Category — Sales Techniques

The successful outcome of your next sales presentation will be determined largely by your ability to do two things very well; develop rapport with your prospect and adapt your sales message to engage his or her preferred “learning style.” The “learning style” theory was developed back in the early 1970s and has proven to be an extremely powerful communication model that every school teacher, parent, manager, and sales rep should have in his or her toolbox.

Simply stated, the “learning style” theory promotes the concept that people have a natural preference, based upon their dominate sense, in how they choose to learn and process information; visual / seeing, auditory / hearing, or kinesthetic / touching.  Read more...

Although your business card may identify you as a sales person, in the Selling Revolution your job is not so much to “sell” as it is to provide consistent, ongoing value to your customers. You already know that the reason any business exists is to fill needs and solve the problems of its market.

In your traditional role as a sales person, you have accomplished this goal by providing goods and services to your customer based on their needs for what you sell. This is also how customers have traditionally defined the value proposition of a sales person.  Read more...

People love to be heard. Everyone has a soap box stashed away, waiting for their moment. That’s why one of the greatest compliments you can give a person is to listen to them. It validates them as a person. So work at giving it to them. It sounds easy, but it’s one of the hardest things we can get people to learn, because all people have their soapbox, including you. Your job is to keep your soapbox stashed away.  Read more...

You’ve heard it all before: Sales experts talk and talk about creating value. If we just create enough value for our clients, they will buy-whatever the price and whatever the economy. What’s new about that?

Yes, the economy is lagging and budgets are cut. Yes, we have competition. Yes, clients are postponing decisions. So now what?

Offer New Ideas to Woo New Clients …

Sales experts have always talked value. Now we need to put ourselves in our clients’ shoes and become creative. We must get in and get started. Think smart, not big.  Read more...

You’ve had what you think is a great sales call. You feel you’ve done everything correct, and you are certain the customer will soon say “yes” to your offer.

Just as quickly as you think the customer will buy, they say something along the lines of, “I like what you’re offering, but your price is way too much.” Without missing a beat, you begin to shudder at the thought of losing the sale.

Let’s look at why your customer doesn’t like your price.  Read more...

Have you ever taken a look around your company and wondered what in the heck the other people were doing to bring in so much business to the company? You may feel that you’re on equal ground with the other sales person or people, but for some reason they are way ahead of you in the numbers in sales. What is it? Do they drink a magic potion every morning? Do they have a better territory or do they just have better customers?

Here are some questions to ask yourself to see where the gap is:  Read more...

“Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.” – Italian Proverb

Architect Barry Thalden, hotel and casino designer and one of my dearest friends for the past 50 years, tells of presenting a proposal to Donald Trump: “I managed to arrange a meeting with Donald Trump. 

We met in what later became the infamous Board Room on his TV show The Apprentice.  My presentation was on slides.  As I started to set up my projector, he immediately objected.  Undaunted, I told him it would only take a few minutes and would fully explain the opportunity I’d come to show him.   Read more...

There’s no better way to improve the quality of information you receive from a potential customer than by asking short questions.

We all can recall far too many times when we’ve sat across the table from a customer we’re trying to help – and we know we can help, if they would just provide us information about their needs and goals.

The problem is that no matter what question we ask, we get the same response: a big fat “I don’t know” (or something along that line). Then, almost without thinking, we put on our super salesperson cape and start telling the person everything they need. Unfortunately, when it comes to agreeing to the sale, the person turns cold.  Read more...

Sell to the customer’s value expectations, not to your value propositions.

We’ve all heard the rule of listening to what the customer has to say, and there’s not a salesperson who thinks they don’t listen to the customer. Reality, however, is quite the opposite. I find time after time when I’m working with salespeople across any number of industries that the failure to listen is a huge issue.  Read more...

One of the most difficult parts of a salesperson’s job is dealing with purchasing departments. Whether you are a new salesperson or a seasoned veteran, you likely will agree that dealing with a purchasing department can create a tremendous amount of stress for a salesperson. Unless you are truly unprepared, there’s no reason for anyone to fear dealing with a purchasing department.

A purchasing department is nothing more than a group of individuals assembled for the sole purpose of trying to save money for their company. The key for you as the salesperson to remember is that even though the purchasing department’s number one objective is to save money, this doesn’t mean they are out to attack you on price.  Read more...