March 24th, 2016

3 Steps to Help Prospects Commit!

Try Using Predetermined and Practiced Steps To Help Prospects Commit. Having a System in Place When It Comes Time To Get a Prospect To Commit Will Increase Your Chance of Closing The Deal!

Provide Simple Ideas That Solve Problems

People and prospects love ideas that are simple, to the point and solve the problem. Provide your solution to your prospects problem in the simplest and most obvious way possible. Sit down strategize and brainstorm on how you can provide your new prospect with a simple and easy view of your product or service that solves their problem.

Communicate Clearly

Once you provide a simple solution to a prospect’s problem, you need to communicate this to them in a simple manner. All questions must be prepared for and ready to be answered. If you do not know the answer to a question, let them know you will make it a point to get the answer and that you will get back to them as soon as possible.

Related Article: Effective Communication Skills for Sales Professionals

Build Trust Through Credibility

A great way to build trust and credibility is to go the extra distance and Do Your Research. You will also develop a better sense of confidence while speaking to your prospect if you know what you are talking about. This will in turn help you build trust and credibility with your new prospect. Make sure you take detailed notes during your initial meetings and remember key points and goals to have accomplished while coming back to your next meeting.

Figure out what steps help your prospects commit the most and use these vigorously to close more sales!

February 29th, 2016

5 Things to Consider Before Investing in A Sales Team!

No matter how long your company has been in business, in order to maintain status quo or grow, you should consider investing in a sales team. Every industry is increasingly competitive and your sales force is an important aspect of keeping a competitive advantage. These are a few things to keep in mind when hiring and retaining a sales group for your company.

Job Description
Before you engage in any hiring, take the time to make a list of all the qualities you are looking for in a salesperson. What kind of background information should they have? How long have they been in sales? What are the types of responsibilities they will have and what are your expectations in how they fulfill them? Fleshing out all of the details will help guide the type of salespeople that you want to apply for the job. Furthermore, it will help flush out the sales people that you do not want on your sales force.

Be Selective
There might be a slew of people who appear qualified on paper, but will not fit in with your company’s culture. They could have a personality that does not mesh well with their co-workers. Conducting phone interviews before having them come in for a face to face will narrow down the field. A good salesperson should have a professional phone demeanor. When you have them come in, introduce them to the rest of the sales team to see how they interact.

Incentivize
Once you have created your sales force, it is never a good lose them to a competitor. Promote a welcoming atmosphere, one that lets them know they are a valuable member of the company. Let them know they have the ability to advance within the business. Create attainable goals for them to achieve. If they feel the environment is overbearing and has no direction, they will jump ship very quickly.

Motivate
Not only do the salespeople want to feel needed, they want to know they have been doing a good job along the way. Reward the small actions that lead up to the sale. Closing the sale is not always the end game. If they have improved in some aspect of their prospecting, recognize the advancements, too. You must be prepared to motivate your sales team with rewards, further education through seminars or workshops and constant positive thinking. If you are not prepared to provide motivation, do not expect as much from your sales force. Consider unique ways to motivate your team like hiring a motivational speaker or providing motivational materials to them on a regular basis.

Training
Every company has a different method to fostering referrals and converting leads into a sale. Even though they might have been a fantastic salesperson at their previous positions, their technique might not work in your environment. Keeping the sales team up to date on the latest methods and evaluating their usefulness will ensure a successful working climate. A sales coach or sales trainer can do wonders for your sales force.
It is scary to essentially put your company into someone else’s hands to increase business. Having a good backbone in place for hiring, retaining, motivating and training a sales team will make customer acquisition a smoother process and allow you to reap the benefits. Investing in a sales team should be an educated and thorough process that ensures you are hiring and retaining the correct force for YOUR organization.

February 23rd, 2016
the-power-of-communication

Effective Communication Skills for Sales Professionals

the-power-of-communication

When it comes to sales, knowing how to say something that grabs the prospect’s attention and adds credibility to your reputation is often more important than knowing exactly what to say.  In this article, we discuss mastering effective communication skills for sales professionals and why it is extremely important for any salesperson. There are a few key elements to good communication that will help ensure your message is received, your relationships are strengthened.

Here are some effective communication skills that sales professionals should always be aware of while engaging a prospect. These techniques should be practiced until they are mastered. If you are able to communicate effectively, you will spend much less time worrying about what you are going to say and how you are going to say it.

Be enthusiastic. Enthusiastic sales reps will make a sale more often than an apathetic or disconnected salesperson. Your confidence shows your customer that you believe in your product or service. If you believe in your product or service, then that makes your customer more likely to also believe in your product or service.

Keeping your customers completely engaged is another good communication technique to master. Imagine Ben Stein giving your sales pitch, and remember that your customer can’t handle monotone, dry salespeople either.

Make good eye contact. Eye contact means that you care about the person and value them and their time. This lets your customer know that they are appreciated for their business. Eye contact is also a sign of trust and those who do not make eye contact can make the other party feel weary and unimportant.

Refrain from speaking too quickly. In your effort to be enthusiastic and confident you might find that your customer is having a hard time keeping up with your fast pace. Conversely, a slow pace can cause a customer to lose interest. Mastering the art of setting and keeping an appropriate conversation pace will set the base for effective communication between you and your client or prospect.

While the above techniques are very important, understanding your products or services is also crucial. You do not want to be that salesperson that is asked many questions about your product or service and your response is always, “I will get back to you”.

