WHAT CAN A BUDDING SALES CHAMPION DO TO DEVELOP THE QUALITIES OF A PROFESSIONAL AND HOW DO YOU CONVEY TO OTHERS THAT YOU NOW POSSESS OR ARE DEVELOPING THOSE TRAITS?

What make a SALES CHAMPION?

Whilst  talking to sales manager  all over India, I have found that the term "salesperson" generates many responses. I seem to hear some of them over and over. A few of the most common are: pushy, high pressure, dishonest, huckster, hard sell...and it deteriorates from there.No matter how nice a person you are, some of us still need to work on one or more traits, which will help us be more professional. Let's consider the key traits, which will make your contact with a client more conducive to a long-term business relationship.

IMAGE

It has been said that you never get a second chance to overcome a bad first impression. The first few minutes of a relationship are often the most important. People like to be right about how they "size up" others so it takes a lot more work to change a negative first impression to a positive impression in the first place. You will probably agree that those first few moments can often make or break a sales call. Creating a positive impression increases the probability that you and your products will be accepted.

Dress and grooming are only one aspect that forms first impressions (image). Equally important are voice inflection, posture, personality style and attitude.

During one of our seminars a participant said, "People have to accept me for what I am. I'm not going to change just to make the other guy happy." If being unique and not compromising is more important than making a sale, fine. But that attitude may not be a very profitable one.


YOUR ATTITUDE IS SHOWING

People don't seem to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. In other words, if I think this is a miserable world to live in, then I live in a miserable world...and probably make it miserable for others to live in too.

Our attitudes are reflected in everything I do, including relationships with our clients. Our attitudes elicit different responses from our clients, so if I see them as jerks that can be manipulated, their responses will be entirely different than if I see them as fellow business people with whom I have a lot in common.

I can never be truly professional salespeople unless I develop a sincere respect for -- and healthy attitude toward -- our clients. Try thinking of them as valves through which your energy flows rather than as dams (obstacles) who will stop your progress. Only your positive attitude toward them will ensure the mutual trust, which is so vital to doing business successfully.

DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE

In all sales positions, the company has the obligation to educate you about the specific product you are selling. The company operations manuals will provide you with technical skills and product knowledge. This knowledge however, rarely goes beyond that required to describe competently the product to a client.

I recommend that you set aside time on a regular basis during which you can deepen your knowledge (and hopefully your enthusiasm/love) of your field.

Your responsibility as a professional includes much more than learning elaborate descriptions. If someone Ire to say to you, "Tell me about the field you are working in," could you give them an interesting, in-depth explanation of how it started and where it is today? Perhaps you think that knowing the history or theory of your industry is not necessary for your day-to-day selling. The fact is that with an increase in knowledge comes an increase in confidence and authority. The result: longer lasting client relationships and more sales.

BREADTH OF KNOWLEDGE

It's also important to develop your ability to discuss a broad spectrum of subjects. Having depth of knowledge in your specific field without knowledge in a wide variety of topics puts an automatic limit on the number of people you can relate to and who in turn can relate to you. This is a serious handicap for a salesperson.

Anything worthwhile takes effort and this includes expanding your conversational horizons. A fast, concise and convenient way to know what's going on in the world is to subscribe to a news magazine which will expose you to science, politics, the arts, international affairs, etc. It is not necessary for you to have an opinion on all the issues, but being informed on them and keeping up to date by scanning a good daily newspaper will give you confidence and expand your conversational effectiveness.

SENSITIVITY

No matter how great your conversational skills may be, your efforts will be completely wasted if you are not sensitive to your clients needs. It is crucial to be aware of your client's "silent messages" which often reveal the real meaning behind the verbal ones.

I recommend that you study body language and try to be empathetic. Observe what people do with their bodies in different situations. Put yourself in their shoes so that you can be open to what's happening with them, but do it intellectually rather than emotionally.

For example, by studying body language and being empathic, you will be able to acknowledge when your client is too busy at the moment (foot tapping), and arrange to come back another time when they are more receptive.

