How To Succeed In Sales! Interesting enough subject I think. I would like to write about a few instances and techniques I have developed over the years. These tips on how to sell effectively, really do work. So hopefully you will read this post and extract some real value from it.
I am a big believer in over-delivery, I am also a big fan of making money!! So there is a process that anyone involved in delivering sales for a living should learn. First of all, let's examine "Best Price". Well that is a perceived value isn't it? The best price for one thing is not necessarily the best price for an entirely different product, right? I can count on 1 hand how many times, price was the deciding factor in getting new customers.
I mean sure, price is a factor, but in my mind it should be way down the list of why someone does Business with you. If it is always about price, you are most likely not going to retain the customer for any real long term relationship. Eventually you will lose them!#winningsalesstrategies
So the first thing you have to do is, separate your product, service and company from your competitor. Everyone loves a good story, right? You must find your story and stick to it, LOL. But it is true, price should never be the driving factor during a sales call. A lot of people I talk to, think that is completely crazy! I had one seasoned sales guy tell me, it always comes down to price, Joe! My answer to him was, you must be approaching it wrong! He wasn't happy
Oh the school of the old "hard sell". This just doesn't work very effectively in today's business world. I prefer to use the "pull" method, when it comes to sales. It is low pressure and value focused. Naturally your single objective is to "close" the sale, but wouldn't it be a whole lot easier if the appointment or call was "warm"? Conversions is all that matters.There is no reason in todays business world where you can't be armed with all kinds of information about your sales targets. Be resourceful!#howtoincreasesales
I had a sales associate a few years back, that had over 15 years experience in his particular business. He was viewed in the business I was consulting for as a Key Employee. The reason I was retained was to analyze their sales processes and give them a plan to increase their conversion rate. I was discussing some of the hurdles the business faced with this key employee. What came out of this person's mouth absolutely, stunned me! I asked to see the weekly sales logs, and this guy in particular, had a ton of appointments! Yet his conversion rate was one of the lowest in the company.
I raised this issue with him and his response was this, GULP, "Hey I make more cold calls than everyone else combined here". WHAT????? Talk about putting a nail in your own coffin! Ok so what he was telling me was, yes, he was working long hours and extremely hard. I'll give him that. BUT, it also told me, he couldn't close!!!
I mean, who cares how many hours he worked and appointments he had? The results of the data couldn't be dismissed. This guy WAS probably communicating with double even triple the amount of potential customers, but the results were terrible!#sellthesizzle
This is when I approached him with my favorite statement for Sales!
"Don't Confuse Effort With Results!" Right?
I don't care if the guy or gal works 10 hours or 80 hours. It is ALL about what you bring in! Are you with me?
The other thing that jumped out at me through a gross margin analysis by sales rep report was, his average gross margin per customer was significantly lower than anyone else. This tells me, the way he was closing, was based Solely on price!! I asked him and he basically said, "well we need the volume". Well volume is great and it does spread your costs, but it is a very dangerous way to sell.
So, there was a problem. One of the things that was completely crazy was this guy relied on "cold calling". When I mean cold calling I don't mean, calling businesses and trying to get an appointment. I am talking about the 1950's door to door approach! Yup, he would ride around, look for businesses, and then walk in the door unannounced?????? Who does THAT anymore? I was disgusted.#cuttingedgesalestechniques
I mean, I can pretty much sell anything, I am not blowing my own horn here. It is a fact. I have spent years and years on the phone, in sales meetings, presentations for multi-million dollar deals, at trade shows etc.. I have developed, for lack of a better term, "scripts", for every situation. These WORK, why? Because they give you an outline that you can use in case a prospective customer hits you with a curveball during a sales call.
I call this my Rebuttal Series! If you are selling anything, You Need To Have This in Your Toolbox!!
I am a huge believer in NLP, especially on the phone, but it works in person too. Rule #1 - Never Agree With A Prospective Customers Negative Response to Your Question or pitch! Never, Ever. If you do, you might as well just move on. Why? Because you have allowed your prospect to win! You have handed them a way to just say NO. You should ALWAYS have scripted Rebuttals; Stuff like;
Customer : Blah Blah Blah. blah blah blah. I just don't know if I need/want/have to have your product or service you are trying selling me!
