the biggest false assumption in sales

A discussion was recently started at SalesPractice.com titled, "How to shorten the sales cycle". The original question asked what you could do that is in your control to shorten the Sales Cycle (Length of time from Initial Contact to Close). Since the Buying Cycle (The phases a person progresses through when making decisions aka Decision Process) directly affects the sales cycle the discussion had at least two avenues to travel... Buying Cycle and/or Sales Cycle.
"For sake of discussion let's say that......the prospect trusts you, respects you and values the relationship....you are working with a prospect who has the authority, budget, want and need for your product or service....the prosect feels you have the most compelling value proposition....both you and the prospect understand how your solution will help him/her reach his/her desired outcome....the prospect has not voiced an objection....the prospect has not yet decided to move forward with the sale.Given those assumptions what can you do that is in your control to shorten the sales cycle?"
One of the first participants to respond, Ace Coldiron, made the following observation:"All of those things may be true. However, what is also apparent is that currently the prospect is working around all of that and will probably continue to do so until all the things behind the scene-not apparent to the seller- are in place or resolved TO THE POINT where a purchase can be made.The salesperson cannot control those things. However it is possible to get through the door and lead them in management of the changes, decision making, and resolutions that have to take place in order to buy. This could be effective in shortening the buying cycle.Unfortunately most salespeople would be predisposed to stay on the selling end thinking they could speed the process in that way. But the fact is they won't speed the process."Ace's response delved into the deeper and often unfamiliar waters of the buying cycle namely Buying Facilitation� ("...get through the door and lead them in management of the changes, decision making, and resolutions that have to take place in order to buy.") which Sales (sales process) does not navigate. Many sales trainers use terms such as decision process, sales cycle, buying decision, etc. and mistakenly believe they are navigating the same waters that Ace mentioned but in reality they never left the waters of sales and you can't get here (Buying Facilitation�) from there (Sales Process).To be clear... the systematic application of effective sales processes is not being dismissed but instead being revealed as only part of the equation. Given the sales arena and selling situation, sales process and execution can only take you so far because at any given point in time only so many prospects are ready to buy. Of course, the more effective the process and execution the farther your reach outside of the immediate buyers zone however you are still confined to the inherent limitations of sales process which leaves a disturbing amount of potential business on the table.Participation in this thread was fantastic and many suggestions were put forth but it became quickly apparent that there were two avenues to shortening the sales cycle being discussed in the thread.1. How to shorten the sales cycle via sales process.2. How to shorten the sales cycle via shortening the buying cycle.How to shorten the sales cycle via sales process.The majority of suggestions (ask for the sale, ask about the holdup, quantify the cost of inaction, sell the sizzle, associate prospects motivation with product/service, improve discovery and qualification, flush out the objection, confirming information, be more diligent, evaluate pain factor, credibility, re-establish timeline, get the prospect emotionally involved, etc.) in this thread fall into the category of sales process.These suggestions ALL hold potential, when applicable, for affecting movement within the sales cycle ASSUMING that the prospective buyer has "recognized and managed all of their own internal systemic issues that need to take place before they'll make a purchasing decision" (which is part and parcel of their "Buying Cycle") yet are rendered ineffective in situations where the assumption is not true.For whatever reasons and with few exceptions sales training, education and/or discussions operate from the premise that the prospective buyer has in fact recognized and managed those internal issues. That one (1) false assumption is responsible for an almost unbelievable volume of lost revenue and protracted sales cycles.Sales people don't typically see/look for it and sales process doesn't manage it so what happens? Prospective buyers go away and try to figure it out on their own. At that juncture salespeople are advised to stay in contact with the prospective buyer until they figure it out or don't and bail out.How to shorten the sales cycle via shortening the buying cycle.A shorter buying cycle results in a shorter sales cycle. As Ace pointed out, "...it is possible to get through the door and lead them in management of the changes, decision making, and resolutions that have to take place in order to buy. This could be effective in shortening the buying cycle."IMO, what's often lacking yet required to understand this concept is an expanded perspective (can't see the forest for the trees) which will be difficult to achieve unless you first empty your cup.Learning how to facilitate the buying decision was not within the scope of the discussion although recognition/awareness of its impact is. Instruction/training in this new sales paradigm is available from Sharon Drew Morgen the foremost sales authority on the subject.

Original :: the biggest false assumption in sales

top tip to successful selling identify a

Identify a point of mutual interest and start a conversation, easier said than done! Interestingly each and every one of us does it daily, whether we are in the sales profession or not, we still as people practice the art. So what is a mutual point of interest?Put simply is talking to a fellow human being about any thing really. Whether you are recommending a great coffee shop, movie, hairdresser or any experience that you may have had good or bad; that is a mutual point of interest. We as humans love to be listened to, c'mon don't say that you have never tried to speak over some one else during a discussion and you just had to get your message across, sure you have we all have. The practce of trying to speak or in other words not listening completely to what the other party is saying is fatal for a sales professional trying to make a sale. Selling is easy if you understand and are prepared to have a look at your mutual point of interest closely. Yes, you do have a sales approach that you use either consciously or unconsciously every day, we all do, not just those that are in the sales profession.If you are open and prepared to learn by looking closely at the mutual point of interest you are currently engaging, to identify the strengths and weaknesses, and are then prepared to change your tactics, you will start leveraging your natural skills and knowledge, thereby actually selling more by creating compelling dialogues with your customers. Ha, you are probably thinking to your self, I already do just that. Yes you probably do to some degree. Here is a question for you if you believe that you are, "How are you keeping up with the continual changes occurring every where around you with your customers, your competitors, your market and your own organization?"I have walked into numerous businesses from car yards to boutique stores with the intent of buying, and invariably and sadly for the sales person or shop owner have left without buying. WHY? The answer is quite simple, none of the sales people practice engaging in the skill of finding a mutual point of interest. Instead they relied solely on product knowledge or technical expertise to try and convince me to buy their product or service and unfortunately this does not work as well any more particularly in today's sales environment where the customer is very savvy and knowledgeable. This makes life for the sales person that is still using decades old methodology (unfortunately this is still being taught to people entering the sales field) of relying on product features and benefits which necessitates the sales person to tell their product stories far too soon, without necessarily meaning to do so, and thus talk from a generic product vs. customer point of view.As a buyer you have more than likely experienced this. As soon as the sales person has identified a need, they jump to the product, rather than creating a mutual point of interest to understand the why, how and when of their prospective customer.As business becomes even more challenging, sales people are going to require higher and higher levels of skill. In my experience over three decades of training sales professionals around the world at best only 25% of professional sales people practice consultative need based selling and less than 5% of those achieve trusted advisor status with their customers.Unfortunately the majority of sale people (under pressure to reach sales targets) are too quick in telling a product story and while they may think solution they present product, why? Because they tend to talk and talk over their customer more than they listen to their customer and this creates an imbalance and instead of a 50/50 dialogue it is 80/20. Overall, the sales person's level of preparation and questioning does not measure up as they are more interested in getting an immediate commitment. I liken it to fishing where as soon as the fish has nibbled at the bait the anxious fisherman yanks on the rod with the hope that the fish has hooked up, only to be disappointed with no fish on the end of his rod, just eaten bait. Are you that type of sales person?Most organizations have good sales people but what they lack are superb sales people to drive the growth that they need to succeed. The old features and benefits dialogues are still around and being taught and this is blocking sales talk and holding sales people back from being superb.Tip: Monitor your skill of finding a mutual point of interest and measure your ratio to achieve a 50/50 ratio

