Turning Sales Techniques Into Sales Success!

The goal of all sales training is not just to teach solid selling principles and techniques, but to actually help participants increase the number of new accounts (products and/or services) they sell and improve their multiple sales ratios. Unfortunately, many sales and service industry professionals gain an intellectual awareness of the methods of selling from the sales training they receive, yet fail to improve their bottom line sales results by systematically using the concepts in their daily transactions. See my article, The Processionary Caterpillar Syndrome Costs You Sales?

There are a number of methods you can use to move beyond an intellectual awareness of sound sales techniques. By applying some of these ideas, you can begin to see a steady improvement in the number and scope of your sales transactions. These concepts can help any sales professional drill-for-skill the vital selling principles needed to become a sales leader. Really all it takes to be successful in sales is just a little practice and perseverance.

Give Yourself Permission To Succeed

To become a sales leader in any kind of business only requires that you give yourself permission to succeed. In sales, as in every endeavor in life, it is your attitude not your attributes that count. There is no reason you can not be extremely successful at selling your company's products and services, if you make up your mind to do the job.

William James, a Harvard Professor and the man many view as the father of American Psychology, wrote in 1895:

"The greatest discovery of my generation is, that a human being can alter his circumstances in life by altering his attitude of mind."

James also gave people a formula for achieving an altered attitude of mind. He simply told them to "act as if" they were already successful and this act alone could make them successful. If you act as if you have changed or act like a different person, according to James, you must change or become a different person. If a sales professional acts as if she can sell, her sales ratios and product account closings can do nothing but improve.

By releasing your "inner brakes" and seeing yourself using the sales and customer service techniques you have learned, you can become extremely successful in your efforts to sell your company's products and services. If you want to consistently produce multiple sales transactions, just let yourself go and you will start to see the success you are seeking. You have the right to be successful. The only thing that can stop your improvement and ultimate success is yourself. Tell yourself that it is all right to produce outstanding sales results; and then, begin envisioning the success you expect to achieve.

Use Affirmations To Produce Success

To help you consistently execute the sales techniques you have learned, use affirmations to change the way you think and perform. Affirmations can also help release your internal breaking system.

We gravitate to our dominant thought patterns. By using affirmations ("I can," "I am," etc.), you can create dominant thoughts about specific sales methods that will help you to move away from your fears (the fear of failure or of looking foolish) toward successful sales transactions. Write down a series of positive affirmations about the sales process or a specific technique. Then read them over until you create the dominant thought patterns that produce success.

As we teach in all of our Sales Success workshops and discuss in detail in our published training material, it is vital to your sales success that you regularly affirm your selling skills and visualize successful transactions using the techniques you have learned. To succeed you must see yourself as one of your company's top sales producers by regularly performing mental dress rehearsals for the position.

Repeat The Technique Until It Is Yours

As you are taught new sales techniques you need to practice them on the job as well as in your mind, until you can use them in each transaction without even thinking about their use. We call this level of sales proficiency "unconscious competence."

Many sales professionals, try a new sales approach only once or twice before rejecting it out of hand or deciding that it will not work for them. True professionals; however, diligently practice a new sales concept until they can execute it without even thinking about it. This approach (going beyond an intellectual knowledge of a sales method) sets top producers apart and can be seen in their extraordinary closing and multiple sales success. It is also quite noticeable in their pay checks as well!

Role-playing at each new sales technique with a co-worker is a powerful way to gain the ability to consistently use these concepts on the job. Remember; however, that practice does not make perfect. Only "perfect practice" makes perfect. So as you practice with other employees, try to be as accurate as you can in the execution of a given sales concept.

Set aside some time each working day to drill in the sales concepts you have been taught. Take them one at a time and master each one. It might surprise you how much more you will enjoy coming to work when you become truly proficient in building sales and long term customer relationships for your company.

Saturate Your Mind

Saturate your mind with sales and motivational materials. As you do this, you will move from an intellectual understanding of the sales techniques to a daily working knowledge of the methods you need to succeed, and you will have more than just an occasional thought about what you are trying to accomplish. What is needed to help you change your behavior is a constant positive saturation of your mind by reading over the materials you have been given or the notes you have taken on the subject.

In his tapes, The Psychology of Selling, Brian Tracy tells his listeners that one of the best methods to increase sales success is to read then reread one of the best books on sales for 30 minutes each day. He feels this type of saturation will have a tremendous impact on the sales activity of an individual. Research from Stanford University indicates that you can learn more from reading the same book six times than you can from reading 40 books on the same subject.

Work Smarter Not Harder

Outstanding sales results come to those sales professionals who correctly follow and apply sound sales principles. They won't do the work for you but they will lighten your load and give you an edge. All it takes to be successful at selling your company's products is to want to improve the way you perform, see yourself using new selling techniques, give yourself permission to use the concepts and regularly practice them until they become second nature.

