How To Mine Your Natural Market

I talk about how to tap into your spheres of influence to garner referrals.

Nothing beats your own niche market and your own contacts as a source of referrals.

See my materials on Mining Your Natural Market at the catalog page.

But, here’s a quick tip to get some referrals that you can incorporate in what you are already doing.

Every time you write new business (no matter how large or small) send a snail-mail note.

I send a short note and always include the following:

“I’ve included two cards. 
Feel free to share me with a friend or relative”

How hard is it to include a note with every purchase?  And, by the way, I send the note the following day.  Don’t wait.  Get it done fast.

Every morning I spend 30 minutes writing notes.  Check out my post on time-blocking.

Implementing a simple step into your selling process will help you get more referrals with almost no effort.

Happy Selling!

David…

P.S.  Check out the catalog page for more materials on how to sell pre-need.

P.P.S.  There are a few Whole Enchilada Packages still available.  I’ve offered the package of everything I’ve got including the kitchen sink to all Subscribers first.  Subscribing has privledges.  But, because I only have a few left I’m not going to extend the offer to regular readers.  If you want the very best I have you’ll need to subscribe and I’ll send the special link in the “Welcome” email I send you.  If you are a regular subscriber the link’s in the latest email I sent.

Don’t dilly dally around.  I’m serious.  Once they’re all gone I’m taking the link down.  When you invest in your  SELF and get the package it will instantly be available to you through the membership page.  I’ll email everything to you including instructions once the transaction is complete.

So, what are you waiting for?  No one can take your experience or knowledge.  No One.  Only you have the ability to make things happen.  No one else will do it for you so get on with it and invest in your SELF.  Do it now!

Go on…

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That’s right…  Subscribe and get the package… 

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The question more or less was what’s the downside to doubling your sales in half the time?

Let me give you three quick problems with getting too much business without some preparation.

First Problem:

Let’s say the stars and the moon line up perfectly and everything you’re doing all of sudden nets you more sales and presentations than you can keep up with.

One of the biggest downsides to spending all of your time presenting and selling is you forget to continue your prospecting program.

One day you’ll wake up and realize there’s no one to meet.  The reason there’s no one to meet is you quit prospecting/marketing for new business.

Believe you me it can happen!

The solution is to treat your prospecting like a faucet and turn it down a little but don’t shut it off completely because if you do you just might wake up one morning with no one to see.

Second Problem

Spending all of your time making presentations.  See my posted articles on time.

It’s really important to time block your schedule and even more important to balance your day with other activities besides closing.

I realize the goal is to close sales but see my first problem above.

Spend your time wisely and always do something that brings you closer to a sale besides getting the sale.

Third Problem

It can make you lazy about getting referrals.  Now, if you tell me you’re getting referrals from all of those presentations/sales you’ll hear me tell you. “YES”.

Way to go.

But, don’t develop bad habits.  Remember to continue to get referrals. 

You’ve got to continue to bring in new leads.

Fourth Problem

Infrastructure.  Recently, I’ve been so focused on prospecting I’ve gotten behind in sending my notes.

I send a note to every new customer.  And, ask for referrals in that note.

In fact, I spend the first 30 minutes every day working on paper work, including notes. 

Yesterday I spent several hours on notes because I allowed my schedule to get out of whack.  I’ve been spending more time meeting with prospects and blew off the paperwork portion of my time-block. 

All of a sudden I found myself behind on my note writing.  I ended up getting up a couple of hours earlier than normal to make up for it.

Getting a lot of sales in a short time can mess up your routine and overwhelm your production infrastructure.

Finally, remember what got you there.

When things are clicking and everything’s working great stick with your time schedule, 

Stay disciplined.

Continue doing the things that get you in front of prospects but don’t ignore everything else because you’re on a presentation roll or you just might wake up one day and discover you’ve got no one to  see.

Happy Selling!

David….

P.S.  Be sure and take a look at the catalog as I continually add new items.  If you’re a member hang in there as I’m updating some new stuff and will email you a note when its ready.

For the rest of you….click here

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 How to Get 12 Hours Out of An 8 Hour Day!

