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…
DetailsAny 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…
DetailsHere’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…
DetailsYou 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…
DetailsI 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…
DetailsThis 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…
DetailsEvery 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…
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…
DetailsWhy 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…
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…
DetailsAt the beginning of every sales call your prospect is making two critical buying decisions. The first decision is about the salesperson. Behavioral research states that initial impressions are created within the first 20 seconds of meeting someone. So it is critical to differentiate oneself and one’s offering in the initial phase of a meeting.…
DetailsMost 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…
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…
DetailsIt isn’t unusual that by the time salespeople get as far along in the sales process to learn how decisions are made, who are the players who make those decision and what is the timing of the decision, that they are so excited to have made it this far that they quickly skim over it…
DetailsThat’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…
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