Simple Sales Improvement- Did you even ask?

I’m going to show you a simple idea that’ll take 60 seconds to implement, but if you do it, it will increase your sales team’s performance by over 10% in the next 30 days. It’s that straightforward.

I believe that a lot of business owners make things needlessly complicated. They study too much, and they end up with really complicated funnels, and it’s too elaborate, and they get obsessed with the customer journey. Even though all that is valid, a low hanging fruit is actually just asking more. People don’t just turn up and buy, right.

The fact is, there is a direct correlation between DST and sales. What is DST? DST stands for Direct Selling Time. There is a direct correlation between your sales volume and how many people have been asked explicitly to buy your product or service.

One time, I went to buy a car. A few years ago, I was looking to buy a Range Rover. I’d already decided the car that I’d buy. I’d done my research online and I went into the Range Rover dealership. I went in with a friend to buy the car, okay. I went onto the sales floor and I couldn’t see any sales reps.

I was clearly looking around and there were a few people milling around. You could see them in the back rooms but nobody was coming out and servicing me. I looked at Nick, the person that I was with, and I said, “How long do you think it’s going to take for them to come out to take my money?” I took my credit card out of my wallet, and I put it above my

I took my credit card out of my wallet, and I put it above my head, and stood there. I said, “Nick, just time it and see how long this takes.” The answer, seven and a half minutes. For them to come out and say, “Hey, can I help you?” For me to say, “Yes. I want to buy a car, but you know what?” I was on a pretty tight schedule that day, so I was ready to buy the car, and ultimately, we ran out of time. They did a poor job of following me up, so I was ready to give them my money.

How many times have you had an experience where you’ve wanted to buy something, but for some reason, the company has struggled just to take your money?

What’s your current direct DST? Your Direct Selling Time?

How much time have you, personally, or your sales team on the phone, actually asking for the order? What is it today or what was it in the last week? Whatever it was, set a target to increase that the next week. If you spend more time asking for the sale, you will make the sale. This isn’t rocket science.

Here’s the second part of the exercise. Make a list. Who are the prospects that you’re courting, but you’ve just not explicitly given them the chance to buy yet? Number three. Who are past customers, who you’ve not asked to buy again recently?

In the past 90 days, you’ve not asked them and said, “Hey, would you like to buy again? Would you like to buy this advanced product?”

Give it a try. Bye for now.