On the Hunt: You are a veteran sales executive. Not only have you been trained in complex selling, you've applied that training with success for years. So guess what - you are very likely forgetting to use some of the basic tactics that have been good to you in the past. I talk to candidates every day who say, "Yeah, I used to do that. I should probably go back to doing those things." So here are your reminders:

o Plan your prospecting every week - It is easy to get so wrapped up in your deals that you find yourself at the end of the week without having made any progress on Stage 1 pipeline development. DO NOT FALL INTO THAT TRAP! Carve out at least an hour every week and dedicate the full 60 minutes to new prospect generation.

o Get creative - Shake up your prospecting tactics from time to time. When the sales book Selling to VITO came out, the letter style it suggested (headline at top, reference to quantifiables, etc.) was pretty attention-getting. Of course, once the book became a hit, the letter's novelty quickly wore off and prospects recognized yet another prospecting letter. Not that the letters do not work; it is just harder to get a prospect's attention when they recognize a sales letter simply by its form. Put your marketing department to work and have them come up with some other styles, content, quantifiables, etc. You never know which one is going to grab your prospect's attention. Combine this with the first point and you have a prospecting machine.

o Keep your ear to the ground - Things change, so your messaging has to change as well. When I was selling outsourcing for a mid-tier company, I asked our CEO about the pitch when competing with a particular large offshore company. He indicated we should pitch quality, the same thing we had been pitching against them for years. The problem was they had achieved CMM Level 5 - their work quality was excellent! Whether it is the latest about your competition or the changing needs of customers, don't get caught behind the curve.

o Take a minute - It is easy to get locked in on what we want to accomplish in a sales cycle. Sales people are under pressure to get deals done, hit margins, and be accurate in their forecasts. With all of that pressure clouding their vision, it is easy to focus back on what is most important to them - themselves. However, staying focused on the customer, winds up getting sales people closer to those objectives. Before doing ANYTHING in a sales cycle, take a minute to think about how you can make that action valuable to the customer from their perspective. Customers know when you are their advocate - and when you are not.

Bringing Down your Deal: It is intertesting to look back at old sales training material. While there are some good ideas in there, you see a common thread around the idea that closing is a technique. The reality is that closing is a logical conclusion to a process. The most successful sales people make the act of closing familiar to the customer - it is a part of their sales process. From the very beginning of their sales cycles, top sales execs are closing for next steps, digging for objections, pointing toward the decision, never hiding the fact that they expect the deal to happen as long as they meet the customer's buying criteria, and that they expect the customer to actively pursue a decision. These things do not just happen. They are conscious actions by the sales exec, and they leave themselves in the position in which moving to a contract is natural, comfortable, and expected by everyone. Here are a couple ideas on accomplishing this:

o Review the timeline periodically to make sure the customer knows you are heading toward an end result AND that you see yourself making progress toward that end.

o Ask about the concerns your prospect has, and they DO have them. If you are not asking about them, they are only getting worse and making you look bad. It is as simple as, "What concerns do you have about _____?"

o Always leave a prospect call or meeting with a concrete next-step for you. You certainly will have next-step commitments from your prospect, but if you do not have one for yourself, you do not have a good reason for contacting your prospect and are losing control of your deal.

Winning the Prospect: Does the sales exec with the best solution, most articulate presentation, lowest pricing always win? Of course not. In fact there are times when that person will not even get the chance to compete. You have heard it said that people buy from people they like. In a way, that's true, but not completely. People typically buy what they perceive as the best deal, but they give a little more ear to the people they like - which can amount to a pretty significant advantage. Are you intentionally being likeable? Aside from the value you bring in helping the prospect make a buying decision, does the prospect enjoy having you around? Once while I was meeting with the CIO of a large global insurer, his telephone rang and while he was speaking, he picked up a letter from a top-5 outsourcer, pointed to the signature and mouthed an expletive. Clearly he did not like that sales executive. We had a significant advantage only because he did like us. Go back and take a look at Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. It has great wisdom about dealing with people, will remind you of basic relationship skills, and instill in you a little alarm that will go off should you start to step over the line.

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Elite Sales Professionals is an executive search firm specializing in high-level sales and sales management searches, primarily for postions selling technology and services into the Insurance, Financial Services and Healthcare verticals. If you would like to correspond with us or submit your resume, please e-mail us at .

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