Sales Training Articles

Being a good manager is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. The first time you try to fit the pieces together, it takes a while to get everything to fit smoothly. The second time you attempt to make the pieces fit, you are a little more familiar with the pattern. Each time after that, it becomes more and more natural to easily match everything together and have it all turn out right. The pieces of the puzzle a manager has to put together are: 1. advertising 2. recruiting 3. holding productive meetings 4. motivating a person who is in an emotional or financial slump

Here’s a question: What is most important to your success? Is it education, experience, product knowledge, job title, territory, or business dress? Is it your company’s reputation, product, price, marketing collateral, delivery lead times, in stock ratios, service guarantees, management strength, or warehouse location? Is it testimonials, the latest Forbes write up, or brand awareness? Is it the investment in the latest CRM software, business 2.0 tools, or social media strategy?

Do This and Lose Salesr Focus on products lose sales, solutions make sales The North Country is dumped on, 17 inches worth of the white cold stuff. Procrastination has hit, those slick road-hugging sports tires still on the car prove to be highly useless in the slick and hard packed snow. Monday morning, the first priority is to have the car be mobile and a set of snow-oriented tires becomes necessary. Four phone calls are made to local tire suppliers with one getting the sale.

Back in the late 1980’s, the Honda Motor Company ran a memorable series of commercials, the basic premise of which was that the company’s cars were so amazing, they sold themselves. This commercial’s “hook” was that it featured a salesman who was bored out of his mind and had nothing to do because the cars were so in demand they were practically walking off the lot. The brand’s slogan at the time was “Honda, the car that sells itself.” Ha!

I dream of hot prospects who call me up and say, “We’ve heard good things about your company. We want to make a decision quickly. We’re hoping you can help us out.” Occasionally my sales fantasies turn into realities. When it happens, it’s so easy to be seduced by this low-handing fruit. Outwardly, I try to appear calm, cool and collected – a true professional. But inside, every inch of my body wants to scream out, “Take me! Take me!” Okay. I’m being a bit dramatic here, but I really want to make my point. It’s so easy to be tempted by these opportunities.

It's November and soo Christmas, a New Year and everyone will be talking about resolutions, goals and how 2010 will be even better than ever. All we have to do is set our specific goals, have a plan and execute! Wait a minute! That is what was done last year and the year before! My income is the same, my weight has gone up and I am more frustrated than ever! What is wrong here? Why no progress? I'm doing exactly what the Gurus tell me, and in detail. Well, there is nothing wrong with the goal setting; it does work as long as the biggest barrier to success is not in the way!

Overcoming Risk Aversion in Sellingr Help clients move forward in the selling process The deadline is approaching, your month is ending and the prospects that should be closing and going for it are not! What is a salesperson to do! We done the discovery, asked the questions, provided the solution, yet we seem to get inaction from the client. The issue might be RISK ADVERSION and we may not have addressed it effectively. As a matter of fact we may have inadvertently reinforced our customers Risk Aversion, thus creating part of our challenge!

Over the years I have seen hundreds, maybe even thousands of resumes and I continue to review resumes every day. Based on this experience, I can state that many applicants do nothing to help themselves gain employment. In fact, in many cases, it did the exact opposite! The amazing thing is that the reasons why their resumes did not help were completely preventable! 7 Things You Should Not Do On a Resume 1. Make your contact information hard to find. Your contact information, including name, address, phone and email, must be front and center on page 1.

There is a very powerful shift that is taking place in the direct marketing world. A shift that will have a powerful and profound effect on your home based franchise, but only if you apply it correctly AND only if you actually take the action to apply it. I think that you would agree that whether you are marketing your home based franchise on line or off; your potential customers are carrying with them the “Three S Epidemic.” They are either scared, they are scarred or they are skeptical. Maybe they are all three.

I’d like to discuss the most powerful words you can use during the selling process. After all Rudyard Kipling said, “Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind.” Plainly, THE MOST POWERFUL WORD is YOU. You should be looking to use the word You in your sales meetings a lot more than you ...

As I think about the incredible workshop I just led, I realize that I manifested this! I had wanted to lead my very own workshop for several years. I wrote a vision of what the workshop would look like and read it daily. When I walked on stage on the first day at the beautiful hotel where the workshop was held and looked out at the amazing people in the audience, this was exactly what I had envisioned. Several years ago I had no idea what it was to manifest. I didn’t understand that by focusing on what you want, you could attract the things you want into your life.

What is your "follow-up reputation" in your business? Is it 'always and promptly'? Or, is it 'usually fairly timely'? Or, could it be 'doubtful it will get done'? The highest performers keep their promises and exceed the expectations of their prospects and clients. Be a bear about this one. It isn't a task to be ...

