Sales & Selling Skill | Solution | Tips | Idea and Strategy Information and Articles
|
|
|
Sales & Selling Skill | Solution | Tips | Idea and Strategy Information and Articles |
|
||
|
|
Do Your Words Betray You?
What do the words that you use say about you? What is your basic message? Do your words support that basic message? As a business owner, entrepreneur or sales professional, part of your message must be of confidence and authority. You always want your prospect or your customer to see you as an expert in your field, as someone who is credible and someone who is knowledgeable. Sometimes, the words we use or the way we use them get in the way. Have you ever started a conversation with a prospect or customer with the phrase "I'm just calling?"? That little word "just" is an apology. It says that your call is not important and that what you have to say is not important. Delete it from your vocabulary immediately! Simply tell your prospects and customers why you are calling. That is enough. "I believe that?." "I think that?." "I know?." Who would you rather listen to? Someone who believes or thinks she knows something-or someone who just knows it? The phrases "I believe" and "I think" detract from your message. They detract from your power. "Once we have completed? we will hopefully achieve?" Hopefully? No one pays you to "hopefully" do something. They pay you to do actually do it! Tell your prospects or customers what they will achieve or should expect to achieve. To make your words sound powerful, pitch your voice to a lower level than your usual speaking voice. In our society, a lower-pitched voice is perceived as more authoritative. Also, make sure that the inflection goes down at the end of every sentence. When nervous, everyone tends to make even statements into questions with an upward inflection. This will make you sound nervous and unsure. Be careful also, as you are doing this, not to drop off or throw the last words of your sentence away. That would sound like you are giving up. It may take some time and practice before you are fully comfortable eliminating the words "just," "I believe," "I think" and "hopefully" from your vocabulary. It will also take some time and practice to get the lowered vocal pitch and downward inflections at the end of sentences. But it will be time well spent when you see the difference in the way your customers and prospects respond. Even if you do feel nervous, using these particular word and vocal tips will make you sound confident and self-assured. Eventually, you will even begin to feel that way! © 2004 Wendy Weiss Wendy Weiss, The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success, is a sales trainer, author and sales coach. She is the author of Cold Calling for Women and the recently released Cold Calling College. Get her free e-zine at http://www.wendyweiss.com.
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Interactive Sales Letter Skyrockets Conversions with 2 Simple Questions There are many tactics and techniques that go into converting visitors into buyers. However, this article will prove to you why creating an "interactive" sales letter will be the most critical weapon in your modern marketing arsenal to accomplish this. Your Proposal Was Rejected... But Why? When a request for proposal (RFP) comes in, you get excited! It's a chance to earn income, develop more business contacts, and expand your client base. You work your little heart out in order to be thorough, compelling, and professional. Everything is in place. Your RFP is geared to show why your product or service will meet or exceed the client's goals. With fingers crossed, you submit. Referrals: Getting Good Business By Doing Good Business Whether you're a conventional sales person, a professional ? such as a dentist or lawyer or doctor ? or a business owner, you've got to have clients to stay in business. There are several ways to do this: either continue to find new customers, keep all of the customers you've ever had, get old clients to return, or get customers to send in referrals. The Damaging Admission - A Persuasive Technique We would all like to think that our product or service is flawless. More importantly, we would like for others to believe that as well. But no matter what you sell, a drawback (sometimes several) will always exist, even if only in the mind of your reader-prospects. Either way, you MUST address the issue up front. In fact, if written properly, "the damaging admission" can actually be used to your advantage. Mindset Over Materials: The Secret Weapon of Sustainable Sales Success Long-term sales success has less to do with skills or knowledge than you might think. Nor are stunning brochures or excellent products guaranteed to make one iota of impact over time. Unless certain critical elements already exist in the salesperson, providing training and tools in hopes of improving performance does nothing more than giving a PGA golfer's best driver to an amateur. The club itself can't make someone a pro. Yet a pro can take a cheap driver and make a better shot than an amateur with the best and biggest Big Bertha has to offer. Likewise, you probably know one or two standouts who have excelled without classic sales