ENTHUSIASM

It is literally impossible to be a top seller in your field without a contagious sense of enthusiasm. To prove this to yourself, try to think of one top salesperson you know or have heard about who does not have a genuine enthusiasm for themselves and their product.

Enthusiasm shows the client that you are sold on the product. Your enthusiasm, good eye contact and your overall sincerity will also tell your client that you're an honest person. This will motivate them to establish or continue a business relationship with you. They will become interested in you as a person. This is what you want, both for yourself and your business.

MATURITY

Maturity is a rather nebulous quality. It combines all the positive character traits I have already mentioned.

One of the things that distinguish a mature person is the ability to recognize the need to do things whether liking them or not. In addition, mature people accept responsibility for their actions. The result is they are willing to admit mistakes and suffer consequences as Ill as reap rewards.

Maturity means handling disappointments and setbacks without becoming self-destructive. These people know there are times when things won't go right and they know that those times won't last forever 

CONCLUSION

Even the most seasoned sales professional is a person in evolution. No matter how good you are you can be better. No matter how good you are the competition is getting smarter. Use a checklist to prepare your attitude, appearance, customer information, company and product information and the selling environment, so you can be at your best on every call. Study yourself, your product or service and your company to know what is working now. Reinforce the actions and tools, which are generating results. Learn from your successes as well as your failures. BEGIN TODAY ANEW.

SHARPEN YOU SELLING SKILLS DAILY

These mistakes seem to be shockingly common. Make sure you're not guilty of any of them.A sales champ is always in the making ...his work like a master craftsman is never done!

10  COMMON  SALES BLUNDERS  TO  AVOID

In the last three years since I began this newsletter , I've received several emails from readers and my alumni from seminars & B-schools; asking for guidance . From this experience, I've observed that the following 10 basic selling errors are surprisingly common.

1. ANSWERING OBJECTIONS THE CUSTOMER HASN'T SURFACED

Though it's a good idea to anticipate objections that the customer might have and prepare reasonable answers to them, it's a horrible idea to surface those objections yourself--because you've just created an issue that probably didn't exist. Explaining away something preemptively can also make you seem defensive and unsure of the real value of your offering.

Fix: Never start any sentence with "You may be wondering..." or "Perhaps you're asking yourself..."

2. LEAVING THE 'NEXT STEP' TO THE CUSTOMER

I've read dozens of so-called sales letters and sales emails that end with a suggestion that the customer should call or contact the seller "if you're interested" or "in order to learn more." The people who send these letters always complain that they don't get any responses.

No kidding--you're asking the customer to do your work for you.

Fix: Keep the ball in your court. Try substituting a closer like this: "I will call you next week to discuss whether it makes sense to discuss this matter further."

3. SELLING FEATURES RATHER THAN RESULTS

Incredibly, some people (usually “marketing experts”) believe that customers buy a product because it has desirable features. They therefore rattle off a list of those features, hoping that at least one will spark up  the customer's interest.

In fact, customers care only about the results of purchasing a product and the ways it will affect their lives and their businesses.

Fix: Figure out why a customer buys your product rather than somebody else's. Then sell thatresult, using the features to add-on to your ability to deliver that result.

4. FAKING INTIMACY

Like it or not, the minute you're positioned in somebody's mind as "a person who is trying to sell me something," you're fighting an uphill battle to win trust. Under those circumstances, the absolute worst thing you can do is to try to act cozy in tense relationships.

The most common manifestation: brightly asking, "How are you doing today?" at the beginning of a cold call. It makes people want to puke.

Fix: Remain personable and professional--but no more--until such time as you actually forge a friendship, which typically takes weeks.

5. WRITING A SALES PROPOSAL TOO SOON

Although proposals can occasionally help develop an opportunity, in most cases, the proposal requesting (and writing) process happens after the prospect has already defined the problem and (probably) defined the solution as well. Because writing a proposal takes time and effort, it's usually a bad investment unless you've got the inside track on the sale.

Fix: Write a sales proposal only after you've got a verbal agreement.

