Sales Training

A basic rule of sales you MUST understand to be successful.

“Identify and Satisfy the Customers’ Needs, Profitably”.

The faster you come to terms with just how important it is to understand the structure of your position description, the quicker you will progress to successful selling.

IDENTIFY the need ….

Prove you can SATISFY the need ….

Make sure you can do it PROFITABLY ….

OTHERWISE – NO DEAL!

To do this you have to acknowledge a BASIC RULE OF SALES:

“If the salesperson says it, the customer can doubt it,

but if the customer says it, it must be true!”

So STOP TELLING your customers what you think and START ASKING them what they think.

So, what problem do you solve?

Why do people buy?

To MOVE AWAY FROM PAIN or to MOVE TOWARDS PLEASURE

REMEMBER!

You must STOP TELLING your customers what you think and START ASKING them what they think.

The more they tell you, the more chance you have to ESTABLISH WHERE THEIR PAIN LEVEL IS.

There are two types of pain:

ACUTE PAIN and CHRONIC PAIN

ACUTE PAIN – “If I don’t fix this problem now it will (or it is already) severely hurt my business!”

CHRONIC PAIN – “I know it’s not good for my business but it’s not that bad that I’m going to take action to fix it.”

YOU need to be able to ask questions and provide solutions that will turn Chronic Pain into Acute Pain.

Because the worse the PAIN …

the more VALUE you can ADD …

the more PROFIT you can MAKE …

And you MUST MAKE A PROFIT OR YOU CAN’T MAKE A SALE!

So here’s the questions that will decide if you can fix their pain:

WHAT PROBLEM DO YOU SOLVE?

You must be able to state in one or two simple sentences exactly what problem your business solves – not what it does, or what it sells, or how old or new or big or small it is but what problem it solves.

Do this now. Go to the resources, print off the sheet and write down the top three problems that your business solves for your customers.

Your Ego is not your Amigo!

Why are Salespeople scared of selling?

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, the simple fact is that people don’t like to be JUDGED and they don’t like to be REJECTED.

So what happens if your job puts you in a position where firstly people have a chance to JUDGE YOU and then they decide whether they are going to REJECT YOU or not.

It will make people feel a bit uneasy to say the least and downright terrified in the worst cases. Why is this so? Because of your Ego.

“YOUR EGO IS NOT YOUR AMIGO!”

Remember, there is nothing that can physically harm you in your work as a salesperson so the only thing that can get hurt is your feelings. Salespeople must always remember the following:

“YOUR OPINION IS IRRELEVANT

BUT YOUR JUDGMENT IS CRUCIAL”

I have never read a job description where one of the KPI’s is “Your clients must like you” but I have read heaps where it says “You are to work to become a trusted advisor.”

Being a trusted advisor comes about because of your good judgment in acting in your clients’ best interest, not because you are the most popular or ‘a good bloke’.

And be prepared to walk away from bad deals (i.e. one’s that are not profitable). It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, just that on this occasion, you couldn’t identify or satisfy the customers’ needs well enough, or make a decent profit out of it.

Do you want to be the salesperson that everybody likes and who makes no sales, or the one that everyone respects who make the most sales.

For those of you thinking “This guy is an idiot! Of course customers buy from me because they like me!” well that’s your ego talking. A skilled sales professional who is a ‘trusted advisor’ will leave a ‘relationship builder’ dead in the water every day of the week.

So, leave your Ego at the door and become the Trusted Advisor.

Are you talking to the "Appropriate Person"?

Who’s the M.A.N.?

Your position description is to Identify and Satisfy the Customers’ needs, profitable.

SO YOU MUST BE TALKING TO THE DECISION MAKER!

Decision makers come in all shapes and sizes but they all have three things in common:

-They have the MONEY to pay for your goods or services

-They have the AUTHORITY to purchase your goods or services

-They have the NEED for your goods and services.

If you can’t find the person (or people) that have the MONEY, the AUTHORITY and the NEED, then you’re talking to the wrong person.

To find THE M.A.N. make sure when you do your prospecting that you are asking ….

WHO IS THE APPROPRIATE PERSON?

So many salespeople waste so much valuable time trying to sell to the wrong person – don’t be one of these!!!

Right at the start of the sale if you can find THE MAN you will DRASTICALLY INCREASE YOUR CHANCE OF MAKING A SALE.

Ask yourself this question now - What prospects or customers are you currently dealing with where you are not dealing with THE MAN? Go to the resources section and print this out and fill out the list.

I bet you can find AT LEAST TEN!

CALL THEM TODAY AND FIND OUT WHO THE MAN IS!!!

Resources for this lecture

Five specific pieces of information that you MUST HAVE!

Information equals Power

In every sales situation whoever has the information has the power to add or withdraw value from the transaction.

When you see a client they have all the information – they know what their problem is, they know how it came about, they know what they will pay to fix it and they know how much pain is being caused by it.

