What are the secrets to good Salesmanship?

The value of a salesperson to their customer is not in what they know about their products, but the questions that they ask. Ask great questions, make your customer think and you will differentiate yourself from all other salespeople... and you will be asked back.

However, to be able to ask great questions, you need a lot of knowledge about your customer, their industry, your products, etc… it’s by asking great questions that you demonstrate what you know rather than tell them!

Lastly… act like a walking talking brochure and you add no value!

Links:
http://www.firstborder.com/sales-blog/

If you are not passionate about what you are selling you will not be successful so rather than take the job with the highest target income, take the job that will excite you on a daily basis

Successful salespeople in B2B listen and hear the needs of the customer. Once you understand the pain points of whomever you are selling too, you can adjust your sales pitch to a conversation that the customer feels comfortable being involved in.

Outstanding sales people use the 7-agreement point approach. Usually, once you get a customer to accept and verbally agree to seven statements or questions, they are then partially conditioned to continue agreeing with you provided you don’t oversell. Note: using more than 7 agreements can backfire if the customer becomes aware of your sales approach; this happens when salespeople start using phrases such as “Wouldn’t you agree………..blah blah……….”.

As Colin mentioned in his earlier response, the quality of your questions determines the quality of your results. Questions are the answer. That's one very good "secret" (it's only a secret because most salespeople are terrible listeners and love to blather on to demonstrate how much knowledge they have).

Another "secret" is to establish strong rapport with your prospect or customer. Connect on their level by finding common ground. I'm a national sales trainer and success coach (SalesAdrenaline.com) and a few hours ago I was doing a book interview with my seatmate on a plane to New York. He mentioned that he'd made a sales call on a prospect the day before -- a "cold fish" prospect. The guy was stand-offish, guarded, and wouldn't open up.

As soon as the salesman took an interest in the prospect's "low rider" car collection in the back of the warehouse, the mask came off, the ice melted, and the prospect invited the salesman to lunch next time he was in town so they could talk business. Sudden interest in the salesman and his product.

Why? The salesman became interested in his prospect as a person, NOT merely how the prospect could benefit him financially by buying. And the prospect could sense it. The natural response was for him to warm up and open up.

Create unshakeable rapport by finding common ground and remembering that people buy from you for two reasons: they like you and trust you. Not because you're the best or offering the lowest price.

I would go so far as to say that if you start focusing on establishing incredible rapport, to the exclusion of any other "technique," your sales could easily double.

Scott Sorrell
"Mr. Charge Higher Prices"

Links:
http://SalesAdrenaline.com

The fine line between being a "Salesman" and an "Order Taker" is a very fine line. Some assume that because they are able to make a sale in any capacity, that they are a salesman. The difference lies in your ability to act as a consultant more than a "Yes" man. You're job is not to get the sale, that's honestly the easy part if you've done your qualifying. The object is to see if it's a win-win for both parties.

By acting as a consultant you will begin to ask questions instead of pitiching "points". The best questions don't have a yes or no answer but instead open the client up to explaining exactly what their expectations are for your product. Your goal is to find more "benefits" of the product or service than "liabilities". A customer has to feel justified in their purchase, no matter what the cost. Body language can not be overlooked in a face to face sale but for phone based sales, listening to key words and terms that the client uses will help guide you as well.

I do my best selling when I feel confident in my product as well. You can know your product inside and out but unless you really know what your prospect actually does in their day to day operations and what their challenges are, you'll never have the confidence to properly align your product or service to their needs.

One word: Attitude
Two words: Listening skills
Three words: Ask them questions
Four words: Why should they bother?
Five words: What's in it for them?
Six words: Walk in their shoes for a day.
Seven words: Never stop learning new skills and techniques
Eight words: Treat others as you want to be treated
Nine words: Selling on value beats selling on price big time
Ten words: A price is to expensive until the value is rekognised.

Links:
http://www.remborpartners.com

This is a big subject.

The sales technique will vary considerably depending on the complexity of the product(s) being sold and the level of responsibility the salesman must take for after sales service and support.

Do not assume professional selling is something that fits onto a page of glib phrases containing implications of celestial guidance. Mostly ( especially at the refined level) it is learned and taught in the field If anything teach your students that first off.

In addition different salesman personalities manifest in a sales situation in different ways. There is rarely just "one way" to sell.

