is104821115 professional sales 1 largeEverything in life is sales and that makes it extremely important that you get comfortable with how to sell. So stick with me as I make a sales pitch to you on the importance of sales because I cannot emphasize enough how much it has helped me in my entrepreneurial journey.

If you learn how to sell, you’ll become much better in your business and you'll become a more successful entrepreneur and business leader because knowing how to sell develops your instinct of what's going to work in leading others.

It's critical to “sell” the problem (and hence your solution) and not the features of your product. [quotesright]People are far more emotional about their problems and your ability to offer a solution than they ever are about your product’s features. [/quotesright]

Don't go in there and “product dump” on your prospects and start rattling off all your product’s features when half the features are things they don't need or want. That's a real fast way to get the dead-animal glazed look and build a wall between you and those you're speaking to.

Customer knowledge is power

is1126482243 lean to sell 1 largeIt's vitally important that you know your customers. When you walk into their premises have three things that you believe are going to benefit them the most. This is the WIIFM (What’s In It For Them) and focuses on what you have for this kind of consumer or for this specific buyer. This identifies the core of your presentation.

And as you present, you should almost always use humor. Whenever you can use humor or be light and a little bit vulnerable, it relaxes the situation, takes the pressure off and aids communication. It helps immensely in most instances. Just be aware that there are situations where humor may be inappropriate or viewed as frivolous. You’ll see that in one of the behaviour types we discuss later in this article.

In researching and studying successful salespeople and entrepreneurs, I came across Sara Blakley, CEO of Spanx. Her very first invention was footless pantyhose. She would go in and she would start with the problem because you should always first sell the problem that you're solving, not the product.

Sara went through a checklist. She'd start with the problem then detail the solution. Next, she’d describe what the product is in terms of comfort, answer questions, and offer a few details about the product. But then she’d tie it all back to the way it makes users feel and why it's their best solution.

Anticipate objections

She would always be thinking, “If I'm the consumer listening to this, I would know there are other options out there that can get rid of a panty line.” She had already anticipated the objections in her prospect’s mind because she knew there were other options, but she also knew their flaws: they stopped on the thigh and it showed.

At that point, she would compare the benefits of Spanx with the competition. This made the superiority of Spanx perfectly clear to prospects at exactly the right moment, heading off objections and making prospects even more interested in hearing more about her product.

By anticipating what someone might be thinking, offering them even more solutions, and bringing everything together in a well-conceived and concise presentation, it helps prospects understand the problem and their best solution. [quotesright]It’s the “Ah ha! Moment” when the prospect sees that your solution really is the best choice. [/quotesright]

How to deal with ‘no’

You’ll know if your presentation works if it's successful. It's that simple. Did you get the order? Did you get the business? Are they buying? Are they showing up at your door?

is171096016 sales 2 largeIf the answers to those questions are no, here's the beauty of sales: You can change what you're doing and try again.

You can iterate what you say, how and when you say it, and how you phrase things. You may not be hitting your targets dead on. Maybe you're not addressing the heart of the issue the right way or maybe you're not articulate enough in helping them see that you're solving their problems. Just know that perfecting your presentation is a work in progress and the good thing about sales is that you get real-time feedback. It's something that you can be finessing and changing and getting better at all the time.

Style complements substance

Here is another key to being a better salesperson, behavioral styles. There are typically four types of people you sell to and the good news is that in one out of four cases you should be able to quickly close the deal or get the order because you're speaking to someone who is much like you.

However, if you want to become a very effective salesperson, learning the behavioral types that are less like you is what makes your ability to sell to more people go up exponentially.

They go by different labels, but the way that I categorize them is Director, Socializer, Steady/relator, and Compliant/thinker.

  • The director (Dominance) is someone who wants you to be very concise and to the point.
  • The socializer (Influence) wants to get to know you a little bit better.
  • The steady/relator (Steadiness) is all about empathy, I want you to really feel like you've connected to who I am as a person and what I need and I want to know that you care about me as a person before I do business with you.
  • The compliant/thinker (Conscientiousness) is the dispassionate and somewhat humorless analyzer that wants to know every detail about the product whether they use it or not.

When styles conflict

The hardest one for me to sell to was always the compliant/thinker type because I believed that trying to sell to them was the biggest waste of time. They want far too many facts and details. That’s too much minutia for me. Why do you want me to go over the 15 features and do you really need the three binders of manuals on my fax machine that I know you're never going to use? I had to adapt and come prepared with more details and facts because I knew they were important to them. This behavioral style still takes a lot of energy from me, but I put in the extra effort because I know to get the sale – I have to.

My original approach was sort of like, “Here are the three features you're actually going to use, let's go to write it up.” That was because I was more of an Influencer/director style. Understanding this point will prove to be very important to your success.

I repeatedly beat my head against the wall, losing sale after sale, before I understood the implications of the four different behavioral styles. Finally, I realized that I was forcing my style onto these prospects. [quotesright]If you learn how to recognize and speak in terms of the style of each person, you can easily increase your sales success by 50 percent.[/quotesright]

Recognizing there are people with styles unlike your own is a big deal. So is having empathy for whom you're selling to because you stop forcing your style on others and begin to adapt to their style. Taking a moment to identify a person’s style lets you get a more nuanced picture of who you are speaking to and what matters to them. It’s a game-changer. [quotesright]It’s the fastest way to develop rapport, trust, and respect. [/quotesright]

Be a two-dimensional listener

One of the key components of being a dynamic salesperson is being an expert listener. And to do that, you need to know that there are two ways to listen. One is through the verbal, and the other is through the nonverbal clues. Develop your understanding of the four behavioral styles (DISC) and set a goal to become a master of the nonverbal. The nonverbal will tell you more of what you need to know about a prospect/customer or buyer than the verbal.

I'll give you an example. Here’s the first thing I did when I went on a sales call to meet a Canadian Olympic champion. He opened the door of his home office but was on his cell phone at the same time. He beckoned me in while still on the call.

My D style was getting annoyed because I was on time and ready to engage. He finally got off the phone. I started my conversation in an Influencer style, which was not his style. He was a D, a director, and not interested in niceties. He wanted to get to the point, saying that he was a busy guy and had only 10 minutes before he’d have to end the meeting.

It was at this point that I realized that I wasn’t connecting with him, so I shifted and became more like him: a fast-paced D director. I sped things up and became more assertive. Those changes earned me the right to stay an hour and a half and ended the meeting by agreeing to take the next step in the process. [quotesright]If I hadn’t changed my communication style, I would have missed out and not served him or those that I was representing. [/quotesright]

Understand Styles and Sell More

Want to learn more about how to understand and apply different behavioral styles in your sales process? Have questions? Get in touch and let's set up a time to talk. Brian Tracy USA: 877.433.6225 Email Me

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