Archives for March 2016

Research, practice, and change your belief systems for success in 2016. The field of sales is changing everyday. In order to continue to be successful in sales, you must become a master of state-of-the-art techniques. The first step to becoming a master is to acquire the knowledge. What are the latest sales techniques? What skills are required for success in sales in 2016? The second step is to practice the new techniques. Use the techniques in sales situations. Examine how effective was your use of the new technique in a particular sales situation. Make adjustments for the next prospect and try the new skill again. The third step is to change your belief system to assure success. A new sales technique may ask you to do something you don’t think you can do. Therefore, you will be tempted to avoid employing the new sales skill. Your hesitation or reluctance will be a disadvantage for you in the new sales environment. You need to change any belief system you may have that holds you back from sales success in 2016. Research, practice, and believe in your new skills and enjoy sales success today.

Convince yourself first of the value of what you offer before trying to convince the prospect. Salespeople always communicate their confidence, whether they like it or not. Our body language, facial expressions, and tonality tell the truth about what we believe. If we believe the products and services we represent really aren’t the best value for the prospect, the prospect will pick up on that. When you go into a meeting with a prospect doubting the solution you have to offer, you are essentially begging the prospect to look at the competition. Get yourself excited about your offerings. They solve problems! They deliver solutions! They add value! They make a difference! What you have to offer is better than the competition! With that belief system firmly established, your body language, tonality, and facial expressions will sell the prospect, perhaps far better than anything you say.

Only real prospects are worth time “polishing”. What do I mean by polishing? Polishing refers to taking all of the proper steps to move a prospect to a sale. Imagine polishing your sneakers and the total mess you would make. No matter how carefully you apply the polish, it won’t ever look good! You’ll end up throwing out the sneakers! There are countless sales professionals and sales managers who waste time and resources every quarter on “prospects” who will never be prospects at all. The prospects never communicated a compelling reason to buy. The sales team were lulled to sleep by those deceptive “buying signs”, which I don’t believe in. They continuously made excuses for the prospects lack of action. They’ve polished sneakers all quarter. In the end, the prospects, like the messy sneakers, get thrown out and nobody is happy. Make sure you have a prospect worth polishing – a prospect who has a compelling reason to buy your products or services.

What good is a statistic if there is no context?  A player scores 92 goals in a hockey season.  Is that alot? Do the best players score around 120 goals in a year? Did the player have a subpar season?  The player’s scoring feat only has meaning if we have the context of the goal totals of thousands of other players who have played in the league. Similarly, if a prospect says that her revenues will go up 10% this year, that statement only has context if you know how her revenues have gone up or down in the past 5-10 years.  Without context, you might think – “hey, 10% sounds good.  She has the money to buy!”  However, if you asked her “is that alot”, she might tell you revenues typically go up 20% and she is concerned.  She is hesitant to make new purchases.  The Optimal Salesperson asks “is that alot” when a prospect shares a statistic.  The Optimal Salesperson knows that asking for context by asking the “is that alot” question is an essential selling skillto close sales and increase business.