The best sales techniques often leave out emotion. Rather than inspiring us to buy, they raise suspicion. Rather than motivating us to make a purchase, they pressure and annoy us. In the worse case, sales techniques can backfire and irritate prospects to the point of breaking trust. What to do…?

While sales training is a vital key to sales success, tapping into your passion is more important. Your enthusiasm will infect your prospects. Notice the door-to-door salesman in the video below. He says he has a disease called “enthusiasm.”

I’d buy the product!

It’s contagious – check it out…

~ Theo

When we evaluate our sales techniques, do we know if we’re a tortoise or a hare? In other words, what’s our sales philosophy?  Do we rush through leads grabbing more and more hoping to get lucky with a few sales? Or, do we take every lead, evaluate it, come up with a plan, and work to sell every lead the best we can?  What sales technique is best? [Read more...]

There are lots of sales techniques that talk about negotiation strategies, building value, and closing the sale. These are all important and should be incorporated into sales training activities to sharpen our sales skills. That said, the speed at which we respond to an inquiry has a dramatic impact on our close rates. Put another way, the speed at which we respond to a phone or email inquiry… [Read more...]

Last week we posted about how we often see professional sales people goofing around during “work” hours (Post: Telephone Sales Skills). While we all need to relax and have fun, there is a time and a place. Interestingly, when you try to discuss good sales tips and techniques with these types of sales folk, they all agree enthusiastically. Their intentions are good, but their sales presentations are weak. Here’s why. [Read more...]

Have you ever been completely confused about what someone is selling? It seems that many folks either over-think or under-think their sales techniques. I came across two lawn signs recently. One was advertising landscaping services, the other daycare. The landscaping sign displayed “Joe’s Landscaping” in a hard-to-read font. The image showed a truck (apparently Joe’s truck) and a phone number. That’s it. The second sign was just as disturbing to discerning sales professionals. It stated “Happy Hour Day Care.” I get the intent (who the heck doesn’t want kids to be happy), but really? “Happy Hour?” I was amazed at how twisted both messages were. In terms of sales techniques, if you’re sales presentation (no matter where it is – boardroom or front lawn) does not send the correct message immediately, you’ve set yourself up for a battle. [Read more...]

I recently encountered an interesting sales scenario with a company I was looking to hire. I requested an estimate on two specific services. During our very pleasant conversation, the sales representative suggested an upsell. I agreed and asked for an estimate for the additional work. Two days later I got an estimate just for the upsell, with the assurance that they’d get back to me regarding the remaining prices. [Read more...]

As surprising at it sounds, studies show that as many as 60% of the time when a prospect and a sales person are interacting, the sale person does not ask for the sale. This number is as high as 80% in some retail industries. The reasons for these extraordinarily high percentages are numerous: fear, lack of sales training, assumptions on the part of the sales representative…etc. The cure, however, may surprise you. [Read more...]

Most of us use good sales techniques. We work hard. We want to please our clients, and, of course, we want to close sales. However, we don’t like to say no. In fact, it’s a word we often go out of our way to avoid saying. Most sales training courses will steer you away from this word as well. While we can appreciate working hard to close deals, and finding reasons to say yes, a simple no can be a very effective technique to win the deal, on your terms. [Read more...]

Have you thought you had a sure deal only to have it evaporate? Me too – it happens to us all from time to time. However, one primary reason this occurs is that out of all the sales techniques we use, we often forget preclosing. Instead, we jump right to the ask or send off our sales collateral only to be flat out denied. There are lots of preclosing questions, but this short video from AllBusiness does a fantastic job. Enjoy… [Read more...]

Have you noticed the plethora of sales and marketing techniques that attempt to come off as personal but are really just auto-generated? It may be an automated personal phone message from a CEO, or a letter using computer-generated font made to look like real handwriting. More and more companies are resorting to these types of sales techniques. What effect do you think sales tricks have on prospects? [Read more...]