Being a salesperson is very much like being a performer on stage. Knowing what kind of person to hire as a salesperson is difficult sometimes; mainly because most people interview well, yet few perform well. To maximize your success in hiring a sales staff, there are some key traits to look for in interviewing.
First, is the individual likable? A salesperson is basically a personality. Fundamentally, the salesperson should be someone who you would like to be the face of the company. In my experience, it doesn't matter if the salesperson is black or white, male or female, fat or thin; what matters is if I would want to spend five minutes speaking to them. Attractiveness counts, of course, but an attractive personality and presentation is much more important. Ensure your new hires are likable folks.
Second, your salespeople need to fundamentally understand the sales transaction enough to close sales. Many salespeople are successful simply because they work in an industry where there is little competition. Others are good at building relationships and this ability carries their sales numbers. However, the best salespeople understand the simple transaction; establish interest, showcase features and benefits, validate yourself and your organization, close.
Third, your salespeople can be formulaic and mechanical, but they won't be winners. The winners believe in a "live without a net" approach to sales. This means the best people have the sales script in their head, but usually operate on an instinctive, personality driven and on-the-spot improvised approach. These people adapt their personality to the individual much like a therapist approaches a patient. Being not only a salesperson, but a partner in the emotional aspect of the transaction is very important. The best salesperson leaves the customer feeling a strong sense of empathy; almost as though they have made a new friend.
Lastly, and probably most important, your salespeople need to be persistent. They need to be so persistent that they never take no for an answer. This means 200 dials instead of 100. This means knocking on doors until one is exhausted. There is always a new prospect to speak with. There is never a time when there is no hope to make a sale. Find your persistent and aggressive people and you will find a quality salesperson.
Overall, these key traits above will be the best traits. Obviously there are exceptions. We have all seen very aggressive and even obnoxious salespeople with strong numbers. We have also seen quiet and shy folks who have a natural sweetness that lends itself to a strong closing ability. Empathy, understanding of the sales transaction, instinctive ability, and persistence; these are the most important factors to seek in your prospective sales representatives.
Monday, January 28, 2008
5 Things To Do Before Asking For The Sal
Closing the sale can make the best of us get sweaty palms. What will happen? Will they say "Yes!" or will they reject your offering? Because this process is so intimidating to many non-trained sales people, it is often botched. Either you go in for the close too quickly, or you never ask for the sale.
Here are five things to discuss with a prospect BEFORE you ask for their business.
1.Be clear of the needs and/or concerns of your prospect. What problem are they trying to overcome? What do they want and hope for? Ask lots of questions to be sure you have a very good understanding of each client's circumstances.
2. Explain how your product or service will SPECIFICALLY help your prospect. What is the benefit to them? This should sound different for each prospect - because it is based on their own situation.
3. Find out how your client feels about your product or service. Most purchases are made based on emotion. Gage the prospects emotional response by reading their body language and asking questions to help you learn their reaction.
4. Discuss any objections the prospect has about your service or product. Be sure and address these objections and answer any questions or concerns they have. Be honest. If their objection is legitimate, acknowledge it and when possible offer a solution or alternative.
5. Be sure you are dealing with decision-maker. Find out early on if the person you are talking with is able to make the final decision. If not, get the decision-maker involved in the discussion as soon as possible.
Take the time to discuss each of these five areas with your prospect before you even think about asking for their business. Once you have thoroughly talked through these items, and you are getting a positive reaction, then be sure and ask for their business. Be direct. Ask them, "Are you ready to get started?" or "Which color would you like to order?" The more thoroughly you get to know your prospect and genuinely offer them a solution to their problem or need, the more likely you are to win the sale.
Summary: Don't rush in to close the sale unless you have addressed all five of these critical issues!
Here are five things to discuss with a prospect BEFORE you ask for their business.
1.Be clear of the needs and/or concerns of your prospect. What problem are they trying to overcome? What do they want and hope for? Ask lots of questions to be sure you have a very good understanding of each client's circumstances.
2. Explain how your product or service will SPECIFICALLY help your prospect. What is the benefit to them? This should sound different for each prospect - because it is based on their own situation.
3. Find out how your client feels about your product or service. Most purchases are made based on emotion. Gage the prospects emotional response by reading their body language and asking questions to help you learn their reaction.
