One of the lessons in my pursuit of achievement that has taken me the longest to learn is that the path to success is not about the big goals, although setting, writing, and rewriting your goals are very important.

The path to having success in sales, is having and tracking the proper sales habits.

It’s applying the proper simple, boring, day in and day out habits that pave the way to success.

Here are 5 habits, if implemented, will make a substantial improvement in your sales and could quite possibly, Double Your Business.
1. Keep Learning

Read or listen to 1 sales book a month. (One a week if you can.) Upon reading it, look for 3 takeaways that you can implement yourself.  This has been a habit of mine for 10+ years now and has served me well.  Trust me, with an 8th-grade education, I need all the help I can get!

If you would like a suggestion on some books to read, just ask me, but let me know what area of focus or topic you are looking into.

2. Prequalify

Not every lead is a good customer for you. In order to really know this, you must first clearly establish who your target market is.

For us, our target market was 2,000 – 4000 square foot exterior repaints, in gated and golfing communities of retirees, within a 10-mile radius.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we didn’t service other areas, but when one of these leads called, they were a priority. If somebody called for a high-rise exterior condo building, a trailer park, or water tower that needed a re-paint, we had a couple of other painting companies to refer them to and they were grateful for it.

 3. Follow Up

This one took me a while to do. Not because I was lazy, but because I was afraid to offend or interrupt my prospects. To help me get past this, at the end of every estimate, if it wasn’t awarded on the spot, I would ask them if it was ok if I followed up with them in a few days at such and such a time. They always said, “yes” or “Yeah sure, that would be fine.”

Then, I entered my notes and set a reminder into my CRM and followed up in exactly 3 days at the specified time. IF they still weren’t ready to make a decision, I would ask again if it was ok if I followed up with them in a few days, and again, they always said, “Yeah sure. That would be fine.” Some would even thank me for following up!

Why? Two reasons.

First they appreciate that I respect them when I asked for their permission to follow up. Permission Marketing – Seth Godin.

Second, they are busy! Just like you and I are very busy. So, because they had a very pleasant experience meeting you to look at their home and trust you because of your respect for them and their boundaries, they are actually grateful that you are helping them along with their decision process as the project could have been and, in many times is, just swept under the rug due to the busyness of life. Now insert #4 on our list and look out!

4. Hand Written Note Cards

I love tech. Everything from my iPhone, with all of the new apps that continue to come out, to my front door deadbolt that unlocks through a Bluetooth signal from my iPhone, our Nest thermostat, and my drone I get to fly with my son in our yard together.

However, the one thing that actually increases in value as we add more tech into our lives, are handwritten note cards.

After every estimate, send your prospect or customer, if you were awarded the job, a handwritten notecard thanking them for having you out and that it was a pleasure to meet them. Try to personalize it by genuinely mentioning a common point of interest if appropriate.

A word of caution, do not ask for the sale here! The purpose is to genuinely thank them for having you out. You ask for the sale when you follow up with the phone call. For more on this, read Bob Burg’s great book, Endless Referrals.

5. Ask for Video Testimonials

Nothing sets you up to win like a social proof: other people vouching for you and the experience they received from your services because we can’t vouch for ourselves and tell them we are great, right?

I like how Jeffery Gitomer said it. “If we say it, it’s bragging. If others say it, it’s proof!”

Now, I used to collect written testimonials, in fact when I first came to Florida, I would collect them and keep all of them in a binder and carry the binder with me to all of my estimates. And then once we built our first website, I had them placed into the website and they are there today, but the funny thing is, as a society, we don’t like to read anymore.

General speaking, we prefer to watch videos. So, I grabbed a FlipCam at the time and had it on standby at the close of every job to ask for a video testimonial. Capturing a video testimonial is not easy to do, but all you have to do is get 3 of them and you have already set yourself head and shoulders above your competitors.

Here is a video from the Ask Steve B Show, showing you step by step how to capture your own video testimonials.

Here is a quick recap of 5 Sales Habits To Double Your Business

1. Keep learning. Don’t ever stop learning.
2. Prequalify. Not every lead is profitable or a good fit.
3. Follow up. Those who follow up, scale up!
4. Note Cards. Always, always send handwritten note cards. Oh, and use blue ink.
5. Video Testimonials. Just 3 video testimonials sets you heads and tails above your competitors.

Keep in mind, sales are not about tactics. All of that old school stuff and the shows on TV about sales tactics are garbage. Sales are all about relationships. If you keep in mind that it’s all about relationships, then you too, my friend, will DYB Double Your Business!

Here is a great app to track your Sales Success Habits, iRunuRun. Download it and connect with me and we’ll hold each other accountable to implement our daily sales habits.

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