If you talk to enough prospects, eventually you'll make sales - even if your sales skills are minimal. Selling well is basically a way to reduce the number of prospects you need to meet with before you can make the requisite number of sales. Instead of making hundreds of cold calls in a day, you might be able to get by with a few dozen and still make the same number of sales. Here are some ideas to help you improve your sales results.
1. Be Likable
People want to do business with people they like. Of course, not everybody likes the same things. In a selling situation, the trick is to understand your prospect well enough to get along with him. Being likable is the first step towards building a relationship with a prospect. And building relationships with prospects and customers is the key to selling, not once, but many times.
2. Focus on Whales
Making a small sale probably takes about the same amount time and energy as a large sales does. That being the case, it's obvious that you're much better off focusing on big deals. That doesn't mean you should entirely ignore small deals, because after all, small deals can lead to large deals. However, you should invest far more time and energy pursuing whale prospects than you do pursuing little fish.
3. Remember WIIFM
Your prospects aren't meeting with you for fun or to help you out. They're interested in just one thing: what's in it for them? If you can give them a good answer to that question, you're headed in the right direction to close the deal. If you spend the entire presentation talking about your company, your sales history, and your product's features, you're going to lose a lot of prospects.
4. Don't Sell Drills, Sell Holes
Prospects want solutions to their problems. So instead of talking about your products and their features, talk about how those products are going to solve your prospect's problems. Of course, in order to accomplish this, you'll need to know exactly what the prospect's problems are. Which leads to…
5. Ask the Right Questions
If you ask, prospects will usually tell you exactly what you need to know to sell to them. The problem is, many salespeople don't ask. Don't be one of those salespeople! Asking sales questions accomplishes two things: first, it helps you to qualify the person as a prospect; and second, it helps you determine that prospect's goals and pain points.
6. Add More Hours to the Day
Nobody has enough time to accomplish everything. But you can make time by sacrificing unimportant or unproductive tasks. In sales, that means ruthlessly trimming out any activities that don't contribute to a sale. This may require a little help from your sales manager. For example, consider all the meetings that you attend on a regular basis. Are they helping you move closer to a sale? If not, stop attending. How much of the paperwork you fill out every day is directly related to making a sale? Can you give the rest of it to someone else, such as an admin, instead of spending your valuable time on it?
7. Everyone's a Contact
Not everyone is a prospect, but everyone you meet KNOWS a prospect. Networking can turbocharge your sales by giving you access to prospects you would otherwise never meet. Incidentally, networking can be a huge help in other aspects of your life - such as finding a job with the company of your dreams. So whether you're at a trade show or standing in line at the supermarket, every encounter is a chance to make a new network contact.
By Wendy Connick
http://sales.about.com/
1. Be Likable
People want to do business with people they like. Of course, not everybody likes the same things. In a selling situation, the trick is to understand your prospect well enough to get along with him. Being likable is the first step towards building a relationship with a prospect. And building relationships with prospects and customers is the key to selling, not once, but many times.
2. Focus on Whales
Making a small sale probably takes about the same amount time and energy as a large sales does. That being the case, it's obvious that you're much better off focusing on big deals. That doesn't mean you should entirely ignore small deals, because after all, small deals can lead to large deals. However, you should invest far more time and energy pursuing whale prospects than you do pursuing little fish.
3. Remember WIIFM
Your prospects aren't meeting with you for fun or to help you out. They're interested in just one thing: what's in it for them? If you can give them a good answer to that question, you're headed in the right direction to close the deal. If you spend the entire presentation talking about your company, your sales history, and your product's features, you're going to lose a lot of prospects.
4. Don't Sell Drills, Sell Holes
Prospects want solutions to their problems. So instead of talking about your products and their features, talk about how those products are going to solve your prospect's problems. Of course, in order to accomplish this, you'll need to know exactly what the prospect's problems are. Which leads to…
5. Ask the Right Questions
If you ask, prospects will usually tell you exactly what you need to know to sell to them. The problem is, many salespeople don't ask. Don't be one of those salespeople! Asking sales questions accomplishes two things: first, it helps you to qualify the person as a prospect; and second, it helps you determine that prospect's goals and pain points.
6. Add More Hours to the Day
Nobody has enough time to accomplish everything. But you can make time by sacrificing unimportant or unproductive tasks. In sales, that means ruthlessly trimming out any activities that don't contribute to a sale. This may require a little help from your sales manager. For example, consider all the meetings that you attend on a regular basis. Are they helping you move closer to a sale? If not, stop attending. How much of the paperwork you fill out every day is directly related to making a sale? Can you give the rest of it to someone else, such as an admin, instead of spending your valuable time on it?
7. Everyone's a Contact
Not everyone is a prospect, but everyone you meet KNOWS a prospect. Networking can turbocharge your sales by giving you access to prospects you would otherwise never meet. Incidentally, networking can be a huge help in other aspects of your life - such as finding a job with the company of your dreams. So whether you're at a trade show or standing in line at the supermarket, every encounter is a chance to make a new network contact.
By Wendy Connick
http://sales.about.com/
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