6. TALKING MORE THAN LISTENING

I've spoken about this problem repeatedly in  my seminars/lectures, but the error is so common that it bears repeating. When you're selling, it's all too easy to get excited and nervous and then try to "drive the sale" forward by talking or giving a sales pitch. Customers find this extraordinarily irritating.

Fix: In your mind, redefine selling as a passive activity that consists mostly of listening, considering, and reacting to what the customer does and says.

7. WASTING TIME ON DEAD-END 'OPPORTUNITIES'

What with voice mail, gatekeepers, and a challenging economy (not to mention the craziness of global competition), it sometimes seems like a miracle when you actually get into a sales conversation with a live human being.  When that happens, the possibility of making a sale can become so seductive that you don't want to spoil the dream by asking questions that might reveal this as a false opportunity.

Fix: Within the first five minutes of your first conversation, ask questions that will reveal whether the customer has a real need--as well as the money to satisfy it.

8. FAILING TO FOLLOW THROUGH

The sad truth is that, to customers, people who sell are guilty until proven innocent. Building a customer relationship is about gradually building up enough trust to overcome the natural antipathy that most people feel toward sellers.

Because of this, you're not going to get any slack if you fail to deliver when promised. Drop the ball, even once, and you're probably out of the game.

Fix: Get serious about your to-do list and scheduling specific events. Make only commitments that you're 100% certain you can keep.

9. TREATING A "CLOSE" AS THE END OF THE PROCESS

Maybe it's the result of unfortunate terminology, but a lot of companies and individuals take "closing the deal" to mean that the sales activity has ended. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The real work happens after you've closed the deal--because that's when you can start building the kind of relationship that will eventually generate follow-on business and referral sales, both of which are far easier and profitable than winning new business.

Fix: Always aim for long-term relationships rather than short-term revenue. That way a "close" is the beginning, not the end, of the process.

10. ASKING FOR A REFERRAL TOO SOON

Some sales training programs recommend asking, "Do you know somebody else who might need my product?" even when prospects say they're not interested. Other programs suggest asking a similar question when you've closed your first sale to a customer.

Both approaches are wrong, because customers in their right mind do not put their own reputations at risk by recommending somebody whose ability to perform is unknown to them.

Fix: Ask for referrals only after the customer is delighted with the products or services that you've sold.

HERE’S WHAT TO DO NEXT

These big mistakes seem to be shockingly common. Make sure you're not guilty of any of them. Maintain a painstaking and detailed journal of your sales call ... and on a Sunday morning notice the pattern and indications which come you might not only have committed these mistakes again but have found new novel ones. A sales champ is always in the making ...his work like a master craftsman is never done!

DrWilfred Monteiro

Most sales campaigns falter at the negotitating phase.... this might make or break the sale or else squeeze your margins dry

NEOGOTIATE  LIKE A SALES CHAMP

 How many times have you heard:

• "You've got to drop your price by 10% or we will have no choice but to go with your competition."
• "You will have to make an exception to your policy if you want our business."
• "I know that you have good quality and service, but so do your competitors. What we need to focus on here is your pricing."
• "I agree that those special services you keep bringing up would be nice, but we simply don't have the funds to purchase them. Could you include them at no additional cost?"

Every time you hear statements like these, you're in the middle of a difficult sales campaign. How you handle that negotiation will determine whether or not you close the sale and how profitable that sale will be.

Every salesperson eventually must confront the following situation: You want the deal badly. You need the business. You've been suspecting that your price is too high to begin with. So what do you do? You lower your price rather than negotiate.

Many salespeople are afraid to stand by their price structure because of a single mistaken assumption: "If I refuse to negotiate my price, I'll lose all my customers." The reality is just the opposite. If you aren't prepared to defend your price, your customers will lose respect for you. Here are ten tips that will help you to negotiate the price you deserve.

In order to give you a real edge every time, I have listed below some key points taken from my sales training seminars @ the Bombay Chamber, Indian Merchants Chamber, etc

.

