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Brilliant at the Basics 9 Sales Tips to focus you on the basicsLike millions of others, I watched the FA Cup Final on Saturday and was rewarded with rather a dull match full of mistakes, lost possession and very little goal mouth action. Maybe it was two tired teams trying to do their best but possibly it was two teams with well paid players that just try to do the complex things first. All those fancy step over’s and bicycle kicks as opposed to decent crosses and shots at goal. Sometimes in sales we’re all guilty of trying to do advanced techniques and new ideas and maybe we forget the basics occasionally. There’s a saying in sales that goes: "Be Brilliant at the Basics" Then you can move onto some of the more advanced techniques. Here are 9 basic steps to increase your sales: 1. Maximise your lead generation system.Much of my new business comes from referrals and my websites. Where does your new business come from? Spending development time with those people who refer you is time well spent. If you work in a retail branch, work with the cashiers who get the leads for you. Help them with the words and phrases to use. Make them self sufficient in getting you leads. If you get your business from professional introducers, are you spending enough time with them to generate business. Think how you can automate your new business systems. On your websites, do you have a compelling reason for every visitor to leave their email address so you can add this to your database? Does your auto responder then do all the work for you? How successful are you at asking for referrals? Rather than
asking your customer if they know anyone who might benefit from your
services, ask them if they suddenly had to take one year off work
and had to suggest to their boss three people they knew who could
take over their job, who would they be. Or if they’re a family man,
ask them if they had to go away from their family for 1 year on
urgent save the world business, which three people they know would
take their place? Try it, these work. 2. Qualify Your CustomerMaximising your time is important in sales, so the faster you can determine if you've got a potential customer the better. Spending time with people that really don’t have a problem to solve or who can’t see the problem however much you try, might not be the best use of our time. We should have a workable technique in determining whether our
customer is worth spending time with. Try getting the people who
obtain the leads for you to pre-qualify the customer first with some
simple questions that you can give them to ask. Determine who the "Decision Maker" is early on. Hand out your business card between two people and see who instinctively grabs the card. Ask the question, “Now you don’t need to make any decisions today so you can relax but just in case you feel you might want to go to the next step, will you be in a position to do so?” Watch their reaction and where they look. Quite hypnotic that one too. 3. Gain TrustMost customers buy from you when the price gives them value, the benefits suit their needs but sometimes they buy less tangible things. Right now we have a builder doing some work for us. I buy trust, respect and integrity from Norman as well as his ability to do the work. He’s not the quickest builder or the cheapest. Your customer is just as apt to buy for emotional reasons as practical ones, so you need to show them you are most like them, you're sincere, you keep your word, and are honest. Remember to under promise and over deliver. That way you’ll never let anyone down. 4. Define Your Unique Selling Position (USP)Your product or service provides your customer with a specific benefit or group of benefits. Obvious that. Make sure it isn't the same as your competition. But with thousands of others like you on the market, it can be very difficult to distinguish yourself from the competition. Why does your company stand out? Why do you stand out from the crowd? What value do you offer your customer? If you’re a middle man, then you’ll need to know exactly what
value you give, otherwise with technology accelerating as it does,
in a few years’ time you’ll be redundant. Let them know the
difference. 5. ListenMost salespeople are guilty of "overselling", and often miss the sentence from the customer that says, "You're right. We'll take it." Listen to your customer as he answers questions, and even listen to his tone and inflections of speech. Watch their body language. Uncover the problem, and then provide the solution and stop talking. If the benefits that you present to your customer don’t “tick their boxes” then you haven’t listened enough. It’s that simple. 6. Stay FocusedToo many salespeople spend all their time putting out fires instead of making sales. Spend at least 80 – 90% of your time trying to produce revenue. The sales window of 9am – 5pm is small, so plan your selling time accordingly. Schedule non-sales generating duties outside this time. Doing paperwork and admin is essential, of course, but not during prime selling time. Try to block your time to do tasks. 1 hour doing phone calls followed by two hours of meetings is good use of time. 7. Ask good questionsAnd I don’t mean open as opposed to closed questions. That is just so 20th Century! Good salespeople ask lots of questions but don’t interrogate. Try asking questions without using too many words because they ensure you don’t interrogate. Try just repeating the last couple of words from their last sentence and raise your tone as you do so. Try just not saying anything but nod subtly. Try using brief assertions which are little words or gestures to get more from the customer. “Uh hur”, “I see”, “keep going”, “this is interesting…” 8. Learn From SuccessMany salespeople have success in one industry with one type of client, and then don't focus on getting more of the same type. If you've been successful selling to doctors and publishers, call on other doctors and publishers and refer to the successes you've had. You’ll then get to know their challenges and needs as an industry. Customers will trust you more if they know you have previous experience with others in their field. You also spend less time establishing your credibility with them. In a branch setting, if Briony is good with the middle age
customers, then feed all the middle aged people to Briony. Likewise
if Jim is good with the young dynamic types, then let Jim sell to
them. 9. Tame the email junky in you.Now I’m the worst culprit here. Computers on line constantly, Blackberries, push email, Smartphones all allow us to receive email all of the time. And for some of us checking email is as addictive as drugs. I love getting email and will try and check for email at every moment possible and then deal with them as they appear. This is just so not the right idea and since Easter I’ve been weaning myself of the drug of email by checking once in the morning, then at lunchtime and then towards the end of the working day. During these times I can respond to the email or deal with it, but I don’t then check mail again until my next timeslot. This has been very difficult but is paying me dividends. But then my Outlook life was changed when I read a book on holiday called Take Back your Life by McGhee. Buy it now you won't be disappointed. SummaryBy all means spruce up your selling skills, learn new ideas and
refine your ability with the latest thinking but if we forget the
basics, we could be in big trouble. Paul is an international sales speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK.
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He specialises in rapport selling and rapport
coaching and can ignite his audiences large or small.