Archive for the ‘sales and selling techniques’ Category

The Characteristics of a Master Sales Closer

1. Shows no fear: Never ‘pushy’ and does not resolve to hard sell. No signs of weakness and venerability to rejection. The master closer is confident and relaxed, and lets the conversation take its own course and move at its own pace. He wants the prospect to buy but understands the pace that needs to be at.

2. Not selling just for the commission: Profound genuine belief in the value of what he is selling. Matching the right people to the right product/service.

3. Never gets down on herself/himself: Knows how to control his inner critic. May use errors to improve but never as a stick to beat himself with.

4. Very Organised and straightforward in asking for action: “Here’s how we will get started”

5. Understands the prospect has doubts, fears and the temptation to avoid confrontation too: They understand their job is to close sales more than anything else. Knows the prospect wants him to be firm, convinced, and reassuring to help the prospect act rather than avoid/postpone a decision.

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Tags: closing techniques, closing tips, how to close a sale
Posted in Sales Closing Tips, sales and selling techniques | No Comments »

Objection handling must be up there with closing as the two most debated parts of the sales process. Much has been written telling you what you should do, what lines to use and how to deliver them.

This article is refreshingly different because it tells you what not to do. There are a few key things that you should never do when faced with an objection. They are:

“The Wrongs”

• Don’t pounce: an instant response, sometimes even before the prospect has finished speaking, creates an emotional barrier because it suggests you have not considered what has been said. It also indicates a ‘canned’ answer that you give to every one. People like to be heard and made to feel special and this does not help you do that!

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Tags: objection handling techniques, sales objections
Posted in How To Sell, sales and selling techniques | 1 Comment »

Sales Questions to Help you make more sales

If you are having difficulty putting together a logical and emotional reason why your potential customer or client should use you then look at the quality of the questions you asked initially.

It may not be the definitive list of questions to ask but I guarantee you, that if  you have managed to get the answers to all of the following questions then you are well on your way to a sale.

• What is the customers/clients  situation?

• What is the customer’s perspective on the situation?

• What is the customer doing? Why?

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Tags: sales questions
Posted in Selling and sales Tips, sales and selling techniques | No Comments »

Sales Training Southampton & Portsmouth – There is an Audi car dealership that definitely needs it!

One of the worst experiences at the hands of a so called professional sales person happened recently in a Portsmouth car dealership. See if you think they need sales training

“Can I help you sir?” Dave asked (name changed to protect the not so innocent)

I explained that I was just looking at the new Audi as I may be changing in anything up to 6 months and was interested in the new range. I was stood admiring one of the new range at the time.

“Come over to the desk Sir” as he led me to the far corner of the dealership where he proceeded to look straight into his computer. He made no eye contact with me at all as he asked “name, postcode, telephone number, email address”. Dave was so concerned with getting my details so that he could put me on the database that he made no effort to build rapport, ask me any questions and the worst sin of all – he took me away from the product. A product that I liked the look of, the more time I was examining it.

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Tags: sales training portsmouth, sales training southampton
Posted in How To Sell, sales and selling techniques | 3 Comments »

Negotiation and Negotiating Skills are some of the most sought after sales training courses. People seek out negotiation tips, negotiating strategies and scour the web for processes to win against the ‘other’ person in a negotiation.

It may come as a surprise to you but your own worst enemy in a negotiation is yourself. Some people seem to spend hours seeking out the magic words that will help them win in any negotiation yet fail to look to see what they or their employees are doing wrong.

Two recent personal experiences highlight this fantastically well:

The hunt for my perfect lights:

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Tags: negotiation techniques
Posted in Selling and sales Tips, sales and selling techniques | 4 Comments »

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of watching one of my all time favorite authors Dan Kennedy on stage in London.

Dan is a no nonsense, tell it like it is American who has been responsible for some of the most profitable sales and marketing campaigns the world has ever seen.

I consider Dan Kennedy to be up there with Jay Abraham as the two most gifted sales and marketing geniuses alive.

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Tags: sales letter writing
Posted in sales and selling techniques, sales letters and tenders | No Comments »

We became the proud parents of a new puppy a few weeks ago when we became responsible and bought Pemba, our black Labrador puppy.

He is a great big ball of energy that only knows fun and has quickly become part of the family — with all the emotional attachment that goes with it.

Apart from teaching me a few things about communications skills the search and purchase of Pemba has been an introduction to some superb business practices - most noticeable by my vet.

See if you can spot their skill from our tale of acquiring a suitable pet doctor!

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Tags: good business sales techniques
Posted in Sales Training, sales and selling techniques | No Comments »

I recently received a comment on one of my blog posts from a uk sales trainer which was basically a rant about the difference between Push and Pull selling and the death of ‘80,90 - BS!’.

To be honest I wasn’t sure of the point of the rant and what he was taking offence to. The post was this one on persuasion .

The post was a quick quote from Dale Carnegie about human nature. The rant took offense to the terms ‘Influence, persuasion and convincing’ and essentially (I guess) tried to make the point that no one like to be sold to - they like to buy.

I would like to open this up to debate, especially to the sales training, sales consultancy and sales coaching industry.

My take on this is:

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Posted in Sales Training, sales and selling techniques | 1 Comment »

From personal recent experience I would say the Post Office can urgently do with some sales training .

The papers and TV news have been filled recently with the subject of post office closures and how this will kill off many local communities. I can understand this and can only sympathise with people who rely on the post office for essential services.

What I can’t help is my feeling that largely the post office have brought this upon themselves with untrained and quite frankly appalling customer service / sales staff . I know that many of the post office counters operate as mini franchises but they should insist on some element of sales training or sales management training .

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Tags: bad customer service, Selling and sales Tips, selling techniques
Posted in sales and selling techniques | No Comments »

Sales in a recession - selling in a recession - surviving a recession

There is no hiding it. We are in the middle of a tough time for the UK economy. Consumers and Businesses are cutting back due to the credit crunch and uncertainty within the UK Economy.

One of the ways that we help businesses with our sales consulting is to show them ways to structure their sales process so that they can not only survive the recession but flourish through it.

I was reminded of a simple way to make more sales and develop a long term relationship with prospective clients via an email I received a few days ago from Virgin Wines.

They have me on an email list from a few months ago when I purchased a one off set of wine as a present. I declined the subsequent offer of joining their wine club and I have to say I am glad I did as the follow up emails I have received from them are great examples of relationship marketing.

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Posted in Random Sales Thoughts, sales and selling techniques | No Comments »