Keep your depth of knowledge up to date. Keep your mind sharp so that you can answer any questions that the customer may have. If for some reason you can’t answer their questions, make sure your responses are clear, appropriate, and demonstrate a commitment to finding the answer. You should be able to answer any question the prospect asks with confidence.

Learning Proper Telephone Selling Techniques is One of the Best Ways You Can Build Effective Communication Skills as a Sales Professional.

Learn More About Telephone Selling Techniques and Build Effective Communication Skills Today!

Developing Effective Telephone Selling Techniques and Strategies_Cover

Related Article: Stop Pitching & Start Solving Client Problems

Effective communication skills for sales professionals can be sharpened by working with a one-on-one sales coach or engaging in sales training.

February 16th, 2016

5 Sales Talent Recruitment Strategies to Build a Sales Dream Team

If you own a business, you need the best, so that you can sell the most. If you are interested in building a sales dream team, where everyone works well with each other and bounces ideas off each other, you need to consider unique recruitment strategies. You want the right fit, and there are five ways to find that fit if you’re willing to put in the time and effort. Here are some great sales talent recruitment strategies.

Interview Process

While it may not be a strategy, per se, it is a necessary part of finding a new hire. You can’t just ask for resumes and pick one randomly from the lot. You have to go through each one, find a handful of individuals who seem to fit the part and ask each one a set of uniquely designed and crafted questions.

Smart people know how to breeze through the interview process, but you have to look past what they tell you and see what they’re saying. Asking questions about the company is one way to do that. Most people don’t research beforehand. However, a smart and prepared candidate will research you and find out as much as possible. Come up with a list of questions for your interview process that only a truly qualified candidate would know the answers to.

Networking

It is up to you to keep in contact with those in your network. They can help you find more recruits that could be the answer to one of your problems.

Consider Alumni and college networking is just one of the many ways of finding new talent. These people have just got out of college or are just finishing up and want to land that dream job. You should be there to scoop them up before they get grabbed by someone else. More often than not they will have all of the necessary skill sets that you would require of them. You just need to determine if they are a good fit for your company, the specific job and your companies culture.

Previous Applicants

No one ever thinks of going back through their previous candidates to see what’s available. While they may not have been your first choice initially, people change and mature. They may have gotten another job and received some hands-on experience or are just a little more desperate and may do almost anything for the opportunity. Mine your applicant-tracking system (ATS)!

Private Events

Public recruiting events can be hard because you’re competing with others. Instead, host your own event. You’ll get a lot of people who are all interested in working for you.

Social Media

Social media sites, like LinkedIn, can be a goldmine of talent, so don’t forget to join and check these sites frequently. Once you find a candidate you can reach out immediately. If they are too far for an in-person interview try doing an interview over video chat.

If you want a sales dream team, you’re going to have to have excellent sales talent recruitment strategies. Visit The Sales Coaching Institutes and reach out to their executive sales recruiting experts to learn more.

February 1st, 2016

Cultivating & Capitalizing On The Sales Relationship

As many people know, in sales; finding success is all about building relationships. Even the most profitable and successful sales professionals know that without taking the time to develop strong relationships with their customers; they will not be able to find the success that they are looking for. It is important to remember a very simple five step process that involves cultivating and capitalizing on the sales relationship so that you can build a strong bond with your client. This will allow you to build relationships with them that you know will lead to tremendous success.

Step One: Cultivate by Networking

You can’t build strong client relationships without first getting the clients. You will want to start cultivating clients by networking. Asking for referrals and reaching out to people through mutual contacts is a great way to begin a client relationship as you have a connection from the beginning and before you even meet. This is a great way to cultivate clients that you can build strong relationships with.

Step Two: Develop a Client Relationship Base

Before you can capitalize on the fact that you have a strong relationship with your client you will want to start building a strong client relationship. Asking questions and getting to know the client and what their needs and wants are is a great way to make sure you know how to sell to them and to earn their trust; proving that you are trying to do more than just close a sale. People can tell when you are only trying to sell to them and not trying to genuinely help them, try consulting a one-on-one sales coach to help you work through this problem.

Step Three: Get Sales by Offering Them What They Want

Once you have developed a strong relationship with a client you can start capitalizing on that relationship to get the sales you are looking for. However, before closing a sale you will want to make sure that you keep your customer happy to show them your loyalty. Don’t be afraid to offer incentives, gifts, discounts and more, especially if they are a repeat customer that you are looking to build a stronger relationship with as keeping old customers happy is often easier than getting new ones.

 

Step Four: Making Sure Your Client is Happy

Whenever you close a sale you need to make sure that your client is happy. You can do this by consistently checking in with them via phone calls, emails and in-person visits. Depending on how much you are involved in servicing their needs this could be every week, but it should be at least every month. A simple, “Hello, how is business?” can go a very long way. This is also a great chance to ask for referrals, if you have a happy client they will often be more than willing to refer friends, business associates and family members to you.

Step Five: Building an Ongoing Relationship

Closing a sale based on a strong client relationship is not the end of the sales process; there is still more that needs to be done. After ensuring your client is happy, you have a perfect chance to see if they are in need of more of your services or products (if they are in fact happy). Don’t be shy to ask them if they need additional service/products, this can be a key point in making sure your client is happy and stays happy.

Related & Helpful Articles On Capitalizing On The Sales Relationship

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