They have all the power because they have all the information.

YOU WANT THE POWER

AND YOU HAVE TO ASK QUESTIONS

TO GET IT!

The way you ask your questions, the style that you have and the format that you use to identify their needs, allows you to:

1. BUILD CREDIBILITY

2. PROVE YOUR AREA OF EXPERTISE

3. FIND COMMON GROUND

4. IDENTIFY PAIN POINTS

If you are the type of salesperson that goes to a client and TELLS them what you do, what you charge, and how you do it, all you’re doing is giving them your POWER because you are giving them all your INFORMATION.

If you ask the client the right questions to identify their needs and their pain points, the you are the one who will have the information.

IF YOU HAVE THE INFORMATION,

YOU WILL BE ABLE TO BUILD VALUE.

IF YOU CAN BUILD VALUE INTO A TRANSACTION,

YOU CAN BUILD PROFIT INTO A TRANSACTION.

Most salespeople think that you have to give a customer a discount if you are going to make a sale. YOU DON’T! You have to satisfy their needs to make a sale, and the sales that you make must be PROFITABLE.

WHAT ARE THE FIVE SPECIFIC PIECES OF INFORMATION THAT YOU NEED FROM EVERY CUSTOMER SO THAT YOU CAN ADD VALUE AND MAKE A PROFITABLE SALE?

Go to the resources section, print the sheet, and fill in YOUR five specific pieces of information that you must have.

The top six open questions you need to use in every sale.

Open and Closed Questions

How do you get information? You ask questions. Open and closed ones. If you can do this, you can sell anything!

Open Questions start with:

WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE WHY HOW

And you can’t answer them with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer. Open questions are used for getting information.

Closed Questions start with:

IF COULD DID WILL CAN DOES

And you can answer them with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer. Closed questions are used for ‘closing’.

TO KNOW, AND NOT TO DO, IS NOT TO KNOW.

Here's the problem - every salespersons questions will be different depending on what product or service that they are selling!

So you need to TURN YOUR BIG BRAIN ON and ask yourself the question, what are Top Six Open Questions that I have to ask every time I am in front of MY customers?

Go to the resources section, print out the sheet, and fill them in now.

(Sorry if you thought you would be just be given the questions but I hope you understand that the credibility you get from asking YOUR questions is because YOU crafted them, not because some supposed 'Sales Guru' came up with them.)

Resources for this lecture

Dig down deep and listen for the feeling.

Follow the Lead ….

How do people listen?

Most people listen to respond to the person talking to them, not to understand that the person is actually telling them.

You must listen EMPATHICALLY – listen for the FEELING. If you can identify the feeling you can identify the PAIN.

YOUR HOMEWORK

When you get home tonight, or the next time you are with friends, ask an open question, and then depending on what their answer is, ask an open question based on their answer, an then ask another open questions based on that answer – AND LISTEN FOR THE FEELING!

FOLLOW THE LEAD!

Ask a question ….

then listen to the answer ….

then ask a question based on their answer ….

then listen to the next answer ….

and then ask your next question based on that answer ….

and keep doing this ….

and keep DIGGING DOWN UNTIL YOU IDENTIFY THE NEED!

Once they realize you are listening at an empathic level, for the way they are feeling, there is a very good chance that they will tell you something that will lead to a ..

AH HA MOMENT!

Some pearl of wisdom or insight will suddenly jump out and smack you right in the face. This will only happen when:

YOU FOLLOW THE LEAD

YOU LISTEN EMPATHICALLY

YOU DIG DEEP

YOU MUST DO THIS EVERY TIME YOU INTERACT WITH A CLIENT!

Don't go into TELL MODE!

Controlling the Sale

During a meeting with a client sooner or later they will

want some information and you are going to have to give it to them.

Most inexperienced salespeople will immediately go into ‘TELL MODE’.

STOP! You cannot control the sale by giving all your information away. The fundamental rule for controlling the sale is:

THE PERSON WHO ASKS THE LAST QUESTION

IS IN CONTROL OF THE SALE

To do this is the simplest thing in the world of sales. Before you give your client the information that they have requested, all you have to do is ….

ANSWER A QUESTION WITH A QUESTION

You must give your customers information when they ask for it, but you must do this first so you can find out ….

WHY DOES THE CLIENT WANT THE INFORMATION?

The answer that comes from this question will give you the information that you need to ADD VALUE to the sale and CREATE PROFIT!

In business to business sales in a custom

er facing situation, the next thing that comes out of your mouth can make or break a sale. You should have realized by now that …

THE NEXT THING THAT COMES OUT OF YOUR MOUTH

THAT WILL MAKE THE SALE WILL BE A QUESTION!

An Extra Bonus – If anyone ever asks you an uncomfortable question that you don’t really want to answer (i.e. how old you are, how much you weight, how much you earn etc) just respond with this ….

THAT’S AN INTERESTING QUESTION. WHY DO YOU ASK?