Sales person: Gotcha.. (Pause), Well perhaps I haven't explained myself clearly enough. That's my fault. Let me just go back and make sure I didn't miss anything. THEN.....
BOOM back into the pitch again!!!
See? Don't let them off the hook. Keep coming back to your scripted pitch, with a twist!! Now this takes a little time, but believe me, if you get this, you will be in Great shape!! You will be able to open the doors!
Every great salesperson I have ever met has another quality that shouldn't be overlooked.
They are all extremely effective listeners! In order to be really successful, you have to have the ability to get your lead, to talk about their business. If you can do that, you can then figure out how you can solve their problem. Even if you don't solve it completely, you need to be able to display that your product or service will fill a real need.
So if you can develop this quality, you will be ahead of 95% of all sales people. Most are like a steamroller, there is no nuance to what they are doing. It takes skill. I hate when someone tells me, I will do anything for a sale. Really? Anything? Well does that make a lot of sense to you? It sure doesn't to me!
I have been in several sales meetings, where the sales person just goes on and on about themselves. You are not addressing this the right way. Business owner's want to know what is in it for THEM, so make sure it is all about them! How you can help them, not who you are, or what you've done! I have a little secret, they don't care! Always, always make it about the customer. You'll be surprised how effective this is.
So, that is my first run at How To Succeed In Sales. There will be much more advice on the way about this subject. It would be impossible to cover every aspect of what makes a highly effective sales person. But if you just think about what I have advised and adopt these selling techniques, you will be well on your way to that Big Fat Bonus!
There are books upon books on the subject of how to sell effectively or how to increase your conversions. After 25 + years in business, I have read and seen most everything. These selling tips will definitely result in increasing your conversions and you will find that you'll be writing a whole lot of new business. After all that is your job! Learn it and apply it. You'll be glad you did!
As always, if you need any help with your business, please contact me. I can be reached through Linkedin. My email is [email protected] or
[email protected]
Thank you for following this blog. I look forward to hearing from you. Please feel free to leave comments. I enjoy the feedback.
Copyright 2015 by Joe Leary Lead Source Digital Marketer's
I am a big believer in over-delivery, I am also a big fan of making money!! So there is a process that anyone involved in delivering sales for a living should learn. First of all, let's examine "Best Price". Well that is a perceived value isn't it? The best price for one thing is not necessarily the best price for an entirely different product, right? I can count on 1 hand how many times, price was the deciding factor in getting new customers.
I mean sure, price is a factor, but in my mind it should be way down the list of why someone does Business with you. If it is always about price, you are most likely not going to retain the customer for any real long term relationship. Eventually you will lose them!#winningsalesstrategies
So the first thing you have to do is, separate your product, service and company from your competitor. Everyone loves a good story, right? You must find your story and stick to it, LOL. But it is true, price should never be the driving factor during a sales call. A lot of people I talk to, think that is completely crazy! I had one seasoned sales guy tell me, it always comes down to price, Joe! My answer to him was, you must be approaching it wrong! He wasn't happy
Oh the school of the old "hard sell". This just doesn't work very effectively in today's business world. I prefer to use the "pull" method, when it comes to sales. It is low pressure and value focused. Naturally your single objective is to "close" the sale, but wouldn't it be a whole lot easier if the appointment or call was "warm"? Conversions is all that matters.There is no reason in todays business world where you can't be armed with all kinds of information about your sales targets. Be resourceful!#howtoincreasesales
I had a sales associate a few years back, that had over 15 years experience in his particular business. He was viewed in the business I was consulting for as a Key Employee. The reason I was retained was to analyze their sales processes and give them a plan to increase their conversion rate. I was discussing some of the hurdles the business faced with this key employee. What came out of this person's mouth absolutely, stunned me! I asked to see the weekly sales logs, and this guy in particular, had a ton of appointments! Yet his conversion rate was one of the lowest in the company.
I raised this issue with him and his response was this, GULP, "Hey I make more cold calls than everyone else combined here". WHAT????? Talk about putting a nail in your own coffin! Ok so what he was telling me was, yes, he was working long hours and extremely hard. I'll give him that. BUT, it also told me, he couldn't close!!!