4. Discuss any objections the prospect has about your service or product. Be sure and address these objections and answer any questions or concerns they have. Be honest. If their objection is legitimate, acknowledge it and when possible offer a solution or alternative.
5. Be sure you are dealing with decision-maker. Find out early on if the person you are talking with is able to make the final decision. If not, get the decision-maker involved in the discussion as soon as possible.
Take the time to discuss each of these five areas with your prospect before you even think about asking for their business. Once you have thoroughly talked through these items, and you are getting a positive reaction, then be sure and ask for their business. Be direct. Ask them, "Are you ready to get started?" or "Which color would you like to order?" The more thoroughly you get to know your prospect and genuinely offer them a solution to their problem or need, the more likely you are to win the sale.
Summary: Don't rush in to close the sale unless you have addressed all five of these critical issues!
How to Sell Your New Gadget Electronic
I am walking through the store the other day with my wife and notice a little blast from the past, specifically from my childhood. It was a handheld electronic football game. They had one on display to test out, so me being the curious consumer that I am, I want to make sure the game was ok, before I decided to buy it.
So I turned it on, and the game started beeping and playing a tune in that old eighties style of electronic sound my generation got used to. Just like the game I remember, there wasn't much to it, when you compare it games of today. It has basic functionality with limited playing ability, but boy was it fun.
Kids today wouldn't even look at that game, but for a whole generation of people that at one time were kids, namely my generation, it is an electronic gadget that I immediately gravitated towards.
Maybe you have an idea for a hot new electronic gadget, or to reinvent one from yester year. Whatever the goal may be there are a variety of ways you can sell them. You should however write down specific steps on what exactly you are trying to accomplish.
Write down your specific target market that your game appeals to. In my experience above, that game appealed to young boys from ages 10 to about 13.
Find out where your target market frequents. This is where you want to concentrate your advertising and marketing efforts. You do not want to waste your time putting your electronic gadget up for sale in a store where very few of your target market members visit, or post online in a category that is not relevant to what the gadget is.
Define what attracts your target market to the product you're selling. For me it was the fact that the electronic gadget was a way to relive the past. That is exactly how they presented it. It was a game to relive days gone by, and conjure up some good old memories.
Create your promotion, advertising, marketing campaign, and sales pitch around what you have already written above. Whether you are posting an online advertisement, or trying to pitch your idea to a store, you need a clear, professional presentation of what you are selling, and what you are trying accomplish.
Post your online advertisements, set up your displays in the stores and sit back and start taking orders. Well you really won't sit back, you will be a bit more outgoing and aggressive to get the product out there, but the point is you can now concentrate on selling your product to your target market that you already defined.
There are thousands of electronic gadgets and gizmos on the market today. Some are very helpful and some are fairly worthless. If you have a good product, that is useful for the purpose it was intended, you should have no problems, making lots of sales.
So I turned it on, and the game started beeping and playing a tune in that old eighties style of electronic sound my generation got used to. Just like the game I remember, there wasn't much to it, when you compare it games of today. It has basic functionality with limited playing ability, but boy was it fun.
Kids today wouldn't even look at that game, but for a whole generation of people that at one time were kids, namely my generation, it is an electronic gadget that I immediately gravitated towards.
Maybe you have an idea for a hot new electronic gadget, or to reinvent one from yester year. Whatever the goal may be there are a variety of ways you can sell them. You should however write down specific steps on what exactly you are trying to accomplish.
Write down your specific target market that your game appeals to. In my experience above, that game appealed to young boys from ages 10 to about 13.
Find out where your target market frequents. This is where you want to concentrate your advertising and marketing efforts. You do not want to waste your time putting your electronic gadget up for sale in a store where very few of your target market members visit, or post online in a category that is not relevant to what the gadget is.
Define what attracts your target market to the product you're selling. For me it was the fact that the electronic gadget was a way to relive the past. That is exactly how they presented it. It was a game to relive days gone by, and conjure up some good old memories.
Create your promotion, advertising, marketing campaign, and sales pitch around what you have already written above. Whether you are posting an online advertisement, or trying to pitch your idea to a store, you need a clear, professional presentation of what you are selling, and what you are trying accomplish.
Post your online advertisements, set up your displays in the stores and sit back and start taking orders. Well you really won't sit back, you will be a bit more outgoing and aggressive to get the product out there, but the point is you can now concentrate on selling your product to your target market that you already defined.
