Welcome to our sales training guide. Today we are going to discuss rapport.

Rapport may sound like a cheap perfume, or perhaps a bolognese sauce, but it is one of the arts of not only the world of sales, but also any form of human interaction.

You see, rapport builds trust - trust builds more sales - more sales builds more money - more money builds… well, it can build almost anything.

There are thousands of articles on the net that can show you how to build rapport, go and have a read, make the time to know the basics, and above all… take the time to get to know your customer a little. If you jump straight into a presentation then you are going to be facing an uphill battle from the very first second.

Rapport - bring people together.

Original post by admin

“scuse me missus, is your fella in or owt? I have some gizmos I am looking to get rid, they ain’t knocked off nor notin”

Would you buy from this person?

I would personally beat him around the head with a frozen fish… yes, you heard me, a frozen fish.

Which leads us to today’s sales training guide. Today we are going to look at speaking all good n proper.

You see, a good grasp of the English language may seem like something for your local book club, but it is all part of the perception you are giving off as a human. You can look like Brad Pitt, but if you speak like the example above, then you will have the door shut in your face on a regular basis.

Now please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that you should tickle the nether regions of the eloquent vocab structures, nor should you use hippopotomonstrosesquipedalianism words to sound impressive…. yes, hippopotomonstrosesquipedalianism is an actual word, and yes, I did use it in the correct context………

Where have you gone?

Ah, off to Google to search for hippopotomonstrosesquipedalianism are we?

Ok, I will wait for you to get back…….

Back?

Happy now?

Ok, let’s continue.

Being able to speak in a manner that doesn’t sound like a plumber from Essex (no offense plumbers from Essex), is a skill that should be practiced.

Remember, it is not what you say it is how you say it.

Original post by admin

Welcome to our sales training guide.

Today we are going to look at one of the most common yet fatal sales mistakes…

Talking too much.

Some people go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on…. annoying isn’t it?

When you are selling, you need to be asking questions. Questions are the key to discovering the needs and worries of a potential customer.

If you are not asking, then you are telling, and people don’t always like being told, especially by a complete stranger.

So try this rule… for every sentence you speak, the customer speaks two. If you can maintain this average, then you have succeeded in opening up the customer’s defenses.

If you speak more than the customer… well… you my friend are going to struggle to make a sale.

Remember, there is no sweeter sound to a person than the sound of their own voice!

Original post by admin

Welcome to our guide to making a sale

Today we are going to discuss appearance.

Have you ever heard the phrase “perception is eveything“?

Well it is true!

People are never going to get to spend enough time with you during a sale to really get to know you, so they are going to go off their perception of who you are as a person. This will affect whether they trust you, like you, and are willing to buy from you.

So how do we give a good appearance?

Well, the easiest and often most overlooked method is your appearance.

It may sounds shallow, but people will judge you based on your appearance. I mean, we all do it, every time we go to a bar, or out in public, we use appearance as a guiding tool.

So there are three quick fixes to have you looking like a slickster in no time at all:

1) Dress well - This is an obvious one, but you would be amazed at how many people don’t so simple things like wear a suit or polish their shoes.

2) Groom properly - You may wish to look like Tom Hanks in the Castaway movies during your time off, but at work you should look presentable and well groomed.

3) Walk with confidence - Some people walk like their pet dog has just been shot through the head with a crossbow. If you don’t project confidence then the customers may think you are a bed wetter, and frankly, bed wetters are not good sales people. Ok, probably not the best, or visually appealing example, but you get the message.

Original post by admin

I recently had a conversation with Julie Thomas, the CEO of ValueVision Associates. She pointed out that most companies have sales processes that define the steps in the sale that seems logical to the seller, such as “initiate cold call,” “obtain appointment for presentation” and so forth. However, she notes that while such steps vaguely define how the sale might (under ideal circumstances) take place, a standardized sales process can’t possibly encapsulate the way that an individual company actually buys something.

For example, a standardized sales process might end with a step like “obtain commitment from key decision-maker.” Well, yes, that’s a good thing to have happen, but it skirts over some inconvenient details, namely that the “key decision-maker” probably has to run the decision by legal and by accounting and by his boss and who knows who else, many of whom may have veto power over his decision. Or once the decision is made to buy, the execution of the purchase may go to a purchasing department where the head of purchasing (who needs to sign the purchase order) is on vacation for three week, which means that the sale isn’t really going to happen for three more weeks. Or the customer organization might not even know how to buy the offering, if it’s something they’ve never bought before.

Thomas points out that while companies within a given industry often have similar buying habits, the individual variations within companies are a result of history, personality and accident, and thus can be extremely idiosyncratic. For every major opportunity, she believes that B2B reps should be required to research, write and review (with the customer contacts) a formal document describing exactly how the decision to buy will be made, and exactly how it will be executed once that decision is made.

In essence, she’s recommedning that reps create an individualized sales process for every customer, rather than try to cram customer behavior into a standardized process that may either be too general to be meaningful or contrary to actual reality. As I see it, there are four key advantages to this approach:

1. It makes the entire sale more predictable, thereby increasing the accuracy of the sales forecast.
2. It identifies anything that might block or delay execution of the sale, so that the situation can be handled before it becomes a problem.
3. It flushes out cases where the customer contact is lying about his or her authority to make a buying decision.
4. It provides a roadmap that will be extremely useful when selling to that customer in the future.

If Thomas is right (and her arguments sound compelling to me), then I have to ask the question: why have so many sales groups spent so much time devising a standardized sales process? And why have companies spent millions of dollars casting that process in electronic concrete (i.e. CRM). Were those massive efforts a waste of time and money? Or am I missing something here?

Original post by Geoffrey James

Original post by Geoffrey James

Wow, sounds like MSN is working on some really kickin’ features. Todd Friesen (oilman) is live blogging the MSN Searchification event, and he’s pretty impressed with some of what he’s seeing. Some of the highlights from his post:

• MSN has grown there index to over 20B docs
• san jose weather - results in page. Don’t need to click away.
• 1 click directions. You click the link in the email and it shows you the destination and then gives you a handful of pre computed directions. you then click the route that is the direction you’ll be coming from. It’s pretty cool. Most users really don’t need directions from their driveway.
• wow - hover over a video and and it plays inline on teh search page. sweeet. It doesn’t just play the first portion but is actually does some super cool advanced rocket science analyis to find you the best most relevant portion of the clip.
• Webmaster Tools. Finally - MSN is launching a toolset.
• Private beta launches Monday. Bigger private beta on 10/22 and public beta on 11/15 launched at SMX in London.

Lots more info, so go check it out. Oh, and yes, there’s a URL at the bottom of his post, so you can actually see a preview right now. I’m not going to spoil it though, so you’ll have to go see for yourself.

Wait, wait, there’s more. Vanessa Fox is also reporting in with many similar details. Finally, MSN themselves are giving details over on their own blog, and they include lots of links to check out the new details. Nice!

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