If you are a sales professional, sales manager, or a company owner, stop blaming lagging sales on the economic slowdown. Instead, redirect that negative energy by taking your selling to the next level. How do you master selling? You can start by focusing on these six steps to building relationships and solving problems:
Face Reality. What are your current attitudes about selling? Could you be more effective at selling? Could selling be more enjoyable? If the answer to the latter two questions is yes, then it is time to examine your “limiting” beliefs about selling. Do you have a fear of rejection that might be holding you back from taking action that could result in more sales? What is the worst thing that would happen if a prospect told you they were not interested in your product or service? Is the word “no” truly painful or is it simply the meaning that you assign to it in your mind? You must make selling less painful and more pleasurable in your mind by changing your definitions. Think of selling as building long-term relationships, solving problems, and providing value.
Know Yourself. Know Others. Take a personality profile test such as the DiSC profile to understand yourself and learn how to relate to others with different personality profiles. Through the DiSC process, you can learn characteristics of the four personality profiles that will help you assign your prospects to a profile. Each personality type has different communication preferences and emotional needs. Knowing the personality profile of your prospect can help you communicate more effectively and sell to their emotional needs, giving you an increased likelihood of successfully advancing a solution.
Utilize a Strategic Selling Process. In the last NSIDE issue, we shared the READ selling process with you in more detail. READ stands for:
Relate – People buy from people they know, like and trust, so take time to develop rapport and care enough to enter their world. Use flexible communications styles based upon DiSC profile characteristics vs. your own style.
Establish a Need – Ask powerful questions to get to the needs of your prospects. Don’t just fact find, but get to their emotions, wants, fears and dreams. Listen 70 percent of the time – selling is not telling.
Advance a Tailored Solution – People buy results, benefits, advantages – not products or services. Once you’ve uncovered a need, assure your prospect that you understand their needs and can help.
Develop a Commitment – Summarize the needs of the prospect and your solution. Ask the prospect how they would like to proceed next. Do they need additional information, references, etc.? Then make sure to set up a follow-up meeting.
Focus on Relationship Management. Stop chasing strangers. Get face-to-face with key customers/clients, prospects and referral resources. Focus on retaining the customers you have. You can generate 80 percent of your revenue from the top 20 percent of your customers. Try to reactivate old or inactive customers/clients. Most lost customers/clients will not come back on their own, so send them a card telling them you miss them. Make a commitment to focus on 30 relationships every 90 days. Include the top 10 from existing customers, prospects and referral sources. Call them to set up a meeting time and get to know them and their needs.
Set 90-Day Selling Goals. Identify your top five 90-day selling goals and write them down. Think big. Name it and claim it! Make sure your goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Really desired and Timed. Then for each goal, create an action plan by listing up to five key steps to achieve the goal. Share your 90-day selling goals with someone who will hold you fully accountable. Make sure that person will be a positive motivator for you
Think and Act Like an Entrepreneur. Whether you are a sales professional, sales manager or owner, you are in business for yourself. To a large extent, you determine your income. In order to think and act like an entrepreneur, you need to change your mind set. What do entrepreneurs focus on?
Satisfying clients vs. the company’s products and services
Getting results vs. busyness
Continuous improvement vs. good is good enough
The long term vs. getting through today
For sales professionals to perform at their optimum level, they must change the way they think and operate. Implement these six initial steps to Sales Mastery and watch your sales begin to soar.
