Life's Purpose:

The purpose of the life of Todd Natenberg is to help and inspire others to be all that they can be and more. Through the incredible teaching talent, charisma, passion, enthusiasm, creativity, playfulness and integrity I possess, I have been blessed with the ability to make dreams come true for others- and in so doing enable myself to live a life of significance that is filled with love, contribution and internal peace.

My courage, drive, ambition and insightfulness into myself and others enables me to guide and lead others on their own road to fulfillment.

My skills to take every experience and learn from it- good and bad- to create a story that all can relate to- ensures my place in this world is more than a good one; It's a spectacular one!

My COMMITMENT to build a life, rather than have experiences, build a career, rather than have a job, to be long-term happy, rather than short-term pleasure, which I have done for the past 34 years, sets me a breed above the rest.

To all these, I COMMITT MYSELF TO MAKING MY LIFE EXTRAORDINARY!

What's your purpose?

Sales Tip of the Month

"Persistence, Perseverance and Patience=Payoff."

Follow-up, follow-up and more follow-up.

If ever there were one key to what separates top "consultants" from middle of the road "salespeople," it would come down to one word: follow-up.

Contrary to those supporters of the "Do Not Call" list, prospects do not just wake up one day and decide to call you for your services. The _expression, "If I need your services, I will let you know," is a farce, pure and simple.

For instance, as valuable as TBN Sales Solutions is, it is a rare occassion that someone calls us up in a moment of passion and says, "I must have sales training at this exact moment!"

Yes, there are times when referrals come your way and potential clients will contact you on their own, but more often than not, you need to put yourself in the position for them to call you.

So much of what we do in sales is uncovering opportunities by uncovering needs to provide our potential solutions.

But what's critical to understand is this discovery phase and ability to create pain does not stop on the initial discussion, nor does it stop after the first appointment.
"Need" is a relative word. There are only three things humans truly need: food, shelter and water. Everything else is a "want." Does a company really need better phone service?

Does a Controller really need to purchase new office equipment? Do CEOs need to impact the bottom line of their organizations?

Even when they determine they do need your services, they still may not call.

When a contract with their current vendor expires, buyers need a certain service. Indeed, they may even be unhappy with their current vendor and want to hire another vendor. But will they call you?

How companies determine which organizations they need is often based on one factor - follow-up.

Years ago, earlier in my sales career selling phone sevice for LCI International, follow-up earned me the business of one of my very first clients. The opportunity arose when my prospect, Matt, told me in June to call him "around the holidays," knowing his agreement with his current provider would expire at that time.

I called, and as a result, he bought my services. "I'm just curious, Matt," I commented as he signed the paperwork. "Your agreement with the current vendor was due to expire, but if I hadn't contacted you, would you have contacted me? After all, you said you were interested and there was a need."

"Absolutely not," Matt answered. "Had you not called me, I would have just renewed our current agreement."

"Even though ours was clearly a better deal?" I asked. "Yes, Todd," Matt said. "What earned you this deal was you knew the difference between persistence and insistence."

So how else can we distinguish ourselves to be persistent and not insistent when it comes to follow-up?

1. E-mail everyone you meet a thank you letter within three days.

But don't just send a letter thanking the person for meeting with you. Send everyone a letter you speak with, whether it is a networking event, a phone conversation or a first in-person visit.

In the letter, summarize the conversation, reiterating the prospects' "needs" that they outlined to you, and reaffirm commitments in such areas as when you will call next or the date of the next agreed upon meeting. This will affirm you listened, rather than heard.

2. When you say you are going to call next, call them- whether it is one week, one month or two months.

You would be amazed at how many salespeople never follow up. And you'd be amazed at how often prospects know exactly who follows through on their commitments and who doesn't.

Also, when you call on a given day or week or month, if you get voice mail, always indicate why you are calling:

"Hello, John, it's Todd Natenberg with TBN Sales Solutions. I reason I'm calling is I promised you I'd call you today and I want you to know I always follow through on my commitments."

3. Give referrals whenever you can to your prospects

Be a true sustaining resource. Don't just follow-up to ask if they want to buy your services. Offer your prospects ways to help their business outside of your services.

A great technique is to give your prospects referrals-- either for a potential client or even just information that you discover, such as an article about their business.

If you give a referral don't just call them up and give a name. Send a "3-way e-mail," where you are sending the contact information to your prospect and the referral name. Include all parties contact information and compliment everyone in the process as to why you all will make a great fit.

Never forget: "Hard work is often disguised as good luck."

Find out more....

	Hear Todd tonight on "Teena Jones" Radio Show in Dallas
As part of his never ending book publicity tour, Todd will be a guest on the Teena Jones Radio show tonight, Tuesday, May 25, at 10:20 p.m., Central Standard time. Texas listeners can tune in at 990 AM or via the internet at 990mainstreet.com and participate live in the one on one conversation. Teena will interview Todd about his new book, "I just got a job in sales! Now what?" A Playbook for Skyrocketing Your Commissions. Listen to the show »

	TBN offers "Ridealong"
Want a personal sales coach with you when you telemarket? Want to see the pros in action during door knocking? Perhaps you want your sales manager to go with you on that top-notch appointment but he's not available? Only problem is you don't have a sales manager? Then, take advantages of the TBN Sales Solutions "Ridealong" program. Objective: To help individuals in the field to make more money by seeing that the proper sales techniques are being applied effectively and to see firsthand the experts perform in action In "Walk the Walk," Todd telemarkets, door knocks, and prospects right alongside of you. In the trenches himself, see firsthand the techniques that made Todd a top salesperson, sales manager and sales trainer in telecommunications. "After your workshop, every participant reported an increase in the total number of prospect contacts (increases from 100% to 600%) and more importantly their total sales numbers increased as well. The average employee doubled their daily sales volume. In short, my staff approached more potential customers, and I put more into the bank thanks to your seminar." Walter Miller, President, Tyler Wellness Find out more »

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