training, without flashy support materials for their products, and even without a superior product to represent. Then what makes the difference? If it's not remarkable closing ability, appealing brochures, outstanding product knowledge, or relentless objection handling... if it's not talent or brainpower or tools that create sustained success, what is it? In more than twenty years studying the top performers in many fields, I've discovered the mysterious X-factor is mindset: a group of attitudes, understandings, beliefs, and resulting behaviors. Whether you're talking about golf or sales or any other pursuit, the same principle applies. Ultimately, the mindset creates top performance, excellent production numbers, and prosperity for both the salesperson and the company he or she represents. Creating a mindset of sustained success requires you to focus on three key areas: The beliefs you have about yourself; The attitudes you have about your customers, product, and industry; The ownership you take of your own success. The Inner Game of Sales You have to see yourself as successful in the inner game in order to be successful in the outer game. When you give that "command" to the unconscious mind -- when you imagine how you'll feel, look and sound when you are producing at the level you desire -- the mind thinks it's already occurred and calls for an encore performance in the real world. The first step to changing your own "mental programming" is to recognize it. Think about it. Think about why you don't do what you know intellectually you should. Then start thinking about what's behind it. What do you have to believe about yourself, your world, your product, your industry, to cause this behavior to occur? Some common underlying beliefs that regulate salespeople's performance are "I need more training and skills before I can succeed." "I'm not worthy of earning more than..." "I am not good at cold calling." "I'm not able to talk to (or get to) the decision makers at the top." Once the underlying belief is uncovered, a new belief must be chosen. The new belief can be the opposite or an "antidote" to the old one, such as "I have unlimited life knowledge and experience." New beliefs must then be "installed." Specifically, the new belief must be supported by both evidence and habit. Start by answering a simple question: What will I have to see, hear, and feel to cement this belief? Then begin vividly visualizing these results at least twice a day. (Note: the mind is most open to suggestion first thing in the morning just after waking and the last thing at night before sleep.) Many people think that results build belief, and in some cases this is true, but it's more often the inverse. Remember the chain: thought/word-image-emotion-action-result. You must be able to see yourself already in possession of the outcome of the new belief. Champions in any field create an unbending belief in themselves, program themselves to continually find evidence to support its truth, then consistently and vividly see themselves in possession of the desired goal. William James, the father of modern psychology, said, "Your belief creates the fact." Now Forget Sales, and Focus on Your Customers Once you've visualized yourself achieving your goals and removed any psychological obstacles, it's time to put those goals aside and focus on the customer. Again, this all happens in your mind, but it has a profound impact on the way you affect your outer world. Today's customers and clients require a new attitude, one that offers something rather than asks for something. In a high-tech society, high touch is highly valuable. The new-school salesperson focuses on giving instead of getting, on service instead of sales. Always a man ahead of his time, Henry Ford captured this mindset eloquently: "Wealth will never be achieved when sought after directly; it only comes as a by-product of providing useful service." This level of service takes some guts. Sometimes you have to tell people what they don't want to hear. Sometimes, you even have to say, "Maybe I'm not the best for you... I'd like to send you to someone who will be." Service means that you're no longer willing to do whatever it takes for the sale. Now you'll do whatever it takes for the customer -- because it's the customer who makes or breaks your business, not an isolated transaction. Old Hat, New Head: Take Ownership of Your Success Have you heard these ideas before? Are you utilizing them as you should? If not, why not? Likewise, are there other, obvious principles of business success you've overlooked? Sales success grows out of a fundamental mindset, based on some ideas that may be "old hat" but require a "new head" to fit you. I operate from the premise that you know what you need to do, and you have what you need to create a six- or seven-figure income. Most salespeople have heard all the "magic bullet" ideas and pitches. But until you begin to think in new ways, you will never apply these time-tested principles. The distinction between short-term flashes in the pan and sustained success is simply doing what may seem obvious to you right now. We might say, "If the hat fits, wear it." How to Eliminate Objections to Price Have you ever stepped your way