Salesman sophistication increases ( roughly and their will be some exceptions) in line with the value of the items to be sold. So a salesman selling $100 laser printers is typically not as sophisticated( or does not need to be) as one selling multi-million $$$ IT systems.

If there is any "secret" it is to comprehensively understand the customers wants and needs and to satisfy them within time and budgetary limitations.

No magic bullet exists, it is hard work, dogged perserverance and constant learning for most continually succesful salesman.

If you would like to contact me directly with more specifics I am happy to write a short paper on the subject if that will help.

I agree with Trish - you must be passionate about what you are selling. You must beleive in the product/service and it's ability to make a positive contribution to your customers business. Listen to your customer, and provide SOLUTIONS, not just answers. Also - follow up is just as important. You need to establish a relationship with your customer. This not only proves that you are not just "in it for the sale", but you care about your customer and want to help them. This also leads to referrals and future orders.

rearrange the word 'silent' and you have the answer

I am a firm believer in knowing your customers business as much as you can, and providing a solution that will help them earn more revenue, not simply cut costs. If you can be your customers trusted partner, they will buy more and more often from you.

I would tell them the following: smile authentically, have a positive attitude, look to be a servant, learn to ask great questions, learn to listen and take courses in social behavior, psychology and communications. While in school write down the name of everybody they meet, where they are from and communicate with all of them often.

There are no secrets to good salesmanship. There hard and soft skills required to be a good salesperson are well documented in two excellent books -

Strategic Selling

Conceptual Selling

both by Miller Heiman. Nothing else I have read or heard comes remotely close in terms of completeness on the subject. No drivelling hyperbole; just honest facts and methodology

Sales is not synonymous with Marketing, nor is it being a professional visitor. Many non-sales types lump Sales & Marketing together. Also, many well-intentioned salespeople try to visit their way to success. Sales is going out, killing something, and dragging it back to the cave! It is not putting a company message out and hoping that the audience hears and responds.

You better understand the characteristics of a prospect. Otherwise, you’ll spend inordinate time and effort chasing people from whom you have no hope of securing a sale! Identify and secure an audience with qualified prospects. Once in front of them, sales is more about LISTENING than TELLING. A prospect must have a need/problem for which you have a solution. By asking the right questions, you can assist the prospect in recognizing/identifying their problem, along with the cost of not making a change. By assisting (pronounced “leading”) him, you allow the prospect to take ownership of the problem.

If you just tell him he has a problem, he feels no pain. Pain is the motivator for him to exchange money for a solution. Changing suppliers, carriers, homes, cars, jobs, whatever, is uncomfortable and inconvenient. To succeed, you must show that the cost of NOT changing (not buying) is higher than the cost of CHANGING (buying). Use what Zig Ziglar called “emotional logic” to move the prospect to the desired conclusion.

OTHER THOUGHTS:
You’re not there to educate or befriend them. Don’t fail because of ego or trying to impress them with what you know. You’ll starve if you’re easily sidetracked.

From author Dan Kenney: develop a USP (Unique Selling Proposition). “Why would I buy YOUR widget from YOU?” Until you can answer that, stay on the porch! You’re not ready to hunt with the big dogs!

Role-playing (practice) stinks and EVERYbody hates it! It’s “embarrassing” and “SO unrealistic.” Video taping it is even worse, as it captures every stupid mannerism and mistake. That said, IT IS ABSOLUTELY VITAL to success! Why burn a good prospect just to get a little practice and fine tune your presentation?!? Sales is a profession, not a pastime or hobby. Golfers analyze their swings. Lawyers stage, tape, and analyze mock trials to improve themselves. Football teams watch hours of tapes – of themselves and their opponents – looking for weaknesses in both.

That brings me to a final thought – know your competition! Use that knowledge to beat them (without running them down). Know his reputation, guarantee, terms and options, and techniques. Know his strengths and weaknesses. Use his own contract or guarantee to beat him!

We developed the educational component of the Global Sales development Series for the Sales Club at Sloan. I'd be happy to share what some of our students and corporate clients have told us about the secrets to good salesmanship and how they've learned by doing, not just reading.

Please let me know the best way to reach you live.

