If you’re reading this article, you probably don’t need to. Confused? Good, I got your attention. The people I’m really directing this article to are those who probably got into selling by accident and don’t take it all that seriously. You know the ones. They’re glib, they’re good, and they treat selling like a game…
DetailsDetails are the finishing touch that bring back your customers for future business. A colleague of mine manages nearly forty commission sales people. The “best of the best” make huge income and are revered in the top 100 of a large, multinational company. What is their secret? Make the customer feel special – like…
DetailsA 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…
DetailsEvery now and then I get a call from one of my consulting clients who is all excited because he thinks he’s found the ideal salesperson. “Brian,” he’ll tell me excitedly, “This guy is great with people. He’s a really good talker.” And I’ll respond with: “I’ve no doubt he’s a good talker, but can…
DetailsIf 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…
DetailsWe 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…
DetailsRelationship selling is the bedrock for successful selling in the new millennium. However, most salespeople conduct themselves as if they were in a quaint Norman Rockwell painting, building relationships on a smile and a firm handshake, on friendship, on shared mutual interests, common background, charisma, personality and frequency of contact. This quaint, traditional and old…
DetailsNow here’s a problem most sales managers and HR professionals would kill for — two equally qualified sales candidates. Assuming that both candidates scored equally on our Sales Temperament Assessment and that they are pretty well matched against your mandatory and desirable criteria list, which one do you choose? You want to choose the person who…
DetailsDo 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…
DetailsUnbeknownst to most salespeople is the idea that selling is all about getting prospects to make decisions, both small and large. Getting decisions that reach a conclusive “no” or “yes” and getting decisions that allow the prospects the freedom to decide “no,” without the fear of a salesperson’s full frontal counterattack. Therefore, selling isn’t as…
DetailsYou answer the telephone and hear the words, “My boss has asked me to get information and pricing on (whatever it is you sell)” and your heart sinks. It sinks because you know that dealing with information seekers is an even greater challenge than dealing with gatekeepers. You know that whatever price you quote will…
DetailsNo, 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.…
DetailsYou’re probably sitting there thinking, “Why would I want to be my own worst enemy?” And the answer, of course, is that you certainly don’t want to be. But it happens, and it could happen to you. I’ve seen salespeople with the potential to be top performers fall short because they either didn’t know what…
DetailsOne of the hiring traps many companies fall into is letting HR hire salespeople. I apologize if this blog annoys HR practitioners but the simple truth is that most (not all) HR people are unqualified to hire salespeople. What they are extremely good at is managing the hiring process and understanding the legal aspects of…
DetailsWe’ve all had them — the prospect that isn’t going to buy from you no matter what. It might be because he doesn’t need or want whatever it is you’re selling or perhaps you’ve rubbed him the wrong way and he simply doesn’t want to buy from you. The only problem is, he won’t tell…
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