Sales training ideas – Building a User List to gain credibility during your Sales Calls.

To help you build credibility and make more sales, you should have a User List to show to prospects. Your User List will simply be one page listing the people, companies, or organizations that use your product. You should be asking all your good customers if you can put them on your User List.

You do not need any phone numbers or even physical locations on this list. You will simply list the companies you are doing business with. The objective of this list is to show the prospect that you are doing business with many companies, and hopefully some significant ones. Obviously, the more prominent companies you can add to the list, the better. 

List the largest company first, then the second largest, and so on down the line. Have a large user list that includes all your active customers, and if you have a large number of customers, have a small or partial user list that includes only your key customers. 

The most common place for the user list is in proposals. However, as with your testimonials and your references, you want to have this list with you on all sales calls just in case you need it to build some credibility.  

The following is an example of a user list:  

Chapin Enterprises

This is a partial user list. Chapin Enterprises does business with approximately 80 percent of the New England market. All Chapin Enterprises equipment is manufactured, installed, and serviced by Chapin Enterprises. Chapin Enterprises also has the largest service organization in the industry.

This means you will have all the experience you will ever need at your disposal to maximize your business’s efficiency and profits. It also means you will receive first-rate service from a company that can make things happen quickly for you.

Partial User List 

Autoworkers Bank

Smithville Bank

Jamestown Savings Bank

Waters Savings Bank

Massachusetts National Bank

Bay County Savings Bank

Crowley Savings Bank

Charles River Company

Colony Bank

Curtis Savings and Loan

Dominion National Bank

Northeast Bank and Trust Company

Forest Bank

Harvard Bank

Harvey Federal Credit Union

Leadership Bank

Lancaster Bank

Lincoln Five Cent Savings Bank

Middletown Savings Bank

Stone Bank

North West Savings Bank

Worcester Bank

Steel Workers Bank

Wellington First Federal Credit Union

Xavier Bank  

Note: Notice that we also used the user list to highlight some features and benefits of Chapin Enterprises.

Sales training ideas – Are you chasing your tail?

Do you have caller ID? If you do, and you don’t answer calls other than the ones you recognize, you undoubtedly see the number and names of some of the same telemarketing organizations coming up on caller ID daily. Hopefully your prospects don’t notice the same from you.

It amazes me how many organizations will call, and call, and call, everyday, sometimes even twice a day, trying to get me on the phone. Also, 95% never leave a message. This is a waste of time, money, effort, and energy, and it is costing that organization tons of all of the above chasing its tail.

While it’s true that you want to touch each prospect a minimum of 7 times over say a two to three week period, this isn’t the way to go about it. First off, again, very few of these callers leaves a message so how would I know if I’m remotely interested? Second, your 7 touches would not be 7 phone calls. You’d call, then follow up with a fax, then perhaps an e-mail, if you had that information, then perhaps another phone call. And each time you would mention your primary benefit and ask that the person get back to you if interested. After your 7 touches, you reach the point of diminishing returns.

The bottom line: What does your prospecting look like? Are you like the vendor that showed up on my caller ID every single day for 6 months, and never left a message? Unfortunately, this isn’t an exception, this is just the record holder at this point. Many have called for a month or two and again, no message. Go for your 7 touches, leave a message filled with benefits, ask that the person get back to you, and let the prospect go after 7 touches and no contact back. You can then call that prospect again down the road, say 6 or 9 months later. At that point, touch the prospect twice within a week.

John Chapin – co-author Sales Encyclopedia    www.completeselling.com

Sales training ideas – Speak about benefits on your sales calls.

Are you talking about benefits when you talk to prospects and customers? At the end of the day, people care about one thing: what’s in it for them. You can express this in benefits.

Especially on cold calls, you want to lead with benefits. When a prospect answers the phone, one of the first things out of your mouth should be your primary benefit. For example: Hi, this is John Chapin with Micro Arc Welding Company we’ve been saving companies over 40% on machine parts…  Then roll into the rest of your call.

Don’t ask how their day is, or how the weather is, they know you really don’t care, and this fluff gives them a chance to get you off the phone, which is the number one objective of people who you call.

The bottom line: Lead with benefits on everything. On your website, in your letters, on your faxes, in your e-mails, on your phone calls, and on your appointments. The only thing people care about when you call on them, other than getting you off the phone or out of their office as quickly as possible, is what’s in it for them.

John Chapin – co-author of Sales Encyclopedia    www.completeselling.com

Sales training ideas – 8 words and phrases to avoid when selling.

When selling, there are certain words and phrases one should avoid. While some of these are worse than others, all can slow your progress to the sale. 