     But first I’ll cover a couple of principles you should be shooting for in your sales career.  The first principle is to work smarter, not harder.  The smarter you work the less you work and the less time you’ll spend at the office wasting time and energy on unproductive things.

There’s never enough time to do it right the first time but
there always seem to be enough time to do it right the second time!

     The second principle is to kill two birds with one stone.  Anytime you make a Presentation and Prospect at the same time you are killing two birds with one stone and saving precious time. 

     Time is an interesting topic.  In our society today, we seem to always tell everyone that we have no time.  We are so busy we barely have time to get things done let alone setting aside time to relax, think, plan, and enjoy the good things in life.

     The third principle is the concept of working to live, not living to work.  It’s imperative to have balance in you life.  If you are spending 80 hours a week at work all the time pay special attention to my time management for memorial counselors’ tips. 

How to work less and make more money with a time management machine

     There are three basic techniques to time management:

• Time blocking
• Working smarter
• Discipline

  Time blocking is a very powerful technique that will create a lot of down time for you, consistency in your scheduling, and force you to be even more productive.

  When I first started in the cemetery business I set aside two hours for prospecting via phone every work day, same time, same phone, same office, with a cup of coffee.

  Once I began to ask for referrals during my presentation I virtually saved two hours a day as it was no longer necessary to cold call again.  That’s the power of mining your natural market!

Work smart save time, work less & play with more time

  Another example of blocking time is to always schedule your presentations during the same block of time daily.  If you need to work during the evening, schedule a block of time one evening weekly, same times, to make your evening presentations.

  I knew a guy that worked in family service and followed up with his families’ one of two evenings during the week.  It was either Tuesday or Thursday evening.  He would block a four hour time frame, four in the afternoon to eight at night every week.  He never deviated from that schedule.

  The result is he trained his customers to expect those times and days.

  It is similar to a Doctor who blocks out certain afternoons for patients.

  The example to copy is a Doctor.  Almost any Doctor blocks time to meet patients.  He/She never deviates from the schedule.  Blocking time saves enormous amounts of time for you and makes you even more efficient.  Doctors typically block different days and different times for new patients verse current patients.

  We’ve learned to expect time blocking at the Doctor’s office.  Most people think of a Doctor as having little time.  We’ve been trained well to believe this.  You are no different then a Doctor.

  A side benefit to blocking time is people appreciate it.  If people know you have a set schedule and do not deviate from it they will respect you even more.  The opposite is also true.  The more available you are the less you will be appreciated.

Play a little hard to get…

  Availability turns you into a commodity; a very bad thing to do.  Commodity products are thought of, in the mind of customers, as cheap and price is the major issue.  Never ever turn you or your product into a commodity.  Add value when ever you can, block your schedule and don’t be very assessable.

  Discipline is critical.  You can drag a horse to water but you can’t make the dumb horse drink the water!  You’ve got to dig deep down inside to find that spark of what makes you tick.  Take what makes you tick and turn it into discipline to do what needs to be done to be successful.  The tips in this course will guide your direction and help you achieve the outcome you are after.

  In other words, I can drag you to the watering hole but I can’t make you drink the water!  It requires discipline.  I can’t make you do it.  You have to figure out what makes you “do it”. 

Use a checklist to block time

  I remember a former Sales Associate I worked with who had a checklist of 5 things he did every day no matter how late he stayed in the office to accomplish his list.

  He followed up with three at-need families every day, sent a handful of letters to referred prospects, phoned for an hour, and walked the cemetery grounds (he would write down a few names of markers that didn’t have the spouses name.  He’d look up the information in the vault and contact the spouse about completing the cemetery portion and or pre-need funeral).

  Block your time like a Doctor, work smarter and more efficiently, and find the discipline necessary to get it done.

Happy Selling!

David…

P.S.  Invest in your SELF.  If you  don’t no one else will.  They can’t take your education and experience.  Those are the two things that make you marketable and in demand.  Get on over to the catalog page and invest in your SELF today!