Original :: top tip to successful selling identify a

top tip to successful selling tell your

Creating Dialogue by telling your story is an important skill and something that is taught to people entering the network marketing arena. This is one of the toughest sales environments. It is continually changing and salespeople (network marketers) have to continually adapt to change.Salespeople, when asked, will always answer that they know their customer's needs, they believe that they are solution providers, not product movers, they believe that they are customer focused, if this was all true then why has the customer not bought from them on every occasion?Unfortunately these beliefs are the sales person's biggest obstacles, keeping them from making and adapting to the necessary changs that they must make in their sales talk. Generally there are two extremes of selling. At one end is the generic product selling, which basically is a monologue, where the sales person does all the talking on the benefits and features with no thought of the customers needs, this is what I term a "product dump". At the other extreme is an interactive dialogue focusing on the needs of the customer and any special or specific needs that the customer requires satisfied. No salespeople can be 100% at either end and generally will be somewhere in between, (the aim is to be balanced say 50/50. That is the goal that you as a sales person need to set).Charismatic sales people rely on their inter-personal skills and charm, while others are technical experts, substantive in content but weak on customer focus. These kinds of salespeople are the killers, always closing, in fact rushing to close the sale so they can move on to the next, often at the expense of the customer-salesperson relationship. I have used extreme examples to enable you to think about how sales people approach sales.In today's selling environment a majority of salespeople use a combination of approaches, after all people want to be liked and salespeople are no different. They want to be liked by their customers, they want to be credible, they want to create closeness and they do want to meet the needs of their customers. This unfortunately, with current training methods leads most sales people to use a quasi consultative approach at best, while these types of salespeople do identify customer needs and are productive, they fall very short of what they could accomplish and become superb at selling.The few salespeople at the consultative end create efficient dialogues with their customers enabling them to connect and learn more from each conversation. The dialogues are active and balanced between the salesperson and the customer. This may look easy and sound like common sense, but is far from being simple and definitely is not common practice. The line between quasi consultative and consultative selling is an extremely fine line. The line is the difference between winning the sale or losing it to a competitor, it can be the difference between being considered a technical expert or a trusted advisor. Where the competition is relatively equal it is the sales talk of the sales person that will make the difference to winning or losing the business.To create robust dialogues try these tips:1. Assess yourself and become more interactive in your dialogue and aim for the 50/50 level
2. Commit to doing something different. For starters this could be to start learning how to ASK MORE PROBING QUESTIONS.
3. Stop trying to educate your customers (that is so old school) instead start educating yourself about your customers,This takes a quantum shift in your thinking process as it goes against what you have been conditioned to do in sales for so long.INCREASE YOUR SALES DIALOGUE = INCREASE IN SALES RESULTS

Original :: top tip to successful selling tell your

sales techniques what message are you

Have you ever been completely confused about what someone is selling? It seems that many folks either over-think or under-think their sales techniques. I came across two lawn signs recently. One was advertising landscaping services, the other daycare. The landscaping sign displayed "Joe's Landscaping" in a hard-to-read font. The image showed a truck (apparently Joe's truck) and a phone number. That's it. The second sign was just as disturbing to discerning sales professionals.It stated "Happy Hour Day Care." I get the intent (who the heck doesn't want kids to be happy), but really? "Happy Hour?" I was amazed at how twisted both messages were. In terms of sales techniques, if you're salesresentation (no matter where it is - boardroom or front lawn) does not send the correct message immediately, you've set yourself up for a battle.Here's the sales pitch I got from Joe the landscaper's message: "Hey, check out my truck! If you hire me my shiny vehicle will grace your curb once a week!" The daycare folks just had me shaking my head. Why would a daycare center include a saloon slogan when selling child services? Why not Happy Times Day Care - Safety Care - anything...etc? Why risk the all important trust factor with a booze reference (especially when their trying to buy children).Some questions for us sales people: How often do we endanger our sales success with risky sales phrases or clich?s, rather than honesty and facts? How often do we quickly throw a sales presentation together and miss the mark? Or, perhaps we go the other way and get so detailed we lose the client?One can spout off one sales technique after another, but without the correct message being delivered to your prospects, you'll find yourself struggling unnecessarily. Take the time to hone your message wherever it reaches the consumer. Consider this sales training, but whether it's an email introduction, a newsletter, commercial, marketing materials, phone call, or a stupid lawn sign, get the presentation right. You'll sell more, more frequently.

Original :: sales techniques what message are you

7 top sales techniques of the pros

If you are wondering how you can increase your sales production then maybe it's time to sit back and really analyze your sales techniques. Unless you are brand spanking new to sales, you've probably worked for a number of companies and each of those had their own sales training style. You've probably taken what you felt were the most effective techniques from each of those past experiences and fashion them into a style that is unique to you. But at the heart of it, are you still truing to "win" sales? Or are you focused on helping a prospect come to the conclusion that you have the solution best suited for his need. Really, it's all about them, not you.1. Know your prospect before the calDo your homework and research the company, its products or services, reputation, size, any awards or mentions in the press, associations they belong to and who senior management is (at least their names). Having this information not only better prepares you but can be used to ask questions that beg for involved answers. The more they talk the stronger the relationship.2. Focus on the prospects needsDon't have a bag of canned solutions in your briefcase. Your job is to learn just what the need is and then fashion a solution that meets it. Don't oversell because your company is having a promotional push on a particular product or service, and don't undersell thinking that's the only way you can meet the prospect's budget restraints. Doing either of these two may get you the sale today but you will have lost all future business because you have lost their trust and confidence.3. Sell the benefits not the shiny objectIf you represent a temp agency that specializes in IT personnel what you are really selling is flexibility in staffing, reducing head count, minimizing employer liability exposure, cutting hiring and training expenses, increasing employee morale by minimizing the likelihood of layoffs and much more. Emphasize those benefits and minimize the amount of time you talk about your company. When the client decides he's sold on the benefit then he'll start asking about the company and this will tell you what his real concerns are.4. Emphasize why they should use your serviceEverybody talks about overcoming objections but if you keep their minds focused on why they should buy by restating the benefits (see above) you minimize the risk of them thinking of reasons why they shouldn't buy. If you know your product is going to save the prospect time and money, it's your job to educate him or her and make sure that he or she understands that.5. Help your prospect succeedIf you want this to be a long term relationship then you have to sincerely help your prospect succeed both as a company and as an individual. The solution that you come up with has to uniquely solve their concerns and it has to reflect well on the person you have been dealing with. Face it. Nobody wants to be the idiot who bought something that didn't work or that was amazingly overpriced. However everybody wants to be the genius who was responsible for getting a product that saved both time and money.6. When it's time to close let your prospect do it.Traditionally you ask for the order and then deal with the objections. But what if you delivered a spot on proposal that answered all the concerns and demonstrated value and at the end of the presentation you simply asked "Well. Where do we go from here? What's the next step?" You're not asking for the order you're asking what else you have to do before they buy. In a perfect world they would ask for a contract. In the real world they will tell you that they have to get somebody else's approval and that's when you ask what you can do to help. They want it now it's your job to help them get it.7. Become a resourceYou are in a unique position to serve as a resource to your prospect or client. You have unquestionably had more one on one conversations with competing companies or companies that have similar issues than anyone in your prospect's or client's organization. You are a font of information and you should use that to ethically help your clients. If they view you as a trusted resource, you can count on the orders continuing to flow in.It's all about relationships. It doesn't matter if you are selling consulting services or office supplies it's all about the way your client perceives you. Build a partnership and you are building long term success.

Original :: 7 top sales techniques of the pros

online display marketing sales

ROS or RON (Run of Site or Run of Network) - These ads will show anywhere on the site or network. Sometimes the ROS/RON parts of a campaign outperform more targeted ad filtering. ROS/RON inventory costs tend to be the lowest, so arithmetically; it is easier to get a campaign closer to ROI+ when you start off with low cost inventory. In the optimization process, advertisers may be surprised to learn that the audience of people who find their ads most interesting are a bit of a surprise - and are only discovered through this "shotgun" approach. As you use the data you are gathering to minimize unproductive ad impressions, the remaining inventory generally see more clicks and conversions pervisitor.Content Channel - Some sites and most networks only serve ads in places where the site content around the ad is "contextually relevant" to the ad. For example, showing a sneaker ad among running and exercise content.Single Site/Value Add - When an advertiser chooses to spend a significant portion of the media budget on a single site, that site will usually return the favor by offering that advertiser unique or special ad inventory. This relationship is called "value add." Value add may be in the form of page sponsorships, wallpaper, inclusion in a newsletter, etc. Advertisers with branding goals may find this option very efficient.Behavioral Targeting - Behavioral targeting involves serving ads to users whose past click history indicates an interest in a particular subject area. For example, if a user visits 20 travel sites over a week, we may be able to identify this user as someone who is interested in travel to a particular location. That user may start seeing those ads, even when they are on a non-travel site. Ads which show up on "contextually irrelevant" sites may still get a lot of clicks. The power of behavioral targeting is at least two fold: partly because the ads are truly more relevant to that user, and also seeing relevance where it is not expected is surprising and very effective for in attracting consumers.Retargeting: - Retargeting is a form of behavioral targeting, where users who go to a particular page of an advertiser's site - usually along the conversion path-- can be served new ads on a subsequent web surfing session encouraging them to return to that advertiser's site. The ads are usually tuned to the level of interest displayed in the first visit. For example, consumers on an online flower-buying site who do not complete the check out process may start seeing ads promoting a $5-off sale on flowers. The thought process here is that the additional discount may convince a consumer to complete their purchase. Or, people who stopped at the shirt page of a men's clothing site may see ads for new shirts from that same vendor. Even people who have bought before may be targeted. Once sites identify a user and cookies them, they may see those retargeted ads for a long time.Other Targeting Filters - There are many other different types of filters. Day-parting, geo-targeting (down to a zip code, usually done in DMAs - demographic market areas - or states, or national or selected countries.), by browser type, ISP, operating system, or domain. In domain targeting, users visiting a site or network with a specified domain like @EzineArticles.com will see an ad no one else will see. Social Media Marketing companies like Media6Degrees can also serve ads to users who are connected to each other through social media following, in this case, with a kind of 6-degrees of separation kind of strategy.Learning the meaning and application of key online display marketing terms helps make you a more effective and productive sales person. At the very least, in the next meetings you can nod wisely and even pose some key questions or suggestions!