Appointment setting cold calling scripts will help you to make sales appointments that will benefit your small business by using a sales appointment process as a base for your call. If you are making sales appointments for your business now and getting it wrong, it’s costing you time and money, ...

A sales objections technique that‘s really effective for retail and showroom sales. Feel Felt Found and has been used and proven successful for direct sales to the public. It works on those sales objections that are formed by customer’s feelings. Used by many small businesses, and people ...

I love the art of selling. LOVE IT. When I first entered the field of sales, the one thing I quickly grew to appreciate was the fact that anything I did to increase my ability in selling also increased my ability in life. Sales skills are life skills.nn“There’s a born salesman!” I have yet to read, or hear on the evening news, of a lady who gave birth to a sales person. Or an attorney, or doctor, or for that matter an embezzler or swindler. Birth is given to

10 Rules Of Negotiation: 1. Don't negotiate Sell to the problem. They make a decision based if they are willing to pay x amount of money for that solution. 2. Don't negotiate with yourself We all have tendency to lose a bit of a confidence. Ex: what is the other guy thinking? What price do I ask? Set a figure you want and stick do it, before the negotiation. Works at both cases: buying or selling. 3. Never except the first offer Because, if he is good negotiator, then he has

Conducting effective workshops is one of the constant challenges facing all trainers. We will try to look at the most effective ways to conduct workshops, ways that will make the workshops not only valuable for the attendees, but valuable and rewarding for trainers too. In order to conduct ...

Closing the sale or gaining the commitment is part of the sale process. However, many sales professionals to service professionals view closing more as a singularity instead of a process. This results in the less sales and more frustration. Sound familiar? nn Yes, there are specific skill sets required when dealing with this step in the sales process - closing or gaining commitment. However these skills should be used in conjunction with the other sales skills and aligned to

Here's a sales tip - the best day of the week is TODAY, of course. Yesterday's are lost forever, and we know only too well that tomorrow isn't promised to anyone. When you're reading the morning newspaper and don't see your name in the obituary - declare it a great day. Some salespeople ...

A positive attitude is a key sales tool. A positive attitude is something sales people work on, practice, sharpen and tune. Attitude breeds attitude, and if you are negative, the other person will be negative. Positive thoughts lead to positive language, and this is the language that sells. Within this positive language there are very powerful words that, if used effectively, are proven to be the words that sell. It might be said that it is challenging to maintain a positive

Conducting effective workshops is one of the constant challenges facing all trainers. We will try to look at the most effective ways to conduct workshops, ways that will make the workshops not only valuable for the attendees, but valuable and rewarding for trainers too. In order to conduct ...

If you were told that it is possible to profit from a stock that has a falling price, would that make sense to you? Although it does sound counterintuitive, it is possible to do so by a practice called “Short Selling”. By using short selling, you will be able to take advantage of a stock that is falling in price, and help hedge against potential losses, when stock prices move against you. What is Short Selling? Short selling is a tactic used by traders where stocks are bo

What do people want when they come into your place of business or contact you? What makes them choose your product over someone else’s? The specific answer to those questions can only come from your satisfied clients. However, I can address the general answers to help you get started on acquiring satisfied clients in the first place.

To overcome sales objections we must, first, understand who creates the objections, and why. Only then can we develop appropriate sales rebuttals. Most sales people find that many of their potential customers tend to give the same or very similar, sales objections. There are several reasons for ...

At the age of six, Corinne Archer* started putting in long hours training in her sport. Long before she entered her teens, she had fixed her mind on a single goal: to win an Olympic gold medal. From then on, she crushed everything out of her life that didn't contribute to her goal. Every ...

The ability to effectively handle objections is without doubt the single biggest factor in getting prospects to buy. An objection is first and foremost an indication that at some level the prospect has or is considering buying and should be welcomed by the salesperson. An objection is a ...

For those who are employed in professional selling, prejudging can be an occupational hazard that has the potential to be dangerous and harmful to one’s income earning potential and their reputation. Prejudging, is forming a mental impression of a customer regarding their ability and desire to purchase a product or service with little or no evidence to support our preconception. Here’s an excellent true story to keep in mind when you find yourself drawing to conclusions before having all the information and facts out in the open.

To achieve the critical edge over your competition, consider these seven sales strategies of top performers. ATTRACT BUSINESS TO YOU Imagine being flooded with phone calls and emails from hot prospects requesting information on your products and services. Top performers have a philosophy that works. "Don't make cold calls - attract warm calls." By infiltrating key target markets and positioning yourself as "the expert", you can achieve celebrity status in your niche. To do th

Here are five conditions that must be worked into your goals. All are essential. Hitting four out of five is no good ?leave one condition out of a goal, and that goal won’t be reached. Put all five conditions into a goal, and you’ve got one that will become a reality in your life. 1. Your ... Here are five conditions that must be worked into your goals. All are essential. Hitting four out of five is no good ?leave one condition out of a goal, and that goal won’t be reached. Put all five conditions into a goal, and you’ve got one that will become a reality in your life.

