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Kicking Butt at Sales
Posted by Chris Knudsen on December 12th, 2006
This post is dedicated to my buddy Jeff Jordan at Funding Universe. Jeff is on a sales mission to bring home the bacon at FU. Here’s a great post on what he’s doing.
I’ve been mulling over some things I’ve been taught on effective sales lately. Here are some thoughts I hope you find useful:
- To become good at sales you need to understand relationships. You need to have real empathy. You need to be interested in truly helping your customer not getting some short term commission. You need to build trust by being genuinely interested in the customer and solving their problems. Dump the Zig Ziglar books and start working on your relationship skills.
- If you go for the short sided relationship sale then you’re missing the point of sales. Go for the long term relationship sale and rivers of money will follow.
- Approach sales with a consultant’s mindset. People naturally preceive that salespeople are out for themselves. When you approach it from a consulting perspective then the sale becomes about the customer. If the customer believes you are there to solve problems then they are more likely to open up and tell you exactly what you need to do to get their business. Consulting is about the customer - sales is about you.
- Give the client what they want not what you want to sell them. In your first meeting with your prospect you should ask 100 questions. You know you’re on the right track when a meeting scheduled for one hour goes two hours.
- Don’t give stuff away for free. People don’t value what they don’t pay for.
- In sales you will naturally encounter “walls” put up by the prospect. The way to overcome those walls is to SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND LISTEN TO THEIR PROBLEMS. Ask open ended questions then shut your mouth and take notes. The number one skill in all successful salespeople is listening.
- Always make sure you are talking to the M.A.N. (Money, Authority, Need).
- If at all possible avoid selling over the phone. Its important to be in the same room as the client so you can assess body language and make sure that you have their full attention.
- Ask great questions: what are your goals? What problems are you trying to solve? What are you looking to get out of your marketing dollars? What do you like (or not like) about your current sales process? What do you dislike about your current marketing strategy? What are your competitors doing that drives you crazy? What keeps you up at night? How can I best serve you? If there was one thing that I could help you change what would it be? What’s the one problem you need to solve right now?
- Give customers a menu of products and services to choose from then let them tell you what they want. Then provide a custom quote with only those elements they indicated that they want.
- Remember buying your product or service is not an expense its an investment.
- To overcome customer objections LISTEN first to the objection. Then restate the objection to make sure you are clear on the concern. Then acknowledge the objection with empathy. Then overcome the objection. Don’t get offended. If you are to this point the customer wants to buy.
- To close the sale simply ask for their business. Its as simple as that. Like I said you don’t need the Zig Ziglar books. Just simply ask for their business. If they object then go back into objection resolution mode and then ask for their business again.
Solve problems, sell benefits not features, sell value, show value, LISTEN, educate, have empathy and build real relationships. Its as simple as that.
Thanks for the link love, Chris. I love your comments about listening and approaching the sale like a consultant. Anything less is just telemarketing.
Left by Jeff on 12/12/2006Jeff:
I saw Brock today and he said you were just kick butt on sales at FU. Keep up the great work!
Left by Chris Knudsen on 12/12/2006