B2BSales

Sales Skill: Choose The Right Word

March 14, 2021 By Adriana

Great salespeople always choose the right word. The words we use when speaking with prospects and customers determine the outcome of the sales pursuit. It’s not only the meaning of the words we use but the emotional effect on the buyer. Think about and carefully choose the words you use to improve sales.

Sales people choose the right word to win a sale.

Great Sales People Choose The Right Word
Image from Pixabay

Proposal vs. Quote

Are you after a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship? Sounds a lot like marriage. Do we “quote” to the one we love or “propose?” A quote is just a document with a list of items and prices. A proposal includes all the information a great salesperson has learned about the buyer and their situation. It is a summary of the conversations between the salesperson and buyer. A proposal demonstrates the salesperson’s interest in the buyer. A “quote” says: “here are my prices.”…

Sales Skill: Buyer Listening Style

March 7, 2021 By Adriana

Your buyer has a preferred listening style. And you do too. Great salespeople know how to determine the buyer listening style. Then they use that style to make it easy for the buyer to understand the message. In a previous post, Fundamental Communication Styles, the four basic styles in which people communicate. In this post I focus on how best to present information so the buyer understands it.

Everybody has a preferred listening style

Know The Buyer Listening Style
Image From Pixabay

The Buyer Listening Style

Many studies have shown each of us has a preferred listening (or learning) style. Some of us prefer listening and speaking. We are known as auditory learners. When we learn from illustrations, graphs, written words, we are visual listeners. We learn best by seeing the information. Sometimes we learn best by actually touching or experiencing the information. Then we are kinesthetic or tactile learners. Kinesthetics learn best by doing. Great salespeople know when they present to buyers in the way they learn best they are more likely to favor us….

Sales Skill: Sticking To The Sales Process

March 1, 2021 By Adriana

Every great salesperson knows sticking to the sales process is the way to win the sale. The fundamental elements of the sales process are: building rapport, finding the pain, determining the budget, understanding the decision-making process, making the presentation, asking for the order and following up on the sale. Each of us has adapted the fundamental process as our own. We use the process in ways that fit our personality and skill set. So let’s explore ways to stick to the sales process.

Salespeople win sales by sticking to the sales process

The Sales Process Yields The Win
Image from Pixabay

Building Rapport

People buy from those salespeople who they like, respect and trust. So salespeople set about building rapport with buyers by getting to know them as a person. Everybody has dreams and goals. Your job as a salesperson is to find out what drives the buyer. At the same time building a relationship with them so they are comfortable with you. As an integral part of the sales process, each encounter with the buyer is well-planned. A salesperson who hears the buyer say: “I’m not interested” has a response planned. Perhaps it’s: “OK. Since you agreed to meet can we talk about (insert something of interest to the buyer)”. Great salespeople are prepared to respond to anything the buyer might say….

Sales Skills: Great Salespeople Are Adaptable

February 19, 2021 By Adriana

That salespeople are adaptable might seem like an obvious statement in light of what we have had to do since the Corona Virus pandemic created chaos. But weren’t we great salespeople always adaptable? The Corona Virus has affected the whole world. But for as long as there have been buyers and sellers, there have been disruptive events changing the status quo. Some events affected whole populations. How many of us now have a land-line phone in our home? Other events are more narrowly focused. Have you ever had to deal with your favorite buyer leaving a great customer only to be replaced with one who wanted to make their own mark?

Salespeople Adapt To Change
Image by PixelPixieStudio from Pixabay

What’s It Mean Salespeople Are Adaptable?

The world changes daily. Some changes are small others cataclysmic. Great salespeople understand the implications of the changes affecting them. And they react to accommodate them. But they also know the fundamentals of the selling process never change. How those fundamentals are applied and who the buyer is may change but the fundamentals are, well, fundamental. We say salespeople are adaptable because they continue to apply good fundamental selling practices even when the situation changes….

Sales Skill: Improve Your Closing Ratio

February 15, 2021 By Adriana

Great salespeople have an attitude of continual improvement. Have you ever looked at your closing ratio and thought: “I need to do better than this?” A salesperson is always tracking their performance. So to improve your closing ratio start by considering how well you do the three essential tasks to closing more sales: Prospect, Qualify and Follow-up.

Improving Closing Ratio Earns More Money

The Key To Earning More Is Boosting The Closing Ratio
Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

What’s Your Closing Ratio?

Simply put your closing ratio is the comparison of the sales you made to the sales you attempted. Say you presented an opportunity to purchase your product or service to 20 decision makers in a moth. Of those 20 presentations ten decision makers agreed to buy from you. Then you could say the closing ratio is 10/20 or 50% of the deals pursued. Another way to figure closing ratio is by the value of sales won compared to the value of opportunities presented. If the 20 pitches totaled $100,000 and the orders were $40,000 then the closing ratio would be 40%. Great salespeople have a consistent way to measure their closing ratio….

Great Salespeople: Born or Made?

