Posts from — February 2008

What follows is a quick interview I did with Jovan Harmuth, Product Manager at Oprius. In case you’re not familiar with Oprius, it’s a web based Sales and Contact Management Software.

Before I share the interview I do want to mention that I am on their Product Advisory Board (i.e. I and a few others offered input while it was being developed) — so while I’m not directly involved in the company, I do use Oprius myself. Now that I’ve gotten that little disclaimer out of the way here’s the interview where Jovan discusses one of Oprius’ newest features…  Read more...

Top salespeople and the most successful managers recognize the importance of nonverbal communication in the selling process and have learned to “listen with their eyes.” They understand that one of the easiest and most effective ways to close sales is to be aware of their prospect’s “buy signals.”

Are you aware that your body language reveals your deepest feelings and hidden thoughts to total strangers?  Read more...

I recently wrote an article called, “Feeble Questions Can Kill Your Business”. In the article, I stated that too many sales people get caught in the trap of asking low-quality questions instead of more powerful ones.

Many people contacted me and requested more information on what constitutes a great question. This article will address that issue.

First, the reason it is important to ask questions is to gain a thorough understanding of each customer’s situation including their needs, wants, desired results, decision-making process as well as potential concerns and roadblocks.  Read more...

Any change, or even an attempt to change anything you are doing, makes you uncomfortable. By attempting to change, you move out of your comfort zone. You feel increasingly uneasy. You experience stress and tension.

If the change is too extreme, your physical and mental health can be affected. You will experience sleeplessness, indigestion, or fatigue. You may react with impatience, irritability or anger. You will often feel as if you are on an emotional roller-coaster.

Raise Your Internal Standards…
So if you want to sell more and earn more, you must increase your self-concept level of income. You must increase the amount you believe yourself capable of earning.  Read more...

In a perfect world, every buying process would conclude with an award of the business. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. There are lessons to be learned in sales gone awry.

In the 70’s and 80’s, there was a great television show called “Quincy.” This show revolved around a coroner who investigated deaths. Jack Klugman, a.k.a. Dr. Quincy, performed an autopsy on what appeared to be a death by natural causes and realized that the actual cause of death was murder. Once that determination was made, the rest of the show was focused on finding the bad guys and identifying the motive, not necessarily in that order.  Read more...

A popular method of closing is the Directive Close. This is sometimes called the Assumption Close, or the Post-Closing Technique.

It is one of the most powerful closing techniques used by top sales professionals in every industry. It is used to change the focus of the customer’s thinking away from the decision, “yes or no”, to the ownership and enjoyment of the product.

Keep the Initiative …
Its major virtue is that it allows you to keep the initiative, to maintain control of the selling process and to wrap it up at your own pace and speed. It is also very simple.  Read more...