I have a trusted place to store intel on my accounts that I’ve acquired over the years, and it provides me with simple nudges when I need to follow up with Sales Isn’t a Rat Race ... It’s a Treasure Hunt. someone because it was their birthday The question is … how do you get to the treasure? or perhaps because I had not talked to With over 30 years of sales experience — from them in the last couple of weeks. owning his own business to commission-only roles — Michael Hinkle shares the mindsets and practices In our hectic workdays, we do not he’s used to cultivate a multimillion-dollar sales always have extra time to spend on career. With a refreshingly straightforward and simple accounts when all is going well. That perspective on how to build a thriving sales career, is the problem with the 80/20 rule. he lays out the commonsense strategies for how nurturing relationships and building wealth go handUnfortunately, 80% of our opportunities in-hand. come from about 20% of our clients. In “Treasure Hunt: A Common-Sense Approach to Building a Successful The same math holds true for problems Sales Career,” you’ll learn: and in the same way, it takes your focus • The best practices for establishing a long-term sales career. from the entire account list. • How to become a motivated Sales Hunter. Gain market knowledge. I • How to handle your first impression with a prospect. understand some organizations are • How to bypass the “sales wall” put up by prospects. exploring ways for salespeople to use AI to gain market knowledge about a • How to build rapport with both gatekeepers and decision-makers. prospect before even setting the first • How to develop the kind of trust that translates to deals. appointment. How beneficial would it • How to navigate setbacks, mistakes and disappointments. be for a great salesperson to understand • How to build your personal brand and reputation as a problem-solver. some of the historical difficulties a With engaging insights and real-life examples, Treasure Hunt guides company has been experiencing in you on a journey to make the simple mental and tactical shifts to advance? Perhaps that might present cultivate sales success. Inside these pages are the commonsense tools to transform the average “salesperson” into a trusted expert an opportunity for you to resolve that who solves problems for prospects. issue tailor-made for the client by your organization. Get the book at www.michaelhinkle.com/book/. Track all business production. Another area where AI has provided me with a technical advantage over my marketplace competition is using AI to track all business production. This instantly provides me with a snapshot of how much business is going on in my market and how much of that business I am bringing in. In addition to market share, I can determine which clients are doing the most significant volume of business and if I am spending enough time with them to bring in that business.
FOR YOUR BOOKSHELF
How AI Assists with Closing Predictions Another way AI could benefit both management and the sales force comes down to production projections. In all my years as a salesperson, never once did a client ask me when would be a good time for him to close a transaction between us. Clients buy when they buy and close when they close. Yet every month, sales management asks, “When will that deal close and when are we getting paid?” So, if we had a way to track the data about a client’s buying/closing patterns, we could make a more informed guess to answer
36 • Vol. 17 / Issue 4 • International Surface Fabricators Association
