It always amazes me
when companies advertise
for ‘experienced salespeople.’
Experienced salespeople have both
initiative
and
connections.
They don’t wait for job postings.
How to find a great salesperson?
Allow them to pitch to you.
Take sales calls.
Speak with telemarketers.
Allow yourself to be stopped in shopping malls.
Counter-offer the best
with an interview.
Duct Tape Marketer John Jantsch
explains in Entrepreneur
how to never cold call again.
He suggests using free reports or articles
as ‘bait.’
The equivalent of product sampling
for professionals,
free reports are
a non-threatening first prospect contact.
It eases them into
a relationship.
Watching the criminal defense lawyer present,
I noticed how physical he was.
He was constantly moving,
hands, feet, eyebrows, leaning forward,
turning away.
Selling is a physical job
and, if the salesperson is great,
so is being sold to.
In The Certifiable Salesperson
authors Tom Hopkins and Laura Laaman,
suggest
“If we were selling cars,
we should open doors and
gesture for clients to get in
so they can experience owning the vehicle.
Stand back slightly from your office machines
or other similar products
while motioning and verbally encouraging
your clients to
step up and push buttons.
Hand them things:
brochures, samples, color charts, and so on…”
Get physical with your prospects.
I had the good fortune
to sit in on a presentation by
a top criminal defense lawyer.
He was talking law,
I was hearing sales.
All great lawyers are also great salespeople.
They sell juries and judges
on their clients’ stance.
When cross-examining a witness,
the lawyer advised
it was often better to arrive
at the key question in a round-about way.
Why?
Because witnesses are always prepped
for brutal cross-examinations.
They expect that.
No new information will surface.
Also true with sales.
Prospects automatically expect
the hard sell.
They are prepared to reject it.
Consider the soft sell.
A study by
Martin Holzwarth, Chris Janiszewski,
and Marcus Neumann
shows that websites with avatars
(virtual characters)
have a higher satisfaction rate
than websites without.
As with real salespeople,
the better looking the avatar,
the higher the consumer satisfaction.
Consider adding a virtual salesperson
to your team.
Magazine Baron Felix Dennis
believes that within every successful entrepreneur,
there is a ‘sliver of ice’,
a ruthlessness
that allows his/her company to survive.
“There is only so much pie to go around.
If you’re going to take more
than your fair share of pie,
as socialists would look at it,
then someone else is not getting his.
That means you’ve got
to take it away from them.”
I know every sale I make
takes away a sale from someone else.
That is part of the game.
Some entrepreneurs think
‘if only I could get the product listed
in Wal-Mart or Costco,
I’ll be set.’
Ummm… no.
50% of all new products
that make it to shelf
don’t succeed.
This despite often paying large listing fees
(grocery stores charge a one-time fee
to put your product on the shelf)
and other set up costs.
You have to sell to
retailers and grocery stores,
yes,
but,
your job isn’t done there,
you also have to sell through to
the consumer.
I like executive summaries
so when The Naked Negotiator
summed up his years of knowledge into one phrase,
I knew I had to share it.
What is it?
“KFC.
The K stands for Know what you want.
The F stands for Find out what you’re getting.
The C stands for Change what you do
until you get what you want.”
That’s it.
The secret of his success.
And it works.
I know.
I use this technique myself.
Harry Mills in The Rainmaker’s Toolkit
shares how to make a favorable first impression.
Smile to ooze warmth
Open stance, standing with your legs apart and arms loose
Forward leaning towards the prospect,
moving your weight forward onto the balls of your feet
Tone, varying your voice pitch, rate and rhythm
Eye contact, focus your gaze
on the prospect’s forehead and eyes
Nod, punctuating your speech with nods and gestures
As you can see,
making a favorable first impression means
using your entire body to do so.
Selling is VERY physical.
A friend was buying a resale home.
The negotiations came down
to price and appliances.
It was understood that
the two were linked.
No appliances, lower price.
Appliances included, higher price.
That understanding made the deal making easier.
When negotiating,
link the different issues as closely as possible,
then ensure that concession on one issue
means concession on the others.
Bundling them will increase
speed of resolution.