 Category :: Sales Training Articles |
Author :: Duane Sparks  |
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| Article Title :: The Sales Training Series: Document Your Best Sales Practices |
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| What Works Best For Your Company?Experience is a wonderful teacher, but only if you pay attention and draw the right lessons from your experience. It pays to document certain portions of your company’s sales process—and the most successful practices that you and your fellow salespeople have found for handling common challenges. Salespeople who do this maximize the use of their time, shorten sell cycles, make more sales, and cash bigger paychecks.To learn from what works, document what works.What parts of your sales process should you document?First, identify the milestones in your sales cycle. What are the necessary steps that lead from your initial cont (read full article) |
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| Category :: Sales Training Articles |
Author :: Duane Sparks |
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| Article Title :: The Sales Training Series: Five Buying Decisions |
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| Have you ever had a customer that seemed to reject nearly everything that you were presenting? We all have. Research on the customer's buying decisions has revealed that a customer's resistance may not be caused by what you present. It could be the sequence of your presentation.Our research has shown 76% of sales presentations are out of sync with buying decisions. When making a major purchase decision, your customer goes through a process of five sequential decisions.1. SALESPERSON. Customers decide if they like and can trust you.2. COMPANY. What is your company's reputation? Is your company a good match for them?3. PRODUCT. Is your product the right s (read full article) |
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| Category :: Sales Training Articles |
Author :: Duane Sparks |
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| Article Title :: The Sales Training Series: How To Develop A Strong Sales Culture |
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| In every other business function (accounting, engineering, operations) there are documented processes, common cultures, and established vocabularies with terms that are clearly understood—everywhere except in sales.It is a rare company that has a strong and distinct sales culture, complete with a common language for discussing, conducting, and improving the sales process. The few companies that have built such sales cultures are easy to recognize—they’re a lot more successful.Everyone who makes contact with customers should understand your sales language.It isn’t only salespeople who should be indoctrinated into your sales culture. Every time a customer cont (read full article) |
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| Category :: Sales Training Articles |
Author :: Duane Sparks |
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| Article Title :: The Sales Training Series: Keep Replaying The Sales Call |
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| To Keep Growing, Replay The Call – Every TimeMost salespeople continue to make the same mistakes over and over, never recognizing their errors. Therefore, beyond a certain point, they never really get much better at what they do. How can you avoid that trap?Top salespeople never stop improving because they 'replay' every sales call they make.To continually improve your performance, you need two things. First, you need a systematic, step-by-step approach to planning and conducting the sales call that gives you a clear picture of what the whole process looks like when it's done right. Second, you need a strategy for critiquing your own performance regularly in lig (read full article) |
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| Category :: Sales Training Articles |
Author :: Duane Sparks |
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| Article Title :: The Sales Training Series: Keep Selling Your Company |
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| “I didn’t know that!”If you hear those words from an existing customer who likes and trusts you but who just bought something from one of your competitors, you have no one but yourself to blame. It was you who blew the opportunity and left the door wide open to the competition.Was your response something like, "Gee, we started offering that service six months ago?" Then why didn't you tell that to this customer? Here's why: You made the common mistake of assuming that once you have sold a client on your company, the client will stay sold unless something goes seriously wrong.“Are we a good match?” is every customer’s most important question about your co (read full article) |
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| Category :: Sales Training Articles |
Author :: Duane Sparks |
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| Article Title :: The Sales Training Series: Know What You're Selling |
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| No, You Don't Know What You Are Selling - Yet!You know your product, its features and its benefits. You have a well-rounded presentation that explains all of this, complete with visual aids. So why waste a prospect's time with chitchat? Shouldn't you launch straight into your presentation?No, you shouldn't, and here's why. No matter how good it is, your generic presentation casts your product or service as a commodity, not as a solution to the particular customer. Customers don't care about your products; they care about their own problems and opportunities. They want to know that you understand their problems before you start talking about how your wares can "solve" t (read full article) |
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| Category :: Sales Training Articles |
Author :: Duane Sparks |
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| Article Title :: The Sales Training Series: Sell With TFBR's |
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| You have asked great questions, you’ve uncovered at least three important customer needs that your offerings can address, and you’re ready to begin your product presentation. Know what you’re going to do now? If you’re like most salespeople, you’re going to lose all of the momentum you’ve built—and maybe the sale, as well—by launching a long, boring, and standardized recitation of product features. Your sales presentation won’t even focus directly on the key needs you took such pains to identify.People don’t buy product features. They buy solutions to their own needs.Customers don’t care about your product features or even about the benefits those fe (read full article) |
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| Category :: Sales Training Articles |
Author :: Duane Sparks |
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| Article Title :: The Sales Training Series: Sell Yourself Before You Sell Your Company |
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| Research has proven that customers make five major buying decisions in the course of any major purchase. These decisions are always made in the same order. The first is whether to “buy” the salesperson—you. The second is whether to “buy” your company. Only after those two decisions are made will the customer seriously consider whether to buy your products.This means that you need to sell yourself to the customer—by building rapport while conducting a good needs assessment—before you begin to sell your company and its capabilities. Not coincidentally, that needs assessment will also allow you to sell your company far more successfully. Why? Because you must first (read full article) |
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| Category :: Sales Training Articles |
Author :: Duane Sparks |
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| Article Title :: The Sales Training Series: Selling With A Better Strategy |
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| Prospecting Woes? Get A Better StrategyIn prospecting, your objective most often is to persuade a new customer to agree to meet with you face-to-face. To gain that commitment, you must convince the prospect that you are someone worth meeting. Every customer’s first major buying decision is whether to buy you—the salesperson. They’ll never decide to buy your products before they’ve bought you.You must begin to “sell yourself” in your very first call on a new prospect.Here is a quick, four-step prospecting strategy that allows you to begin “selling yourself” immediately.1. Introduce yourself: Use your people skills to politely introduce yoursel (read full article) |
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| Category :: Sales Training Articles |
Author :: Duane Sparks |
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| Article Title :: The Sales Training Series: The Right Way To Sell |
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| How Will This Buying Decision Be Made?Three-quarters of the secret to professional, strategic selling boils down to asking the Best Questions and listening carefully to the answers. Most of the Best Questions have to do with uncovering the crucial, underlying needs your products or services might serve. But you also must know how to sell to a particular account. Using the same strategy for all customers is a big mistake. The issue is: how do you compete for this customer's business?How do you know the right way to sell a customer? You ask.For instance, you need to know when to time your sales calls, who to call on, what to present to each individual or group who (read full article) |
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