9
Sales Maxims That'll Make Them Say Yes
Being
a sales manager is a lot like being a football coach. You
have to spend part of your time teaching fundamentals, part
of your time developing strategy and designing plays, and
part of your time inspiring and motivating your team. Very
few sales managers have the experience, training, or natural
ability to do all of those things. Generally, they just imitate
whatever they learned from managers they worked under in the
past. Our Sales
Management Training Course can help you build great sales
management skills in every aspect of your field. Our coaches
will give you the personal attention and feedback you need
to become the great coach your sales team needs.
They sound
like clichés, but when it comes to selling, these 9 sales
principles really ring true.
1. It
takes all kinds. Comedian Bill Cosby once said that he didn't
know the secret to success, but that the secret to failure
was trying to please everyone. You don't have to be the perfect
salesperson. Prospects aren't
looking for perfection; they're looking for human connections.
They're looking to form relationships with real people who
are serious about business but who don't take themselves too
seriously. Prospects are buying you just as much as they are
your product or service, so your best bet is to connect with
them on a personal level by relaxing and just being yourself.
2. Never
take no for an answer. When you've tried everything else,
you might want to try this technique, which works extremely
well once you've been persistent over a long period of time.
But don't try it until you've called, faxed, FedExed, voice
mailed and done everything else you can think of to try to
get in to see that individual. In other words, you've got
to earn the right to leave this message (either with an assistant
or on the prospect's voice mail): "Every night before
I go to sleep I speak to God. Why can't I talk to you?"
I leave
this message for three reasons. One, to stand out from all
the other voice mails this prospect gets. Some executives
receive 50 to 100 messages per day. If you don't get their
attention, they'll listen for about 10 seconds and then erase
the message. Second, if you've been
persistent and done all the work previous to this, that
message will make a great impact. Third, if you can leave
the message with an assistant who is your ally, it has the
greatest impact of all. I have received callbacks from billionaires
and notoriously hard-to-reach Hollywood agents using this
method.
3. The
relationship is everything. As a salesperson,
your objective is to serve, not to sell. Whenever you go in
to see a client--and especially when you meet someone for
the first time--you have to go in wearing your problem-solving
hat. Your objective is to help this prospect find solutions;
to increase his business and profits. Only by increasing your
customer's business can you increase your own.
If you're
going in with the purpose of pushing your product, you're
going to have to work very, very hard to make that sale. On
the other hand, a sale becomes a natural progression when
you go in with a focus on how you can meet his needs and desires
and bring value to this individual and his company. That may
mean using some creative thinking along with your knowledge
and experience to come up with ways to improve your customer's
bottom line. This is the time to ask yourself, "What
can I do differently? What would be the
ideal solution to this problem, and how close can I make
that happen?"
4. Your
attitude determines your altitude. Salespeople are made of
the same stuff as every other human being. If you didn't get
discouraged and depressed sometimes, you'd be a robot. It's
part of the life you've chosen. But the most successful people
are those who can maintain a positive
attitude despite the rejections and perform their jobs
with enthusiasm.
Enthusiasm
is the frosting on the attitude cake. A positive attitude
lets you deal with whatever happens to you in life, and enthusiasm
lets you do it with excitement and energy. Enthusiasm is almost
like an electrical current that creates attraction. People
like to be around genuine enthusiasm. Your enthusiasm invites
people to join you in your belief about what you're selling.
It shows in your voice, body language and willingness to do
whatever you can to provide your customers with the best possible
service.
5. The
harder you work, the luckier you get. There's no getting around
it, it takes effort to get lucky. Tiny pieces of luck seep
into every small step you take toward your goal. Put all those
steps together, and you've got your lucky break!
Luck is
created by increasing the frequency of those activities that
are most likely to lead to success. For instance, a salesperson
who calls on 10 people is going to be luckier in terms of
finding a viable prospect than a salesperson who calls on
just two people.
One way
to help increase your activity level is with something I call
the "Time Management Test." It's really very simple:
Starting on Monday, keep a journal of what you're doing every
hour that you're working. If you start at 9:00, stop work
at 9:55 and record what your last hour's activity has been.
Do the same thing at the end of each hour throughout the day.
