Professional sales is a great business to be in if you can be successful.  Some people think that they are too shy, that sales people have to be gregarious to succeed.  That just is not true.   You do need to be assertive, courteous, honest but not pushy.  The thing that helps successful professional sales people is that they really believe in their product and that it will aid the consumer in some way.

Professional sales people are knowledgeable about their product or products.  Knowledge will increase your motivation and self-assurance.  You need to be able to answer any question a consumer has.  If you do not know an answer, tell the consumer you will find it out quickly and get right back to him or her.

You might want to advertise to a specific group or to a general audience.  You need to develop your sales pitch.  There will always be a ”Doubting Thomas” or some one that likes being the “devil’s advocate”.  They ask ridiculous questions and seem to want to have a debate with you.  Be polite and courteous but if the conversation is condescending and is not going anywhere, excuse your self.

Professional sales people get to know the consumer, they are friendly.  The more you know about the buyer the better chance you will have a successful sale.  Ask the consumer what they are looking for in a product. This is called asking probing questions.  If you are genuine and friendly the consumer will not feel like you are too personal.

Professioaal sale people know who their competition is.  When your buyer brings up your competitor’s product you will be prepared to prove why you have a better deal.  Figure out what their motivation to buy is.

A professional sales person knows how to manage their time.  For instance, do not waste too much of your time with someone who is not really interested.  Identify obstacles that waste your time. Learn time management techniques such as list making.   Structure your time.  Spend a certain amount of time with each prospect, if they are buying, spend a little more time, if not, move on.

Professional sales people have a good marketing plan.  They have strategized and know who their prospects are.  Do some research to determine if there is a demand for your product on the market.  If you are using Internet marketing use eye catching, proactive web site techniques.

A successful professional sales person has a good attitude, motivates people and gets things done.   This person makes him or her self invaluable to their employer. Professional sales people have a strategy and they execute their plan.

This is in response to a comment I received about the “Smash the God Belief” article I posted a couple of weeks ago.  Thanks for your patience while I got organised to make this post.

I’ll often in a position in my work when people will attempt to waste my time.  They’ll drain my productivity if I let them.  So I use this “sales” policy and approach when dealing with them and also with others who wish to discuss other subjects I’m not interested in.

I question and qualify before I invest my time and efforts in them.

If there’s something positive for me to gain from taking the discussion further, then I’ll proceed by gaining something first before I give anything in return.  This is a method of qualifying them.  It’s not good “debating” technique (ie, answering a question with a question), but it’s a great way to get control of the conversation back.

The reason why is this: If someone’s talking to me, they’ve got the impression I’ve got something they need.  I then know that I’m (or my knowledge) is of value to them and therefore there’s grounds for us to trade.  Otherwise, I’m not interested, and they don’t talk to me.

If they do present themselves with a question, I qualify them by asking them to clarify their question, their wants, their needs and often what specific problem they are trying to solve with their approach.

By doing this I gain the best position to find a solution to their problem/question.  Remember, I’ve already established the fact they [think they] need me for something by the fact that they’re talking to me in the first place.

I make my decision based upon the clarification questions I ask.  If there’s something I can gain from the exchange, then I’ll continue.  If not, then I redirect them, politely, to a more likely solution.  (I’ll sometimes even ask them to provide me with something in return for the recommendation.  ie, referrals, or a small purchase, or a free subscription so I can continue to make them similar offers etc).

The point is, nothing I do I do for free.  Including verbal exchange.  In fact, a verbal exchange with a devout religious fanatic would bring little value to me as I’m not in the business of conversions.

To succeed in a down economy, you’ll need to step up your sales game. Here are eight adjustments you need to make to keep selling during these tough times.

The affects of the 2008 economic stimulus package presented by the President and Congress are long gone and there’s talk of another one. The news about the $700 billion dollar “bailout” and global recessionary trends are dominating the headlines. Add to that the distress caused by election year politics and we, as professional salespeople, have been challenged to remain focused and productive in a slowing economy. Economists are predicting a tough calendar 2008 fourth quarter and a sluggish 2009, but our role in sales dictates that we need to attack rather than react.
Selling in a tough economy requires extra effort, better planning, more control of your sales cycle and tenacity. Remember one thing: The top 2% of all salespeople automatically turn up their activity a couple more notches when things get tough. By doing so, they’re the ones who’ll be standing tall when the economy turns around. The top 2% do this because:

Below are eight ideas to help you sell like a “top 2 percenter” in a tough economy:

Double and triple your call activity
Honestly, your competitors do not have the stuff to compete under these circumstances. Average salespeople buy into the “woe is me” philosophy and decrease sales activity. The top 2% know that an economic slowdown is an opportunity to edge out competitors.

Re-allocate your field time
Work more with your “A” accounts and in lieu of your “B” and “C” ones. Your purpose should be two-fold: 1) Your top producing accounts have the capacity to buy more from you; that’s what makes them “A” accounts; and, 2) You’ll be securing your position with these accounts from potential attempts by the competition to wrest them away. Don’t allow that to happen! Remember, this business cycle is affecting your competition too and they’ll be aggressively looking at your “A” accounts as a source of new business.

Examine prospecting efficiency
Both rookie and veteran sales professionals tend to let their prospecting slide when times are good. As a result, their prospecting skills and prospect targeting abilities get rusty. This is a good time for you to hammer out your prospective customer dimensions. In other words, delineate what your ideal prospect looks like. Then, identify key prospects in your area and proceed to develop your capture and execution plans.

