There are many articles discussing the need for salespeople to be good listeners though it seems like a challenge area for many salespeople. Entrepreneur.com’s Listen And Learn When Making A Sale provides 4 ways to start working on listening skills. I am particularly fond of this one: 2. Dig deeper. Don€™t settle for what the customer says on the surface; have him expand on his key needs and challenges. This helps me uncover hot buttons (very important points that the customer says and that I circle, highlight or star on my notepad), which I can use later to explain how my product or service will address them. Sometimes it might… Read More
Continue ReadingTop 10 Selling Mistakes
“Don’t Make These Top 10 Selling Mistakes!” Bet that got your attention. I found it on the Business Buyer Directory which provides a non-traditional means for business buyers to locate businesses for sale worldwide. The article is a couple of years old, but makes some excellent points, in fact ones that applicable to a hiring process. 4. NOT Looking the Part – Selling involves approaching strangers, people who have never met you before. People naturally base purchase decisions on first impressions. Look the part you are playing, or better yet, exceed the common image expectation in your industry. Always dress and groom one level above your targeted audience. It portrays… Read More
Continue ReadingDealing With Competition
Selling Power’s The Challenge of Your Competition provides an interesting back story to a large electronics company and how it was started. I won’t spill the candy on the article, but I thought the closing graphs were insightful (my emphasis): Everyone learns from the competition. Some people learn how to improve; others learn how to lose gracefully. Some want to be the only kid on the block; others want to be the best kid on the block. If nothing else, your competition will reveal what kind of person you are. Remember, you cannot hold a person down unless you’re willing to stay down with him. Grow with your competition; allow… Read More
Continue ReadingMastering The Complex Sale
If you haven’t bookmarked Salesopedia.com, I suggest you do so now. It is a relatively new site but is full of excellent sales advice. Clayton authors a great sales blog over there that I highly recommend reading. His latest entry discusses an article by one of our favorite sales authors – Jeff Thull – titled Ten Timely Tips For Mastering The Complex Sale. Point number 1 is one we preach: 1. Every sale is not as good sale. About 35% of all sales are bad sales. In one way or another, they leave the customer disappointed or the seller with excess costs and diminished returns. Often salespeople are so concerned… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Cost Of Discounts
This topic – discounts – is one that was beaten into my head as a young sales rep. Selling Power offers the article How Much Is that Discount Really Costing You? that cuts straight to the core of discounting. Discounting is a real problem among salespeople and especially one type of salesperson – the type that is commmissioned on revenue and not profit margin. A straight percentage of the sales revenue is an invitation to discount. The author of the article goes right after this problem: 2. Update the compensation plan to maximize profits instead of volume. Switch the plan to a margin basis, or at least a blend of… Read More
Continue ReadingHow Not To Impress A Client
I never know if these stories are believable or not, but this one from monster.com struck me as something I would do: Then, the client offers a cup of hot chocolate. As we get to the details of price, I take a gulp of my chocolate and it goes down the wrong way. I choke and spray it all over the client’s face, shirt and white trousers. I was numb. While I sat there, my bosses were running about trying to find napkins. I apologized profusely and wanted to cry. It was just one of those days. I laughed at the story because I have experienced that immediate choke response… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Team Selling Approach
This article – Sell Your Team on Team Selling – from Selling Power’s Pharmaceuticals Newsletter approaches a trend we are seeing in spades these days. “The greatest benefits from a team selling approach are what I call just-in-time factors,” he says. “That includes just-in-time technical expertise to address complex and/or outside the box inquiries, decision making to solidify the deal without self-imposed company decision making delays, and the confidence gained by being a team, especially from internal support from the potential purchaser or user.” The “team” typically is composed of a single sales rep along with members from other departments (i.e. engineering, financial, operations, production, etc.). In today’s world, this… Read More
Continue ReadingSelling Credibility
Marketingprofs.com offers up an insightful article from Jeff Thull that deals with one of the most important aspects of selling – credibility. Here is the setup (emphasis mine): Now the sobering question, “How different are your two best competitors’ credibility stories from your own company’s credibility story?” Unfortunately, other than a few minor elements, they are likely to sound quite similar. Therefore, telling the credibility story suggests that you and your competitors are more equal than you are different. This type of credibility is what we refer to as “expected credibility.” In other words, people expect you wouldn’t be in business if you couldn’t provide the above credibility story. They… Read More
Continue ReadingHow To Recover From A Big Mistake
Yahoo Hot Jobs offers Bounce Back After A Big Mistake. The article provides 6 steps for recovering from a significant error. This topic is of great importance in hiring strong salespeople. Sales requires people who have a unique ability to handle rejection and move on without flinching. Similarly, strong salespeople take responsibility for their actions, including failures. And let’s add one more – strong sales managers hold their salespeople accountable and do not accept excuses. You can see how interrelated all of these topics are to sales success. This article offers straight-forward advice for dealing with a big mistake. Here is the one that caught my attention: 1. Own it.… Read More
Continue Reading6 Body Language Clues
Managesmarter.com offers this article – Express Yourself – to provide salespeople with 6 easy reads of their prospect. Nose or face scratch implies dislike. Head tilted to the side implies interest. Eye rub implies deceit. Hand or finger blocking the mouth implies lying. Thumb tucked under the chin with index finger pointing up on the cheek implies a critical attitude. Chin stroke implies making a decision. All of them are good reads for observing prospects’ subconscious take on the discussion. However, how do you affect a change in the discussion? One tool we provide salespeople is our Selling Style sheet which provides salespeople with a quick, 1 page reference sheet… Read More
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