VIRDEN THORNTON is the founder and President of The $elling Edge®, Inc. a firm specializing in sales, customer relations, and management training and development. Clients have included Sears Optical, Eastman Kodak, IBM, Deloitte & Touché, Bank One, Jefferson Pilot, and Wal-Mart to name a few. Virden is the author of Prospecting: The Key To Sales Success and the best selling Building & Closing the Sale, Fifty-Minute series books and Close That Sale, a video/audio tape series published by the Thompson Learning, Crisp Learning division. He has also authored a Self-Directed Learning series of sales, coaching & team development, telemarketing, and personal productivity training guides. Check them out at: http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/Book1.htm.

Virden teaches for the Center For Professional Development, Texas Tech University at Lubbock, Texas and in the School Of Entrepreneurship, J. Willard And Alice S. Marriott School Of Management at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. You can contact Virden at: Virden@TheSellingEdge.com. or learn more about him at: http://TheSellingEdge.com

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How to Close a Sale by Turning the Conventional Sales Process on Its Head

With one simple change to your sales closing techniques you can bring out the majority of real sales objections, and smoke screens, at the start of a sales meeting. By making a simple change to the traditional sales process you will only be faced with objections related to your products or service when you try to close the sale. These are objections that you can overcome. Objections to sales that are related to the buyer, or their company, are not in your control and can be very difficult to resolve.

Make more effective use of your sales time because you will know from the start of the meeting whether the buyer can buy from you. Think abut the difference that will make to your sales conversion rate. From the introduction stage of the sales meeting, or even from the sales appointment making call, you will be in a position to decide if you are making the best use of your sales time. Working with the sales teams I manage and train we have developed this sales closing technique in real sales situations, not just in a classroom. These successful sales skills are used by working sales professionals that rely on their results to earn a living and keep their job.

In a traditional sales process the sales person usually starts the meeting with an introduction of themselves, their company, and the reason they are meeting with the prospect. This will be followed by questions to discover the buyer's needs, and then a sales presentation of the features and benefits that meet those needs. Then the sales person tries to close the sale, or gain agreement to the next stage of the process. After all this time and work the seller can then be hit with an objection to the sale that they have no control over, and no way of overcoming. These are sales objections that are related to the buyer or their company.

These objections can be: There are other decision makers. The buying process involves their head office. The company is tied into a contract. Budgets are over spent, and many others that stop the sale dead.

By turning the traditional sales process on its head, and using sales closing techniques at the introduction stage of the meeting, you can bring out the buyer related sales objections. When presenting sales training, on how to close a sale, I focus on gaining the strongest agreement near the start of the sales process, rather than at the usual closing stage, after the sales presentation. At an appropriate point near the start of the meeting explain to the buyer the sales process you would like the meeting to follow. Tell the buyer how you will establish their needs, wants, and desires, and then present the best proposal you can offer. You will then ask them if they are happy with the benefits of the proposal, and if they would like to do business with you.

Present this as a win-win situation. There are great benefits for the buyer. They can relax, and communicate with you freely, because they know you're not going to pounce on the smallest sign of interest, or buying signal, that they may show. Many people you sell to may not be full time buyers. By setting out the agenda you will help them with their buying process. When you do try and close the sale there will be no need for linguistic trickery or manipulative sales techniques. All it requires is a gentle direct question. You will find it easy to ask, and the buyer will appreciate your directness and honesty.

Setting the sales meeting agenda is the important point on which you want to gain their agreement. You are asking, if they like what they see, are they are in a position to buy from you, or to agree to the next stage of the buying process.

The strength of your agreement gaining question will vary depending upon the type of sales you are making. You can use stronger agreement gaining question with a one-time sale to a customer you will never see again than. With a repeat business prospect ,that you want to build a relationship with, you will be more tactful. Assessing the strength and directness of the closing techniques you use is a sales skill that comes with experience, practice and good sales training.

You've seen how to close a sale at the start of a sales meeting. If the buyer raises an objection to the sale, a reason why they can't do business with you, you can now make a decision on whether it is good use of your time to continue with the meeting.

Once you have gained their agreement to the sales process you know that the objections, which may arise when you try and close the sale, will be related to the sales presentation you have given. These are objections you are more likely to be able to answer or resolve with your sales skills.

Closing a sale by gaining agreement near the start of the meeting requires confidence. Like all change it may be uncomfortable at first, but the results make it very worth while becoming competent at using this sales closing technique. Once you've mastered this sales skill imagine what else you can add to it.

For more information on sales training focused on How to Close a Sale go to http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com/how-to-close-a-sale.html

Stephen Craine is a working sales manager and trainer for a major UK company. He uses his experience of sales, motivation training, NLP, and personal development coaching to achieve results for himself through the achievements of others in a sales environment.

All the sales training presented here, and on the website, has been tested and proved by working sales people in real sales situations. There are no acronyms, buzz words, or complicated techniques to market training courses. The focus is on practical sales training that achieves results.

Stephen has recently teamed up with a successful clinical hypnotherapist in Manchester uk to offer sales and career coaching to private clients and small businesses. Combining the power of hypnosis to make personal changes and overcome obstacles, with the practical experience of a professional sales coach, offers a unique training resource.

The aim is to help anyone looking to increase sales results, develop their career, or prepare for job interviews. The coaching program can also be tailored for small businesses to give them access to resources usually only available to large organisations.

For more free sales training and sales skills information, and to see what else might be of interest to you or your company, visit the website at http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com

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