Confidence In Selling-- Part 2 02/12/2010
In the last post about confidence, we uncovered attitude to be important in selling. No doubt about that. Well, you ask, how do I develop a winning attitude? An easy way to quickly boost your confidence is... enthusiasm! With enthusiasm, you never have to convince yourself to act confident. It's impossible to feel helpless when you are excited about something or someone. When was the last time you had a vacation or big party planned and couldn't drag yourself out of bed? You probably had a pretty hard time sleeping the night before! One of the most helpful books I found the explains this phenomenon in great detail is: Enthusiasm Makes The Difference by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale Read his book and see if his techniques don't improve your sales, and your life by the next day! Add Comment 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! Confidence In Selling-- Part 1 01/29/2010
One of the most important attributes a salesperson needs to be successful is without a doubt... confidence. But the question I am always asked is, "Ron, how can I be confident when I've never had any real success before?" Here is how I see it. Confidence is not something you physically posses... it is an attitude. This isn't about faking it, or pretending, it's about having a winning attitude in your day's activities. There is always someone who is going to be better than you at something, and plenty of people who are going to be worse. Confidence comes not from being great at something, but feeling great about yourself. And when it comes to selling, the easiest way to feel great about yourself is by feeling great about your product or service. Never sell something you don't believe in or wouldn't mind selling your Grandma. Follow this rule and your confidence will always be at the level needed to close the sale. Yours in bigger commissions! "Is cold calling dead?" The is one of the most asked questions I hear when it comes to sales prospecting. And my answer is both Yes and No... Most of us who have been in the sales occupation know that cold calling has always been the 'bread and butter' of getting new business. We've all sat in countless sales meeting, being told repeatedly that the more we prospect over the phone or in person, the higher our commissions. But I have yet met a sales professional who actually enjoys, honestly, picking up the phone or knocking on a door and asking a complete stranger for money. Does it work? Of course. Statistically there is no doubting that if you ask 100 people for an order, one will say yes. What you really want, and we all want this, is a crystal ball, right? One that tells us which "one" is doing the buying today so we can skip the 99 others who will aren't interested. While this isn't a possibility (yet), what we can do is get through the uninterested prospects as quick as possible, with as little pain as possible. Now, before we continue, you know that cold calling people at home is now pretty much extinct. The government's "Do Not Call List" is getting bigger and bigger which leaves telemarketing to consumers obsolete, but you can still cold call businesses. For consumers we now used a different method of prospecting to get around this new law and it actually works in our favor. I'll show you how to do that in a second... Here it is, the best cold calling technique for selling to businesses: Develop a quick and to the point statement about what you are offering. You are not trying to make a one line pitch... instead you are quickly to trying to find that 1 in 100 prospect. If you were selling networking equipment, you're line might be something like this: "Hi Mrs. Prospect, this is John Smith from ABC Technologies... Is your network router currently able to meet all your demands, or are you experiencing any problems or limitations with it?... (Pause and let the prospect talk)" At that point, you will either hear a quick "No, we're good" which is fine, just thank them for their time and hang up, or a "Well, its okay but..." showing possible interest, and that's all you are looking for. Like our crystal ball example above, we want to quickly find out who out there is the most likely do the business with us today. Once you have an interested prospect, don't try to pitch them right away... Ask them questions to find out their needs. Find out exactly what their current widget is not doing right, or what they want to see improved. Tell them that your product might NOT be right for them, that's why you are asking them questions... to see if you can help them overcome their problem. Most likely you'll want to set up a time where you can talk about their problems and your solutions in detail, and that is fine because a rushed prospect usually says no. That was our basic technique of cold prospecting to businesses. Now for selling to consumers. As we know, we are not allowed to cold call people at home. But we can contact those consumers who have requested information from us... and that leads us to our best prospecting strategy. I learned this method years ago as a real estate agent. While the other agents in the office were spending thousands sending postcards with their pictures on them, I offered free information. Here's what I did... In the newspaper classifieds, I posted a small, cheap ad that read: Fixer uppers. Homes need some repairs, selling at a big discount. Free list available. Leave message (555) 555-1212 The whole week, my voicemail was full. I left instructions to leave their name, address, and phone number and they would be mailed the current list of fixer uppers. Then I mailed everyone a copy of the list. After 2 days, I would call on them to see if they received their list. I could now use my GUTS sales method to get their business. The great thing about this strategy was that I had a list of people who raised their hands saying "Yes, I'm interested in buying a property" and I was able to contact them without violating the "Do Not Call" law. If