I mean, who cares how many hours he worked and appointments he had? The results of the data couldn't be dismissed. This guy WAS probably communicating with double even triple the amount of potential customers, but the results were terrible!#sellthesizzle
This is when I approached him with my favorite statement for Sales!
"Don't Confuse Effort With Results!" Right?
I don't care if the guy or gal works 10 hours or 80 hours. It is ALL about what you bring in! Are you with me?
The other thing that jumped out at me through a gross margin analysis by sales rep report was, his average gross margin per customer was significantly lower than anyone else. This tells me, the way he was closing, was based Solely on price!! I asked him and he basically said, "well we need the volume". Well volume is great and it does spread your costs, but it is a very dangerous way to sell.
So, there was a problem. One of the things that was completely crazy was this guy relied on "cold calling". When I mean cold calling I don't mean, calling businesses and trying to get an appointment. I am talking about the 1950's door to door approach! Yup, he would ride around, look for businesses, and then walk in the door unannounced?????? Who does THAT anymore? I was disgusted.#cuttingedgesalestechniques
I mean, I can pretty much sell anything, I am not blowing my own horn here. It is a fact. I have spent years and years on the phone, in sales meetings, presentations for multi-million dollar deals, at trade shows etc.. I have developed, for lack of a better term, "scripts", for every situation. These WORK, why? Because they give you an outline that you can use in case a prospective customer hits you with a curveball during a sales call.
I call this my Rebuttal Series! If you are selling anything, You Need To Have This in Your Toolbox!!
I am a huge believer in NLP, especially on the phone, but it works in person too. Rule #1 - Never Agree With A Prospective Customers Negative Response to Your Question or pitch! Never, Ever. If you do, you might as well just move on. Why? Because you have allowed your prospect to win! You have handed them a way to just say NO. You should ALWAYS have scripted Rebuttals; Stuff like;
Customer : Blah Blah Blah. blah blah blah. I just don't know if I need/want/have to have your product or service you are trying selling me!
Sales person: Gotcha.. (Pause), Well perhaps I haven't explained myself clearly enough. That's my fault. Let me just go back and make sure I didn't miss anything. THEN.....
BOOM back into the pitch again!!!
See? Don't let them off the hook. Keep coming back to your scripted pitch, with a twist!! Now this takes a little time, but believe me, if you get this, you will be in Great shape!! You will be able to open the doors!
Every great salesperson I have ever met has another quality that shouldn't be overlooked.
They are all extremely effective listeners! In order to be really successful, you have to have the ability to get your lead, to talk about their business. If you can do that, you can then figure out how you can solve their problem. Even if you don't solve it completely, you need to be able to display that your product or service will fill a real need.
So if you can develop this quality, you will be ahead of 95% of all sales people. Most are like a steamroller, there is no nuance to what they are doing. It takes skill. I hate when someone tells me, I will do anything for a sale. Really? Anything? Well does that make a lot of sense to you? It sure doesn't to me!
I have been in several sales meetings, where the sales person just goes on and on about themselves. You are not addressing this the right way. Business owner's want to know what is in it for THEM, so make sure it is all about them! How you can help them, not who you are, or what you've done! I have a little secret, they don't care! Always, always make it about the customer. You'll be surprised how effective this is.
So, that is my first run at How To Succeed In Sales. There will be much more advice on the way about this subject. It would be impossible to cover every aspect of what makes a highly effective sales person. But if you just think about what I have advised and adopt these selling techniques, you will be well on your way to that Big Fat Bonus!
There are books upon books on the subject of how to sell effectively or how to increase your conversions. After 25 + years in business, I have read and seen most everything. These selling tips will definitely result in increasing your conversions and you will find that you'll be writing a whole lot of new business. After all that is your job! Learn it and apply it. You'll be glad you did!
As always, if you need any help with your business, please contact me. I can be reached through Linkedin. My email is [email protected] or
[email protected]
Thank you for following this blog. I look forward to hearing from you. Please feel free to leave comments. I enjoy the feedback.
Copyright 2015 by Joe Leary Lead Source Digital Marketer's
This post first appeared on One Man's Journey In The Coffee Industry And Life, please read the originial post: here