Fire stalled prospects and move on
Your income and success depend upon calling on true prospects and current customers who can (and will) do more business with you. Assess the prospects you are calling on and don’t be afraid to “fire” them, particularly if your extra effort is not showing any results. Remember that you have a business objective for every call you make. If you don’t, your call will be reduced to a social nature and you don’t get paid for those.

Go the extra mile for customers and increase value-added activities
You need to be creative in low or no-cost ways to help your accounts cut costs or stimulate new business. Go out of your way for your top accounts. Now is the time to establish yourself as a source for best practices. Share ideas on how your other accounts have benefited.

Make every call count
Be prepared to make the most of every call. What value are you deriving from each customer visit? Who is controlling the call – you or the customer? Experience and research have demonstrated that formal pre-call planning generates more successful outcomes for all sales activities. You should never take sales call effectiveness for granted – especially in tough economic times. The days of “blowing through” a call are over. The simple fact is that you are paid to move the customer to the next stage in your sales cycle. In today’s economic climate, you’ve got too much at risk not to plan for success.

Now, more than ever, craft a strategy to overcome such objections as:

Write a long list of discovery questions that will uncover hidden opportunities.

Plan to succeed
You will not survive an economic slowdown by simply hoping that you sell more or your current customer base buys more. Account planning, territory planning, and pre-call planning are the keys to efficient selling in a down economy. It’s time to review account plans or develop them, if you haven’t already. Account plans are your road map to selling more to your “A” accounts. It may be time to reassess pricing or bundling in order to pick off some of your competitors’ offerings.

In addition, you should ask yourself the following questions:

Reassess your priorities
This is not the time to perfect your golf swing or take extended time off. This is the time to dig in and take charge of your sales activities. By doing so, you’ll be able to survive the current tough times and will be positioned to reap the benefits when the economy bounces back because you’ll be ahead of your competitors who didn’t!

Jim Kasper is the founder and president of Interactive Resource Group. Mr. Kasper has over 26 years of practical experience in direct sales, sales management, sales training, and marketing. Contact him at www.salestrainers.com or call 800-891-7355.

Hi guys,

I was just reading a bit about this whole “change people’s minds about God” thing, and the best approach is one where the individual becomes responsible for their own change. As with any decision, it’s easier to influence someone to change their own mind, than it is to change it for them!

Here’s a wonderful nugget of logic to test your own mental flexibility…

Just for fun.
This method first requires an acceptance of the axioms of existence,
identity, and consciousness. If the person understands that A is A, at
least is a general sense, they will have trouble countering this
argument with anything.
For the purposes of this argument “O” is the Objectivist, and “R” is
the religious individual. You could substitute the Christian Religion
for any religion I suppose, but I’ll just use Christianity as the example:
O: “Can God do anything?”
R: “no”
Discussion over.
O: “Can God do anything?”
R: “yes”
O: “Can God create a mathematical equation so complex that even He
cannot solve it?” or “Can God create a boulder so large and massive in
size and scope that even He cannot move it?”
It doesn’t matter what the answer to that question is. An answer of
“yes” means that God is not omniscient or omnipotent. An answer of
“no” reveals the same fact.

$D$

David C Lewis, FMM, RFA is the founder of Twin Tier Financial – a financial services company based in upstate NY which specializes in retirement for self employed individuals.

Now I ask myself, was that line of questioning too early for me? (no), was it just right and helped me make a decision based on good reasoning? (yes!) or was I already there (well yes, but I sometimes need a reminder! haha)

I love little chunks of logic like this because they represent not the approach, but the form of the approach. It’s the method that works, not just the specific argument.

For example, this argument presented to a devout religious man will have no effect due to his unyielding faith. However, if the person has been introduced to a train of thought that presented cognitive and verifiable facts leading up the ultimate conclusion that God does not exist (or that their current definition contains a contradiction) then it would be more readily acceptable. Especially if they quite naturally came to the successive conclusions themselves.

It’s simply a matter of presenting the correct question at the right time, and letting the mind of your inquirer do the work. Ultimately, with the correct information, and enough stimulation to change, everyone grows. In my experience it’s the emotional response to some kind of dissatisfaction that has the best effect. (It’s similar to a sales industry approach: looking for a clients problem, stimulating an emotional response to the situation, and relieving it with a product solution)

It’s a liberating thought, and I personally find freedom in the knowledge that people around me posses great value to me as free thinking individuals along their own path of self discovery. Yes, some progress slower than others, some go backwards at times. But their desire to solve their problems is somewhat innate, whatever path they choose. It’s there in all of us.

The question is who to invest your time with? Who is best exploited for their current beliefs (yes, I said exploit! – it’s logical and rational but not within the scope of this post), and who is best to invest in for future growth. Indeed, who should one avoid completely?

I think Neo-Tech published their “silver bullets” but I never read them. Maybe it’s one of their projects that went on the back burner and never came out. I’m not sure (but if anybody has a copy I’d be very interested in getting my hands on it!). These silver bullets were most likely individual arguments or approaches, somewhat like a script based upon sound rational concepts and demonstrable ideas. Similar to the 114 advantages. (if you haven’t read them, go and read them now: http://www.neo-tech.com/advantages/

These would be gold in my opinion. Somewhat like a futuristic “cheat sheet” for how to handle any situation. Absolute gold. BUT, better than that is the ability to create your own. How to disassemble any situation to it’s basic elements, understand how it works, put it back together, view it in it’s widest context and take action to position yourself for your desired outcome. Scripts are great, but the method behind the script is better. He who remains the most flexible in their approach gains more options to influence others (and the world).

Chris West
ProfessionalSales.com.au