If you don’t make sales, you
won’t have a business.
Everyone needs to be able to
sell, no matter what his or her occupation.
Quite apart from selling products and services, selling skills are
needed when communicating with others, in expressing our views, in seeking
help, or obtaining finance for your newly founded business. Frankly, your success in life depends
directly
on your ability to sell. It has been said that if you cannot sell an idea you are no better off than a person without an idea.
on your ability to sell. It has been said that if you cannot sell an idea you are no better off than a person without an idea.
And since you have come this
far, you will have a brand new idea to sell!
Selling is to make a
commitment to excellence. A professional
salesperson may require more knowledge, more expertise than; say, a housewife.
So continue to go on courses. Read trade
journals and speak to other professionals in the field. It will all help to make you the professional
you want to be.
Selling offers an excellent
career opportunity. There is usually no
limit to the amount that you can earn and you can choose to work almost
anywhere. In any town, any country. Good
salespeople are highly sought after and companies will pay premiums to get the
best. Selling is non-discriminatory in
terms of age, race, sex or education. So
almost anyone can become a successful salesperson. That is providing, of
course, he or she conducts him- or her-self professionally, is committed, has a
useful product or service, and operates an effective sales method. This course will teach you a unique and
proven method of selling. In fact this sales course combines some of the most
up-to-date methods available, including the use of NLP techniques as well as
conversational hypnosis.
But
first let’s look at what is required to make selling a top career.
HOW TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL SALES CAREER
Already companies no longer
need people to ‘take orders’ from customers, because the processing of routine/
stock level related orders are computerized
As a new age salesperson,
you will need to enter into a
partnership with your customer, and
understand your customer’s business or needs extremely well. In addition, it will be necessary to know your customer’s customer in order
to become a "partner" and help your customer achieve success.
To be a really top
salesperson you need always to create a win-win
situation for both the customer and yourself. Make sure that the customer will be better
off by purchasing your product or service.
If not, it is your responsibility to conclude the sales negotiation, and
leave. It is the salesperson’s task to
make sure that the customer buys now and enjoys the sale afterwards. The customer must not regret the sale.
A top salesperson puts his objectives for each sale in writing prior
to the call.
A top salesperson is
immaculate, and dresses appropriately
and smartly. His car is clean, and all paperwork
efficiently and neatly organized.
A top salesperson has learnt the most important skill in sales: how to listen. Really listen. It is this characteristic (above all) that
people genuinely like in others. A top
salesperson asks open-ended questions
and lets the customer do the talking.
The salesperson does not dominate the conversation. Instead, the salesperson listens. Listens in order to understand the
customer, and the customer’s needs. The better you listen, the better you sell.
To build a career in sales
you need to show genuine interest. Seize every opportunity to expand your
knowledge and to develop and practice your selling skills and techniques. Develop a positive attitude and pursue your goals energetically. Try to become a little better at selling
every day. Be persistent and press on
where others give up and fail. This is what makes the difference. Persistence
with direction!
To be successful, you need a
method, a sales process that works. The method shown in this course will work
for you, but do continue to practice your skills every day.
SETTING GOALS
Darts without a dartboard
becomes a meaningless game. Where do you
throw the darts? A salesperson (or any
other person for that matter!) needs a goal to strive for. A target.
Put your goals in writing and become one of the small number of
successful salespeople. When setting
goals remember to:
1. Make it a big goal.
Something to s-t-r-e-t-c-h you.
2. Set a long-term goal - five
years or more. Don’t give up. Giving up
guarantees failure.
3. Do something short-term
every day, which works towards the long-term goal. Break your goal down into small steps. Reduce the goal to the number of sales calls
per day.
4.
Put it in writing. Only then
does it become a commitment. Cut out or
draw a picture of your goal.
5.
Remind yourself daily of your goal.
Paste it in the space provided in your Whole-Mind Selling Template.
HOW TO
UNDERSTAND YOUR CUSTOMER
Each person is unique and therefore buys for his or her own special
reasons. If a salesperson is able to
understand more fully a customer's thinking, likes and dislikes, the chances of
making a sale improves considerably. This course will take you a long way down
the road towards understanding your customer’s likes, dislikes and preferred thinking styles. This will
help you plan all your dealings with potential buyers for maximum effect.
Firstly, we all like ourselves best.
Because of this we tend to like people who seem to be a bit like
ourselves. When we recognize in others,
consciously or unconsciously, habits, expressions and gestures that remind us
of ourselves, we quickly become fond of these people. The salesperson who
emulates or mirrors his customer's
gestures, posture, breathing rates, speaking tones and rates soon operate on
the same ‘body language’ wavelength.
Providing that it is done subtly, you will quickly "click"
with an increasingly open customer.
