I am not fan of features and benefits selling. I don’t even think that approach belongs in a retail sales environment. The better approach is to qualify the prospect for need – What are they looking for? What is it they need to have/do? What is their time frame? You get the idea. Unfortunately, many features/benefits salespeople exist in the marketplace and they seem to be everywhere. This approach leads to the negative stereotype salespeople – pushy, talkative, bad listener, etc. Managesmarter.com provides an excellent tip within an article titled Transcend the Negative Stereotypes of Sales: Tip No. 3: Understand how your customers market services and generate profit. Don’t assume… Read More
Continue ReadingSeparation Clarity
Good article here from Salesopedia.com titled Reject Me, Please. Handling rejection just may be the most important trait of any strong salesperson. Rejection is the key differentiation between sales and all other positions. Salespeople have to be able to handle this topic well. Excellent sales people realize it’s about the products and service, and not them. They may have represented the product poorly and answered questions about the services ineptly, but nonetheless, the opposition is about what’s being sold, not the seller. This ability to distinguish between the purveyor and the purveyed I call Separation Clarity. Well stated and I am now a fan of the phrase “separation clarity.” I… Read More
Continue ReadingBest Cities To Build Wealth
From Justsell.com’s daily newsletter: Looking to build long-term wealth? According to a recent salary.com survey*, the best American cities in which to build wealth include: Plano, Texas Aurora, Colorado Omaha, Nebraska Minneapolis, Minnesota Albuquerque, New Mexico I don’t know about that fourth one. The way they tax up here makes me think otherwise. New York City came in last place out of 69 major cities so maybe this information is accurate.
Continue ReadingBuilding Rapport
Saleshq.com provides a simple list of suggestions for building rapport and connecting with others at networking events. I’m not certain the list is all that remarkable, but I was struck by a couple of tips: 5. Show interest in your conversational partner by actively listening and giving verbal feedback. Maintain eye contact. Never glance around the room while they are talking to you. 6. Listen more than you talk. Clearly you have to talk to build rapport, but the actual bonding occurs when your mouth is closed. I especially enjoyed the suggestion to “never” look around the room when someone is speaking to you. I have a friend who does… Read More
Continue ReadingSimple Sales Skill – Attentiveness
Justsell.com offers up a reminder about a critical sales skill that is often overlooked – attentiveness. This skill is less frequent in salespeople who lack empathetic abilities or are overly task-oriented. I have seen this first-hand on a number of occasions. What happens is the salesperson tends to something else during a discussion. Typically, the actions seems fairly innocuous – a cell phone alarm, looking through some notes, checking a text message, even adjusting the height of an office chair. All of these tasks seem inconspicuous, but they are an immediate tell that you are not fully attentive to the speaker. The better approach is to ignore the task if… Read More
Continue ReadingGeneration Y-Enthusiastic Or Spoiled?
There is always difficulty when you try to paint an entire generation with one broad stroke. This fact is prominently on display in two different articles from RecruitingTrends.com. The topic is Gen Y. Here is an excerpt from the first one (my emphasis): The millennials share a generational personality that is highly misunderstood by preceding generations, who often misinterpret their motivation as impatience and their enthusiasm as narcissism. Employers who manage millennials need to understand their generational footprint in order to keep this tech-savvy, plugged-in group of employees engaged in their work. Here is an excerpt from the second one (my emphasis): So how do you supervise, lead, and approach… Read More
Continue ReadingGet ‘Er Done
You have probably read many “how to” articles that provide tips for jobseekers. One tip that almost always makes the list is to have a professional email address. Unfortunately, I was looking through resumes today and found one person who may not have read any of those articles. His email address: rednecktrucker@domain.com Next.
Continue ReadingIM Efficiency
How about this from the Herman Trend Alert – Use IM to Reduce Interruption (sorry, no link). Most people believe using “instant messaging” (IM) software to chat at work leads to an increase in disruption. In fact, a study published recently by researchers at Ohio State University and University of California, Irvine found that workers who used IM on the job reported fewer interruptions than their colleagues who did not. The research showed that IM is often used as a substitute for other, more disruptive forms of communication such as the telephone, email, and face-to-face conversations and thus it actually leads to an increase in productivity. Dr. R. Kelly Garrett… Read More
Continue ReadingJust 5 Minutes
Something to make you think, from today’s JustSell.com enewsletter (sorry, no link): Just five minutes a day… What if you came to work five minutes early and left five minutes late every day for a year? (5) x (twice a day) x (roughly 250 sales days in the year) = 41.6 hours a year. That’s a whole extra work week. And possibly… Another project successfully completed Another deal closed Another prospect turned into a customer.
Continue ReadingLiability Waivers And References
I have been used as a reference and I have called to talk to references – at times it can be awkward. I am extremely careful with what I say when I am the reference as I sense legal danger everywhere. When I am calling a reference, I truly enjoy the people who just roll and I only have to direct them a bit. Now our local paper runs this short Q&A article about a liability waiver. I have never encountered such a document: Q: One company I interviewed with asked me to sign a waiver saying my former supervisor would not be liable for anything he said about me.… Read More
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