8 Sales conversation hurdles 

1) To be honest with you.

Synonyms for this are honestly, frankly, and to tell you the truth. Even worse: “Well, I wasn’t going to say this, but…” or “I shouldn’t be saying this, but…” Ugh! Those are real killers. All these phrases give people the impression that you haven’t been completely upfront or you have something to hide. 

2) I think/I believe.

Both of these phrases give the impression that you’re not sure of what you’re saying. If you’re not sure, say so and make a commitment to follow up with the answer. 

3) Listen (followed by the person’s name).

The word “listen” along with a person’s name is confrontational. You can almost hear someone automatically responding with, “No, you listen!” Subconsciously, it comes across as a command and sounds more like: “Hey! Pay attention, will you?” 

4) What do you think?

Thinking is work. Instead, you always want to ask someone how something sounds, looks, or feels. You want to get the senses involved in the buying process. When you ask someone what she thinks, she immediately goes into analysis or point-counterpoint mode. Thinking is much more involved than simply using our senses to evaluate something. 

5) Buy and Sell.

Change buy or sell to invest. For example: Instead of saying, “If you were to buy this gadget today…” say, “If you were to invest in this gadget today…” 

6) But.

Generally speaking, the word but can be confrontational. Occasionally, it’s appropriate when you want to contrast two ideas, yet often but is used unnecessarily. The word but is sometimes interpreted as, “Okay, forget everything I just said. Now I’m going to tell you how I really feel.” 

When you can, try to replace the word but with and. Read the following two sentences and listen for which one sounds better: 

a) “Jim, you’ve really done some great work on this article, but I think we should make sure we have all the facts correct here.”  

b) “Jim, you’ve really done some great work on this article, and I think we should make sure we have all the facts correct here.” 

The first sentence sounds like you’re telling Jim that you’re not sure all his facts are correct. The second sentence sounds like you’re telling Jim that he’s done some great work and once you both verify that all the facts are correct, you’ll have a truly great article. While there may not be a major difference, simply changing the word but to and definitely makes the sentence less confrontational and more agreeable. 

There will be times when you deliberately want to use the word but for emphasis. For example, if you are writing a factual account of something, but serves as a good separator between two opposing thoughts. However, sometimes eliminating but from your vocabulary and replacing it with and will make the tone of your conversation more positive. 

7) No.

No is the ultimate in negative words. Avoid answering questions with a direct no and avoid asking questions which elicit a no from the prospect. Try to formulate questions that bring out a positive response—yes. For example, instead of asking: “Obviously, you don’t want higher premiums, do you Joe?” ask a question such as, “Joe, if I could substantially lower your premiums, would you be interested?” 

There will be times when you need to say the equivalent of no when responding to a prospect or customer. Just try to limit them and try to answer in a way that has a little less edge than a flat-out no. 

Nice to meet you.

This one may seem a bit confusing, so here’s an explanation. We’ve all had a situation in which we’ve met someone before and that person remembers, but we don’t. We’ve also been on the other end. 

Fortunately, there’s an easy remedy to this. Instead of saying “Nice to meet you,” say, “Nice to see you.” Whether you are meeting the person for the first time, second time, or one-hundredth time, “Nice to see you” is always appropriate. 

Keep the above words and phrases in mind when having sales conversations, and all conversations for that matter. Most will only slow the sale down a bit but others may stop the sale altogether.

Sales training ideas – 5 key words and phrases that catch peoples attention when selling.

When selling, there are certain words and phrases that can capture peoples’ attention. While these may not make the sale, they can all help get you closer. 

5 Sales conversation attention getters 

1) Free

Obviously, everyone likes something for free. The word free is a great attention getter. Is there anything you can include for free with your product or service? 

2) Guarantee

People like a guarantee because it limits their risk. If you have a 100 percent, no questions asked, money-back guarantee, people are less likely to be afraid to part with their money. Of course, there must be a reputable person and company behind the guarantee for the prospect to feel completely comfortable with the guarantee. 

3) Risk free

Similar to a guarantee, this is another statement that limits the buyer’s risk. If there is no risk in trying, why not try it? 

4) New, latest technology, cutting edge

Everyone wants the latest and greatest or something that is better than anything else out there. If your product or service is not new, do you have any features or functions that are? This doesn’t even have to be something that’s new to the industry, it could simply be new for your particular company. 

5) Secret

Everyone likes to be special and wants to have something no one else has. This works well if you can release something to a limited number of people before it is actually available to the public as a whole. 

Look for areas in your sales presentation where you can add some of the above words and phrases as these will help get you closer to the sale.