There are thousands of electronic gadgets and gizmos on the market today. Some are very helpful and some are fairly worthless. If you have a good product, that is useful for the purpose it was intended, you should have no problems, making lots of sales.
Is the Not In Your Thinking Your Obstacle to Sales Success?
To increase sales begins with about your thoughts and your overall thinking process about selling to yourself. In The Strangest Secret: How To Live the Life Your Desire, Earl Nightingale quoted Dr. Albert Schweitzer who answered the question: "What is wrong with men today?" with this simple response "Men simply don't think"
Thinking for many in sales has become an obstacle for success. Napoleon Hill saw that in his book Think and Grow Rich. Society has become even a greater abyss of non-thinkers, conformists, who take the thoughts of others for truth. For example, if you hear that the economy is bad, will you go with the flow or believe something else?
There is a video traveling cyberspace about the forthcoming union of Mexico, U.S. and Canada to form North American Union complete with supporting facts (?). And people actually believe this to be true. What is difference between this video and the current belief about the economy?
Speaking about the economy, drive by any mall and see of the cars not in the lots. Travel through the many subdivisions and see only one car in the driveway. Of course, you are going to see malls full of cars, usually 2 cars in the driveways and people still going to work.
What we think we can achieve or cannot achieve in sales is where sales success begins. For example, if you are realtor, real estate agent or mortgage broker by all accounts you should have had a terrible year. I just read that 2007 was the worst year for the housing and real estate industry since the depression.
Yet, one of my clients who is a mortgage broker increased business 33% in 2007 over 2006 in spite of all the doom and gloom in the housing industry. We achieved the sales goal for 2007, but fell a little short of the BHAG (big, hairy audacious goal). And through all this, she delivered her third child in early September and has been working from home since that time.
Plans have been established for 2008 goals where we are using 33% as the increase. And here is where it gets interesting. When we started working together she told me that "I do not think I can achieve this sales goal." She was very nervous. And goal setting does make a lot of people uncomfortable because it makes you think. Now with that goal achieved, she once again said "I do not think I can achieve this goal." Her not thinking is her obstacle to selling more not It is the economy stupid.
By not thinking, we become what we think about, nothing, a shadow of someone else, a non-entity, a whisp in the wind. No wonder many people in sales never realize the success that they are seeking not to mention people in general who want business or personal success.
Not thinking has been a continual challenge for man. The Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, saw that when he said: "A man's life is what his thoughts make of it." Fifteen hundred years later, Ralph Waldo Emerson echoed Aurelius when he said: "A man is what he thinks about all day long."
Thinking for many in sales has become an obstacle for success. Napoleon Hill saw that in his book Think and Grow Rich. Society has become even a greater abyss of non-thinkers, conformists, who take the thoughts of others for truth. For example, if you hear that the economy is bad, will you go with the flow or believe something else?
There is a video traveling cyberspace about the forthcoming union of Mexico, U.S. and Canada to form North American Union complete with supporting facts (?). And people actually believe this to be true. What is difference between this video and the current belief about the economy?
Speaking about the economy, drive by any mall and see of the cars not in the lots. Travel through the many subdivisions and see only one car in the driveway. Of course, you are going to see malls full of cars, usually 2 cars in the driveways and people still going to work.
What we think we can achieve or cannot achieve in sales is where sales success begins. For example, if you are realtor, real estate agent or mortgage broker by all accounts you should have had a terrible year. I just read that 2007 was the worst year for the housing and real estate industry since the depression.
Yet, one of my clients who is a mortgage broker increased business 33% in 2007 over 2006 in spite of all the doom and gloom in the housing industry. We achieved the sales goal for 2007, but fell a little short of the BHAG (big, hairy audacious goal). And through all this, she delivered her third child in early September and has been working from home since that time.
Plans have been established for 2008 goals where we are using 33% as the increase. And here is where it gets interesting. When we started working together she told me that "I do not think I can achieve this sales goal." She was very nervous. And goal setting does make a lot of people uncomfortable because it makes you think. Now with that goal achieved, she once again said "I do not think I can achieve this goal." Her not thinking is her obstacle to selling more not It is the economy stupid.
