The Hispanic Business Council presents a regular series of educational seminars titled “Wake Up Entrepreneur!”  This breakfast series covers all manner of topics helpful to those who do business in the area.  The latest installment of this series, hosted at the Amway Center by the Orlando Magic, was titled “Closing Sales in a Competitive Market.”  The following topics were tackled at this breakfast on October 3^rd:

• The Selling Process
• Networking Effectively
• Prospecting
• Creating Relationships
• What are you selling? (Going through the steps to a “yes”)
• Doing business with the Orlando Magic

The Selling Process

A selling process is a sequence of stages each including repeatable steps, a conversion of a potential customer into a paying customer, and a roadmap to keep you on pace to a close.  Here are some tips to creating a sales process for yourself or your sales team:

• Observe your sales reps and their competition.
• Map your observations to a generic example.
• Identify why the prospect advances to the next stage.
• Adapt a generic sales procdss and make it your own.
• Continually monitor and fine-tune your process based on market changes.

Networking Effectively

In the words of Carlos Velez, Senior Account Executive with the Orlando Magic, “Stop treating your schmoozing like a business card collection contest.  Start over with a new goal:  quality over quantity.”  Here are Carlos’  8 tips to network effectively:

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Prospecting

Prospecting can mean “to search for gold.”  Here are some tips to strike gold in your search for a sale:

• Prospect every day
• Turn off distractions
• Use every method available
• Write scripts
• Focus on the outcome – to open a new relationship
• Get GREAT at cold calling
• Nurture relationships over time

Creating Relationships

Jerry Maguire said “The key to this business is personal relationships,” and this advice can be applied to the sales industry in real life just as in the film.  Here are 11 pro tips from Carlos Velez:

• Listen to your customer
• Seek feedback from your customer
• Use social media to learn about your customer
• Respond promptly to the customer
• Add value
• Set an example for your reps
• Have conversations, not pitches
• Be genuine
• Make the customer’s life easier
• Be patient
• Maintain your relationships

What are you selling?

You should start by selling a meeting, because the more chances you have of a face-to-face meeting, the better the odds of closing the sale.  It can take several yeses to get to the final “yes,” so find your way there through the conversations you have with your clients.

Michael Forde, the Magic’s Chief Sales Officer for Corporate Partnerships joined the event to speak a bit about the Magic and doing business with the Magic.  The breakfast was sponsored by Wyndham Destinations.  Be on the lookout for the HBC’s next Wake Up Entrepreneur! event.