As I am about to start a period of intense sales training, I am going to change the focus of this Blog to support it. So I will reveal some of my 'secrets' to sales success and more importantly, dispel some of the myths and downright total bullshit regarding 'how to sell'.
Personally, I have sold successfully for over half of my life and I still sell at the front line today – selling door to door on the streets of England and in the boardrooms of the worlds leading Multinational corporations and I can tell you that I have never 'closed' a sale in my life. Before you all go crazy and tell me that therefore I have not made a sale, let's take 'closing' in it's traditional definition. If you have to close a sale, then you have failed to sell correctly. A good presentation, delivered on the back of a solid understanding of your prospects business and CLEARLY articulating that grossly overused word 'value' (we will stay with it for the moment), will result in a sale.
What I cannot understand is why the whole sales process is made so complicated and I am going to outline exactly how simple it is, if of course, you follow the rules. I make one promise to each and every sales person I train – if you follow my process 100% and I will guarantee you success. Follow it 90% and I wont even guarantee you 20%!
A final word on 'closing'. For you die hard sales trainers and students out there, who are hooked on traditional sales terminology, the 'closing' process occurs each and every time you open your mouth!
When I talk about selling, I am not in any way talking about straightforward discounting or what is called 'Cost Leadership Selling' – anyone can do that, what I am talking about is getting a fair price in relation to the value you are providing to your customer.
~Neil
Personnel I quite like sales people who can close a sale and the whole only follow it 90% seems a massive cop out. However I must admit no one can ever accuse you of not having conviction and belief in yourself. Key ingredients for any successful sales person.
Alistair, closing is a natural process and begins at the outset. Following a process 100% is essential for the trainee and like a trainee surgeon, eliminating 10% can have fatal consequences!!! Once learned, the process can be played with, but as with everything, there is a process to the sales and if there are 10 steps for example, leaving out one could cost you dearly.
Some interesting posts, have added to my RSS feeds look forward to future posts
Glad you like it!