The Catalog Page

P.P.S.  If you aren’t a subscriber yet, why the heck not?  Cruise over to the top right side of this page and punch in your name and email.  I’ll send you some specific strategies to launch you to the top and best of all it’s FREE…

Random Thoughts On Increasing Pre-Need Sales

These are little things that may not seem like much but add up quickly to huge results.

Here’s an interesting ditty on time I haven’t spoken about much and I’m just as guilty as you are by not using this strategy.

A study done years ago looked at how much “productive” time CEO(s) accomplished per day working.

I’m going by memory but I believe it was less than 30 minutes a day of productive time.

One thing I know for certain, for the Pre-Need Seller, there are numerous time wasting things occurring every single day.  Before long YOU begin to wonder why your sales suck!

My Number One Strategy is:

LIMIT ACCESS TO YOU

To really appreciate this strategy you’ve got to take a long hard look at how much of your time (by the minute) is being stolen through little things. 

For example: 

1. If you are going to go to lunch make your lunch partner come to you.  You’ll be able to continue working and won’t waste 10 – 30 minutes in the restaurant waiting on your lunch partner.
2. Quit checking your email every 5-minutes.  Check it once, twice, three times a day at predetermined times.
3. Forget the impromptu meetings.  Meetings are out.  Meetings are the most unproductive time wasters on the planet.
4. Don’t wast lots of time with Prospects who are less than a 6 on a scale of 1 – 10.  Spend time with the 7 – 10’s on the scale.  Use your assistant (if you have one) or marketing to warm them up before you spend lots of wasted time on the phone or in-person meetings.
5. People need to complain about how hard it is to get to you.  Make it tough.  Quit wasting time by focusing on the little things that steal your time away.  Eliminating just a couple of these time wasters will add to your productive time and SALES.  By the way, sales is where it’s at.  These time wasting things take away from your presentation/close, follow-up, stay-in-touch, and other productive endeavors that ultimately make you money.  Stay focused! 

Finally, I’d say to use TIME BLOCKING to help you create a schedule you can keep.  Also, use your TO DO LIST and make sure you’re crossing off things you’ve got to do daily.  I like to use a simple yellow legal sized pad.  Without organization there is chaos (as my former teacher used to say).  I’ve added: 

Without organization there is chaos

and TIME WASTED

and NO SALES!

Top Producers are way more productive with time.  Just adding 30 minutes to an hour of productive time will increase your sales dramatically.

My Number Two Strategy to Increase sales:

The COPY STRATEGY

We’ll talk more about this one next time.

Happy Selling!

David

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Instead I’ve discovered a way to eliminate bad habits while improving in all areas of life…especially pre-need sales.

Lets face it.  In this business if you’re not selling you aren’t making money.

The real trick to eliminating bad habits is forming good habits.  I’ve found that replacing bad habits with good habits seems to work better than focusing on the bad habits.

I’d much rather focus on a good habit.  It’s way more positive.

So, the secret?

Develop a positive habit and stick with it.  Before you know it you’ll be eliminating a bad habit with out really trying.

I’ll give you an example.  I hate paperwork.  I’ve never liked it.  I try to avoid paperwork at all costs. 

When I made a change earlier I lost an assistant.  And with my assistant gone I had to do paperwork again.

Did I mention I hate paperwork?

To solve my bad habit of not doing paperwork I decided to form a new habit.

The habit was to block out time in my schedule to do paperwork.  Every morning for thirty minutes I do paperwork.  In fact, before I begin my day at the office I set aside 30 minutes used for doing paperwork only (See my posts on time blocking).  When my thirty minutes are up I move on whether I’ve finished the paperwork or not.

Oh, and by the way, one good habit I do have is self-discipline.  Through time-blocking my schedule and sticking to it (a good habit to have).  I’ve been able to overcome a bad habit.  The reality is I still hate paperwork.  But, now I’m at least close to caught up with paper instead of totally behind.

Develop a good habit and before you know it you’ll neutralize the bad habit or it just won’t matter anymore.

Happy Selling!

David…

P.S.  Cruise over to the “Time Management” category for more on time; how to save it and how to make more money with it.

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