Learning how to sell, as you know, offers the biggest financial reward in any industry. Top salesmen will always write their own terms, and make what they're worth. The problem that seems to plague the sales ranks has nothing to do with the rewards of selling, but the process. The 'how" becomes elusive to the majority, and fearful to the rest. Most sales training conveniently forgets that professional level selling requires a great deal of persuasion and negotiation, gently masked with finesse. Here are five ways you can immediately make your sales situations more persuasive (and more profitable):

1. Talk less
Have you ever encountered the slick, sleazy salesman that won't stop talking while giving you the fake smile? More than likely you have. When salespeople get nervous... they tend to talk and talk without ever giving the prospect a chance to respond. Some sales training out there actually suggests to talk more! The training stated "telling is selling." Nothing can be further from reality. It was explained to me years ago that our creator gave us two ears and one mouth... meaning the prospect should be doing the talking 2/3 of the time.

2. Stop trying to close...ABC is Wrong
Some of the old school sales trainers used to emphasize closing as selling gospel. The term "Always Be Closing" was coined and a whole generation of closers were born. What someone forget to tell this breed of salesman was the internet kinda changed the game. And by "kinda" I mean completely. Look, with a simple Google search, your prospect can find out everything about your product, your competitor, your cost, etc. There is no point using outdated closing gimmicks and assuming the close, and other sales techniques from the 70's... the game is changing. Either adapt or find a new profession.

3. Use questions like a strategic missile
What happens when a salesman or advertisement jumps out at you claiming to be number 1? If you're anything like your prospect... your reaction is "Ya, right" or "Who cares?" Bragging and hyping up your product will not sell it. The only reason anyone buys anything depends on their belief of the product having more value than the money in their pocket. Period. Find the real pain by asking subtle questions and price will never be an objection.

4. Deep benefits sell subconsciously
Most people involved in sales and marketing know that you sell the benefits not the features. But what separates the salespeople who are just getting by from the sales sharks that are million dollar producers... can be summed up as 'Deep Benefits.' While the shallow benefit of a exotic German car might be "the soft, hand stitched leather seats provide full back support, that make your commute as comfortable as possible." The deep benefit will always trump the shallow one because deep benefits almost always "stroke the ego." And you know all too well that desires of the ego have 100x the power of all other emotional desires (Well, almost all other desires...). The sales professional knows this and will use it to make the register ring. Our German car example becomes emotionally charged with the deep benefit of "imagine offering that new temp that has been on your mind a ride, and the look on her face when she opens the door and notices the luxurious fine leather seats..." Logic is no longer an obstacle.

5. Know thy prospect
To really improve your closing rate, there is no better way then learning about who exactly you are selling to. This often forgotten foundation of sales and marketing produces a crystal ball into the world of your prospect. Put together a complete picture of your typical customer. Find out her fears, his desires, her goals, his frustrations, etc. Everything that makes this person tick. Once you know them... and really know them, selling to the subconscious will be subtle, persuasive, and deadly effective. No more fake bonding or fake rapport building. Master this step and you have a secret door into their psyche.

Use these steps in your next sales encounter and pay attention to the changes they have with your prospect. All these methods use subtle sales negotiation to find the subconscious desires and then sell to those desires. Remember the phrase "Sell the sizzle, not that steak?" We took it a step further with "Sell a full stomach, not the sizzle." Learn how to sell and everything in the world becomes attainable.

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If you have been in any kind of sales for a while, you undoubtedly know that questions are the key to a successful sales career.

When you ask a prospect a question, you are essentially asking "How can I sell you today?"

The problem most sales professional run into is that they either are too abrasive with their questions or they fail to redirect the prospect's question and spend the whole time talking. You know by now that a sales pro only talks no more than 30% of an interview. Let your prospect talk about his or her problems... it's the key to closing any sale.

Their are many different types of questions you can use, but the most effective in my experience have been these seven:

1. Open Question

This is the basic question to use when trying to open a dialog. It goes something like "Mr. Prospect, what has been your biggest problem with your current widgets?" The important part of this question is that it can't be answered with a "Yes/No" answer. Open questions are very useful when opening or if the interview gets stale with that awkward silence. Try to come up with several versions for your product or service.

2. Closed Question

A closed question is the opposite of the open question. It's used when confirming an agreement or statement made. For example "Mrs. Prospect, let me see if I understand you correctly, you need a 24 pounds of soil by Friday, correct?" These questions are good to make sure you're never assuming or mind reading. Use an open question to summarize the prospects needs and desires.

3. Ignorant Redirection

Use ignorance (smoothly of course) when you are caught off guard with a direct question or when you are not ready to answer a prospects question. It can be useful when a prospect asks you a direct or general question such as "How much are your drills? it" to which you would use a bit of ignorance and answer "I'm really not sure, it depends on what model you were looking for... what are you trying to drill?" A simple rule, if you get a question that knocks you off guard, simply state "I don't know/ I'm not sure" and follow with a redirection question. This way you remain in control of the sales interview.

4. Positive Redirection

The positive and negative redirection work as well as they do because they go the opposite direction the prospect thinks the salesperson is going to go. Prospects have built a huge defense towards salespeople and that defense tells the prospect that the salesperson is only agreeing with them to make a sale. So we go the opposite. If your prospect says "I really dislike Company X, there service is terrible." Instead of agreeing like most salespeople would, say something like "Oh, I'm surprised you think that, I hear Company X provides really good service..." and follow with a redirect "..what was it about Company X that you disliked?" By complimenting your competitor, you caught the prospect off guard and instantly lowered his resistance to you.

5. Negative Redirection

This is just the opposite of the positive redirection except you take a prospect's positive statement and go negative with it. You can use in situations where a prospect tries to lead you into boasting about yourself. If the prospect says "So what, do have you the best bagels then?" And instead of the typical "Of course, we have the best bagels in town," you simply down play her statement with "Well I don't know if they are the best in town, but alot people seem to like them and we do use the finest ingredients we can find..." and the redirect "..what flavor were you looking for today?" The power of both the positive and negative redirects is that they are the opposite of what the prospect expects to hear from a 'typical salesman.' Once you start adding them to your arsenal, you'll see how much fun it is to see the prospects shocked expression.

6. Multiple Choice Redirection

You will find in some situations, a prospect isn't being forthcoming in answering your questions or they might be getting impatient with you. You've asked what there budget is, and they redirected with "Well how much does the service cost?" and you redirected once or twice, but now they asked again... and you can tell they want an answer, now. This is the situation you can use the multiple choice question. When you're selling a product or service that requires moderate-to-heavy negotiation, you know the first rule of business is 'Whoever mentions price first loses.' Here's how the multiple choice question can help. "The price depends on financing, are you going to be paying cash or will you need us to finance?" Then redirect with "Ok to see which package I can offer you, can you help be determine what price range you were looking at... $5,000 to $10,000, $10,000 to $20,000, etc." The key with multiple choice questions is to use finesse to gently guide the question back to the prospect.

Those are the six best types of questions you can use in any situation, not just sales interviews. They all work effectively because they use subtle techniques to keep the focus on the prospect. And the quicker you find the prospect's needs, and I mean their real needs, the quicker you can close the sale. Don't ever assume what the prospect wants... just ask them in the right way and they'll tell you!

One last point in using these questions. You have to be careful not to just throw out question after question. The prospect will catch on to what you're doing and this technique will back fire. In GUTS, we always use a method of finesse to grease the questions, that way they are subtle and stealth.

Once you master these types of questions when selling, you will never need to use any gimmick or trick because the natural conclusion to the questions will be making the sale. Try it...

Yours in bigger commissions!
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