Don't Believe Everything You See and Hear

Part of a good salesperson's skill is to learn to read people and situations very quickly. However, when it gets down to negotiating, you have to take everything you see and hear with a grain of salt. Buyers are good negotiators, and thus they are good actors. You may be the only person who has what she needs, but everything she does and says, from body language to the words she uses, will be designed to lead you to believe that unless she gets an extra 10% off, she's going with the competition. Be skeptical. Be suspicious. Test, probe, and see what happens.

DEVELOP THE PYSCHE OF A NEGOTIATING-CHAMP

Finally, and most important, be patient. Sales is a high energy, fast moving business. Patience is one commodity that is in relatively short supply, but if you're impatient in a negotiation, you'll lose your shirt. If I'm negotiating with you and I know that you're impatient, I will hold out just a little longer, no matter how desperate I am to make a deal with you. As long as I know you're in a hurry, I'll wait.

¨      Do not underestimate your power. Most people tend to have more power than they think. Only by making a systematic analysis of power can you understand your strengths. Your base of power rests on a foundation of more than just competition or financial matters. Commitment, knowledge, risk taking, hard work, and bargaining skills are also real sources of power.

¨      Do not assume that the other party knows your weaknesses. Assume that they do not and test that assumption. You may be better off than you think.

¨      Don’t be intimidated by status. We are so accustomed to showing deference to titles and positions that we carry our attitudes to the negotiating table. It is well to remember that some experts are superficial; that some people with PhD’s quit learning years ago; some people in authority are incompetent; a specialist may be excellent in their field but without skill in other areas; learned people, despite high positions of power, sometimes lack the courage to pursue their convictions or have none. There is as much danger from having a “little-shot” complex as a “big-shot” complex.

¨      Don’t be intimidated by statistics, precedents, principles, or regulations. It’s 2010, some decisions are made on the basis or premises and principles long dead or irrelevant. Be skeptical. Challenge them.

¨      Do not forget that the other party is negotiating with you because they believe there is something to gain by being there. You may discover that this negotiation, no matter how small it is, is part of a larger framework in the other party’s objectives. This alone may provide you greater bargaining power than is apparent from the situation. Be positive in your approach. Assume that the other party wants agreement as much as you do. If they don’t, learn why.

¨      Don’t emphasize your own problems or the possible losses to yourself if deadlock occurs. In all likelihood, there are constraints on the other party’s action as severe as your own. Concentrate on their problems and issues. These are your opportunities to find routes to agreement.

¨      Most sales offers will require some concession making. Don’t set your initial demand near your final objective. There is sufficient evidence to conclude that it pays to start high. Don’t be shy about asking for everything you might want and more. Many times your demands may be too modest, or too easy to achieve. The other party may not know what they want or may have a set of values quite different from your own.

¨      It is a mistake to assume you know what the other party wants. It is far more prudent to assume you do not know, and then proceed to discover the realities of the situation by patient testing. If you proceed to negotiate a deal on the basis of your own untested estimates, you are making a serious mistake.

¨      Never accept the first offer—many people do. There are two good reasons not to: First, the other party probably is willing to make some additional concessions. Second, if you do accept the first offer, there is a chance the other party will have the feeling that their offer was foolish. They may find ways to spoil the agreement later. In either case, the negotiator who takes the first offer too fast makes a mistake.

¨      Never give a concession without obtaining one in return. Don’t give concessions away free or without serious discussion. A concession granted too easily does not contribute to the other party’s satisfaction nearly as much as one that they struggle to obtain.

¨      Get Something in Return for Your Added Value…What if you discover that the buyer wants to be able to track his expenditures for your products or services in a way that is far more detailed and complex than is standard for your industry? What if your account tracking system is set up in a way that you can provide that information at essentially no cost to you? Often the salesperson's overwhelming temptation is to jump in and say, "Oh, we can do that. That's no problem." Before you do, however, think about your options. You could throw it in as part of the package and try to build good will. Or you could take a deep breath and try something like, "That's a difficult problem that will require some effort on our part, but it's doable."

So be patient. Take the time that you need, don't rush to give in, don't show your anxiety, stay cool and don't panic. Negotiation is a process and a game. Use the process and play the game. You'll be astonished at the difference that it makes!

best of luck

dr wilfred monteiro

www.synergymanager.net