On Friday, compare that week's activity and productivity to
the week before. I guarantee you will have accomplished
more during your journal-keeping week. It's a proactive
way to think about how you can work more efficiently, and
you'll automatically start allocating your time more wisely.
6. Fail
to plan, plan to fail. If you study high achievers in any
field, you'll find that they have clearly articulated goals
that they are constantly striving to achieve. What's more,
they don't sit back and rest once a goal has been met; instead,
it inspires them to go on and make the next goal that much
more challenging.
Not only
should you set goals, you should also write them down so you
can take the daily actions necessary to reach them. We need
short-term goals, like making a particular number of cold
calls each day, and long-term goals, like reaching a particular
dollar amount of sales or breaking into a specific number
of large accounts within a year. There are three
important reasons for setting clear goals: Goals help
us focus, they drive us forward and reaching a goal increases
our confidence for reaching the next goal. Every step you
take toward achieving your goal teaches you a lesson you can
apply to your next goal.
7. It's
not what you know, it's who you know. The ultimate goal of
networking is to have satisfied customers and reputable business
people (other than yourself) urging other people to do business
with you. Then you are, in effect, building a sales force
of people who are helping you build your business. Here's
one way to get customers to spread the word of mouth: Think
of ways to help your customer's business grow. Help your customers
in any way you can--whether or not it has anything to do with
sales. competition). Whatever you can do to help your customer's
business will help yours as well; the more you help them out,
the more likely they'll refer you to others.
8. Don't
sell the steak, sell the sizzle. Selling the sizzle means
delivering your presentations with style. A good presentation
is an entertaining, engaging interchange between the person
who is making the presentation and the audience. That doesn't
mean you have to be a performer, a magician or even a professional
comedian. It doesn't mean your presentation has to be filled
with bells, whistles and special effects. But you do want
your presentation to be vivid, persuasive and memorable.
One way
to keep your audience involved throughout your presentation
is to use vivid language that conjures up mental pictures
that will enable your prospects to imagine themselves using
your product or service. You want to communicate that you're
saving them time and effort, increasing their profits--whatever
the appropriate benefit.
The key
to developing a solid presentation style is to recognize your
strengths and build on them. If you're a born raconteur, incorporate
more stories into presentation. If you're not, use fewer stories.
Strong delivery comes with practice and experience. Be yourself,
be enthusiastic and be real. That's all your customers want
and expect.
9. You
get what you pay for. This sales cliché is perhaps
the most misinterpreted. Salespeople think it means that if
you pay a high price for something, you'll get good quality
and service--and if you don't, you won't. Successful salespeople
interpret this cliché differently. To them, it means
that when you buy something from them, no matter what you
pay for it, you'll get your money's worth. In fact, you'll
get more.
Every
customer wants to know what he is getting for his money. And
every customer wants to pay the lowest price possible. Most
customers--and salespeople--get so hung up on dealing with
issues of price that they forget about the issue of value.
That's because value is much more difficult to sell and measure.
To value something means to consider its worth, excellence,
usefulness or importance. Therefore, value is relative to
the needs of the individual, whereas a price is a price is
a price. The most successful salespeople constantly sell value;
the least successful rely on price.
By Barry
Farber
Birmingham
Sales Training - Make the Connection With Your
Client
Sales
Management Training Quote
"If you chase two rabbits, both will escape."
Unknown author
Suggested
Reading:
How
to develop successful sales promotions (The Marketing management
skills series)
by Robert J Kopp
High
Performance Sales Management (60 Minute Success Skills
Series)
by John Frazer Robinson
Stop
Telling, Start Selling: How to Use Customer-Focused Dialogue
to Close Sales
by Linda Richardson
Sales
Training Basics (Kogan Page Better Management Skills)
by Elwood N. Chapman
Sales
Bible, The
by Jeffrey Gitomer
Handbook
of Sales Training
and Development: Proven Techniques for Improving Staff's
Attitude, Morale, Motivation and Skills
by Pat Weynes
Discover
Your Sales Strengths: How the World's Greatest Salespeople
Develop Winning Careers
by Benson Smith, Tony Rutigliano
Sales Management
by Robert J. Calvin
Strategies
That Win Sales : Best Practices of the World's Leading Organizations
by Mark Marone, Seleste Lunsford
Power
Selling : Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code
by George Ludwig
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