Sales training ideas – 4 powerful words and word phrases to include in your sales calls.

When you present your ideas to others in a sales conversation, you want to use positive words and words that spur agreement. 

4 Positive and powerful sales conversation words and phrases  

1) A person’s name.

People like to hear their names. Don’t overdo it, but try to use the person’s name at the beginning of the sales conversation, at the end, and a few times in the middle. 

2) Two of the most powerful words you can use in a sales conversation are me too.

The words me too imply “I’m just like you”; they also say, “I hear and understand you.” 

3) Use you, your, and yours as much as possible.

Keep I, me, and my to a minimum in your sales conversations. People like the focus to be on them and what they are interested in. You and your refer to the person with whom you are talking. Go through all your sales presentations, closes, answers to objections, and even sales letters and advertising, and look for places to use you or your instead of I, me, or my. Change words and phrases so the focus shifts from you to the prospect. Change statements such as the following: 

• Change “I have found…” to “you will find…”

• Change “Based upon the research, I believe…” to “The research indicates that you will find…”

• Change “I wanted to give you a call with this latest information” to “There is some new information you’re likely to be very interested in.”

Some phrases will simply need a word change from I to you while other phrases will need to be completely reworded. Some phrases will even go from a statement to a question. Shifting from “I” to “you” changes the focus. When selling, you always want the focus on the prospect. 

4) Positive words and phrases/action words.

Add words to your sales presentation that create excitement and positive feelings. Keep your overall message positive. Review all your copy and change negative words to positive ones. Think of this in terms of a political campaign. The positive message is usually better received than the one loaded with mudslinging. At the same time, don’t use million-dollar words that people have to look up in the dictionary. Liven and enlighten, don’t daze and confuse. 

Note: It’s all right to use some negative words when trying to describe a painful situation or outcome, or when trying to show the prospect what could happen if he continues on his current course of action. Overall, however, you want to keep the message upbeat and show the positive impact your product will have on the prospect’s life. 

Keep the four words and phrase above in mind and look for ways to include them in your sales presentations.

Sales training ideas – 3 key components of communication to keep in mind when selling.

When selling, keep the following statistic in mind: studies show that only 7 percent of communication is the actual words you use. In other words, no pun intended, there’s another 93 percent out there that’s up for grabs. While one could argue that words are worth more than 7 percent, there are some other key elements of communication that you want to be aware of during your sales calls and conversations. 

3 Important items to remember when having sales conversations 

When you sell, make sure that what you say and how you say it is consistent. The elements of effective communication are: 

• What you say
• How you say it
• Your body language

While the study mentioned above showed that the words you use are least important, the same study showed that how you say something was second most important, and your body language was the most important factor in determining the impression you leave someone with. 

For example, if you say the words “I love you” in a barely audible tone while staring at the floor, they will have a far different meaning than if you were to say them with feeling and passion while looking lovingly into someone’s eyes. Now say “I love you” with a Mickey Mouse voice. Now scream it. 

You get the point. In order to project the right message, your words, voice, and body language must be consistent. Nail down the right words and make sure your words, how you say them, and your body language all match when you are having sales conversations.

Sales training ideas – Insulate yourself from the negatives.

Bad news on the economy, the stock market, and business are all around us these days. As a result, it is more important than ever that we protect our eyes, ears, and brains from the negatives. This doesn’t mean that we ignore the news and pretend it doesn’t exist. It simply means that we should not indulge in too much negative news or listen to negative news we don’t need. For example, do you really need to know what’s going on with the market every single day if you’re not a financial advisor or in a related field? Probably not, so don’t pay daily attention to it.

Also, now is a great time to stay away from negative people. Not that there’s ever a good time to hang out with negative people, but now is definitely not the time. By the way, if you do have negative people that are persisting in your life, now might be the time to do something about that. If they are friends, let them know you’re on a new positive kick and see if they’ll join you. If they laugh at you and continue to be negative, you might want to drop them. If they are family, try the same thing, and then simply try to minimize the amount of time you spend with them outside of holidays and the like. Negative people can drag you down faster than anything and ruin all forward progress.

The bottom line: Insulate yourself from the negatives by surrounding yourself with positive people and keeping bad news and negatives at bay. Put lots of positive thoughts and ideas into your head. Keep your chin up and move in a positive direction.

John Chapin – co-author of Sales Encyclopedia    www.completeselling.com

Sales training ideas – 5 keys to a powerful sales presentation.

A powerful sales presentation can be your strongest close. Assuming you have a qualified and interested prospect, if you do the sales presentation correctly, you will close the sale. 