Now that your customer is
open to you, what do you talk to him or her about, and how do you
talk to him or her?
When it comes to what,
it is easy. All people prefer to talk
about themselves or their own interests.
Some prefer to talk about their private lives - their families,
holidays, hobbies, or sport. Others
prefer to talk about their work. You
need to find out what your customer’s preferred subjects, are. Then, ask questions about his or her
interests.
When it comes to how
to talk to your customer, I am not referring to the important aspects of
smiling, eye contact or good listening skills. Instead, learn to "talk the customer’s language". This second point refers to the unique
ability to know your customer’s mind, and his or her thinking preferences. By
understanding your customer’s thinking, you will be able to communicate in the way that your customer prefers to
receive information. This form of communication is hypnotic. The customer will
believe that you, the salesperson, and he or she ‘talk the same language’.
Properly used, this single skill may become the most powerful tool in
your sales arsenal!
This is where Whole-Mind Selling comes into the picture. Briefly, scientists have now discovered that
there are four distinct quadrants to the human brain. Not only the left and right brain, but upper
and lower left and right brain, as well.
Each of these quadrants facilitates distinctly different forms of
thinking. And each person tends to favor a specific quadrant in his or her thinking
processes and preferences. So, when the
individual gives or receives information, it tends to match his or her favored brain quadrant. Should I receive information that fits my
preferred thinking quadrant, I am more likely to be comfortable with the
information. I would also tend to like
and trust the person who gives me this
"correct" information.
Conversely, for example, if I receive a sales presentation directed at
the "wrong" quadrant for me, I respond by saying that I require more
information or that it just doesn't feel right.
What I am really saying is that I did not receive the information in the
way that my thinking preferred to receive it.
By the same token, I should be much more willing to respond to
open-ended questions which are in harmony with my thinking preferences.
People provide many clues as
to their preferred thinking styles.
These clues are often to be found in the way they talk, dress, ask
questions, gesture and respond. By
watching and listening very carefully, you may be able to detect other people’s
thinking preferences by consulting the following simple Whole-Mind Table.
A
ANALYZER
|
B
CONTROLLER
|
C
FEELER
|
D
I NNOVATOR
|
|
LIKES TO BE.........,OR
IS........
|
analytical
authoritarian
critical
factual
logical
mathematical
quantitative
rational
|
articulate
conservative
controlled
collecting data
detailed
dominant
sequential
technical reading
|
emotional
intuitive (people)
musical
reader (of self)
spiritual
symbolic
talkative
team member
|
artistic
holistic
imaginative
intuitive
simultaneous
spatial
synthesizer
|
GOOD AT.....
|
analyzing
finance
solving problems
science
statistics
technical stuff
|
administration
implementation
organizing
planning
rules
supervisor
|
expressing ideas
inter-personal relationships
teaching
training
writing
|
causing change
concepts
generating ideas
integrating
trusting intuition
visualizing
|
SAYS......
|
“Break it up”
“Critical analysis”
“Hardware”
“Key points”
“Bottom line”
“Take it apart”
“Tools”
|
“By the book”
“Standards”
“Law and order”
“Play it safe”
“Self-discipline”
“We have always done it this way”
|
“Human resources”
“Human values”
“Interactive”
“Participatory”
“Personal growth”
“Team work”
“The family”
|
“Experiment”
“Broad based”
“Conceptual”
“Leading edge”
“Innovative”
“Play with idea”
“The big picture”
|
Listen very carefully to your customer so that you
can determine his or her preferred thinking style. Then, when you are certain
you are correct, mark all your findings on the Whole-Mind Sales Template so
that you can aim your questions and answers to that particular quadrant of the
brain for maximum effect. Also record some of the key words they use – and
‘play’ it back during your conversation.
Be prepared for amazing results and improved sales!
Thirdly, people have unique
buying motives. They will buy for one or more of the six following possible
reasons:
1.
DESIRE FOR GAIN - usually financial.
2. FEAR OF LOSS - usually financial.
3.
COMFORT AND CONVENIENCE - for example, lounge
furniture, parking, decoration, photocopier, lifts, furniture, dishwasher.
4.
SECURITY AND PROTECTION - for example, karate
lessons, security gate.
5.
PRIDE OF OWNERSHIP- no logical reason - luxury car, greenhouse, decorating, brass
nameplate, right label.
6.
SATISFACTION OF EMOTION - for example, lavish party,
lunch tab, manicure, tickets to charity ball.
Develop your presentation
based on these buying motives. You can determine a customer’s buying motives by
asking open-ended questions based on the Whole-Mind Table thinking
preferences. Be sure to let the customer
do the talking.
To determine your customer's
dominant buying motives is not an easy task, because the customer tries to hide
them from the salesperson. The reason is
that he or she feels vulnerable.
