There are only three ways to sell more. Do more good. Do less harm. Or do both. Every Sales Superstar knows that there are many skills and attitudes that contribute to their success, but there are twelve critical attributes that Sales Superstars have built into their overall sales strategy. The following are in no particular order, but if you want consistent long-term success, you’ll embrace and incorporate each of them into your routine sales attitudes and behaviors.
1. Make a sale, you will earn a living. Sell a relationship and you can make a fortune.
Bad salespeople focus only on closing the sale. Successful salespeople focus on closing the sale and the relationship. What is your focus?
Selling is not just about closing the current prospect on a particular product or service that solves one of your pressing problems, needs, or wants. It’s about building a relationship of trust and partnership with them, becoming a resource and helping them solve their ongoing problems, or meeting their ongoing and evolving needs and wants. Superstars know that the lifetime value of a customer is much greater than the value of a sale or transaction.
2. People buy when they are ready to buy, not when they need to sell.
You don’t change people’s clothing purchases or circumstances. What you can do is figure them out precisely and then try to create a sense of urgency. Many purchases are made due to impulse. It’s important to discover the ‘real’ reasons or circumstances why a prospect would buy now, later, never or never. Having discovered their real problems, the sales superstar tailors her appeal to those specific needs, wants, and buying circumstances.
3. When you sell price you rent the business. When you sell value, you own it.
Most poorly trained sellers tend to lower the price when they receive price resistance. Any price, no matter how low, will always seem high to a potential customer or customer if its perceived value is low. The key to effectively managing price resistance is to understand this simple yet profound concept.
Prospects and customers say they want a low price, but what they really want is a low price. What is the difference?
Price is what customers pay for your product or service now. The cost is what the customer pays when buying late, nothing or wrong. It is your total cost over an extended period of time.
Sales superstars sell value and don’t defend price. In the long run, it is much easier to justify a high price if the value is there than poor quality and constant product/service issues.
4. Your prospect will tell you what you need to tell them to sell them.
Accurate and timely information is the key to sales success. One of the biggest mistakes bad salespeople make is that they give information before they get information. In other words, they talk too much. If you practice this approach, you will make one or all of the following mistakes. 1) You will give too much information (more than is necessary to make the sale). 2) Will give the wrong information (based on the prospect’s needs, wants, desires, or problems). 3. You will give away information that could sabotage your success in the short or long term.
5. If two people want to do business together, they won’t let details get in the way. If two people don’t want to do business together, they’ll let any detail get in the way.
If two people want to do business together, they won’t let any detail get in the way. If a prospect doesn’t want to do business with you, he’ll let even the smallest detail get in his way. We are talking here about intention. Sales superstars know how to identify the prospect’s true intent or purpose. They are not easily fooled and tend to dig deeper when they feel like they are not getting the real truth from the prospect or prospect.
6. They need to work as hard to keep the business as they did to get it in the first place.
Many salespeople make a lot of promises or benefit claims when trying to sell a new prospect. A key concept to keep in mind when selling is that the closing of the sale is not the end of the sales process, but the beginning of the selling relationship.
Sales superstars know that to ensure repeat business, customer loyalty, positive referrals, and qualified referrals, their after-sales service must be one of their strengths.
7. To sell more each year, they improve each year.
Life is an interesting relationship between paying the price and winning the prize. Between self-investment and rewards. Between investing time in personal development and your ultimate success. It is never too late to begin an aggressive program of ongoing self-development. There are hundreds of books to read, audio CDs to listen to, and seminars to attend. Sales stars don’t wait for your organization to invest in them and their future value. They take full responsibility for the quality of their life and learning. They are proactive in seeking learning opportunities.
8. They manage their time and territory effectively.
Each of us has 24 hours to do what he wants. Some sellers wish they had more, while others wish time would go by much faster. Some salespeople act as if they have a bank of unlimited time available and that their prospects or customers will see them whenever the salesperson wants. Sales superstars understand the importance of making the most of every available selling minute.
9. The closing of the sale begins when the prospect agrees to see them.
People don’t like to make decisions. The main reason is that they don’t want to make a bad or wrong decision. Traditional sales closing methods ask people to make a decision. For example. Do you want it in green or red? (Alternate option) Do you want to use your pen or mine? (Action closed) Can we write an order now? (Direct Closing) Each of these closing techniques, although they work, have two fundamental problems.
1) They ask the prospect to make a decision. 2) Dirty superstars don’t wear them.
Few salespeople have a ‘closing strategy’, a process they follow with each and every real sales opportunity. They do not try to force an adjustment. They discover the sense of urgency or create it.
10. They never relinquish control of the sales process.
A common mistake bad salespeople make is that they lose control of the sales process at some point. There are many ways they accomplish this and here are just a few for your consideration:
They quote the price before they have had a chance to create value.
They don’t ask enough questions early in the sales process. They just ramble.
They send literature when requested, without first qualifying the prospect’s agenda or reasons for requesting it.
They send people to your website without getting basic qualifying information first and without having a follow-up strategy after the prospect has browsed your site.
Control of the sales process is one of the key strategies of the sales superstar. They understand that control is not manipulation, but rather is in the ultimate best interest of the prospect or customer. When the salesperson controls the selling process, he is never overwhelmed by a lost sale that he thought was in the bag.
11. They never project their buying biases into the sales process.
The objection that you will tend to have the most difficulty successfully resolving is the objection that is most consistent with your own value system.
If you are a price buyer and your prospect objects to the price, they will tend to accept your objection. If you’re the type of buyer who tends to think through decisions before making a purchase and your prospect tells you, “We need to think about it.” Again, you’ll tend to accept your objection as rational or making perfect sense (because that’s the way you buy).
This simple act of accepting sales objections that resonate with you because you can relate to them is nothing more than projecting your personal attitudes, opinions, judgments, or biases onto the sales process. When you project your personal beliefs into the sales process, you’re assuming that everyone who shops is shopping the way they like to shop, and often for the same reasons. The sales superstar leaves her personal biases, prejudices and opinions at home.
12. They never lose their passion.
Passion is the great equalizer. You can make up for a lack of experience and knowledge. I’m not suggesting that you don’t develop your knowledge or expertise, just that until you do, your passion will be interpreted by others as a strong belief in yourself, your mission, and your purpose.
Passion is different from enthusiasm. The old tired cliché says “Act with enthusiasm and you will become enthusiastic”. I have never subscribed to this philosophy. The reason is that if enthusiasm is an act you use when things are going well, how do you behave when your life falls apart? Are you so excited about failure, more trouble than you deserve, and any number of disappointments, frustrations, and adversities?