Month: August 2009

Secret Sales Tips and Tricks

by Jacques Werth

Why are those words so alluring?

The most successful salespeople seldom read articles with those words in the title.  Such articles are for salespeople who think that selling is just a bag of tips and tricks.

There are no secret tips.  There are no magic tricks.  Effective selling is about finding a sales process that works, following that process carefully, and measuring the results.  Pay attention to doing it right.  You can’t learn how to sell just by reading articles or participating in sales discussion groups.  Although it is possible to learn to sell by reading a lot of books, this doesn’t work for most people.

Books and CD’s can teach you a great deal about selling, but not much about the step-by-step details on how to actually do it.  For that, we recommend training and practice.

The idea of “tips and tricks” is just another sales trick.

Why Would You Want to Sell Better? (survey)

Imagine that you found a way to sell much more effectively.  How would you use this new ability to change your life?  What is most important to you?
  • Make more money, without having to work harder.
  • Spend less time working, for the same amount of money.
  • Be a Top Producer, with all the recognition, perks, and status.
  • Feel better about what you do for a living.
  • Be more competent and effective at what you do.
  • Other, something we didn’t think of.
Please tell us what matters most to you, either by leaving a comment on this blog post, or by filling out our webform. 
 
We will use this information to help improve our marketing.  Thank you.

Easy Closing Starts With Prospecting

by Jacques Werth
Closing is hard when you try to find a way to qualify your prospects.
Closing is easy when your prospects will not allow you to disqualify them.
Closing is hard when you have to sell prospects on giving you an appointment.
Closing is easy when the prospect is ready to spend time and money to get a problem solved.
Closing is hard when a prospect is merely “interested”.
Closing is easy when a prospect wants to get answers to his or her problem.
Closing is hard when you have to push the prospect to buy.
Closing is easy when neither the prospect nor you feel any pressure.
Closing is hard when the prospect doesn’t know that he or she needs your product or service.
Closing is easy when the prospect already wants the benefits of your type of product or service.
Closing is hard when the prospect is not ready to decide.
Closing is easy when the prospect is ready, willing, and able to buy.
Closing is hard when you have to make the prospect do something.
Closing is easy when you realize that you can’t make the prospect do anything.
Our next workshop on High Probability Prospecting begins on Monday 24 August 2009.  For details, please visit www.HighProbSell.com/workshops/ws20090824A.html
We invite you to leave comments on our blog.

Whatever It Takes

by Jacques Werth (editing by Carl Ingalls)
Do you do whatever it takes to get an appointment with a prospect?
Put yourself in the place of the prospect.  Think about how you feel when a salesperson calls you, wants to meet with you, and will not take “No” for an answer.  Sometimes the easiest way out is to agree to an appointment that you do not care about, and might not even keep.  You and the salesperson have just agreed to a pretense.  The salesperson will pretend that an appointment is exactly what he or she wants, and you will pretend that you will actually make the appointment.
Suppose that you actually do keep the appointment to meet with the salesperson, and yet you have no intention of buying anything.  Perhaps you are getting something you want out of the appointment, with no strings attached.  How do you feel about that?  How do you feel about yourself, and how do you feel about the salesperson?  Is there any reason for either of you to trust or respect the other?
Without trust and respect, what are the chances that you will allow the salesperson to change your mind during the meeting?  And if it does happen that way, what are the chances that you will think better of it and cancel the order later?
Now put yourself in the place of the salesperson.  You are on the phone again, doing whatever it takes to get an appointment with another prospect, or you are traveling to another appointment that will probably turn into a no-show or a no-sale.
There must be a better way.  The will to do “whatever it takes” is there.  For most salespeople, doing “whatever it takes” means working a lot harder at doing the same things they’ve been doing all along.
But what if “what it takes” is doing something very different?

What High Probability Selling is About – Briefly

This is a very short description of what High Probability Selling is about.

by Carl Ingalls
High Probability Selling is both a method of selling and a way of thinking about selling that is fundamentally different from how most people think about selling.
Most salespeople believe that selling is about convincing someone to buy from them.  They may use overt persuasion or subtle influence.  The objective is to change the prospect’s mind.
A different way of thinking about selling is to find people who already want what you are selling, rather than trying to convince them.  This is one of several core principles of High Probability Selling.
The way that you think about selling drives what you do.  What you do makes all the difference.

Finding the Sales Position You Want

by Jacques Werth

The fastest way to find the sales position you want is to use methods that are different from what others are doing.  Sales managers want salespeople who are smart and confident enough to apply their prospecting and selling skills to find a sales position.

If you were trained in High Probability Prospecting, then here is an outline of how you might use it to find the position you want:

    • Do a search on the Internet or with a list broker and make a list of all of the companies that look attractive to you and that you believe employ people with your skill set.  Be sure to get the names of their sales executives.  Make it a big list – at least 300 sales managers.  Be sure that your list is sorted by job titles and has phone numbers.  Many community libraries have access to list brokers and can provide you with free lists.  Ask the research librarian.
    • Design a clear and very concise Prospecting Offer that is intended simply to find someone who wants to hire someone like you.  Here is an example.
“This is Jane Salesperson.  I’m an experienced, conscientious salesperson in the xyz field.  I can find and make appointments with prospects that want your products and services and close many of them.  Is that the kind of salesperson you want for your department?”
Your prospecting offer should contain no more than 45 words (fewer is better), and should be simple and direct.
    • Call all the sales managers of the companies on your list.  If you don’t have their direct-dial numbers, it’s easy to get connected to someone in the sales department who will look it up for you.  It works to tell them, “I need your help.”
    • Present your prospecting offer.  If the manager says he/she does not need anyone, you say “Are there any other sales managers in your company who do?”  If not, you say “okay, good bye.”  Do not try to sell your way into an appointment.
If the manager asks you to send your résumé, you say, “I don’t put my résumé in the mail.  I’ll bring it with me if you want to meet me.  Do you want to set up an appointment?”
If the manager tells you to contact the HR department, you say “Okay, good bye.”  Do not contact HR.  Do not send them your résumé.  Résumés are processed by computers, and the odds are too great that you will get dumped into the “rejected” file – permanently.
If the manager says “yes”, you ask “when?”  However, be prepared to handle a preliminary telephone interview.  Have a list of questions you want answered before you will commit to the appointment.
    • Do not accept the first offer you get unless it’s the best position you could hope for.  The people who use this system usually get from two to four offers within a month.  Thus, it is generally better to ask for a couple of weeks to think it over.
    • You will probably reach between 10% and 15% of the sales managers you call.  Just keep dialing.  The average person who uses this system can do about 60 calls per hour.  Once you have it down to a routine, dialing 200 numbers per day and reaching 20 to 30 sales managers is pretty easy.  The biggest mistake you can make is to spend your time talking with someone who did not say “yes” to your prospecting offer.
  • You can reach most of your list within 2 or 3 weeks.  Then, start to call all of them again.  You are likely to get at least as many positive replies during your second round of calls as you did on the first.  When you finish the list a second time, start over again.  Just keep going.  It works best if you change your offers so that each prospect hears at least 3 different offers before you begin to repeat yourself.

Prospecting Tip:  Many sales managers are in their offices on Saturday mornings without their gatekeepers.

Remember, if you are willing to take “No” for an answer each time you call, you will find more “Yes” answers sooner.