How Does a Ten Year Old Close a Sale?

Have you ever had a conversation with a ten year old? I can remember what I used to act like at age ten. Believe it or not I was more ambitious and probably a better salesman at age ten than I am now. The reason being I knew less sales techniques, less about sales psychology, and less about "closing." Instead what I did was simply approach a prospect, tell them what I was doing, and then ask for their business. Is usually went something like this: "Hi Mrs. Jones how are you today? " I would then wait for her response, smile, and then say "I'm asking everyone in the neighborhood if they would be interested in buying some cookies for my school fund raiser.

The Magic of Masterful Closing

I'm always amazed to hear people talk about master closers. It's as if their skills are most significant at the END of the cycle. This seems to me to be rather misleading. Are we saying that it doesn't matter how you handle the prior steps as long as you have some magic at the end? I believe that 'closing' is something that happens naturally once you have successfully navigated all of the prior steps in the sales process. Think about it. If you don't prospect well, listen well, problem solve well, and create trust well, there's probably no way you are going to close well. In essence, if you are masterful at understanding the value of your product or service, identifying your target market and then qualifying prospects within that scope, you should be closing easily.

Sell Yourself First

When you are attempting to sell a product/program to a buyer, sell yourself first. I know one very successful salesman who made it a practice to become familiar with a new prospect, telling about his company and products; finding what the prospects liked to do outside of work, during lunch where possible. When making follow up calls from that point on, he never emphasized his company and products, instead he talked about what they like to do; be it sports, hunting, fishing, whatever he had learned from the primary meeting. Every follow up call included a gift of something he had copied from articles pertaining to the new customer's business.

Successful Prospecting Integrates Sales and Marketing

Who is responsible for prospecting? Sales or Marketing? It is an age-old debate between these two disciplines, isn't it? Sales claims that marketing hasn't created enough leads to meet their goals. And, Marketing claims they have generated hundreds of leads that sales never follows up on. And, who is right? They both are! What I have found after working with many sales and marketing teams across many different industries, is that the issue really comes down to two easily addressed areas: 1. The definition of a lead. Both teams must be VERY clear about what defines a lead. I like to define a lead as an opportunity where the buyer is actively shopping or open to shopping for what you have to sell.

Test Driving Your Seminars

Want to get more butts into your seminar seats? Let prospective attendees sample the content before they decide whether or not to register. This powerful sales trick is not new. After all, when you visit a bookstore, you get to flip through books before deciding to buy. When you visit a car dealer, you get to test drive a car before deciding to buy. Heck, when you go an ice cream shop, you can even sample the goods before deciding which flavor you want to buy that day. So why not offer the same courtesy to your attendees? Here are 4 ways you can let prospects take your event for a test drive: * Offer a free preview event, ranging anywhere from 90 minutes to a full day * Give them a free CD with 45 to 70 minutes of free content * Post a 10- to 20- minute video clip of your material on your website * And my personal favorite .

Protecting Salespeople Everywhere

You have heard of the Secret Service. This branch of the government provides security for the current President of the United States and his family and any living past Presidents and their families. It is one of those long-term benefits that everyone receives when they become President of the United States. These Secret Service people dedicate their lives and their careers to providing the President with the utmost care and security. You have probably seen them surrounding the President, and many more you do not see that are keeping a watchful eye around the perimeter. Dark suits, dark sunglasses, and earpieces are all part of the regular uniform of the Secret Service.

C-Level Selling - Quality Sales Leads Will Come Once You Build Your Opportunity Matrix

In a previous article I discussed building your Opportunity Matrix of potential sales on an excel spread sheet. Each box in that matrix is a prospect and is defined by a "who" (company, division, location, project) and a "what" (one specific product or service). An account can have many "who's" and many what's which means many prospects. We will now prioritize all those boxes into marketing and selling categories. We will then assign energy actions based on their status which I'll define later. Since we have limited selling time we want the biggest bang (most sales) for what little time we have.

What s The Most Effective First Contact With A Prospect - Email Or Phone?

I think it really depends on your approach. In my case I generate around 2000 subscribers via the internet every single month, so to try to contact all of those individuals by phone unless I have a huge telemarketing room would be absolutely impossible. For me, the very first contact would be email, and really there's a qualification process. A lot of people get on my email list and they realize that they don't really want what I have to offer them, so they opt themselves out. Really, that's fine; if you've been in sales, you know that it's not necessarily about how good your product is, it's about how well you can communicate how good your product is to the very people that need it.

Pipeline Management - Your Path To Achieving The Sales Edge!

Those sales teams who achieve the sales edge, do so with a clear understanding of their pipeline's health. Pipeline management allows a sales person and/or management to more accurately forecast their sales, better manage their time, and ultimately close more sales. We all want it... the full pipeline that is-a sales funnel with more opportunities at the top, converting to qualified leads, and feeding the closed sales at the bottom. With it we are sales stars. And without it we are constantly riding the amusement park favorite-the ROLLERCOASTER. While the rollercoaster can be thrilling it can also be exhausting and is definitely ineffective as a long-term sales management strategy.

4 Key Sales Tools You Can t Sell Without

You know the features and benefits of your solution and now it's time to put your sales skills to the test! But before you hit the pavement or the Internet, you have to implement the right sales tools to support your sales efforts: 1. Business Brand - Integrate Touch Points with your Brand Foundation Since we're talking about sales; your brand should be communicated at every touch point. Touch points are multiple points of contact with customers and prospects. Every contact a customer or prospect has with your business represents a valuable touch point that can either be reinforced or degrade your brand.