Original :: online display marketing sales

sales competency is the last word in

Sales competency is no doubt the most important factor for corporate sales training. This is a must have criteria for any sales person who is determined to go the career in this field. This is no doubt the best way in professional selling. This gives necessary sales skill training to the professionals. There are a number of essential things that a sales person should have like a decision making process or several transaction or different responsibilities.Sales development training gives the scope to know such things that are necessaries for your professional life. Through a proper online sales assessment you can begin to dissect the sales profession step by step using the systems approachYou need to know the profession in a perfect manner by following the exact approach of the system. Such responsibilities and actions are specifically known as sales competency. It can be easily defined as the knowledge, skill, abilities, and values of the sales person. These are the components that make a sales person perfect and competent to a customer. Competence is nothing more than the knowledge, skill, abilities, and values that the sales persons must have to continue with the job to become more successful. Become very successful in the field of sales is not so easy as they need to cover the breadth of competency.Sales professionals learn and develop their skills from various frameworks and through various processes. They just want to access their knowledge on various systems. Such a knowledge foundation helps them to understand their strengths and weaknesses. They are just determined by the knowledge of the person gaining their experience level. They can even get better time through such knowledge foundation. A sales person must have the power to ramp up more quickly than any other person. They wish to sell more and more and even more fast. For the buyers it is generally possible to wish that the sales persons will be more competent as well as reliable. They present more in the vertical market or industry for a longer period of time to become more and more skill. They have such a huge and well-defined path with increasing levels of responsibility and complexity of sale.Even gaining effectiveness, efficiency, and competency is a necessity for a sales person. It is a normal tendency to become better in their professional field day after day. Going to a better level is a normal tendency for many people. Better to start with a level of objective understanding. It is essential to analyze the performance in very objective terms. A person should know the exact situation of their current situation. They should know where they exactly belong. For a sales person it is important to know bout their achievement or the desired result. They should know the gap between the current situation and the expectations. You need to control the gap and you should try to close the performance gap.You should know the gap very well in order to fulfill your performance. Better to know the reason of the gap to make clear close. You need to judge the cause and then can you make your performance better. These are some of the external causes that you need to control first. You need to follow accurate activities, attitudes, or competencies that will lead to the desired level of performance. You need to create and give some outputs as a salesperson. A competency for a sales person incorporates nothing more but just the knowledge, ability and skill, which is nothing but the expertise, capability and skill, or adroitness acquired or developed through training or occurrence.

Original :: sales competency is the last word in

business sales training

Use a checklist to prepare your outlook, appearance, customer information, company and product information and the selling environment, so you can be at your best on every call. Selling is a wonderful profession when approached ethically, constructively and carefully. One of the key characteristics of top performing salespeople is they endow their prime selling time actively engaged in income producing activities such as sales prospecting and individual selling.You do not distinguish yourself from everyone else advertising a similar product or service. The seminar was on sales, but one thing I noticed in the meeting was that Jeffrey continued to bring up the topic of sales teams getting mterials from the marketing department. Millions of unproductive sales calls are made every day by well meaning but poorly trained salespeople.Solution Selling not only helps with what to do, but it expressly focuses on how to do it. Study your company and your foodstuffs and services in relation to what your competitors offer. You can use this information as a self-teaching aid to expand your own sales skills, to teach others, or to help you identify and choose suitable sales training courses programs and providers for yourself, for your team or for your sales party.You can answer and ask questions about sales prospecting skills and prospecting techniques in our energetic online sales training forum. Most sales people are distracted to talk about their product or service or to present a solution. Salespeople suffer frustration when trying to get marketers to understand the real business situations adequately to deliver them practical and effective sales tools that will actually renovate a potential customer into a customer.

Original :: business sales training

handling objections made easy

The first technique to handling objections is to use CRIS - Clarify, Rephrase, Isolate, SolveClarify - As I understand it, state the objection, is that right?Rephrase - So you want the, work or product, it's just that you...(Money) need away to pay for it, right?(Shop) want to be sure your getting the best solution at the best price, right?(Think) want to make sure this is the right decision, right?Isolate - Is there anything else other than this?Solve - find a financial plan, take the customer shopping, break the decision into it's components. You can handle any objection using this acronym to close more sales.The second technique to handling objections is to use Feel, Felt, Found - It'sperfectly normal to feel that way, trust me when I say other people felt that way to but what we found was the same people who wanted to wait eventually moved forward only to find that it costs more by waiting.The third technique is the Thermometer Close - "Mr. Jones on a scale of 1-10, 1 being your not interested at all and 10 being your ready to move forward right now, where are you?" If the answer is anything less than 10 you say "what do you need to see or hear to get you to a 10?"The best way to handle an objection is to avoid them all together. You should be qualifying and benchmarking the customer throughout the process. You should be educating the customer with features and benefits of your product or service. Use Trial Closes and Tie Downs.

Original :: handling objections made easy

five tips to always avoid in sales words

Prospects and customers alike will judge you by the words you use when you speak. E-mail, instant messaging, tweeting and text messaging have reduced our vocabulary to slightly above a second grade level. Don't fall into that trap when you speak or write. Below are five tips you should always avoid when interacting with customers and prospects.1. Eliminate the grunts: Um and Ah and Uh! Be comfortable with the silence and resume speaking when the thought is there. People who use um to illustrate their thought process may appear less sure and less knowledgeable. Just relax, pause and let your next comment come into your head. You don't have to fill the silence while you formulate your nextomment with one of these irritating grunts.2. Sorta, kinda, shoulda - what? These words make you sound unsure of your ideas. Casual language sounds unprofessional and sends the wrong message. Be clear with what you say. Use proper language and avoid these made up words. You don't come across as a professional when you hesitate.3. Avoid absolutes. When you use absolutes, you are asking to be proved wrong. Never say never and never say always. Substitute often for always and rarely for never. Use absolutes sparingly.4. Avoid slang or rough phrases. Avoid using slang like ain't, any profanity or rough phrases like that sucks. They make you sound very unprofessional and present the wrong image. You're not in the locker room or the playing field. Clean up your language and find another way to say what you mean.5. Stop the hard sell. Ending each thought with Okay, You know or You know what I mean? comes across as the hard sell and are especially annoying. People who abuse these phrases are often seeking support for poorly explained ideas. Instead just pause and allow your listener to digest what you just said.A good exercise to see if you are using words correctly is to record a few conversations and play them back. The recorded session will provide you with all the information you need to evaluate what - if anything - you should do to sound more professional. Good luck and good selling.

Original :: five tips to always avoid in sales words

avoiding the negative agreement

Sometimes the client will make a negative statement. They might not even know they make it or that it is negative and sometimes they do. We are going to show you how to handle it so we don't agree with it.Mrs. Jones: Johnny would love that!Sales Magi: Wouldn't he? (pause) Mrs. Jones, what it the most important thing for you when it comes to Johnny's party?Mrs. Jones: I want Johnny to have fun, he got picked on last year in school and now this year, everyone wants to be his friend.Sales Magi: Imagine how Johnny will feel when he is on stage and all his friends are watching him eagerly, can you imagine that?Mrs. Jones: Yes, I can. Johnny has always wanted to help a magician. We went on vacaion and there was a magician there and Johnny didn't get to help him, he talked about the magic show all the way home.Sales Magi: from what you just told me, Mrs. Jones, helping a magician seems pretty important to Johnny doesn't it?Mrs. Jones: Yes it does. But, I am still worried about the price.Sales Magi: I understand, but price isn't as important as Johnny having a great time and helping the magician is it? (pause)Mrs. Jones: Well, I guess not.Sales Magi: Mrs. Jones, you can find a cheaper magician but the thing is, the cheapest is not always the best, don't you agree? Do you go out to dinner Mrs. Jones?Mrs. Jones: YesSales Magi: Mrs. Jones, do you order the cheapest thing on the menu or do you get what you are hungry for?Mrs. Jones: Well, I get what I want to eat.Sales Magi: See cheap is not always the best thing is it?Mrs. Jones; No I guess you got me on that one.Okay, I think you see what we did there and why we did it. Not every conversation will go that way. The fact is, it made her restate the objection and you closed it. The truth is, after you close it, it might come up once again - if that happens, re-close it. Just like a door!This is all about the sales process. You must understand how the customer is thinking and handle their objections. You must carry on the conversation that the customer is having in his or her own mind already.