By not thinking, we become what we think about, nothing, a shadow of someone else, a non-entity, a whisp in the wind. No wonder many people in sales never realize the success that they are seeking not to mention people in general who want business or personal success.
Not thinking has been a continual challenge for man. The Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, saw that when he said: "A man's life is what his thoughts make of it." Fifteen hundred years later, Ralph Waldo Emerson echoed Aurelius when he said: "A man is what he thinks about all day long."
The Relativity of Luxury
I'm not sure luxury is really the saddest thing I can imagine. I understand the intent behind the thought but ultimately, there are many things sadder. I am a huge fan of luxury and yet as a pragmatist and a realist, I can see the pitfalls inherent when an average person believes they have to have a luxurious, rich life thereby racking up plenty of debt.
In a article on MSN, "Uncommon Sense: Luxuries you can live without -- and should", author MP Dunleavey points out the new frames that certain items which were once considered ordinary and mundane purchases, things that we need for daily life but which shouldn't set us back too far, have now become commodities.
Pots, now called "cookware", sheets now called "linens", tennis shoes now called "athletic footwear" and watches now called "time pieces"-all have been reframed to adjust our perspective of their value.
She argues that while the original products may be necessary, the "new, improved and reframed" need not suck us in. (Which is, unfortunately, what it is doing to "average Americans" who can no more afford a $5,000 plasma screen TV than they can a trip to the moon.)
While in this Wall Street Journal article by Christina Binkley, "The Psychology of the $14,000 Handbag: How Luxury Brands Alter Shoppers' Price Perceptions; Buying a Key Chain Instead." , she shows the strategy behind pushing the limits of reason with prices to get the consumers to take a step down to another product, still probably out of the reasonable price range for what the product is, but more within their ability to stretch to buy it. (Ex. Buying a keychain from Tiffany's instead of an actual piece of jewelry because that's the only thing they can afford.)
She explains that, "when shoppers are confronted with prices they can't afford, a smart retailer will 'move you right along to where you can salvage your pride,' says Dan Hill, president of Sensory Logic, a Minneapolis consulting company that helps companies explore their sensory and emotional connections with customers."
Fortunately for us, in working with an affluent clientèle, we don't have to "put the screws" to prospects that shouldn't be attempting to purchase our services or products. Yet, the psychology behind altering price perceptions remains the same.
By framing ourselves as 'absolutely not the cheapest alternative, but definitely worth the price you pay' and really putting out there exactly what we require we are most definitely altering perceptions. Along those lines, one of the saddest things I can think of is getting used to accepting less than what we're really worth.
In a article on MSN, "Uncommon Sense: Luxuries you can live without -- and should", author MP Dunleavey points out the new frames that certain items which were once considered ordinary and mundane purchases, things that we need for daily life but which shouldn't set us back too far, have now become commodities.
Pots, now called "cookware", sheets now called "linens", tennis shoes now called "athletic footwear" and watches now called "time pieces"-all have been reframed to adjust our perspective of their value.
She argues that while the original products may be necessary, the "new, improved and reframed" need not suck us in. (Which is, unfortunately, what it is doing to "average Americans" who can no more afford a $5,000 plasma screen TV than they can a trip to the moon.)
While in this Wall Street Journal article by Christina Binkley, "The Psychology of the $14,000 Handbag: How Luxury Brands Alter Shoppers' Price Perceptions; Buying a Key Chain Instead." , she shows the strategy behind pushing the limits of reason with prices to get the consumers to take a step down to another product, still probably out of the reasonable price range for what the product is, but more within their ability to stretch to buy it. (Ex. Buying a keychain from Tiffany's instead of an actual piece of jewelry because that's the only thing they can afford.)
She explains that, "when shoppers are confronted with prices they can't afford, a smart retailer will 'move you right along to where you can salvage your pride,' says Dan Hill, president of Sensory Logic, a Minneapolis consulting company that helps companies explore their sensory and emotional connections with customers."
Fortunately for us, in working with an affluent clientèle, we don't have to "put the screws" to prospects that shouldn't be attempting to purchase our services or products. Yet, the psychology behind altering price perceptions remains the same.
By framing ourselves as 'absolutely not the cheapest alternative, but definitely worth the price you pay' and really putting out there exactly what we require we are most definitely altering perceptions. Along those lines, one of the saddest things I can think of is getting used to accepting less than what we're really worth.
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