Tag Archives: Sales Training

Sales Coaching

Direct Sales Training – This CSI Will Close You More Sales

Direct Sales Training:

Jared is an exceptionally good closing manager. He is the manager that closes the difficult deals. One day I asked Jared to tell me his negotiation skills success secret.

Jared said his secret is like the TV show CSI (Crime Scene Investigation). Only Jared’s CSI stands for “Customer Selling Investigation.”

Jared explained that when he was a new closer and didn’t close a sale he would do a CSI on the deal. He would interview the salesperson that worked the deal. In most cases he was able to quickly determine the missing ingredients in the deal. Maybe the salesperson did a poor job fact finding with the customer and didn’t know their hot buttons. Maybe they didn’t identify the customer’s main motivation for considering the purchase. Maybe there was a poor product selection in matching the customer’s needs.

Jared’s Realization

Jared said he soon started to realize that as a closer he was more like a report card on how well the salesperson set up the deal.

Jared concluded if he could do effective direct sales training with his salespeople his closing ratio would increase. Jared soon became a sales coach to his people. He helped them improve their fact finding skills, their listening skills and their product selection skills.

Jared’s Almost Magical Closing Improvement

As Jared started doing more sales training coaching his negotiation skills and closing ratio seemed to almost magically improve. And the more he did sales training with his sales team the more his closing ratio skyrocketed.

Your Direct Sales Training Action Item:

Proactively take charge of your own sales training. Take some time to sharpen your fact finding skills and product knowledge skills. Do your own CSI after each deal and analyze what happened and why. Soon you will be working a lot smarted and closing a lot more sales like Jared.

David Nassief negotiation skills [http://www.phoenix-best-sales-jobs.com/negotiation-skills.html] coach invites you to improve your sales with the free report “Selling Secrets of Top 5% Earning Salespeople” [http://www.phoenix-best-sales-jobs.com/top5-free-report.html] David’s site is [http://www.phoenix-best-sales-jobs.com]

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Sales Coaching

Sales Coaching – How to Turn a Shopper Into a Buyer – Taking a Sales Lead

Shoppers don’t yet know what they want to buy so how do you turn them into quality sales leads?. This is how a person’s mind is working when they are shopping for, say, a new kitchen. “I know I want a new kitchen, but I don’t know which style to choose; I don’t know how much I can afford; I don’t know what kind of sink, or taps, or oven, or worktop, or fridge, or … to choose? You may find this kind of response is familiar for shoppers in your industry.

Do you send them off with a brochure? Do you take the lead anyway in the hope that the prospect would have “got themselves sorted out” by the time the sales appointment comes round? Do you try and help them make a decision on product ranges before you take the sales lead? Do you dismiss them as time wasters? Most of these responses to a shopper will generally develop into a sales lead that does not sell.

Buyers, on the other hand, will generally know what they want and spell out or list the ingredients of their required purchase. Their mind is working in a more focused way and slight changes to their original order can easily be made to the final sale through the introduction of “value added” products and services such as labour saving equipment and insurance backed guarantees, etc.

A few qualifying questions asked of a buyer are quickly answered. They are open to suggestions based on new technology or better quality materials. They want to get to the next stage of their buying cycle as quickly as possible. However, they are still looking for one more ingredient to turn them as a qualified sales lead into a satisfied buyer and customer. If you are thinking … discount or special offer, you are way off the mark! Before this question gets answered, let’s go back a step and look at a few tips on how to tell a shopper from a buyer.

Shoppers:

  • A shopper will meander around a display area and will probably be trying to compare ‘apples’ with ‘pears’ from your product portfolio.
  • Physically, a shopper will walk and touch things more hesitantly.
  • Shoppers will generally wait to be asked if they need help.

Buyers:

  • Alternatively, a buyer will be more focused at what they look at from a product point of view.
  • A buyer is more likely to read point of sale information.
  • A buyer will ask more in-depth questions and will probably relate these questions to specific circumstances – their reason for wanting the product.
  • Buyers generally approach or walk towards a product or sales assistant more confidently and will be more likely to open the conversation.

 

For the person taking the sales lead, it just needs them to watch the customer’s activity and change the opening comments or questions to fit their assessment. However, the opening question can be the making or breaking of converting the shopper into a buyer. Although these are generalisations, it is a basic human characteristic of how knowledge, or lack of, affects the psyche.

Now for the answer to above comment of what additional ingredient is required to turn a buyer into a qualified sales lead and subsequently a satisfied buyer and customer. This is also the same ingredient that helps shoppers become buyers. It is confidence and you will never get anywhere near the completion of a sale with any prospect until you have installed this characteristic into the shopper or buyer.

Taking this a stage further … if you agree with the precept that people buy people first and the product after, the feeling of confidence from a prospect must be in the sales person not necessarily the organisation they represent although this may be a consideration later.