Links:
http://www.bashostrategies.com

My experience selling software and software services:
1) find out who has the real power to make the decision. Focus your attention on them (fawning a bit). Don't get distracted by non-decision makers unless they will be champions (see below).
2) sell the solution not the technology (what can it do for them personally, not focusing on what the functions are or what the guts of the software are).
3) listen to them. Give them a chance to blather on about personal topics and be a good listener. This will make them feel good about your relationship and give you ammunition to strike up conversations later. (How's the boat treating you? Is your boss still giving you grief for no reason, etc.)
4) find a champion besides the decision maker. If there is a sympathetic ear in the room who isn't the decision maker, take advantage of that and find out why. Use that info as more ammo. They will be your "mole" on the inside who can keep you abreast of progress with the sale and let you know if it is headed south and why and what you can do about it.
5) cut your losses if the prospect looks unwinnable. I called these my "c" prospects (vs. my As and Bs). Walk out as quickly as possible and get on to the As and Bs. There are many fish out there to catch.
6) sell them something small that makes them happy. Once they are used to buying from you, they will buy more. It is easier to sell a $5000 product that you know will run correctly than a $500,000 product that will be rife with user bugs/issues. Once they have implemented the small product, and are happy with it, they are accustomed to your brand (and your user interface if it is software) and will have a halo effect around the rest of your product line and will trust your salesperson as well.

Good luck!

Greg Rose (grose at wsu.edu)

I have sold industrial gases, oriental rugs, and fine craft. It doesn't matter what you are selling. Good salesmanship comes down to the following:

1. Listen.
2. Listen
3. Listen
4. Ask open ended questions.
5. Learn about their needs, in depth before you tell them anything about yours.
6. Listen.
7. Have a deep knowledge of what you are selling. But keep it to yourself unless it is useful to the customer. They don't want to know how smart you are. They want to know if your product or service meets their needs. The best way for you both to know that is to....
8. Listen.
9; Don't be afraid of the silent pauses.

Links:
http://www.judydunn.blogspot.com

Listen...alot. Find out what the problem is. Show them how you can solve it, or recommend someone who can. The latter option generates a lasting relationship, referrals, and sales.

The most important thing to remember, when the client says "yes", the sale for them has just begun. It's what you do after you get the "yes" that defines your success.

(connent with me wsharris1@yahoo.com)

Know your product and your customer. It may say something about that in the book, but the market is made up of living, breathing individuals.

When I was 22 a salesman asked which age group I belonged into, but volunteered 35-50 for me. I shaved the next day, but I was deeply insulted.

For instance, I accidentally listed a book title that offended some of my readers, so they left my list. I instictively knew I shouldn't have listed it, but traditional marketing wisdom says more choice will bring more customers.

But many customers are looking for a buying experience, not just a product. They like buying from a person who has the same taste they do, who knows their stuff.

Sure, we go to Tescos or K-mart or McDonalds for something quick and cheap, but we often prefer to talk to someone who knows what they're selling.

So there's a tradeoff. Expertise? Buying experience? Price?

And another thing not listed in supply and demand is that too cheap scares away customers. The old textbooks I used to see said that cheaper got more people. Simply not true after a certain point. Most people are scepticle of anything that is too far below the market norm.

Knowing a product isn't hard. If I was a homeless man selling the big issue, I'd just look at the table of contents, find an interesting story, read it, and shout out some highlights. Instead they just say "big issue" in monotone.

Knowing the customer requires research, and listening skills. Remember, the individual doesn't almost fit what research suggests. So listen, listen, listen

Everyone has talked about what to do once you get in front of the prospect and I agree with all of it: listen, pain is the motivator, know your product, know your prospect and know your competition.

Two aspects of sales that have been particularly beneficial to me in my success are organization and follow-up. They may appear to be too elementary but have proven to be very important to me. You will have to have both of these to consistently get in front of the prospect and to sell.

First, organization. Whatever your industry and whatever your product, you need to find an existing system or develop a system that will allow you to keep up with your clients, your contacts and your prospects. You need to know when you contacted them last and what you said/did. Then, when do you need to contact them again and with/for what. I used to think I could remember all of this information, however once you get a long list and make many contacts every day (and get older), it gets harder to remember the details - and the devil is in the details.

That leads directly to follow-up. You will have several levels of contacts, potentially as follows: buying, ready to buy, thinking about it, call me in the next cycle, etc. With each level of contact, you will have a different set of follow-up procedures, templates, letters, etc. and you have to be able to keep up with all processes and issue all follow-up appropriately and timely. By the way, a thank-you note is a great way to start that follow-up process. It is so easy, yet so few people do it and it means so much to the prospect.