you use the prospecting techniques I've explained and follow a good sales method, you can't help but make sales... Try it out, you wont be disappointed! Yours in bigger commissions! Everybody is wondering what the new economy will bring.... There is a plethora of ideas and theories about what kind of recovery the country, and the whole world for that matter, will see. While we cautiously wait and find out, you've probably noticed the sales of just about everything are down. You name it, from homes, to automobiles, to even pets. This is causing a huge turnover in the sales ranks industry wide. But it's not necessarily a bad thing, let me explain... In the last decade, we saw a huge growth in everything due to a massive influx of easy credit. Everybody was jumping into sales, most notably in real estate and loans. And they made a fortune. The thing is though, during the boom times, all you needed to do was answer the phone and you made sale. No real selling ability was needed to succeed. Everybody was in such a buying mode, your average sales professional was more of a cashier... helping the next person in line and cashing big commissions in the process. Now the game has changed. Well not really. Now the game is back to normal, to what it always has been: Selling. All the wanna-bes are back into their cubicles. They proclaim that selling is "impossible in this economy." But you and I know that isn't true. Every dollar of our GDP is sold to someone. And the last time I checked we still have the biggest Gross Domestic Product in the world, with nobody even close to second. So what's the deal then? The ones complaining are the same ones who were spoiled by the easy commissions and the ready orders. Sales is now sales again... And to succeed, you have to be a professional with a system. A system that helps you find all the prospects you need, quickly qualify them so you deal with the ones who have the money and the commitment to buy from you, and find a solution for their needs or greeds. I personally use a system I learned from my mentor Claude Diamond. He calls it G.U.T.S. and it covers the process we just described. GUTS taught me the best way to sell was not to sell, but rather ask certain questions, then shut up and listen. Once you learn to ask the right questions in way that doesn't come off abrasive, the prospect quickly opens up and TELLS you how to sell him/her. When you sell like this, you don't even have try any trick closes or other gimmicks. If you followed your plan, asked the right questions, the only close you'll perform sounds something like this: "What would like to do?" And again, if you followed the system correctly, that is the point your prospect will be handing you a check or a contract. No tricks, no pressure, no stress. If you only take away one idea from this post, make sure it is to learn the art and science of asking information gathering questions with finesse. Finesse is the grease the allows your info gathering to sneak in like a stealth fighter, without sounding abrasive or suspicious. Yours in bigger commissions! Ron Watch this video if you want to find out how to REALLY sell: How Do You Generate Leads? 11/06/2009
Dear Sales Super Star, One of the most productive use of your times is lead generation. Period. Depending on your industry, you'll have a different approach on this activity. But regardless of your industry, having a non-stop flow of leads coming in everyday is the difference between barely making it to making 6+ figures. Now everybody always wants to know what the "best" way to generate leads is. Do you advertise offline? Online? Pay for leads? The answer is a combination of online and offline. By the way, NEVER buy your leads... they are low quality, re-sold and a waste of your money. Lets use Real Estate as an example. You're a determined agent and are looking to get your sales in 7 and 8 figures. Whats the best way to get leads? Depends... The rule of marketing is always: "Pay with your money, or pay with your time." Let's say you need to make a sale quick... keep the lights on quick. You're going to get people to contact you. You only have $50 to your name. Here's what you do: -Get benefit laden business cards printed. Do them yourself if you're really broke and leave them everywhere you go. Hand out a minimum of 50. Or print out fliers with a similar message and place them on every door in your farm area (or have some kids do it). Try to do both cards and fliers, but if you have to chose one, go with the fliers. -There secret of making this free marketing work is a push to action. Offer a free report to those who call. "7 Ways To Buy A New Home When Banks Aren't Lending" or "Sell Your Home In 21 Days Using These 6 Secrets" When people call, and they will, get their contact information (name, phone, plans for buying/selling). Mail them their free report. Use G.U.T.S. to close them and get your check. Marketing on a budget requires a bit of creativity, but it is definately possible. Spend most of your day talking to people that contacted you first, and your bank account will never be skinny again... Ron Isn't it time you learned a sales and marketing system that works? Use G.U.T.S. and go to the bank more often. This is the most frequent question we get these days. Everybody wants to know... how to increase sales when entire industries are shrinking. We tend to answer this question in 1 of 2 ways: 1. Implement a sales and marketing campaign that's bringing you in contact with qualified prospects. 2. Use the subtle art of persuasion to close more of your prospects. If you really want get results-- use both strategies together. That will get you out of the scarcity mentality once you start getting a flood of new business in. But the key, as always, is to remain consistent. No marketing, no sales. Easy as that. Your continued success, Ron Isn't it time you learned a sales and marketing system that works? Use G.U.T.S. and go to the bank more often. |
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