January 28, 2021 By Adriana

Are salespeople born with all the knowledge and skill needed to perform at the top of their profession? Of course not. I believe the fundamental qualities of a great salesperson are developed over time. So the answer is salespeople are made! When salespeople diligently practice their trade they master the important selling skills. Let’s begin with the foundation on which to build a great sales career: yourself. What qualities do great salespeople have?

Great salespeople learn their trade through diligent practice

Great Salespeople Are Made By Practicing Their Trade
Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

Three Fundamental Qualities Of A Great Salesperson

Ego strength, ego need and empathy. Great salespeople have healthy egos; either naturally or learned over the years. They are self-assured and confident. Being resilient in the face of rejection, defeat and lost sales yet keep on trying is the fundamental personality trait of great salespeople. Empathy, the ability to understand the customer, is fundamental to success in sales. In addition to these personality traits, great salespeople are driven to succeed. They use knowledge, attitude and behaviors to become the best they can be. Determined to achieve their dreams, great salespeople overcome any obstacles in their way….

Sales Skill: The Telephone

January 21, 2021 By Adriana

Great salespeople know the telephone is a time-tested tool for virtual selling. Even before the COVID pandemic changed the way “road warriors” had to sell, the telephone was the primary tool for salespeople. So now rather than the black phone with pushbutton dialing of years gone by you now have a mobile device. As powerful as these small digital devices are the telephone feature is still a practical sales tool.

Great Salespeople Master The Telephone Skill

The Telephone Is The Oldest Virtual Meeting Tool

Sure there are many ways to virtually contact prospects: direct mail, email, video chats to name a few. But for the great salesperson, the telephone is still the most powerful. And simple to use. Telephone conversations are real time dialogs. You can hear the nuances in the voice. And react to your prospects comments immediately. The phone is a salesperson’s most valuable tool because phone conversations move the qualification and sales process along quickly. You can create interest and desire real time using a phone. Often a successful phone conversation is the beginning of a mutually beneficial, long-term relationship….

Sales Skills: Using Compelling Stories

January 14, 2021 By Adriana

Every great salesperson has a collection of compelling stories. Some stories illustrate positive outcomes from using their product or service. Other stories challenge the status quo by describing consequences of not benefitting from a product or service. Compelling Stories give comfort to the prospect showing how others have benefitted from your product or service.

Great salespeople use compelling stories to highlight benefits

Compelling Stories Create Interest
Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

How To Tell Compelling Stories

Think about all the selling success you have. Each one of them resulted in a prospect changing their behavior in favor of your product or service. And they benefitted from the change. When they purchased your product or service they saved money, improved performance, or avoided a negative consequence.

So tell the story from the point of view of a successful customer outcome. Describe the problem you solved, how your product or service was applied and the benefit the customer experienced. Use words to paint the picture in your prospect’s mind. The story has a beginning which sets the stage by illustrating the current situation. In the middle is how the “hero” (you or your team) took on the “dragon” (the current situation). A strong ending leaves your prospect desperate to hear how you will save them from the “dragon.” Every great salesperson has a personal style of telling compelling stories. So tell stories in your own words, cadence and tone….

Sales Skills: Your Selling Tools Inventory

January 7, 2021 By Adriana

Well, it’s here. 2021 has begun. Are you ready? One way to check is to look at your selling tools inventory. Every one of us great salespeople have a particular skill set we use in each sales pursuit. So take a few minutes to think back over the successes in selling during the past year. What did you do well? What skills need improvement? And most importantly what skills don’t you have?

Great Salespeople Take A Sales Skill Inventory
Image by Claire Dela Cruz from Pixabay

The Successful Selling Process

Great salespeople have a sales process which is proven and repeatable. Here’s mine: first I need to get prospects to like me enough to answer my questions. I call that building “rapport”. Next I want to find out whether they have a significant problem I can solve. That’s the “pain” step. Now I want to know if they have the “budget” to solve the problem. Throughout all of the sales pursuit I want to be dealing with the “decision maker.” When I’m sure I’m dealing with the decision maker and have determined they have a problem they want to solve and can commit funds to do it, I “ask for the order”!…

Sales Skill: Learning From Past Lessons

December 10, 2020 By Adriana

To say 2020 was a different year is an understatement. But great salespeople have always used past lessons to prepare for the future. This past year presented many new lessons. We learned to work in an environment with a pandemic virus. We learned to help customers pivot because of the pandemic. And we found new opportunities. Great salespeople use past lessons finding a way to overcome adversity.

Great salespeople learn from past lessons.

What Are The Lessons You Learned This Year?
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The Big Lesson

For most of us life changed in March 2020. Some states shut down “non-essential” businesses. Companies sent employees home to work. Consumer income dropped dramatically. Business purchasing models changed. Sales processes were revamped to meet the changing environment.

We learned to work from home. Instead of meeting in a business setting we watched each other in small squares on laptop screens. We adapted and survived or maybe even thrived during this time. Because not every business was affected the same. Some pivoted to making facial coverings, some distilleries made hand sanitizer, hospitals preserved space for the sickest COVID infected patients. We great salespeople were creative in our approach to business in this disruptive period relying on the experience of past lessons….