Back to Back Issues Page
The Sales Buzz Issue 122 -Break Sales Training Rules and Close More sales
May 17, 2011
Hi,

In this week's Sales Buzz:

Break sales training rules and use your intuition and experience, and read your prospects to make valuable assumptions about their real needs.

If you want to break free and try breaking some rules, this free sales training in this week's newsletter will be right for you.

I'm Stephen Craine from the website Sales-Training-Sales-Tips.com

Thank you for subscribing to The Sales Buzz, the Free Sales Training Newsletter for all sales people, small businesses owners, and sales managers.

Please feel free to copy and use the information that you find here.

All I ask is that you include a credit to the newsletter or the website, and a link back to www.Sales-Training-Sales-Tips.com



Tell Friends & Colleagues about The Sales Buzz

Invite your friends and colleagues to get the Sales Buzz.

We've prepared an invitation for you to send to other like minded people. It gives your colleagues and contacts information on how to get the Sales Buzz and the 2 free sales training eBooks.

Open the invitation and send it to as many people as you think will gain from receiving the free sales training ebooks and this newsletter. Open and send the Sales Buzz Invitation...



Did you get your free sales training eBooks

If you recieved this Newsletter from a friend or colleague, or you clicked on it from the back issues, did you get your free sales training ebook?

If you didn't, open the Free Newsletter page and claim your free sales training eBooks.



Break Sales Training Rules and Close More Sales

Break sales training rules, make assumptions, use the intuition that you have, put your sales experience to good use, and read your prospects verbal and non verbal signals to help you to close more sales.


There’s a Golden Rule in sales training that says: Never assume you know what the prospect wants.

Sometimes it’s presented as: If you assume you make an ASS out of U and ME.

This is a good rule for people new to sales to follow. It promotes asking sales questions rather than assuming you know what the prospect wants which is a common mistake that loses sales.


But can you close more sales by breaking this sales training rule.

The best sales people use intuition and build skills that help them to read their customers. They also know from experience that similar prospects can have similar needs, so what worked in one sales pitch may work again in the same situation.

Put this intuition, reading prospects, and experience together and you have a powerful combination of sales skills that will allow the seller to make reasonably accurate assumptions about what their prospects may want.

So should we totally ignore these skills because there is a golden rule that sales trainers have presented for decades. The sales trainers may have never actually earned a living by selling to real prospects, or done so many years ago. Could this triple combination of intuition, reading prospects, and experience, be the difference that makes some sales people successful and others not.


Learn the basics and add more skills

I think it’s right that we train sales people to start with an open mind and have a good structure for asking sales questions to find all their prospect’s needs. But at the same time they should be looking for other clues to information that they can assume and use to help the sale.


If you want more free information on creating an effective sales questions process open
Questioning Techniques...


In retail sales you can pick up information about your customer by observing them as they come through the door. Have they gone straight to certain products, or do they look like they are not sure what to look at. Do they feel products, look at them, or ask their friend what they think. All this is important for knowing which opening lines to use as you approach them.

B2B sellers and field sales people will often sell to companies in a particular market sector. Use your experience and make assumptions about a business’ needs based on your experience with similar clients. It shows that you know your market.

Directs sales people are the absolute experts on using intuition and reading prospects. From the second they see their prospect, and especially if they sell in the prospect’s home, they are taking in and processing all the information available.

Use the skills and experience that you have built up. Add them to your sales pitch, presentation, or process. Keep the tried and tested basics because they do work, you should gather as much information as possible by asking questions. But, add new skills and techniques to increase your sales conversion rate.


Prospects don’t tell you everything

Another really good reason that you should make assumptions, and test them out, is that prospects don’t tell you everything.

We all have hidden desires and reasons why we want to buy a product or service.

Take buying a car for example. Did you tell the sales person everything you wanted from a car?

We also have secret reasons why we can’t buy, or need to put off a sale.

Find these hidden desires and concerns and you will close more sales, but you will not find them by using just simple sales questions.

You will need to use intuition, sales experience, and read your prospect. Then make assumptions and test them out.

People will hide any embarrassing objections or personal desires. Debt problems that could prevent the sale, the real reasons they have to increase efficiency, what they desire from a vacation, or why they want to join a gym or health club.

If you want to see more free sales training on discovering your prospect’s real desires take a look at Sales scripts - How to sell to a prospect’s hidden desires...


The sales training golden rules about assuming

1. Test the accuracy of your assumptions and pull back if they are not right. Move slowly into an assumption about a prospect and their needs, wants, and desires.

2. Use the tried and tested sales training on asking structured questions to find a prospect’s needs, it works. Use your intuition, experience, and observation skills alongside the questioning. Watch for non-verbal signals and responses, use your intuition, and match the situation to a similar one from your experience.

3. Do not be afraid to assume.

4. Have a really good, effective, easy to use, sales process with stages of the sale clearly defined so you know where you are and what to do next at all times. This is essential if you want to add these skills and techniques to your sales pitch.

I often get asked how can all these techniques be added to a sales script, how do you remember what to do and what to say, and not get confused with all this going on. The answer is to have a great sales process and know how to use it. Then you can add as many new sales techniques as you want to this process.

This is how I do it with my sales teams...


Having a great sales process has many benefits:

  • You always know where you are in the sale and what comes next.
  • You don’t need to learn words, just the steps of the sale.
  • You can add as many skills and techniques as you like to your process.
  • A sales process can be adapted for any product or service sale.
  • Using a sales process has proven successful for many professionals.


Become efficient at using a sales process when selling and then add these techniques to discover the customer’s wants and needs, and their secret desires that will help you to close the sale.

Take a look at the sales process that I use with my successful sales teams. This is the backbone, the structure and the process around which all our sales scripts and presentations are built. You can learn to use this sales process in just a few hours and then easily add as many more techniques as you want..

See what this proven sales training can do for you today by clicking the image or opening Selling Success Sales Training Course.




Tell Friends & Colleagues about The Sales Buzz

Invite your friends and colleagues to get the Sales Buzz.

We've prepared an invitation for you to send. It gives your colleagues information on how to get the Sales Buzz and the 2 free eBooks that they will receive.

Open the invitation and send to as many people as you think will gain from receiving this newsletter. Open and send the Sales Buzz Invitation...




Have you got a question or comment

Ask a question, make a comment, get in touch.

You can ask any question, make a comment, or simply get in touch and let me know your thoughts.

To contact me, Stephen Craine, go to the contact page and simply click and type.

To make a comment, or ask a question, and get it published on the website, go to Sales Training Blog page.

There are many benefits to you, and your business, by entering comments and questions on the site Blog.



Back to Back Issues Page