International Sales Best Practice – Be Prepared

International Sales Best Practices

Today’s Principles of Sales Greatness is one where I see many people fail. So much so in fact, that I often think we have become lazy. No one seems to want to roll up their sleeves and do any work. Everyone seems to be spending their time looking for a cheap place to buy the work already done.

International Sales Success

The problem is that in many cases in international sales you have to do the work yourself in order to benefit from it. You have to jump in and get messy.  How else are you going to learn about your foreign markets?

But there is a difference. You  still need to be prepared. You need the information. You need to know about all sorts of things.  You need to know what your options are in case of cultural difficulties.

Quote From Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Red Book Of Selling

2nd Principle of Sales Greatness Prepare to win, or lose to someone who is

Last Month’s Cross-Cultural Communication Tip 14

Use a culture-customized lead generation strategy to bring in more international sales

Customize Your Sales Strategy

First you must take into account the different variables inherent to international sales. You will need:

• Flexibility – You need plans/tactics/strategies that can change
• Agility – You need to be awake 100% of the time and you must be invested in you actions so that you can adapt when needed
• Accountability – You must always be focused on your goals and set up ways to measure your progress

Prepared Is An Attitude

I always use the analogy of diving off a very high cliff, not knowing what sort of waters I would need to learn to swim in… until I was there.

After the first few times, you are confident that, no matter what, you will learn how to swim in those waters.  You also know what you can prepare in advance and what you might need to change or adapt once you are in the water.

International sales people learn to always be prepared.  They do everything they can beforehand and learn to navigate well once they are underway.  The mental preparation is just as important as any other type of preparation.

So…

Are you a winner or a whiner? – Jeffrey Gitomer

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