Getting the “first contact” right every time means understanding how this element of the sale forms an important part of the complete process that takes a sales lead to a successful sale. However, there are many companies that sell their products and services direct to the public that do not successfully link the sales lead with the sales presentation and, as a consequence, will always be working on the wrong aspects of conversion ratios.

Ian D Ludlow helps sales and customer service people and organisations in the business-to-business, direct sales and retail environments to improve their current performance.

As a Master Practitioner of NLP and Accredited LVT Practitioner, he uses fun and creative techniques to change unproductive behaviours and to help individuals and teams THINK FASTER and REACT QUICKER to ever changing market conditions.

He states, “If you carry on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Ian’s specialism is knowing what to change and how to change it with minimum effort and maximum return.

Ian helped improve the average sales value for a retail business by 14% which added £34M in sales revenue over one year from 320 stores. He also helped increase the sales conversion ratio by 7% through quality sales training and lead generation programmes for a kitchen and bathroom installer; increasing sales by £24M over one year.

Ian D Ludlow can be contacted on +44 (0)1795 55 56 83 whilst his website is under construction.

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Sales Coaching

Sales Coaching – How to Successfully Follow Up

When I accompany sales people on their appointments in my capacity as a sales coach, I very rarely see the follow up used as a sales tool. However, I have witnessed two extremes of sales follow up technique that left me cold.

The first was immediately after the sales person had finished the presentation of the price and received a polite, “We’ll have to think about that, it is more than we anticipated paying.” The negotiation was based on discount which still was not bringing the price down to the customer’s expected price level.

The sales person then packed his things and stated that he had to call his manager to tell him how the appointment had finished. You can see it coming … the manager then wanted to talk to the customer and, blow me down with a feather, more discount was offered to close the sale. This technique actually turned the customer off so much that I could see the anger in their face. Something the sales person missed!

What a shame that the only selling skills available was based on discount rather than understanding the customer’s perceived idea of value for this particular product.

The other extreme of follow up was used by a sales person selling kitchens and, at the end of the fruitless presentation, told the customer that he would call in a few days having given them time for thought about the purchase.

What made it worse was the statement, “I have to follow up every call or my manager has a go at me and after a certain period the system takes the lead back and I get nothing.” I don’t know if this was the “sympathy sale” close technique!

The follow up call was made a few days later with this, less than effective, telephone call. “Hello, this is … from … (names withdraw). Have you thought about the price any further, or what other thoughts have you had.” I’m not sure I need to comment on the quality and substance of this follow up call because it is so similar to many I have witnessed in the past.

Here are some tips on how to make sales follow up calls more effective.

 

  • Make an appointment with the customer for the follow up; what day, morning or afternoon, what phone number.
  • Agree what the subject of the call will be about; not just asking about if the customer has thought more about the purchase.
  • Have another reason for the customer to buy; but ensure this reason has a customer based benefit, not just the offer of another discount.
  • Have a progression plan for what happens after the follow up call; many sales people just continually use follow up calls as their method of keeping a sales prospect “live”.

During my Follow Up Workshops the delegates discover different ideas on how to make their calls more effective. Many find that creating a rough script helps to put some structure to the calls. Delegates also coach each other in how the call sounds from a customer’s point of view. Many have reported an up-lift in conversion ratios after implementing a properly thought through sales follow up process. 

Telephone communication for follow up and sales prospecting is a science and I am amazed at how many call centre and sales operations get it so badly wrong. Many subtle messages can be delivered through a well planned, non-visual conversation but this needs to be set up well in advance – even at the point of first contact with the prospective customer.

Ian D Ludlow helps sales and customer service people and organisations in the business-to-business, direct sales and retail environments to improve their current performance.

As a Master Practitioner of NLP and Accredited LVT Practitioner, he uses fun and creative techniques to change unproductive behaviours and to help individuals and teams THINK FASTER and REACT QUICKER to ever changing market conditions.

He states, “If you carry on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Ian’s specialism is knowing what to change and how to change it with minimum effort and maximum return.

Ian helped improve the average sales value for a retail business by 14% which added £34M in sales revenue over one year from 320 stores. He also helped increase the sales conversion ratio by 7% through quality sales training and lead generation programmes for a kitchen and bathroom installer; increasing sales by £24M over one year.

Ian D Ludlow can be contacted on +44 (0)1795 55 56 83 whilst his website is under construction.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/675666

Sales Coaching

How To Make Sales Coaching Simpler, Yet More Effective!

Sales coaching is a vital part of running a success company smoothly. It is important because the overall standing of the corporation is the employees. The personnel that is hired is who the clients speaks to and deals with. These individuals have a need for sales coaching to sell products and services throughout a day.