Original :: avoiding the negative agreement

look in the mirror from the customer

What do you see when you look in the mirror? This is not a trick question. Yes you see you. I am often amazed by the amount of individuals that own and operate businesses that constantly look in the mirror and only see themselves. The world of sales and marketing doesn't operate from selfishness and conceit. Consumers today demand value and most importantly respect. Therefore several issues are most prevalent1. Operate from the other side of the mirror. Stop thinking about yourself and your business and think from the customer perspective.2. Provide value. Refrain from the folly of features speak from what is most imperative to the consumer.3. Stop speaking. Start questioning. You discovemore when you are not talking.4. Stop the tactics. Operate from a strategic perspective and the driving force of your organization.5. Engage the client. Seeing from the customer's eyes means providing them abounding customer service.6. Surprises. If you do not want any, mystery shop your own organization similar to a customer. Ensure service and support permeate the organization.If you take just a few moments each day to envision issues from the client perspective you will create better returns and more revenues. Seeing things from the eyes of the customer alters perspective and initiates better value. What do you see when you stare into the mirror? To be more aligned with customer value ensure you always seek to view the customer first before you take a look at you and your business.?2010. Drew Stevens PhD. All Rights Reserved.

Original :: look in the mirror from the customer

top tip to successful selling sharpen

Selling contrary to popular belief is a skill that one learns from an extremely early age and you just keep developing it all your life whether you are in sales or not. Like all tools if the skill is not continually used and honed to a razor edge it will become blunt, or like an unused muscle start atrophying. Superb sales people are made, not born.SALES EXCELLENCE DOES NOT COME NATURALLY!As a sales person your goal must be to become superb at your chosen profession of sales, to achieve this you as a sales professional must continually brush up on and sharpen your selling skills. An effective way to achieve this that I have discovered as a top performing sales person is to brainstorm withmy customers, rather than selling. An interesting phenomenon occurs when you start brain storming with your customers, they start bonding with you quickly and become interactive, increasing the richness of your dialogue with them. At this point the customer will usually ask you "What do I need to do next?" These words are nectar to the sales professional as it means the customer is ready to commit and finalize the transaction. A true professional will now know what to do and stop talking.Using this technique has enabled me to sell more than any other sales person, elevating me into the top.005% of highly successful closers. When my colleagues asked me how I just said that I created dialogue with the customer, it can be that easy.Huh, I hear you say, if it was indeed that easy how come all professional sales people are not doing exceptionally well. The answer is quite simple. Have you as a professional sales person sharpened your sales skills? Have you looked and assessed your skills and identified any areas for improvement (sharpening)? Probably not.To help you along I have itemized the check list that I use to keep me far ahead of my competitors, use it and start sharpening your skills.1. Presence: Do you command interest? For example, communicating with enthusiasm, energy, conviction and interest when speaking and listening.2. Relationship building: Do you express empathy? Build rapport, and acknowledgement when connecting with customers.3. Questioning skill: Develop and rehearse a logical questioning strategy, effectively using probing questions to uncover your customer's needs.4. Active Listening: This is where you pay complete attention to what your customer is saying, paying attention to their tone, body language, and words. This skill lacks in 90% of sales people, they just pretend to listen.5. Customising: Customize your product knowledge to the needs of your customer by demonstrating value and application.6. Asking for feedback: Continually elicit feedback in your dialogue. Embed this skill into how you speak and interact with your customers and it will flow naturally and not appear stage managed but come across as natural, allowing the customer to bond and feel important in their decision making process.7. Ask for a referral: Again this is an area where 97% of sales people fail. If you have bonded with your customer and they are ecstatic with you then they will have no reason not to give you a referral. But you have to ask them for one! They will not by nature volunteer to refer some one to you, for fear of offending you, crazy huh!Tip: At the end of each day go over the days events and critique yourself on the skills as well as the content of your sales. Take notes and work on areas you believe will need sharpening.

Original :: top tip to successful selling sharpen

successful selling grab the spotlight

Whether the customer walks in to your car yard, Real Estate office, Shop, or you are making a call over the phone, open with a focus on your customer, this opening sets the tone.TIP: Remember when a potential customer walks in to your shop they have come to buy, so why not from you? Set the tone and win their business.When opening a sale there are four important things you must accomplish these are:
Create Rapport: Without establishing rapport with your customer your opening is heading for disaster. As a sales professional you have 5 seconds to establish rapport with your customer. These five seconds are critical to your success.
Establish the purpose: Clarify the purpose of your call iyou are on the phone, and if face to face clarify what you can do for them - your customer.
Set the Focus: make the customer feel important by setting the focus on them.
Bridge: Bridge to the customers needs.
Where you are in the sales cycle will determine the emphasis on each of the above points.Tip: Always leverage your openings to the maximum.Grabbing the spotlight could go something like this for a new customer," Hello I am Brian, thanks for taking the time to come into our store.... (Rapport). I know you are busy...How can I assist you today? (Then briefly bullet your agenda). How does that sound? You have now transferred the spotlight onto the customer and have positioned your self to identify their needs.After you have established rapport, show the customer how you can assist (if you are on the phone state the purpose of your call from the customers' perspective.) Briefly bullet the key points of your agenda and keep checking with the customer that this meets with their expectations.While your objective is to get a commitment and sale which is how you measure your success, your purpose answers the all important question from the customer's perspective which is "What's in it for me (the customer)". So aim for your objective by positioning your self with your purpose as you open the sale to engage and gain interest from your customer.Far too many sales people are focused on them selves when they open a sale, which usually hurts not only rapport but also the relationship. By being customer focused you as the sales person will realize the importance of an opening that builds common ground and a shared understanding of your customers needs.Follow these simple steps to work on this skill:
Prepare to build Rapport. Take time to plan on how you will achieve this.
Totally leverage your open. Plan what you want to accomplish from your greeting, rapport, purpose and confirming the agenda.
Define the purpose. Turn your measurable objective into your customer focused purpose to gain your customers interest.

Original :: successful selling grab the spotlight

top tip to successful selling relate to

Engaging in small talk is the easiest way to start relating with your customers. Examples of small talk are as simple as discussing the football, to fishing or an activity that your customer is passionate about. Get the customer talking with you and employ the skills of active listening.I liken this skill as corralling, similar to how a sheep dog can corral a mob of sheep with out upsetting them.A skilled Professional sales person can direct the customer's conversation to meet the objective with the customer moving along without objection and in fact wanting to do so. This takes a lot of skill.The skill of relating is a difficult skill to master as it is a 'feel how' skill, and includes rpport, acknowledgement, and empathy. Many sales people when asked about why they went into sales say it is because they like people. As important as this may be it is only part of relating to your customer. Rapport is the "like people" part and the chatting bit of relating. This can limit a sales persons ability to only that part of relating: the "rapport".These sales persons do not reap the benefits of using acknowledgement and empathy in their dialogue. A great example of this was in a recent training exercise that I conducted for a Real Estate office. During this training the sales group was confronted by an angry customer who said "You people speak in a jargon and promise things that you never deliver, how do you expect me to understand let alone believe what you are telling me".The sales persons were asked to respond to this customer with empathy. The sales people had problems responding with empathy and instead their responses were defensive, such as 'what part of what I said didn't you understand?' This type of a non empathy response creates more dissension.Finally after many tries the sales persons started to get the idea and finally arrived at "I am so sorry I did not mean to upset you and certainly did not mean to confuse you by using jargon, I am so glad you have brought it to my attention, now what specifically....?Acknowledgement and empathy are very powerful skills that need continual sharpening as they are the quickest to dull. While questions can be empathetic in tone, they can never replace empathy or acknowledgement. An example of this is when a customer tells you about a problem. A good sales person may ask," How did you handle that?". A superb sales person on the other hand would introduce the question with empathy conveying concern and more importantly, encourage a more complete response, for example," I am sorry to hear that" followed by the question.Empathy and acknowledgement are important in an active dialogue. Empathy, however goes beyond acknowledgement in showing concern for the customer and when used correctly can create a personal bond. Some salespeople find it difficult to express empathy. Some may feel empathy, but are uncomfortable communicating it and others go overboard and make the customer feel uncomfortable. Empathy is a fine balancing act.Verbally expressing concern and caring can help reduce customer defenses and when used by superb sales persons will eliminate customer defenses and make you very persuasive.WARNING: EMPATHY NEEDS TO BE GENUINE.Phony empathy is easily picked up by today's astute customers.Use these sharpeners:Acknowledge: Verbally acknowledge what your customer has said
Empathize: Be genuine when your customer is upset, excited or emotional
Rapport: Plan and rehearse how you will build rapport, practice on your friends and colleagues, this is the first step in building a relationship.

