The great sales trainer, Larry Wilson, taught that before we could sell our prospect, we needed to “warm them up.”  He recommended using an ember.  Now don’t get the wrong idea!  He did not mean we were to set them ablaze.  In this case Larry used ember as an easy to remember acronym.  E.M.B.E.R. stands for “Establishing a Mutually Beneficial Empathic Relationship.”  Some salespersons today might say that we need to create a “Win Win” relationship with the prospect. For both the salesperson and the prospect to believe that the purchasing of a product is good for each of ...

The great sales technician and trainer, Doug Edwards, said “people buy emotionally and then justify their purchase logically.”  Salespersons have been proving this statement true for decades through their own experiences.  Since we know that our prospects are very likely to have their emotions involved in their buying decision; that should affect how we present the benefits of our product.  As professional salespersons, we know that a presented benefit tells the prospect what the product “helps them gain” or “helps them avoid losing.”  Should we present our benefits positively ...

Some salespersons sell products that lend themselves very well to “add on” sales.  For the purpose of this article, I define “add on sales” as additional products or services that may be of value to a buyer of a new item.  In this article I will use the sale of a 54” High Def Flat Screen TV as the primary purchase.  This product is currently listed at about $2000.  The two “add on” items I will use are a stand to hold the TV and a Five Year In-Home Service Warranty.  This stand would sell for approximately $200 and the warranty would sell for approximately $200. The ...

When closing a sale, sometimes it takes to.  No, I did not misspell that last word of the first sentence.  I really meant to write “t” “o”.  Those two letters are the initials for one of the most long-practiced sales techniques we know.  They stand for “Turn Over.”  The “T.O.” is used in sales environments where the salesperson has other salespersons or sales managers nearby when they are presenting to prospects.  This would usually be in a retail setting or perhaps a group sales presentation of some type.  The “T.O.” is the technique of “Turning Over” a ...

Communicating with one another is an interesting process.  We use words to help each other understand what we want each other to know.  However, when we say a word, the other person does not really envision the word we have said.  For example, when we say the word “dog,” the person does not see in their mind the three letters “d o g.”  The person will see in their mind an image of a dog.  So what actually happens when communicating is that we paint “word pictures” in the mind of the person to whom we are speaking. As we all know in our wonderful profession of selling we ...