it will impact your attitudes, as well as other areas of the sales process.
The thing to remember is that you can’t pull out of any of these slumps by just focusing on the one area that you feel might be the problem. You have to work on all of them. The way out of a slump is to go back to what works, or has worked for you in the past. It is also an excellent time for reflection and self-evaluation of your progress, success, weaknesses, strengths, etc.
Tim Connor, CSP is an internationally renowned sales, management and leadership speaker, trainer and best selling author. Since 1981 he has given over 3500 presentations in 21 countries on a variety of sales, management, leadership and relationship topics. He is the best selling author of over 60 books including; Soft Sell, That’s Life, Peace Of Mind, 91 Challenges Managers Face Today and Your First Year In Sales. He can be reached at tim@timconnor.com, 704-895-1230 or visit his website at http://www.timconnor.com.