Original :: top tip to successful selling relate to

top tip to successful selling ask

How often have you jumped straight into selling after opening?Don't feel bad. You are the majority. While a sales person may think they understand customer needs they go straight to talking product, sound familiar? This is how the sales training goes in a true and tried traditional feature and benefit model. Ok, you are not like that, you ask questions, so what set up do you use when asking your customer questions? Do your questions inspire the customer to satisfy your objective and buy from you?If you have answered NO then you are asking questions with out any setup and this limits the cooperation you are going to get. By using a set up process you will wrap up your opening, bridging thegap to your customers needs by creating the expectation that you will be asking questions and getting your customer to agree to that. The reason you set up questioning is that when customers are made part of the decision making process they will more than likely participate actively and with enthusiasm.Try this next time you are with a customer and now preface the reason for asking the questions with a benefit for the customer, and watch the cooperation increase.Sales people and I have succumbed to this myself when asked by a customer "tell me about this car/product?" or "what have you got on special today?" STOP. Don't succumb to the temptation of going straight to the sale by jumping to product before identifying the customer's needs. Instead say "Yes, can I ask you what is important to you and what specific need would you like filled by the product you are considering? Can I ask you a few questions so that I can tailor to your specific need?"If you are further down the sales cycle and have already identified the needs now is a great time to recap those needs and ask questions to identify any additional needs or concerns. This technique will let you learn if any thing has changed so that you can incorporate that into your dialogue. Keep asking pertinent questions so that you can get to the core of your customers need. Well structured and thought out questions will encourage robust and honest dialogue and prevent you from getting to product to early.Carefully researched and delivered questions set the superb sales person apart from the good sales person. Here are some ideas to help you sharpen this skill.Do your home work: Build credibility by showing that you are prepared but that you would also like to ask some questions.Encourage participation: Share your reasons for asking questions with your customer showing that you care and creating a bridge to meeting their needs.Benefits: Let the customer know how they will benefit by participating in the dialogue.

Original :: top tip to successful selling ask

top tip to successful selling ask

Asking questions off the cuff is a challenging skill to learn, as it does not come easily and if used incorrectly or at the wrong moment could be disastrous to your objective of making the sale. Superb sales persons use this skill to enormous advantage, and their customers actually bond closer with them. How do these superb sales people develop this skill?Learning this skill and honing it, takes time, practice and continual rehearsing, it just cannot be learned any other way. It is said that superb sales people can think on their feet. That is the skill of being able to ask questions off the cuff and thus handle any objections using the objections to close the sale.To start learning thiskill you have to develop a questioning strategy. Sounds simple right? Developing a questioning strategy takes time and effort and does not happen over night and there is no instant fix.Developing a great and logical questioning strategy, allows you to create dialogue that will let you efficiently and seamlessly explore the needs of your customers. A great questioning strategy gives you a structure to develop a rich dialogue and at the same time the flexibility to improvise while still directing the dialogue.Your questioning strategy will enable you to create efficient 'need' questions with your customers. So how do you start creating a great questioning strategy? Here are some tips.1. Start Broad: Establish a rapport with the customer by asking general questions of their requirements,2. Establish the customer's objectives: Ask questions and establish what specifically the customer is desiring to achieve. It is amazing how many sales people skip this vital part. With out a clear understanding of what the customer wants to accomplish the sales person is left with the customer saying "I have to think about it". Has this happened to you?3. Establish the current situation: You need to find out what the customers current situation is. Probe further to discover more about the customers priorities and concerns,4. Level of satisfaction: Find out by asking questions drilling down to the basics to understand what is working and what is not and what needs to be changed,5. Future needs: As your questioning continues discover what future needs the customer may have. By taking this into consideration you are now starting to build a customer for life and your solution will be laser targeted,6. Personal motivators: This is critical as it will allow you to distill the solution to achieve the objective.7. Implementation: Critical to you being able to realistically assess and close are questions about implementation, such as and including budget, who the decision makers are, the decision making process, influencers, competitors, relationships, and any other related initiatives.You can now see that this skill is involved and very critical to your success.

Original :: top tip to successful selling ask

tip to successful selling slow down be

Slow down and be curious, an area where most good sales people fail and the superb sales professional's excel. Never be fast in giving an answer, and instead be curious. Easier said than done right as after all you have to make that sale to keep your sales manager off your back and you have to meet the monthly targets so what you are saying is that you don't have time? Huh.Here is something that you should try I will guarantee it will stump the best. ASK WHY. Every time some one asks you some thing or offers a solution just ask why! This word is an important leveler and when it comes to being superb at your chosen profession of sales learning and sharpening your skill at using this one eay to remember word will dramatically improve your sales closure rate when it is used appropriately.Stop being the answer person, acknowledge the comment or question and when appropriate ask a WHY? Question. This will automatically slow down the momentum passing control of the situation back to you effortlessly.Here is a scenario, say you are working as a sales person in the car industry.
A customer enters your yard and is looking around at various cars, you walk up introduce your self and immediately the customer asks you does this car come in blue, and does it have a manual gear box?What type of sale person are you? Average? OR Superb?The average sales person would answer in any of the following combinations,- "Yes. It comes in..." (product before need)
- "No. Only what you see here..."(Giving up before identifying needs)
- "Oh but it's the latest..." (Contradiction)
- "Don't you like this colour?" (Reflective listening"
- "If blue is available will you buy today?" (This is a sale killer as you have tried to close with out establishing the customers needs or their obstacles are identified) This is endemic in the car industry and for the average sales person struggles to make the sale, customers are much to savvy these days.
- "Well, manual transmissions are a special order I would need you to order the car..."(Again closing the customer prematurely) are you sure you don't want an auto? (Changing the platform)
- "Oh, is this colour to loud for you?" (Interpretation, translation, assumption, you are putting words in the customers mouth)
- "You are the first customer to dislike the colour,...? (Discounting the objection)
- "My other customers feel the same way about that colour...." (Reinforcing the objection)
- "Well I am not sure if Blue is available, but we offer...." (telling vx checking)In all of the different forms of responses the sales person is trying to persuade or evade. This sales person is average and will never be superb as the sales person has not taken the time to connect with the customer by acknowledging and getting more information by asking questions. As you will note the responses are defensive and the customer is in control.By slowing down and using acknowledgement and questions the sales person would have connected with the customer, learned more and been more persuasive as a result.Unfortunately the tendency to answer is deeply entrenched in most sales people as that is the way they have been trained and in every instance are petrified of losing the sale and invariably do.

Original :: tip to successful selling slow down be

tip to successful selling identify your

Identify your competition and then proceed to Analyze them, it is vital that you do this.Competition is tough and you as a professional sales person will face tough and unrelenting competition, so it is your job to know your competitors and create a competitive strategy. It is critical to understand how your customers feel about the competitors, this knowledge allows you to effectively position against them, in a way that neither denigrates nor promotes your competitor.Regardless of the amount of intelligence that your research team or marketing team have on your competitors, it is important that you do your own research, as part of your preparation to neutralize them.Your preparation thee days is relatively easy as the internet gives you instant access to information; other methods that you can use are colleagues that may have worked for the competition, literature put out by the competition, trade shows, annual reports, advertisements and so on.An untapped source of intelligence on your competition is your customers and potential customers, you can tap into this important resource by asking questions such as "Who else are you speaking with?" "How do you feel about them?" "What has your experience been like?" "What do you like about them?" "What would you change?" "Who are you working with there?" "How do we compare?" are just some of the intelligence gathering questions you could ask your customers.As you listen do not become defensive and never denigrate the competition, directly criticizing a competitor will reflect badly on you and scuttle any possibility of converting a sale, criticism of your competitor could back fire as the customer could become insulted as they selected to go to your competitor before they came over to see you.Instead of becoming defensive or critical ask your customer targeted questions and help the customer make the comparisons, find out what your competitors are offering, the relationship history and who they have access to. Ask your customers how they feel about your competitors and how you stack up. This will allow you to determine how your level of access to the customer and other members of the customer's decision making team compare.Asking structured questions saves valuable time and gives you valuable human intelligence. For example if you asked your customer how you stacked up and they replied that you were number two. You can ask why? With the answer to your why question you can now work on revising your approach (provided you have not destroyed that opportunity) and resubmitting your proposal, the chances are that you will in most instances win the deal.Here are some tips to move you along:1. Know your competitors
2. Get your customers perspective
3. Use tact to high light your competitors weaknesses