Happy Selling

Be tenacious. Busy decision making people actually appreciate it when you call and leave messages. They let you know that when you finally reach them. Call at all hours. Call just before you go home.

Keep in mind if you are leaving a message and the message is not getting returned, you need to leave a better message.

Read Jeffrey Gitomer - his books are VERY tactical and very useful

Humanize your web meeting, Show a picture of yourself in slide. Give credit to your team. My third PowerPoint slide in is a picture of my customer support group.

Provide regular updates of products, pricing, being in the news. Be your own marketer by consistently being in front of the person. You can't make a person buy sooner but you can be top of mind when a decision is ready.

Provide proof sources that directly relate to their business and do so on a consistent basis.

Create a distribution list of users/prospects for educational purposes - I work with ever major US newspaper's graphic editor. Examples of our work (oblique aerial images) are published regularly as an "infographic". When my work is published, I send it to show the users "here is how its done" and encourage them to send along their examples. They do so often. We all learn what how to use the product - helps me in my sales to ID new uses and helps my customers/prospects learn the product first hand.

Client gifts - If you can afford it, something other than a card for the holidays. My all-time favorite was Xmas wrapping paper with bows, ribbons, the works and arrived just after Thanksgiving. Lasted for years!

Give them referrals and don't ask for one in return.

Be bold in your love of the product. I use to think that having a famous quote in a signature was just "off". Here's my original "There are two types of people in the world. Those who love Pictometry. And those who will." - Jeffrey Marcus
Since I have added that to my signature, I have got compliments many times over from customers and prospects a like. If you are reading this and use it, I want a royalty!

Be productive during work hours - do not get bogged down in smoke breaks, internet surfing, long lunches (or lunches at all), hallway chit-chat, organizing football pools, non-sales company events. All of this will eat away at your time and it is that time you cannot get back. Time = $$.

Return request for information calls immediately. Don't wait - do it now.

Keep your family happy with the hours you are keeping. If they are happy, you will be productive and successful. If they are not....

If something goes wrong during the presentation, your customer likely does not know it. Don't point it out - just move on.

Be humble. Every day I say or write "Thank you for the opportunity" as we go down the sales path. People appreciate it and I appreciate them letting me be part of the solution.

As a person I greatly admire once said about business in general. "It all starts with sales and ends without them."

Cheers!

Jeffrey Marcus
www.pictometry.com
Oblique aerial imagery that is measurable

Jeffrey Marcus also suggests this expert on this topic:

Everyone here is trying to tell you it is no secret. LISTEN. The problem is new salespeople, or poor salespeople, rant and rave and try and pitch their way to sales.

If you want to let them in on the sauce, send them to my blog.

Karl Goldfield
Coaching Sales Champions

Links:
http://coachingsaleschampions.karlgoldfield.com
Get your client talking, and thus you listen. Your questions should determine three things: (1) An understanding of their problem(s), and the cost of the problem, (2) who is affected the most, and to what degree, and (3) what possible solution are they considering, and its quantitative value or ROI. This helps you determine the cost they are willing to pay, the true stakeholder, and finally the potential cost savings. If you can't sell it after this, then you likely don't deserve it.


Brian,

A great sales person has intrinsic values that can NOT be taught! Most of these posts emphasize "LISTEN". I would also emphasize "TRUST". All of the highly successful sales people have a knack to build TRUST with their clients. They also have the ability to create laughter, which is a vital part in the sales process. I don't need to know squat about the product I am selling, unless it is highly technical, if I can earn your TRUST and place a smile on your face within the first few minutes of being introduced to you.

The highly successful sales people I have witnessed in my career have these intrinsic values. Sorry, these values are not easily taught or trained.

Best of luck!


P.S. - definitely read Jeffrey Gitomer and Earl Nightingale's - The Strangest Secret.

There are three key rules to live by in the sales profession:
1) Smile and maintain eye contact.
2) Ask "pointed" questions that make the prospect think.
3) Listen, Listen, Listen...they will tell you what you need to know directly or indirectly. You will hear it if you are Listening! Most people talk themselves out of a sale by talking of themselves and there services too much. They don't care! But, if you get them to talk and uncover a need you can help them overcome...you are in!

Jeff Owen also suggests this expert on this topic:
Mark Hunter