What Sales Technique Kills More Deals than Any Other?

Do you know which sales technique kills a deal faster than any other does? Do you know what this sales technique is so that you do not use it and blow deals?

Before considering the methods of selling that are most effective, it will be well to get rid of a mistaken idea that is all too common.

A great many people regard reasoning power, or the force of pure logic, as an important selling tool.

There are sales representatives who attempt to "argue" prospects into buying. Unthinking sales executives sometimes instruct their representatives to employ certain "selling arguments."

The methods and language of the debater have no place in the sales techniques used by a truly artistic sales representative or sales manager.

One debater never convinces the other. At best, debaters only defeat an antagonist.

In a skillfully finished sale, however, there should be neither victor nor vanquished.

The selling process is not a battle of minds.

There is no room in the sales process for any spirit of antagonism by a sales representative. When thinking about your best capabilities that you have to sell, do not emphasize the value of logic and reasoning. If you use them at all in selling yourself, you would be wise to disguise their character.

Never suggest that you are debating or arguing your qualifications with prospective buyers about your (or your companies) mental or physical capacity for service. You cannot browbeat your way into opportunities to succeed.

Most employers buy the expected services from sales reps to satisfy their own desires for particular capabilities. Few will buy against their wishes. You cannot make someone buy from you.

In order to sell your qualifications for success, you first must make the other person want the benefits you offer. Usually both the mind and heart must be stimulated to produce the desired results.

The most skillful salesperson does not use the words, tones and actions of argument. In preference to cold reasoning and logic, a good salesperson employs the art of mental suggestion and emotional persuasion.

Suggestion is especially effective in producing DESIRE.

A suggested idea is unlikely to provoke antagonism or resistance. A suggestion has power because it has ready access to the mind. Usually a suggestion gains access to the consciousness of a person without this individual even realizing it.

This is why suggestion via subliminal motivation techniques is so effective.

When people become conscious of an idea that you have suggested, they likely will treat the suggestion as one of their own ideas and not as an intruder. Naturally, they are less inclined to oppose a desire prompted by their own thoughts. If this person felt the idea had been planted in her subconscious, her resistance level would accelerate considerably.

All of us know the great power of suggestion. However, too few people use words, tones and movements to make use of the influence of suggestion. Suggestion is always more powerful than stating the idea directly.

Probably no tool of salesmanship will be of more help in assuring your success than a fully developed facility in the use of suggestion.

Suggestion is the skillful process of getting your ideas into the unsuspecting minds of others.

The 3 Rules of Proactive Sales Managers

A proactive sales manager is a successful sales manager true or false? I think you have guessed the answer already.

Take a look in your company. How is it that the top performing sales managers always seem to stay ahead of the game and the top of the sales league?

Below are three rules that all successful and proactive sales managers implement on a regular and consistent basis.

Anticipate Needs

This is easy as long as you are organised and measure and analyse the important stuff.
If someone in the team is in line for promotion and its likely they might get it you have made plans already. Checking out the best candidates speaking to the hiring agencies. If there are new people on the team more resources in training might be needed or an extra mail shot to help in prospecting.

Brain Storm Ideas

The successful proactive sales manager is a source of a constant stream of new ideas. Why because they are flexible and open and are always asking questions.

You see questions stimulate different parts of the mind. The subconscious particularly. By asking questions and being open, in this way the answers come. Just remember the time you went to bed turning over a question in your mind? Maybe you have noticed that when you woke up the next day the answer was there?

Another great tip is to write down a challenge and then write at least twenty possible things you can do to over come it. Don't stop till you have all twenty. Then implement just one and you will be way ahead of most sales managers and their creativity.

Manage your time and energy

This is the one commodity you will never get more of. There are two parts to this one manage your time and in many cases and more important manage your energy. So many things sap our strength as sales managers.

Not the proactive sales manager though. It is easy to be distracted by things that don't matter. Petty arguments and gossip. Doing other people jobs as well as your own. Answering irrelevant e mails. Be strong have a plan and stick to it.

If you have set some major goals. Commit to the big actions that will move you further towards these and get rid of the rest. It takes some getting used to yet after a few days you will be amazed at the difference.

Top 3 Strategies For Selling Services

Selling services is quite different from selling products, even though some marketers might disagree with me. Therefore, it is important to develop a strong and unique service selling strategy.

Top 3 Strategies for Selling Services:

#1 Strategy: Focus your service business on a specific segment of customer (for example, the real estate market, doctors, banks, specific industries, etc.). Marketing professional services to a specific customer group must focus on why the customer needs those services and how outsourcing services fulfills the customers needs.

For example, if you are a graphic designer and you target residential property developers as your clients, you need to develop a strategy and approach that communicates why the developer should select you to design his/her project campaign and how your specific services will help sell the project. Focus on what you deliver. Prepare a budget for total cost (not hourly costs); or break your budget down into specific categories, such as advertising - television, newspapers and magazines; signage; and promotional brochures and direct mailing.

#2 Strategy: Focus your service business on what you, and your business, can deliver. Your customers are buying your skills, your experience, your training and education - in effect, they are buying what you are capable of delivering. Often they are also buying your reputation and credibility: service selling is about building strong relationships. Customers who buy financial, legal, medical, business services need to trust in that relationship. It is challenging to convince customers to switch from another service provide to you without first building a trust relationship.

If you have staff that are delivering services for your company, your customers are buying the services of your staff. Be careful that you treat your staff well - if they leave, often the customers that they have been working with will also leave.

#3 Strategy: Focus on pricing your services on a project basis (if possible). Pricing by the hour or showing the cost on a per hour basis often leaves the customer wondering about wasted time or excess billed time. So, when you prepare quotes for your services show the price as an all inclusive price. For example, for legal services for the incorporation of small businesses, quote a flat fee. If you are concerned that you will need to provide extra services at no charge, make sure that you detail what service you provide for that price. And show what the extras might cost as additional notes on the price quote. Most service businesses believe they need to bill for every hour (or quarter hour) spent; but the reality is that if the business builds its price structure correctly than hourly charges can be incorporated into a flat fee structure.

Selling service is like selling a product in one key way: satisfied customers will mean return business and often will mean increased business through referrals. Service businesses are difficult to sell because they're typically owner-dependent, with little in the way of capital equipment (like manufacturers have).

It is more difficult to 'prove' the value of the service you provide because service, by its very nature, is intangible, whereas a product is tangible. When you develop your marketing plan and selling strategy, you need to focus on referrals, on satisfied customers, on samples of your work whatever is most appropriate in your business. You want to, and need to, communicate the quality of your service.

Recognize that selling service in a business-to-business environment is generally a longer cycle than selling products and therefore your selling strategy needs to focus on a strong marketing program. Customers will need more information, more points of contact, and more time to make their buying decision. Selling service in a consumer environment is typically a short cycle (for example, hair styling and cutting). Be consistent with your selling strategy, focus your efforts on strong and relevant business ideas that support the service you are selling. Do the follow-up. Make another contact. Build a communications cycle for your service that makes sense.

Finally, because your success is so dependent on your relationship with your customer and on your ability to satisfy expectations, you need to survey your customers on a regular basis and ensure that they are satisfied with the service you provide.