Original :: tip to successful selling identify your

top tip to successful selling be

"Be prepared' is a motto taught to scouts and professional soldiers. Sales persons like soldiers must always be preparing to survive in the sales field and become top performers. These top performers treat preparation differently but never the less they are always preparing before and after each customer. How do you prepare? Do you ask your self what does my customer need, how and what do I need to do to get my customer to say yes? Do you let ideas and scenarios play in your mind so you can be creative and pro active? All of these are great but wouldn't it be nice if you had a check list to shorten your preparation time and increase the impact?Sure you would. Here are three steps:1. Stratgic preparation: When I look at my customer I do not see just one sale but sales from my customer for the next ten or more years. So when preparing your strategic plan think about the long term relationship and objectives, and then set your short term and immediate objective. This should be for both in making the call and for when a customer just walks in to your shop off the street. Ensure your objective is measurable, is achievable, and works within a time frame so that you can maintain momentum, assess the out come of your call or meeting and accelerate your close by giving you the opportunity to ask for the sale.I usually visualize the event and rehearse, allowing sufficient time for the customer to talk and interact.2. Customer preparation: Put your self in your customer's shoes and start thinking from a customers' perspective about the objective that needs to be achieved, the situation, the needs, and decision criteria. For example can the customer make the purchase decision alone or do they need their partner or some other party to help make the decision. If that is so then ensure all parties are available so a decision can be made then and now.3. Product and technical preparation: Ensure you have a good knowledge of the range of products and services and the products or services capability to meet your customer's needs.Finally plan and rehearse the questions you will ask and anticipate objections, then customize your materials to ensure a profitable result.Sales people, as a rule, generally prepare backwards by starting with the product. Change your thinking and start with strategic preparation. This allows you to stay customer focused rather than product focused. Staying up to date on industry news, economic news and company news and by reviewing your customer's files you can build on information you already have and avoid unnecessary repetitions. Prepare the materials you think you will need and tailor your plan to ensure it applies to your customer.As you visualize for the call, make sure you remain customer focused. Tip. Prior to the call if possible get customer input, and any feedback from historical sales made to this customer.Remember:Prepare for all customer calls,Set measurable objectives and time frames for each call to keep momentum and accelerate your close,
Tailor all your material, this shows your customer that your focus is on them and their needs,
Visualize your calls, rehearse it in your mind, plan the flow of the call and build in time for the customer to talk.

TIP: "BE PREPARED...START WITH YOUR OBJECTIVE!"

Original :: top tip to successful selling be

what is the difference between order

Order Takers get business in good times. Great sales people generate business all the time, because they know where it is and they know how to get it.Thomas J Watson of IBM was asked this question by a young salesman. "How do I accelerate my career in Sales?" The answer that Watson gave was "Go out and double your failure rate" Why?It is because selling is a numbers game. If you have to talk to 10 people to get one order then you fail nine times to get one. In order to get two orders you need to fail 18 times. Sounds simple enough but there is always more to it. In fact what happens is the more 'no's' you get the more 'yes's' you get. And the more 'yes's' you get the less 'no's' you get.hy?Because every time you get a yes, the confidence grows, the knowledge grows, the customer base grows, the number of available referrals grows, the repeat business grows and the success level grows. Success breeds success.Harvard University have now screened over 20,000 salespeople to find the ingredients of outstanding performers. What we know is that the two biggest obstacles to making sales are:The sales persons fear of rejection
The customers fear of making a mistake
The biggest of these is the sales person's fear of rejection. In tough markets this leads to the lesser sales person making fewer calls, having fewer customer contacts and making fewer sales. This is because they are frightened that the customer is going to say NO.Great Salespeople will always out-perform Order Takers in tough markets because great sales people are members of the Top 20%.Only 20% of sales people in the UK attend regular sales training programmes to keep them ahead of the competition - which is why in most industries 20% of salespeople are bringing in 80% of the business.Highly trained, highly motivated professional salespeople will always excel in tough times - because they keep on going, long after the order takers have given up.

Original :: what is the difference between order

tip to successful selling think

What do you think when asked "Why are you meeting with a customer?"What words or phrases come immediately to your mind? I bet the word "TELL" dominates as your first response. After training and interviewing sales people in various industries and asking them to describe the purpose of the meeting this is how the sales people respond "To meet with the customer/prospect to TELL them about.... And how we can..." This is endemic whether the sales person is meeting the customer face to face or writing to them via email or traditional mail letters.Superb sales people are so customer focused in their mind set that they would respond to the above question completely differently and may have respoded to the above question as follows" To learn about your.... And discuss how...we can assist.... Our support to you is...." The shift is small and you would agree very powerful.Before you start getting defensive and argumentative, sure it makes sense to want to "Tell" your prospective customer, provided what you tell them is persuasive. You must stay in perspective, for that is what a questioning mind set is about.Here is another question. When approaching prospective customers, do you think answers or questions? Take your time, this will determine the type of mind set you have when you are approaching your customer. Remember there is a time and place for answers. As a professional you have to have a questioning mindset, or you may find your self answering before your customer or you are ready, potentially losing control and the sale.Most sales people are reluctant to ask questions and when asked come up with these excuses.1. There isn't enough time: Enough time for what, is my question back to you. Time spent asking questions will help you develop a winning solution more often saving you time and allowing you to focus on your customer.2. I'll lose control. If you are not asking questions you have lost control, so who are you kidding? The person asking the questions controls the call, so if you allow your customer to take the initiative and control the questioning you have lost control and will seldom achieve your objective.3. I don't want to be pushy. This is a favorite of the average and mediocre sales person. It is a cop out! There is nothing pushy about asking questions as you are being customer focused and customers will appreciate that. The right questions show how much you care and how well prepared you are.4. Customers will Burr up and object. Totally incorrect if your questions are well prepared and meaningful. Well prefaced questions will show your customer your level of understanding and preparedness. Funnily enough customers welcome questions to a product dump!5. I don't want to offend my customer. This is an extremely weak excuse as invariably it is the sales person that feels uncomfortable about questioning not the customer. If this is you start sharpening and learning effective questioning skills.6. Questions could raise negative points. Great bring the negative issues out into the open as now you can resolve them, or would you prefer your customer to say " I have to think about it" that comment is a sale loser.7. I am expected to have the answers. This is true if all the customer wanted is product. Extremely few customers just want product, they want solutions. Customers want more than any thing value and perspective, they want your answers to apply to them.This last excuse is an absolute favorite and is used by the majority of pretenders calling themselves professional sales people. These are the folk that give sales professionals a bad reputation, the excuse is:"I'm experienced and already know"These types seldom make sales and always have a reason why the customer did not buy. Making assumptions without checking, validating, questioning and learning will cost you the sale.

Original :: tip to successful selling think

tip to successful selling be a listener

Develop the skill of listening effectively. Most sales people do not listen effectively, they just pay ear service to this skill, and invariably the customer picks up on it and switches off. Have you been in a similar position when you have been the customer? I have as a customer and it is destructive when trying to build a relationship with the customer and the sales person, this is where the, them and us mentality surfaces.To listen effectively in sales you have to listen with your entire being there is no half measure; it is equivalent to having a zoom lens that is how full on effective listening has to be.Sales people confuse Effective listening with efficient listening; do you know wat the difference is?Sales people are efficient listeners, they listen to what they think is important, they listen with an ear to talk vs. absorb and assess, a small percentage of average sales people zone out, most how ever do listen efficiently paying just enough attention to stay in the dialogue.Effective listening goes way beyond this, sales people that are effective listeners not only stay in the dialogue they pay attention with a high level of intensity. They listen to all content, paying attention to the customers tone, body language, pacing, and emphasis, while maintaining good eye contact with their customer with out being intimidating. These sales people listen intently which enable them to question appropriately and integrate, their follow up questions tell the customer that are listening and have listened to what the customer has said; these sales people use and develop effective listening to a skill full art form.Another way to show effective listening is to take notes, at appropriate intervals noting the key information. Unfortunately taking notes is a lost art. I have always taken notes and still do so to this day, as leaving it to memory is not good enough if you want to become a superb sales person, and join the few of us in this rarified atmosphere.Taking notes allows you to go over what the customer has said and gives you time to put together a winning proposal, this skill has made me put together some amazing sales. Sales that other sales people had given up on or considered the customer far too difficult to handle.Listening effectively is one of the six critical skills that have to be developed and kept honed to have an effective dialogue. The funny thing is that when sales people are asked what their strongest skill is they will always tell you it is listening, yes this may be true but are they listening effectively?If you as a professional sales person list your strongest skill as listening then why have you not had a sales conversion record of 99% to 100%? Interesting huh.

