Please note that some content is for members only. You can join now for free
Lately I have been working with businesses who want to reduce the time it takes to close the sale. They are each selling different things to different people but one thing they have in common is that they are getting a lot of interest at the sales meeting and then, too often the sale stalls and ends up going nowhere. A common factor in each case was a weak sales proposal.
The proposals looked good in terms of presentation style but if you had not been involved in the sales discussions then it was actually very weak.
If you want to make selling easier for you in 2013, my recommendation is to focus on some of the soft skills which make selling easy rather than the deceitful and manipulative tricks that you get in many sales books.
These soft skills are actually life skills and they are all learnable. I know this because I had to learn them and continue working on them to this day! And the great thing is you can use everyday life as a teacher.
The classic line in marketing is “people do not buy a drill, they buy a hole”. I am going to be very brave and say that from a sales perspective that is complete and utter rubbish!
People do not buy a hole and if you take time to understand a prospect’s buying motivation you will quickly discover that people buy a drill for many reasons. Why do they want a hole?
And why do they need a new drill? Why do they want one right now?
A business book is a great marketing tool for people in the business of selling their expertise and know-how. Instead of thinking about it as just a book, however, you should be thinking of it as a product your ideal clients will want to buy.
Hiring sales people can be a risky business, even for large companies with sophisticated recruitment processes, let alone a smaller business run by an accidental sales person with no background in sales management. Hiring a good sales person can be one of the best things you do for your business but equally it can turn out to be an expensive mistake and the source of a lot of heartache. Here are 7 of the biggest mistakes to avoid:
Mistake # 1 - Assuming all sales people can sell
If you find yourself regularly losing sales even though you thought you had it in the bag then it might be worth making sure that your sales proposals are not letting you down. Here are 5 common mistakes I find when reviewing sales proposals for clients:
Mistake #1 - Not enough detail
Soft selling does not mean giving in to price objections - far from it! Handling price objections is an area of sales that many accidental sales people struggle with. What do you say when people question your prices?
Here are 3 soft selling strategies which make it a loss less scary.
Anticipation
If you are someone who does not like selling then pre-selling is definitely something you should be looking at integrating into your sales technique. It is one of my favourite Soft Selling strategies.
In the last year I have had three occasions where I have made significant purchases for services and all three had very compelling offers. Unfortunately all three have not delivered on all their promises. They have delivered the core of their offer but some of the extras have either been forgotten or have not lived up to expectations.
Better to be known for something than for nothing. One of the key parts of my Lead Generation Master Class workshops is to get people to focus on their ideal client and why their ideal client REALLY needs to speak to them. So many people struggle with generating leads NOT because they are highly talented but because they are just like everyone else.