through the sales process only to be disappointed by your prospect's objection to your price? How To Seal The Deal In Seven Seconds Can you close a sale in just seven seconds? If you make a great first impression, you can do it even faster. Seven seconds is the average length of time you have to make a first impression. If yours is not good, you won't get another chance with that potential client. But if you make a great first impression you can bet that the client is more likely to take you and your company seriously. Warming Up To Cold Calls Will you do just about anything, including sending out hundreds of letters, to avoid making cold calls to your potential customers/prospects? If so, you're not alone. Millions like you have started their own businesses, only to find that the thought of making calls to potential customers/prospects leaves them paralyzed with anxiety. Believe me I was one of them. For those of you who know us and have read "Who Makes It Happen", remember what I used to go through before I would get on the telephone to cold call. How to Give Your Customers a Choice Between You and the Competition and Have Them Choose You Instead of giving your customers or potential customers a choice between you and your competition and having them choose the other guy, have them choose you. Finding a Used Mannequin Many stores on a budget choose to buy a used mannequin. Used mannequins are a good deal for several reasons. Many stores do not see the purpose in buying new mannequins when used ones work just as well. While some used mannequins may have slight damage or need to be repainted, most of them look as good as new. Many places offer used mannequins for rent as well. Exporting to Europe: Not the Challenges You Think If you plan to do sell your product or service in Europe the problems you encounter may not be the ones you expect. It's easy to focus on perceived difficulties, such as the so-called 'language barrier', while not noticing the real pitfalls ? until it's too late. I learned three lessons the hard way: appreciate the different cultures, understand the value of quality vs. speed, and know which foreign language is key to your business. Is Sales Profession an Oxymoron? If you are in Sales, you have probably heard these before: Do Your Words Betray You? What do the words that you use say about you? What is your basic message? Do your words support that basic message? Planning to Realize Your Goals Recently, I wrote about about creating specific, compelling goals that pull you towards what you want in your business, career and life. When Selling, Keep It Simple Stupid! After our first half-hour telephone coaching session, when asked what he thought about our training, my client felt the learning process we had undertaken together earlier in the week, "was a bit too elementary." As a Branch Manager with over 18 years of sale experience, a supervisor who must also produce sales over and above the five representatives reporting to him, when he purchased our training, he thought that he would receive and then drill-for-skill some new and yet undiscovered selling process that would magically change his ability to produce sales. What he actually found was a "deceptively simple" system with methods proven in the field to produce a consistent flow of new business. Later he wrote: 6 Creative Questions To Move From HOW Are You To WHO Are You Imagine you just met someone new. The formalities of names, jobs and the like have been exchanged and you seem to be getting along famously. But before you know it, a few minutes pass ? and it looks like you're running out of clichés! Leveraging Yourself Up To Executives When Selling The fastest way to get a decision made is to speak directly with the decision-maker, right? OK, so you knew that. Often times, the decision-makers are not easy to get to. There are dozens of salespeople who would love to pitch to the CEO, President, VP, or Department Directors if given the chance. And the purpose of middle management is to filter communication to executives, and oversee the execution of plans and policies so that the executives don't have to. Instead of Discounting, Back Some Value Out of Your Proposal Last minute discounting has become so prevalent that many companies have come to depend on it as their default sales strategy. Employing a go-to-market strategy of being the lowest cost provider is one thing, but dramatic, tactical discounting on every deal will erode your company's margins and leave you digging a deeper and deeper hole in which your company will ultimately bury itself. I don't want to give you the impression that discounting is never appropriate. I can think of three scenarios where it is required: Lock, Stock, and Barrel! The other night I was watching a classic western from 1969, Sergio Leone's "Once Upon A Time In The West". Pinging for Success: Creating Search Patterns One of my first internship jobs as a college student was working for a defense company who, at the time, developed a highly sophisticated torpedo for hunting down submarines and destroying them. The operation of the torpedo was pretty fascinating. The torpedo was launched from the deck of a ship or dropped from a helicopter into the water.
|