Original :: tip to successful selling be a listener

tip to successful selling how skillful

Of course you ask questions. What I ask you is what are the quality, range, and impact of those questions?In Selling questions are critical to your survival and the size of your pay check. Develop and focus on how skillfully you ask questions. You do this by planning the questions that you are going to ask, develop a series of questions for various scenarios, so that you can move effortlessly between without becoming stilted in your presentations, make your questioning natural. If you are not sure what questions to ask, speak to the superb sales person in your organization to see how they do it, if such a person does not exist ask your sales manager that is why they are there to assist yo.How to ask a question is as important as what to ask. Asking questions is a learned skill, and is taught to Police officers, soldiers and interrogators, people that need this skill to elicit information, unfortunately it is not taught to the same degree to sales professionals, and yet it is the corner stone to how well you will perform in sales.Asking questions effectively, takes a lot of skill and is honed over time and practice, it also requires discipline, knowledge, and confidence. IN sales you do not want to come across as a prosecutor in a court of law that will guarantee your sale will flee.As you work on and develop this critical skill, start thinking about the structure, pace and the tactics you will employ to get your customers to open up and talk to you. How you phrase, position and sequence your questions will have an impact on how willing your customer is to participate in the dialogue and just how much you will learn about their needs.Here are two ways in which I have been asked the same question:- "Are you the decision maker? (Who makes the decision?). This question elicited a very short and curt response from me and put an end to the sale as it put the sales person on an awkward footing, I bought the car from another dealer ship.
- "Once you have reviewed your test drive, what will your decision process involve?" This elicited a cordial and informative response from me and the sale was made.The big difference between the two questions both trying to get the same result was that the second question recognized my role, and was skillfully delivered. Learn to preface your questions to motivate the customer to happily share information that you require this can be done by prefacing the question with an acknowledgment, for more emotive type of questions preface it with empathy.

Original :: tip to successful selling how skillful

tip to successful selling relate your

Another word for relating your capabilities is called Positioning and is one of the six critical skills.Positioning is where you tell your product story, note this is not a generic product pitch by the numbers it is far more involved, sound product knowledge is just the foundation, having a strong message and knowing how to customize it to incorporate your customers needs is the critical factor in winning the customers business.There are three levels to positioning:1. Developing a core message. The core message must be clear, focused on the customer, and graphic. You must know precisely what you want to communicate and then use the words and images that your customer can relate to.
2. Intgrate customer needs into the message. Your message is now tailored to a specific customer, now you use your critical and creative skills to understand the customers needs, language, and perspective, thereby creating a link to your offerings
3. Reposition your message. As you learn more during the sales process, incorporate it into your message, and reposition what you have learned when you present to the influencers and decision makers.Here are some examples to help you along:In positioning your message,
- Integrate and concisely recap the customers needs
- Concisely and graphically tailor features and benefits to your recommendations,
- Finally ask a checking question to get feed back.
After you have learned some more you can reposition,- Ask questions to gain access
- Discussing your capabilities, "our... enables you to have your car serviced....."The value of relating "Positioning" is that it shows that you care and are customer focused and knowledgeable.Positioning is a skill few sales people knowingly practice let alone hone, it is a critical skill for you to develop on your journey to becoming a superb sales person. This skill evolves as you progress and needs constant, work to keep sharp and effective, here are some ways to keep and help position your message persuasively.1. Know what you want to communicate and tailor the message appropriately. Rehearse, rehearse, and keep practicing how you will describe your capabilities to your customer.Tip: Get your message out on your business cards, and all stationary that you can.Ensure your message is concise, customer focused and graphic.2. Update your message continuously. Easier said than done as busyness gets in the way. Reflect changes in your organizations and your customer's situation, needs and perspectives.3. Position effectively. Summarize the key customer benefits concisely, leading into your message or recommendations. Integrate into your message the specific customer needs that you have uncovered, concisely and graphically.

Original :: tip to successful selling relate your

business banking sales training 5 ways

Small business owners hope for value in conversation. Most branch staff are terrified to talk to them. They are uncomfortable having conversations with small business owners because they don't understand their businesses, don't know what questions to ask, don't know how to interpret the answers, and can't connect their banks' products to the owner's business issues.The result: Bank sales representatives sell the wrong products. (More than 40% of small businesses in a recent survey were in the wrong deposit accounts.)The biggest training opportunity is "focus on the customer" - providing training that emphasizes small business operations challenges, the value of bank solutions, and sales sills appropriate to the small business types on which you want your sellers to focus most.Five focus points to training your team so they can engage your high-priority small business customers, recommend the right products at the right time, and retain and grow small business wallet share are:Conversation Models - engaging small business owners with conversations that focus on their personal and company goals and operations challenges rather than on the products the bank happens to be promoting this month.
Business and Financial Acumen - using and understanding the language of small business including accounting terms like "depreciation," financial concepts such as "impact of growth on cash flow," and tax issues like "why lease a piece of equipment versus buying it." In addition, sharing information or insights from the banks' experiences with other companies and their knowledge of how similar businesses work.
Value of Solutions - understanding how and when your bank's products solve customer operations challenges and the value that products create when implemented. Recommending the right products at the right time.
Certification - expecting and requiring branch staff to demonstrate that they have learned and can apply the processes, skills, and knowledge you've trained. For extra credit, require that they demonstrate better results to qualify for more compensation or other benefits.
Sustainment - managers coaching staff intensively to ensure they'll master all that they learned and will be able to apply it effectively on their own in the weeks and months following training. (87% of training is lost within one month without effective post-training coaching!)Sales training that focuses on conversation skills and business knowledge in addition to sales skills and product knowledge will go a long way in giving branch staff the confidence and competence they need to call on small businesses.

Original :: business banking sales training 5 ways

bank sales training 6 implementation

If your bank wants to grow small business by penetrating the existing branch relationships you want to keep, the first and most important step is to define the implementation strategy. The biggest challenge is engaging managers to coach and lead change. Eighty-seven percent of training impact is lost within a month unless trainees' managers begin coaching immediately.Frequently, training department teams must do the work that line managers should do to focus and lead managers through an organized roll out of new sales initiatives and training that supports them. Six steps to engage business leaders and increase the impact of training and bank results:Business Outcomes - helping your line-f-business partners describe the specific results they want to attain and designing training initiatives around achieving those. Press beyond the obvious (sales results) to identify other outcomes that may be important (e.g. retention, coverage of a particular target segment, customer satisfaction ratings).
Expectations - translating business outcomes into specific expectations for branch staff and small business banker performance (e.g. "We want to move our products cross-sold at account opening for new business accounts from two to six, and we want that change to occur in the next 180 days"). In addition, setting specific expectations for sales managers to observe and coach sales activity.
Measurements - asking your line-of-business partners how they will measure impact and outcomes and helping them develop a tracking framework for those metrics. Go deeper: standard bank reports do not track the "leading indicators" of sales success (e.g. behavior frequency, behavior quality, and steps moved forward in a sales process). Urge senior managers to sponsor efforts to track leading indicators, even if this must be done manually for six months. Use the metrics to calculate training's ROI.
Feedback - determining how you will let branch staff know how well they're tracking toward goal.
Conversation Framework - guiding managers through a process for communicating with staff pre-training and post-training so that they are clear on results, measurements, expectations, and feedback mechanisms.
Coaching Visibility - establishing a tracking and reporting method that will enable senior leaders to see who is coaching and to tie banker performance to coaching activity.Clarity's experience shows that 10% of the impact of training is the design of the curriculum itself and 90% is how well it's implemented. Defining results and how they'll be measured, setting clear expectations for branch staff on how to achieve them, explaining how training is going to help them move toward the goals, and discussing the activities they will perform should all occur before any training takes place.You'll save time and money and position your small business initiative for success.

Original :: bank sales training 6 implementation

there are no shortcuts in sales

There are no shortcuts when it come to life or sales. Think about it, anything worth anything takes times. You cannot cut the natural process in order to bypass the experience or time commitment.? Relationships: You can't speed up trust which is the foundation of any relationship. That is built over time.? Weight Loss: I have tried by taking a pill or doing a magic diet, but it gave me short term results. It wasn't anything I could maintain. It takes exercise and proper eating.? Fine Meal: Hot pockets don't count. Think back to your last holiday meal. It took that person a great deal of time and planning for a 30 minute meal.? Weddings: I have known it to take YEARS to plan the Fairytle wedding.? Sales Results: Anyone can have a good day or even month, but to do it year in and out it takes time and hard work.The closest thing I found as a shortcut in sales is a referral. You can bypass many years of building a relationship from getting a solid referral, but this is not a guarantee. There is still work involved because you have to build the relationship with this client.I did find a shortcut. It is in software programs, but it took time to know that the short cut exists and to learn them. I figure if there truly was a shortcut it wouldn't be called that...it would be call "The Way".REMEMBER: SHORTCUTS = PAY CUTSArticle by Tim Scholze

