Sales training ideas – Are you chasing your tail with you prospecting methods.

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 – Don’t make this mistake when first starting out in sales.

When you are just learning how to sell, or start working for a new company, it doesn’t matter how good a salesperson you think you are, don’t make your first sales call on the biggest account(s). In other words, don’t make your mistakes on the big guys. 

Many salespeople have enormous egos and are lured into selling by the promise of big paychecks. Others, particularly veteran salespeople who have just started with a new company, have visions of becoming a sales hero by landing that big account during their first week. While this can be tempting, whatever you do, don’t attempt it when you’re new. 

As you know, great salespeople aren’t born, they’re developed. You need to go through the learning process before you make a sales call on the biggest account. Learn your product, learn your sales presentation, learn the answers to the questions you’ll most likely be asked, learn the responses to objections, learn the paperwork, and then start making sales calls on the little guys. Even though you think you know all the sales tricks, with a new company, product, or service, you’re going to make lots of mistakes with the little guys. And that’s fine. That’s the place to make your mistakes and get them out of the way. 

Begin by making sales calls on the little guys and get some experience under your belt. Only after you’ve learned the ropes and become somewhat seasoned can you then get in your boat and chase the Moby Dick of all sales. 

Sales training ideas – How to get in touch with the hard-to-reach hot prospect.

Here’s the scenario: You’ve got a hot prospect who said to give him a phone call next Tuesday because he’s going to make his decision then. You call on Tuesday and get his voice mail. You leave a message stating that you’re calling to follow up and ask that he get back to you. You hear nothing. On Wednesday, you call again. Again, nothing. Here’s what to do next. 

On Thursday, telephone every hour starting at seven in the morning. Do not leave any messages. Call in the hopes of getting the person on the phone. 

Use this technique any time you need to get in touch with someone on a critical issue and you think she may be ducking you. With this technique, you are being persistent without being obnoxious. If you were to call every hour and leave a message, you’d severely annoy the prospect. Obviously, you want to avoid aggravating her. 

Note 1: It is possible the prospect will have caller I.D., especially at a residence, and know that you called every hour and didn’t leave a message. If this is the case, block your call or make sure you’re calling from a number that is blocked. In the worst-case scenario, even if the person did know you were calling, you’re starting from zero anyway. You have nothing, so if you end up with nothing, you’re no worse off! 

Note 2: In a case such as this you can and should also show up in-person. In the above scenario, make it Wednesday. Just say you happened to be in the area.

Sales training ideas – 5 rules to follow with regard to your sales references.

One of your best sales tools will be a list of sales references that prospects can call to get a third party opinion of your product or service. Ask your best customers to be sales references for you. With this step, you are getting the customer’s okay to receive phone calls from prospects you’re working on. Ultimately, you want to have about ten solid references for each product you have. 

These are five important rules regarding sales references: 

1) Make sure a sales reference is not inundated with phone calls.

Remember, these people are important and they’re busy. If you have twenty people call them in a week, not only will they call you and say, “Take me off your reference list!” but they’ll be angry too. On average, one call per month per reference is the maximum number you want to be at. 

When a prospect asks for references, ask if three will suffice. Most will say yes. If he wants more, ask how many he is looking for. Very few will come back with a number even close to ten. Pick the references that you feel will be the best for that particular prospect. By having to use only three at a time, you can rotate your references quite nicely so that none get bothered with excessive frequency. 

2) Inform your sales references of when your prospect may be calling, make sure they’re willing to take the call, and let them know the exact nature of the call.

If Joe Schmoe from ABC Bank calls your sales reference and he is not expecting the call and/or doesn’t know the prospect at all, he may not take the call. If he does take it, he won’t be as prepared as he might have been and likely won’t provide as good a sales reference.  

Simply give your sales reference a quick call and ask if it is okay to have Joe Schmoe from ABC Bank call. Once the reference agrees, inform him of what Joe is looking to purchase and what the reference may want to focus on. 

3) Reward your active sales references.

Give your active sales references some sort of perk, such as tickets to a baseball game, a gift certificate to their favorite restaurant, or something similar. Be sure to let them know what the gift is for. 

If you have a sales reference who goes above and beyond, you need to go above and beyond in thanking that person. Perhaps your customer has invited the prospect to visit his place of business, or does some training with the prospect, or otherwise goes way out of his way to truly assist your prospect rather than simply giving you a glowing review. In this case, you should give him an expensive gift certificate or something else that says “thank you very much” instead of just “thank you.” And you need to do it immediately after the favor. 

4) If you have several different types of products, have sales references for all of them.

If you sell software, hardware, alarms, and video surveillance, try to have ten sales references for each. 

5) Have your sales reference lists with you on all sales calls.

Being prepared with references will help you build credibility with prospects.

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.

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