Everything starts with a thought. What you think about eventually creates what happens in your life. I say ‘eventually’ because can you imagine if there was no time lapse between what you thought and what actually happened: like you’re sitting in your living room daydreaming about tigers and ...

I recently read about a study of MBAs 10 years after they graduated. Researchers at Stanford School of Business found that Grade Point averages had no bearing on their success. Surprisingly, a major deciding factor was their ability to converse with others. The skill of connecting in short, ...

Have you heard the saying "People buy people?" If you have been in sales or business any length of time then you would have heard this a thousand times. The trouble is no one has ever really been able to show you how you can go about selling yourself - until now, that is.

Joint field work is where you and your representative make sales calls together. The sales representatives benefit and learn from your knowledge and experience, yet they are still are not working without a net, so to speak. The problem most sales managers have when doing joint field work is they end up taking over the call completely. Some even forget the sales person is in the room! This does nothing to train or develop the sales representative.

Master sales people are adept at using a strategy called framing to communicate with prospective clients. Framing ensures their sales messages 'cut through the clutter' and distinguishes them as the credible sales resource for their product or service. Framing is not a difficult skill and it is one that you can master too. Here are the main ways you can immediately apply framing to increase your sales performance:

I have been trying to track down a billing issue with a company for over a month. After sending yet another follow up email to my account manager today, I finally received a response. It started out by saying “So-and-So is no longer with our company…” The first thing that crossed my mind was how long has So-and-So been gone, and more importantly, how long have emails from his customers been going unanswered.

If you do business with people from cultural groups different than your own, you would be wise to invest some time understanding their cultures as well as their needs in terms of your products and services. You may not necessarily be doing business with people in another country, but with those ...

The challenge with too many salespeople is that they decide at first to 'try' selling for awhile. They don't commit 100% to it as a career because they are afraid of being wholly responsible for the level of income they achieve. I must tell you, though, that the highest paid professional ... The challenge with too many salespeople is that they decide at first to 'try' selling for awhile. They don't commit 100% to it as a career because they are afraid of being wholly responsible for the level of income they achieve.

Attentiveness means being aware of what's going on in your environment. It can be as simple as noticing when someone is getting bored, to sensing that now's not the right time to put your ideas across. It's knowing when to act and when not to act. Attentiveness is also the ability to tune into ...

Too many people, when faced with clients who range from dissatisfied to downright angry, choose the loser’s path by postponing handling the situation. Worse yet, they handle it inappropriately. Postponement doesn’t make the problem go away. It results in one of two things happening. Either the ...Too many people, when faced with clients who range from dissatisfied to downright angry, choose the loser’s path by postponing handling the situation. Worse yet, they handle it inappropriately. Postponement doesn’t make the problem go away. It results in one of two things happening.

Several years ago, I attended a banquet for top salespeople. Before I gave my talk, the speaker introduced someone in the audience and said, "This man earned twice the national average in sales last year ..." The speaker's manner suggested that it was quite an achievement. But, it has been done by many, so everyone craned their necks and looked at the man in puzzlement.

One of the most important activities of the training department is, the promotion and marketing of its products. So many times we get wrapped up in training people, developing new training programs, and testing, etc, that we lose sight of the big picture. We need to look back and define our ...

Engaging Customersn3 methods to get people talkingn Step 1: Have you ever wondered why some people turn sales people and others down? To get past this resistance we need to understand that selling is all about communications, not your product. In this segment we will start with the ...

In her book, The Introvert Advantage, Marty Olsen Laney talks about the defining moment when she embraced the fact that she was an introvert. It came in the form of a statement, "Oh, there's nothing wrong with me, I'm just an introvert!" According to her research only 25% of people are introverted which leaves us the daunting task of dealing with the 75% extroverts of the world. And surprising as it seems, there are those of us who have, for one reason or another, chosen to

If you’re one of the millions of people who never seem to get what they really want in life, the reason may be a few simple attitudes you have acquired that I call ‘demotivators.?In my experience training thousands of professional salespeople, I’ve found four common demotivators that we must ...r

Sexual discrimination against women still exists in job recruitment and promotion interviews. It can happen in job interviews when an employer is conce ed that a female applicant may want time off work on mate ity leave or parental care. So if you’re a woman going to a job interview what can you do to stop any discrimination and give yourself a better chance of gaining the job. While open sexual discrimination is no longer allowed, it can still happen in a covert way and it can never be fully prevented by legislation alone.

Experience has shown no matter where you set your minimum selling price, a sales representative sooner or later will ask you to lower it. The question is not whether you will be asked permission to discount; the question is when should you say yes.