5 Key items that need to be in every sales presentation

1) Interactive and keep the prospect interested and involved.

Your sales presentation should keep the prospect on the edge of her seat. Make it interactive. Ask the prospect questions and involve her in ways that make her an active member in the proposed solution.  

2) Delivered with lots of energy, enthusiasm, and emotional logic.

This ties in directly with the above item. Depending upon the personality of the prospect, you will be more laid back; or you’ll be bouncing around. In any case, you need to have lots of life, energy, and enthusiasm in your voice, and your sales presentation should make logical sense. 

3) Delivered in a clear, concise, and articulate manner. 

Your sales presentation should be easy to understand, to the point, and it should be delivered in terms that the prospect will understand, based on her personality type. As we discussed in the cold calling section, you need to be speaking the same language as the prospect. 

4) Address the needs, desires, and concerns of the prospect, and speak to her hot buttons.

If you’ve done your work properly during the cold call, you understand what the prospect is looking for and you’ve uncovered some hot buttons. You will now educate the prospect on how your product or service fills her needs and desires. Show caring, understanding, and empathy for the prospect, and show that you are seriously interested in helping her out. 

5) Lead naturally to the close.

Your sales presentation should be designed in such a way that it walks the prospect smoothly through the presentation, addressing all needs and concerns, and flows right into the close. 

Review your presentation and make sure the five elements we have discussed here are present. With these items in place you will be on your way to a powerful sales presentation. 

Sales training ideas – Make sure you’re selling this in your sales presentations.

When you deliver a sales presentation you must focus on what the prospect is really buying. When the prospect buys your product or service, she is buying the feelings and emotions that she believes the benefits of your product or service will give her. She is not buying the features. People don’t want pieces of paper with deceased notables—otherwise known as money—they want freedom and power. People don’t want just the new boat, Corvette, or Harley, they want excitement, status, a feeling that they belong—perhaps they even want to be “cool.” A woman buys a hot new outfit because of how it will make her feel when others see her in it. As a result, you want to focus on this end product when putting together a sales presentation. While it’s sometimes important to mention the features in your sales presentation, you will tie them directly to the benefits. For example, “This car has front and side air bags; thus, your family will be twice as safe in the event of a crash.” Now, you may be thinking that your sales presentations will be different because your business is different. Perhaps you sell copiers and you’re thinking, “How can copiers create feelings or emotions?” We’re here to tell you that copiers evoke emotions too. When someone buys a copier, some of the benefits—or feelings and emotions—she might be buying are image, luxury, peace of mind, security, and a raft of other emotions. Seem far-fetched? Let’s take a closer look. Suppose she selects a copier that works only 60 percent of the time and has constant problems. What do you think that will do to her image in the eyes of her boss and co-workers? Do you think her boss will trust her with larger decisions? How do you think this will affect her peace of mind and self-image? She’ll cringe and feel about two inches tall every time she walks by that faulty copier. On the other hand, if the copier does work well, she’ll have the luxury of using a machine that makes her job easier. Now, assuming this copier really stands out and she got a good price, she knows that only good things can happen to her image. Her boss and colleagues will be impressed, may trust her with bigger decisions, and she may eventually get a promotion. All these possibilities lead to peace of mind, security, and myriad positive emotions and feelings. It’s also important to note that most of the mental pictures your prospect makes about your product or service are future pictures. The prospect sees himself driving down the road in his new car, the envy of his neighbors. The prospect sees herself in Paris standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, looking up with awe. Whether it will happen in fifteen minutes, two months, or two years, it will be future enjoyment. And it is the mental pictures, these future dreams, that make the sale happen. As a result, you want to help the prospect paint these pictures during your sales presentation. Here are some of the most common feelings and perceived benefits the prospect is buying: Peace of mind. A feeling of safety or security. In addition to physical security, this feeling is also about job security. Status or a feeling of being important. A better standard of living. The feelings of being young and energetic. The feeling of looking good or being more attractive. Longevity or longer life. Something that will be around after the buyer is gone; leaving a legacy. Fun, excitement, adventure, or thrills. Feeling better about themselves. Attention diversion. Keep these feelings in mind when developing your sales presentation. Which of the above benefits does your product or service provide? Be creative. The more you come up with the better. Through proper questioning, both in the cold call and in your sales presentation, you will know which are the most important to your prospect and where you can help. During your sales presentation, sell the benefits, sell the future, sell the dream, the big picture, and sell what the product or service will do for the prospect. Don’t spend all your time talking about the features. The more you focus on what the prospect is REALLY looking for, the more effective you’ll be with your sales presentations.

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