Original :: there are no shortcuts in sales

sales closing technique adapted from an

This sales closing technique has been adapted from an old direct sales trick that was a bit underhand but very successful, and with a few changes it can still be very effective today. It comes from the dark and murky days when selling was less regulated and prospects more naive. Sales people used it when selling one-off sales where they would not be revisiting the same customers. With some investment you can adapt the technique and turn it into a professional sales closing skill that will also give you good feedback from your prospects. More importantly, it will give you a way of increasing your sales by selling to prospects that you thought you had lost.I started my sales career sellingust about everything that could be sold to the public in a direct sales role. Vacuum cleaners, home improvements, finance plans, and subscriptions, to name just a few. One of the most successful sales closing techniques we used was when the salesperson had made every effort to close the sale but the prospect was still not buying.The sales person backed off from trying to close the sale, and started to pack away whatever product they had been demonstrating. The prospect felt they were off the hook and started to relax. The seller then made an excuse to call their manager. They said it was company policy, or to prove they had completed each appointment. The sales manager would always want to speak to the sales prospect. They would start by asking for feedback on what the salesperson had done and said. Without the prospect realizing it the conversation moved from asking for feedback to the start of a new sales pitch.The now relaxed prospect was caught off guard and was open to the sales closing techniques used by the manager. The manager would align themselves with the customer and point out mistakes in the sales presentation they had received. This got the prospect on side and built a relationship. The sales questions asked by the manager, about why the prospect hadn't bought from the seller, made it easy to close the sales. All they had to do was address whatever issues the prospect had openly told them about when asked for feedback. The call usually ended with the manager apologising for any misunderstanding caused by their sales person, and then giving the customer a revised sales proposal which was often accepted.One of the things that made this sales closing technique so effective was that the prospect didn't know they were being sold to by the manager. They opened up and told them the reasons why they hadn't agreed to buy, and all the manager had to do was overcome those obstacles to the sale. This is the part of this closing technique that you can adapt for your sales role. Now I'm not suggesting you use this rehearsed salesperson-sales manager routine on your customers or prospects. But what you can do is implement a call back process to prospects that uses some of the elements of this closing technique.You can adapt a script for calling back prospects that you, your colleagues, or your sales team, have not been able to close. It doesn't have to be the sales manager that makes the call it can be a colleague or another sales team member. You can call while the seller is there or after they have gone.You can make the call informal and friendly, or a more formal customer care type call. The important elements of the call are:1. Introduce yourself and the reason for the call.2. Ask for genuine feedback and discover why the prospect didn't buy.3. Overcome the prospect's objections and obstacles with a new sales presentation.4. Gain agreement and close the sale.The above steps are just an adapted sales pitch. Consider each of the sales stages and what you want to say and ask that will help you to move on to the next stage and towards closing the sale.This sales closing technique, of contacting prospects that didn't buy, gives you two major benefits. The biggest benefit is the increase in your sales. The second is that you convert more of your sales leads or prospect data base, and this can save you money on marketing and buying in prospect lists.

Original :: sales closing technique adapted from an

ben franklin close

Ben Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He is considered by many to be one of the most influential people that help shape America today. Ben Franklin was a wise man. He was very logical in his approach to life, business and society. In life when Ben Franklin was approached to make a decision that was unclear, he would use this method to eliminate any doubt. This closing technique is based on logic and deductive reasoning.This close is also known as the Balance Sheet Close, T-Bar Close or Pros and Cons Close.The Process:1. Take a sheet of paper and draw a T in the middle.2. On the top left write "Reasons For" and on the right side write "Reasons Against". Make sue you place the "Reasons For" on the left side because of the way we read. You want their eyes to read that first every time they look at the sheet.3. Eliminate the "Against Reasons". The two main reasons are cost or timing.a. Cost: This tends to be the main source of contention. The customer genuinely has interest in your product or service otherwise they would not be meeting with you.b. Timing: Maybe they are in the shopping mode and gathering the information necessary to make a decision. The probable purchaser could be investigating the steps and costs involved to make the purchase.4. Help them with the "Reasons For". Make sure you come up with about 10 solid reasons.5. After you have completed the list, say "It looks like the "reasons for" outweigh the "reasons against". Let's go ahead a moved forward." Now begin finalizing the sale.5 Quick Tips:1. Ask good questions: Make sure some of the questions you ask uncover the emotion or feeling associated with the problem. Once you have the feelings, ask a follow up question to discover what it would mean to them if you helped them get the problem resolved.2. Listen: The key to any close is to actively listen. Take notes. These notes will help you with this closing technique.3. Attach an emotion or feeling to the reasons: This is critical for any sales call. When you can connect your product or service to their emotion, it makes it easier to close the sale. People buy off emotion and back it up with logic.4. Assume the sale: By asking to move forward, you ease the purchaser toward the sale. Using this thought process will help you close more deals.5. Practicial: This is great for any business or personal decision you face as well.Article by Tim Scholze

Original :: ben franklin close

selling 101 for college grads

I'm sure by now, you hear the term, "sell yourself," or "everything in life is sales related." This is true. However, sales is not about manipulation. It is not about pitching something whether it be tangible or intangible to someone. Sales is about telling somebody your point of view and connecting with them on a personal level. Do you remember Jerry McGuire? Well, they had the character which was Jerry's mentor named "The Late, Great Dicky Fox" make a quote which always resonated with me. I am paraphrasing here, but the quote was something to the sort of, "If you don't love everybody, you can't sell anybody." This is one of the best quotes I have ever heard from a movie and before you bush the reference off because it is from a movie think about that an author a.k.a screen-play writer wrote this.If you're selling yourself in an interview, or you are selling a professor to take that minus away to the right of that letter on your report card or you are in sales, selling is part of life. Selling is trying to connect with the other person. You must get on their level and understand the possibilities of why they would hesitate to do what you are asking. Being able to do this is a huge step.Tell me which you believe sounds better:"Professor, I deserve an A not an A-, I worked too hard" or"Professor, I know you get this all the time and that you may have students who have done a little better, but I believe I may deserve an A not an A-. Is there any time we can speak or could I write you an email?"When I was just graduating college, I was afraid of rejection. Somehow, I was able to do very well in sales for my age, but I was sensitive. With anything sales related or just in life, you must be open to rejection. Never let anybody's disagreement with you make you lose focus on your overall goal. For instance, let's say that the particular professor responded with something harsh and uncalled for like:"I don't think you're that smart."I'm sure they would not do that, but this is to give you an example. Yes, it may hurt a little bit. Though, think about what type of person would say that to someone. Not somebody whose opinion you should respect. Brush it off. It gets easier with time. I run a company and have clients call in and they don't use my firm all the time. Do I care? No. The reason is that my company has worked hard enough where we have clients calling all day. I've learned to forget about the ones who use other companies and just move on. That's their problem.Another important aspect about sales is to have a combination of being very nice and approachable, being assertive and asking questions. If you have 30 / 30 / 30 and 10% of all my conversations, I tend to zone out; ). So, when speaking to someone, make sure you ask questions to get their point of view. Always do your best to not ask "Yes or No," questions. These put people on the spot and your rejection rate always rises. A "no" can change the entire tone of the conversation. If you get trapped and must ask a "Yes or No," always lead in with, "I'm not sure if I'm correct here, but can you tell me......."

Original :: selling 101 for college grads

conquering the sales callback challenge

Introduction
When trying to set up an initial meeting with a prospect, you should both call and email the person. Combining these two approaches will make your message a more memorable as well as easy to respond to for both email and voicemail people. The key to this approach is to use the same wording for both messages and send them at the same time. Both the voicemail and the email should include your name, phone number, company name, reason you are calling, and your phone number (again)."Reason for Contact" Statements
Your "reason for contact" statement should be the shortest possible description of your lead source. For example, if you received a referral from Roger Smith, your reasostatement should be something like "regarding Roger" or "regarding Roger Smith." If you acquired the lead from a trade show, the reason statement should be "regarding the trade show;" if you met at a networking event, the reason would be "regarding last week's conversation."Keeping It Simple and the Same
According to studies where sellers carefully tracked their ratios, shortening the message to a single word or a short phrase seems to work the best. For example, if you are selling your product or service to an insurance company, you would leave a message for that says "Re: Met Life." When they call back (and they will), you can finish the thought by saying "We've done a lot of work with insurance companies like Met Life, and I thought we should get together to discuss." Again, the key is to use the same wording for both messages and send them at the same time.Getting the Call
Do not type your entire sales pitch or toss your manifesto in the emails you send to fresh prospects (avoid the "See the attached 400 page document on why we are so great"). Emails should read more like reminder notes you leave for your spouse or roommate. The business version of "please don't forget milk today" might be something like "confirming our appointment for Tuesday." You might even leave out their name and all niceties (such as "greetings"). Just get to the point. In this age of ubiquitous iPhones, Droids, Blackberries, smartphones, and iPads, your message recipient will appreciate this more as they walk and read.Commonsense tells us that those who read or listen to our complete messages are much more likely to respond to us!Action Steps
To improve your sales success, focus on
? A Reason for Contact,
? Keeping it Simple and the Same, and
? Getting the Call.

Original :: conquering the sales callback challenge