Often when I suggest to salespeople that they do some telephone selling, a panicky look comes over their faces and you’d think that I’d suggested they pick up a hot poker and put it to their ear! Part of this fear and disdain comes from exposure to extremely poor telemarketers who are blight on professional…
It’s been almost ten years since I last went on a rant about the sales “profession” and what we can do to make it even more professional. So, here I go again! First off, I want to say that I’ve been in sales for over thirty years and I’ve been proud to call myself a…
No, I’m not referring to a prospect that buys long-distance telephone services. This is about the buyer who is out of reach, the one you can’t contact directly because he or she is too distant. Sometimes this distance is due to geography — the key decision maker is located in some other city or country.…
During our recent TeleSeminar on Handling the (Dreaded) Price Objection, I was asked a really good question by one of the attendees — How do you handle situations where your main competitor is always undercutting you by 20 percent or more? It was a dynamite question and one that might be asked by many salespeople…
No one likes sticker shock, not you and certainly not your prospect. The last thing you want when you mention your final price is for the prospect to gasp, clutch his heart and keel over. That’s why it’s wise to prepare your prospect for what’s to come in terms of the financial investment he will…
Any marketing person will tell you that sex sells. Well, I’m here to tell you that sex doesn’t sell; sex simply gets your attention. After your attention has been aroused, it’s one of the other two primary motivators, or dominant buying motives, that drives you to buy. Those two dominant buying motives are desire for…
Here’s the scene. You want to buy a service from someone but you’re not quite sure if he or she is going to do the job to your satisfaction. What do you do? This isn’t an unusual situation. You’re about to deal with someone or a company you’ve never dealt with before. Maybe it’s time…
You only get one chance to make a good first impression and what you wear has a lot to do with the impression you create. In this day and age of excessive casualness, it’s easy to cross the line and lose a sale, all because of what you’re wearing. Here’s an example. The salesperson was…
I don’t know about you, but I sometimes find it fascinating to listen in on other people’s telephone conversations, at least the half of the conversation I can hear. I was sitting idly in the office recently when my partner took a phone call from a salesperson. I knew it was a salesperson because after…
This article is for those of you who have been in sales for some time. Those of you for whom the glow of the job is beginning to dim a bit. Some non-salespeople think that salespeople lead an incredibly busy social life, full of free meals and days on the golf course. That we get…
Every salesperson eventually falls upon slow times. Whether it’s a regular seasonal slump, marketplace readjustment, or economic downturn, it happens to all of us. What salespeople do during these slow selling times is what separates the wheat from the chaff, the good from the bad, and the professional from the amateur. Slow Time Blues In…
If you’ve been in sales for any length of time, it’s highly likely that you’ve had a run-in with at least one “nibbler.” No, a nibbler isn’t a person who nibbles on your ear (don’t you wish!); it’s someone who nibbles at the deal you’ve just made. Nibblers are different than hagglers. Hagglers want to…
Why in the world would you want to take your prospect’s temperature? You’re not a doctor. Well, it’s not your prospect’s body temperature I’m suggesting you take. It’s your prospect’s buying temperature. Testing the Water Just like you might test the water before you jump into a swimming pool to see if the water temperature…
Do you know the major reason why prospects don’t buy? They were never asked! That’s right, no one asked them for the business. Strange as it seems, salespeople use all their superior selling skills to get in front of a prospect, qualify him, uncover his needs, match their product or service to those needs, and…
Most salespeople understand the concept of the sales funnel. It works just like an ordinary funnel that you might use to transfer liquid from one container to another. We all know that if you stop pouring the liquid into the top of the funnel, fluid stops coming out the bottom. We also know that if…
We all know that people buy from people they know and people they like. We also know that people send business to people they know and people they like. Having a strong network of people who can help you and who you can help is a valuable asset that many salespeople neglect to develop. One…
That’s it! If it’s that simple, why aren’t more people successful in sales? Once again, the answer is relatively simple: They either don’t fully understand or know how to apply the basic fundamentals. So, just what are these mystical basic fundamentals of selling that seem to elude so many people? Well, before we explore some…
A sales call shouldn’t be something that happens by accident; it should be a planned event. When sales calls aren’t planned, they often result in wasted time and effort, resulting in a no sale. No matter how hard you try, you can’t make a sale on every call but, as a minimum, you should be…
Most salespeople don’t know when to quit. They don’t know when to quit talking… when to quit selling… and when to quit trying. They talk too much, sell too long and give up too soon. What’s worse, not only do some salespeople give up too soon, they often don’t even get started! In a survey…
Let’s face it; everyone likes to get something for nothing, particularly if that something is valuable. What could be more valuable to a salesperson than receiving professional sales training? I mean sales training is something that can impact your wallet for the rest of your selling career. And to get it for free! Does it…