***If You Want More Sales, Then You Need Advanced Sales People

By Sam Manfer
The official guide to Sales Management Training

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Orders are lost (or not obtained) not because of price, or better performance, or delivery, or …., but because you or your sales person has been out sold. When a prospect doesn’t commit to you, that prospect has out sold you. When a competitor wins, that competitor out sold you. I hear every ...Orders are lost (or not obtained) not because of price, or better performance, or delivery, or …., but because you or your sales person has been out sold. When a prospect doesn’t commit to you, that prospect has out sold you. When a competitor wins, that competitor out sold you. I hear every reason why the sale was lost and how I don’t understand the business from sales people and managers. What I don’t hear is, “I was out sold and I need to do something about that.”

When one is up against sophisticated business people, savvy buyers and competitors’ advanced sales people, the basics are not enough. So in order to win more often your sales people and sales managers or you have to do something concrete to get better.

Advanced Selling vs. Basic Selling

Everybody is a sales person and so everybody knows the basics of selling - Present, Ask Questions, and Listen. As with any process, advanced selling requires the basics, but ramped up to higher levels. Here’s an analogy. Baseball basics are about fielding and hitting. Anyone can play catch or hit baseballs in a batting cage, but can anyone play competitive baseball without skills training and practice.

Since there are no skills training or selling education in high schools or colleges, most sales people and sales managers are stuck with the basics. To make matters worse people rarely seek further education (especially in sales) once they get a job.

So your sales people and managers (or you) are as good as they will be without doing something to get to the next level.

To become a better seller or sales manager you must invest your time and money to update and improve. Don’t expect people to do this on their own because they think they are good enough.

And now I invite you to learn more.