Use
the following strategy to deal with this:
·
Use the feature/ benefit reaction technique.
·
Build your presentation around the
three best features of your product.
·
Show how the benefits will address all six buying motives.
·
The benefits should show what the features will do for the buyer in terms
of satisfying one or more of the buying motives.
·
Follow each feature benefit with a reaction question. You will obtain a response which, if
enthusiastic, would indicate that you have touched on one of the dominant
buying motives. If you receive a cool
response, move on to another benefit.
Mark each confirmed buying motive on your Whole-Mind Sales Template.
People buy for emotional reasons, but they remain "sold" for
logical reasons. Once the sale has been made people will then begin to justify their
decisions "logically" (based on their preferred thinking
preferences).
Fourthly, people do not buy
for logical reasons; they buy for emotional reasons, but they justify their
purchases on the tangible features.
Therefore, imagine that the customer wears a sign that asks, “What will it do for me?”. So each time you name a tangible feature,
you must also paint a vivid word picture of the intangible benefits which that
feature provides. For example, imagine that you are selling a banking
service to an elderly pensioner.
You would explain one of the
features of the service offered by saying that his pension would be mailed
directly to the bank and deposited in his savings account. Then you would describe the benefits to the
pensioner, explaining that he would not have to worry about lost or stolen
cheques. Even if ill, or on vacation, his cheque would be safely deposited in
his account until needed. Also, the
money would begin to earn interest immediately and, because it is all
automatic, the pensioner would not have to make time-wasting trips to the
bank! This would answer the question,
"What will it do for me?". It
is the intangible benefits which makes the sale, but the tangible features make
it easy for the person to justify the purchase afterwards.
Buying occurs as a result of a step-by-step psychological process. As a professional salesperson it is important
to understand the precise steps involved. The fifth aspect of getting to
understand your customer is known as the five psychological steps in making a
buying decision. In exact sequence, the
five steps are:
The first decision is made
about you, the salesperson. Are you a likeable person? Would I enjoy having you as a friend? Do you have integrity? Can I trust you? Are you honest? Do you have good judgment? Do you know what you are talking about? Do you have good technical and business
knowledge? Would the solutions you offer
be on target? Would you consider my
needs?
People will not buy from someone they do not like, unless you are the
only source of goods they need!
Now the customer wants to
know about your company. Will your company back up everything you
say? How long has your company been
around? What is its reputation? A good
track record? What about your other clients? Do you provide good service?
What are the products or services you sell? Will
they really fit my needs? Will they solve my problems?
Price? People
don’t buy price, they buy value - more so today than ever before. Always respond to a price objection with a
series of added-value benefits. People
tend to equate high value with high price.
When to buy? There is a huge difference between buying something or
being sold something. For example, you will
happily buy petrol from anyone when you are almost on empty and don’t want to
run out of fuel in the middle of nowhere.
But if someone offers to sell you something, the situation may be
different.
The sixth aspect of
understanding your customer involves your general people skills. People tend to
have certain protocols of acceptable, likeable behavior. As a professional
salesperson you will constantly work on improving your people skills.
·
People don’t really care how much you know, until they begin to know how much you really care for them.
·
If people don’t like you, they will not buy your product, no matter how
great it is.
·
Remember, you are in the
people business!
·
You don’t have to be outgoing, funny or entertaining to be liked.
·
Shy salespeople are often more successful than outgoing types.
·
Show you care.
Twenty-one techniques to
show you care:
1. Smile.
2. Demonstrate your interest in
others. Don’t try to be interesting, be
interested.
3. Look at the other person
when he or she is talking. Show interest
on your face.
4. Listen.
5. Maintain good, open and
friendly eye contact with your
prospect.
6. Learn to smile with your eyes.
7. Ask good open-ended
questions.
8. Use that person’s name
9. Let the other person know
you really care about his or her point of view.
10. Talk in terms of the other
person's interests.
11. Don’t give your opinions on
the subject the other person is discussing.
12. Don’t use the customer's
first or nickname unless you are invited to do so.
13. Give sincere compliments
that are genuinely meant.
14. We don’t want other people's
opinions; we just want someone to listen to us.
15. Give feedback when the customer is talking through responsive
gestures. Indicate your
understanding. Repeat his or her words.
16. Make the other person feel
important.
17. You can tell a lot about
someone by the way he or she treats someone who cannot do anything for or to
him or her.
18. Build people up; they will
live up to your expectations.
19. Remember that people buy
because they feel you understand them.
20. As a salesperson you are in
the people business.
21. Remember, the better you
understand your customers, as well as understanding the way they think, the
better will be your sales performance.
Before discussing the 8
Steps Sales Method, it is necessary first to cover the important aspect of
"prospecting".
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