It is essential that they understand the policies of the company to skillfully market the merchandise. Sales coaching can be accomplished by professionals or by the managers of each department. Sales’ coaching is vital to any aspect of a company. Employees are hired and let go every single day. New personnel that enter a corporation may have experience in the selling field and others may not. Sales coaching can assist the new comers as well as a brush up for employees that have been with the business for many years.

Managers have a responsibility to teach their employees how to successfully sell the companies products. They may not have much training in sales coaching. An administrator may enlist the services of a professional for sales coaching techniques. However, each company is operated differently. Before the professional takes charge of this situation, they must know the company’s goals and ideas.

It may be best of the supervisor to step into the meeting to educate each worker on what his or her profession consists of. There are various tips that a manager can use to make sales coaching simpler.

§ Motivation in an important step in sales and leadership. The manager must be encouraging and assist in any questions that may arise.

§ Be patient but strong. There will be moments when an employee may not feel they need the tips that are being presented. Offer them a brief reason; however do not let them control the lecture.

§ Basic skills are required for a sales person. Explain these shortly and then move on to major points of the company.

§ Ask questions. Learning involves listening. Ask the employees to demonstrate how they would handle certain situations.

With these brief steps, sales coaching can be a simple to accomplish. A manage can apply these techniques to new personnel or touch bases with employees that have been with the company for years. Sales’ coaching is important for the standing in the business community.

The sales team is responsible for the profit the company achieves. If these individuals do not learn the sales techniques properly, the corporation as a whole will suffer.

Sandra Stammberger owns and operates [http://www.salestrainingonline.net] Sales Training [http://www.salestrainingonline.net]

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Sales Coaching

Training vs. Coaching – There Is A Difference

The terms “Sales Training” and “Sales Coaching” are often used interchangeably. However, I view them as two totally distinct methodologies. It’s critical that both managers/trainers, as well as employees/students, understand the distinct difference between them. It is in understanding that difference which will provide the explanation as to why so much conventional sales training, even very high-priced training, fails to deliver positive and sustained changes in most salespeople’s behaviors or selling results.

Sales Training is providing new conditioning or is attempting to recondition the student. It is the process of teaching various sales methods, sales tracks, selling tools, tips, theories or strategies.

Teaching, by its very nature, is the imposition of concepts or ideas from the teacher who is an outside source of knowledge, onto the student. We understand that while conventional teaching is very traditional, it’s not necessarily always the best method to get the desired results.

Why? The answer is simple. Most of us, by our nature, definitely do not want to be controlled by someone else or by someone else’s ideas. Our ego often gets in the way of accepting someone else’s suggestions or rules. It violates our sense of personal freedom, doesn’t it? Regularly, the well-meaning and much-needed knowledge meets some considerable level of resistance from the student as a result of their defensive ego. This often means that much of what the teacher tries to download onto the student will be rejected, either at a conscious or subconscious level. This minimizes the effectiveness of the traditional teaching process.

Sales Coaching, by contrast, takes the position that while the instructor is important in the learning process, the individual needing the skills or knowledge is the most important element and must assume complete personal responsibility for both his or her life and career. Coaching is a process of helping the student on a journey of discovering effective methodologies.

Salespeople are encouraged to examine their personal core values and then they are coached to make the adjustments to their behaviors which will create improved outcomes in both their selling results and their personal lives.

Training, a.k.a. teaching, imposes. Coaching, by contrast, creates a learning experience that seeks to draw solutions out of the student. It continually poses the critical question, “Does it work or doesn’t it work?”. Thus, the student is invited and, most importantly, empowered to make mindful choices from the available knowledge.

Because students makes choices personally, based on their core values, there tends to be little or no resistance at all. Therefore results do become positive and most importantly, they are sustained.

Sales coaching is an interactive process that provides guidance and encourages the salesperson to make productive decisions while taking personal ownership of those decisions. This technique will encourage the development and expansion of his or her own mind, resulting in not only increased levels of self-confidence but also higher self-esteem.

Sales training along with effective sales coaching provide the best results for growth and sustainability. This personal growth motivates the sales team member to seek out and create more successes in both his or her selling career and personal life. These successes and positive, adjusted behaviors are sure to put more money into the salesperson’s pocket and onto your bottom line.

Jim Masson is an accomplished sales trainer, business consultant and author. Jim has published 3 powerful new “at Mastery” e-books to help you earn more, more often. “An Introduction to Selling at Mastery”, “Selling at Mastery” and Manage Your Sales Floor at Mastery” are ready to turbo charge your selling or serving career.

If earning more money is on the top of your to do list, please visit http://www.sellingatmastery.com/ for a complimentary download of “An Introduction to Selling at Mastery”. No charge and no obligation. Free is a very good price. Decide to sell and serve at Mastery, starting right now!

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