Personal Selling 1 Seven Top Secrets of Sales Professionalism

1) Sales is a Skill, Not a Talent It can be learned It takes training It takes practice It takes experience Skills vs. Aptitude vs. Techniques

2) Starts with Knowledge Product or Service –You are the expert: Specs, Benefits, Delivery, Pricing, Billing, Customer Experience Customers and Their Needs –Know more than they do about themselves Competition –Advantages and Disadvantages Industry –Innovations, legislation, economy

3) The Magic Word: LISTEN Far more important than the gift of gab Listen > 50%, Talk < 50% What the customer says will determine the direction and content of your presentation The real gift is getting the prospect to talk Develop the skill of asking questions

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens. Jimi Hendrix

"You can tell a man is clever by his answers. You can tell a man is wise by his questions." Naguib Mahfouz (1911 – 8/30/06 ) Egyptian novelist, Nobel Prize Laureate

Information Gathering Questions I What prompted you/ your company to look into this? What are your expectations/ requirements for this product/ service? What process did you go through to determine your needs? How do you see this happening? What is it that you’d like to see accomplished? With whom have you had success in the past? With whom have you had difficulties in the past? From JustSell.com

Information Gathering Questions II Can you help me understand that a little better? What does that mean? How does that process work now? What challenges does that process create? What challenges has that created in the past? What are the best things about that process? What other items should we discuss? From JustSell.com

Qualifying Questions What do you see as the next action steps? What is your timeline for implementing/ purchasing this type of service/ product? What other data points should we know before moving forward? What budget has been established for this? What are your thoughts? Who else is involved in this decision? What could make this no longer a priority? What's changed since we last talked? What concerns do you have? From JustSell.com

Questions to Establish Rapport How did you get involved in… ? What kind of challenges are you facing? What’s the most important priority to you with this? Why? What other issues are important to you? What would you like to see improved? How do you measure that? From JustSell.com

4) People Buy Benefits/Not Products Don’t just focus on product features Talk about benefits (what features mean) If you mention a feature, translate it into a benefit, so the customer understands Your Features = Their Benefits

5) Walk in Customer’s Shoes How would you react to presentation if you were the customer? What things are important to customer People buy for their reasons, not yours Make customer feel important Talk about their needs Win-Win problem solving

6) Price is No Object Counter-intuitive Price is not the reason people buy They buy benefits Put focus on the benefits, not price If price is an issue (when is it not?) show the value of the benefits (justify price)

7) Don’t Sell Anyone People hate being sold, but love to buy Professional salesperson helps the customer to buy People buy for different reasons, need to understand those reasons (ψ, CB) Look for verbal/non-verbal cues Buying Styles: Assertiveness and Sensitivity