Traits of Top Salespeople

"Top salespeople are complete: they begin every sales presentation with a brief recap of their understanding of the prospect’s situation."

Tag: prospecting

5 reasons your sales prospects say, “No!”

5 reasons your sales prospects say, “No!”

Did you know?

  • 42% of sales reps feel they do not have the right information before making a call.
  • Only 13% of customers believe a salesperson can understand their needs.
  • 80% of prospects who eventually buy are originally marked as bad leads.

View the original infographic on the ZoomInfo blog.

Reading upside down – are you twisted or do you have a sales skill

Reading upside down – are you twisted or do you have a sales skill

This image of upside down text (and similar ones featuring a minion or two) are everywhere on the Internet.

In case you struggle with the wording it is:

“If you can read this with ease you are twisted! And have an awesome talent! This is both backwards and upside down!”

To be clear, the image is slightly wrong. It is not “backwards.” It is just upside down. If you rotate this image 180 degrees in image viewer, it will look normal. I also didn’t fix any grammatical mistakes that may be in the text of the document.

The claim in the image is that you have an awesome talent because you can read upside down text, but you are twisted. Actually, I prefer the former since most salespeople need to work on being more observant. This is especially true with documents on the desk – which are upside down for you.

Salespeople visit the working environments of others. While some will say that it is “quaint” to look for pictures and quotes to gain clues about the prospect, I disagree. There is nothing more important than trying to create a personal bond with the person you are speaking with during the sales call. You can obviously try to talk about things that are interesting to you (outside of the product and service that you sell), but it is much easier to talk about something of interest to the prospect. There is no harm in asking about golf if there is golf memorabilia in the office. Or, if there are pictures of children playing sports, asking about those is completely relevant.

Try not to be so obtuse and shallow that you see a picture of your prospect with children and spouse that you ask how old the children are now. You can do better than that!

It is important that you notice documents on the prospect’s desk. You aren’t trying to be nosy, but you are trying to understand your prospect. You don’t need to read his personal email, but you should look for logos on documents from your competitors. You should also look for literature or reading material. Books on the bookcase on topics in your industry will be helpful as well.

When you are in front of a prospect, your job is to completely understand his or her world. Don’t just assume that you will be told everything that you need. A professional Trapper salesperson is looking to understand the lay of the land. Where are the game trails? What other competitors are in play? All of these skills are important – even reading upside down.

upside down minion

Image source

Disqualify Sales Prospects to Facilitate Sales Cycles

Disqualify Sales Prospects to Facilitate Sales Cycles

Guest Article By Michael Halper

As a sales person needing a commission and to hit quota, we are usually in a mode where we are telling sales prospects why our products are the right product for them. But if the sales opportunity is not moving in the direction or at the speed that you would like, it can be powerful to do the opposite and disqualify the prospect by questioning if our product is the right fit for them.

New Car Example

Let’s take an example of a new car shopper to display how this could work. The prospect has been looking at cars, done the research, completed the test driving, and narrowed the choice to one car. She has expressed interest but is hesitant to move forward to the next step in the process which is to purchase.

At this point the momentum and speed of the sales cycle has slowed so the sales person has three options:

1. Do nothing: The sales person could do nothing and let the prospect manage the speed and direction. This can lead to getting stuck in “idle land” which could result in more time being wasted on both sides and increase the probability of “no decision”.

2. Push harder: The sales person could push harder and try to sell more aggressively to the prospect. The risk here is that, if there is internal confliction going on in the sales prospect, then by pushing harder could push them away.

3. Disqualify: When the sales person notices the hesitation and confliction, they can disqualify by mentioning that maybe the purchase is not right. After this is done, if the purchase is a good fit, the sales prospect will begin to respond by selling on why it is a good fit and get through their hesitation.

As you can see from those options, disqualifying a prospect when they show resistance or hesitation can be a very powerful sales tactic. Below are some of the key benefits from doing this at the right time in sales opportunities:

Improve Momentum

When you do this on a qualified prospect with genuine interest and authority to buy, when you push them away by disqualifying, they will typically come back by selling you on why it makes sense. By the prospect selling you, this can take a deal that is either not moving or moving backward and create new momentum.

Uncover New Information

When a sales prospect begins to sell you after a disqualification, you will stand to uncover new information as they will likely communicate in their own words why it makes sense and that could uncover new details on their needs and how they stand to benefit.

Establish Credibility

By disqualifying a sales prospect, you will take a huge stride in the area of establishing credibility. This is powerful as the typical sales person will opt to be more aggressive in a scenario where they sense hesitation. By you disqualifying, not only do you stand out from the competition, but you also appear to be putting the interests of the prospect before your own interests of closing a deal.

Michael Halper is an ICF certified coach that works with individuals and organizations helping to drive growth and improvement. For more information about coaching and development visit Compass Coaching you can read more about Disqualifying Sales Prospects or Sales Coaching.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Halper

http://EzineArticles.com/?Disqualify-Sales-Prospects-to-Facilitate-Sales-Cycles&id=5415606

 

 

Photo by familymwr