Haleigh Powell on Overcoming the 5 Sales Obstacles

Haleigh Powell, a client relations specialist at Huntington Outdoor, is writing a series of articles on how to thrive in sales at an independent out of home company. Today Haleigh talks about overcoming sales objections. Next week Haleigh will discuss how to improve your sales and work on your selling techniques.

I started selling before I knew what the word “sales” even meant. My older sister would always tell me, “No matter what you do, you need to be good at sales.” I never realized how important this was until I started working in the billboard industry selling advertising to business owners. My first day on the job I had business cards with someone else’s name on them (because mine were still being printed). I drove to where I was selling that day, walked into my first business and I then realized how terrified I was. I am not a shy person, but walking into businesses uninvited and trying to sell them advertising was a big stretch for me. At the end of my first day of sales, I was physically and emotionally exhausted. For the next five months, I continued to make a lot of cold calls. Slowly, very slowly, I begin to build relationships with business owners I worked with because I had the nerve to walk into their business and talk to them about billboard advertising. All sales people can resonate with me when I say there is nothing more rewarding than creating clients and developing relationships with businesses. The more I learned about sales, the more I realized how selling is integrated into everyone’s life. From a toddler convincing their mother to let them eat more cake, to an employee talking and then convincing their boss to give them a raise. A lot of things we consider everyday occurrences are really just a form of sales.

After I learned how sales are apart of everyone’s life, no matter what kind of job they have, I started thinking more about what makes a good salesman/woman. The main question I kept asking myself while selling was how do I turn leads into sales? How do I turn initial interest into commitment?

After some thought, I realized the obstacles of all sales are always one of the five-points Zig Ziglar (expert and author on sales and how to sell well) intelligently makes:

1. No Need. As a billboard saleswoman, I do not believe this is true. In my mind, every business needs billboards. Billboards are more than a way to just promote your business, you can offer promotions, create brand awareness, and reach out to your community. Also, billboards are the only form of traditional media with an increasing profit share, while the other traditional media forms are slowing losing viability.

2. No Money. In today’s economy, any viable business is doing well and should be spending part of their budget on advertising.

3. No Hurry. This is where sales start to become hard. When people are interested but are not in any hurry to buy, I try several things to close the deal. Offer them a deal to get them on your boards now so they can try out your services, it is much easier to keep a client than to create new clients. Inquire when would be the best time to follow up and chat about advertising.

4. No Desire. When businesses have no desire to advertise with you the task is to show them the value billboards provide to others and how their business could also reap value from advertising on billboards. Testimonials, statistics, and referrals all help when businesses have a little initial interest in using your services.

5. No Trust. Occasionally I run across a business that was burnt by a billboard advertising

company in the past. These businesses lost trust in the industry and earning their trust takes time. Showing patience and slowly gaining a good reputation with these businesses is the best way to create a relationship.

Keep your eye out for Haleigh’s article next week on how to improve your sales and work on your selling techniques.

Questions for Haleigh? She would love to chat with you! Shoot her an email at haleigh@huntingtonoutdoor.com

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