Test yourself by answering these 3 Questions:
- Have you had on-going formal Sales Training?
- Can you describe the Stages of the Sales Process?
- What's the most important stand-out trait of the most successful salespeople?
If you can't answer these 3 Q's convincingly then you do need to read on......
- If you have not been formally trained and unless you're a 'natural' the likelihood is you're passing up on sales and annoying Customers.
- If you're not familiar with the process how can you manage it? Let me come back to that.
- The most important trait is the ability to listen and distil information from prospects/clients. How else will you uncover their Needs??
Customers and Sales People run different but parallel processes. The Customer is not interested in yours, so.....you'd better get interested in theirs!. Simple clue....We were given 2 ears and 1 mouth at birth. The smart money's on using them in that ratio!
Sales is about solving Customer problems by meeting their needs. This is vastly different to selling things to people they don't want. Those days are long gone. Repeat Business and Loyal Clients are worth their weight in gold. There are many processes and methodologies, they're all essentially trying to do 1 thing...Motivate the buyer to buy.
Step 1: Awareness, of you, your business, product, a Need and a reason to listen
Step 2: Interest, use fact, reason, emotion and enthusiasm to get people wanting to know more
Step 3: Desire, the person is motivated to want to do something about what they now know
Step 4. Action, a firm course of action leading to an order or closing a sale is put in place
The process is known as 'funnelling'. Moving from general needs to specific needs. Become a student to your craft. If you see things from the Customer point of view, you always win more than you lose especially in the long run. These are the basics, they just get you an entry ticket.
Research reveals approximately 80% of Sales people don't know the basics. On the flip side, it wouldn't take a lot to be good! The good news it most of this is ATTITUDE based and entirely trainable. What are your Sales Challenges??
1 comment:
Alasdar,
Wholeheartedly agree with your comments. There is a common myth that a good sales person is always talking on the phone; a good sales person is always listening on the phone.
Our customers tell us how and what to sell not the list of specifications on our product.
As sales people a focus on our USB's rather than our USP's can significantly increase sales and profits.
I look forward to following your blog and learning from your people approach to business.
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