Do You Have an “Elevator Speech?” The other day my son called me.  He is a new, but already successful, young internet entrepreneur.  He told me that he had been invited to a luncheon of businessmen and that he would be given 60 seconds to introduce himself to the group.  He told me that he had gone onto this web site to use the FAB Script writing tool to prepare what he proudly referred to as his “Elevator Speech.”  (If you are a member of this site, you have free access to this great tool.)  It is obvious that he had been paying attention as he grew up in the home of an ...

As all of us in the sales profession know selling is a communication skill.  Communicating is not an easy process even in the most trusting of settings much less the precarious setting of a sales presentation.  Often we think of communicating as the sounds that are being sent back and forth between people.  However, communication scientists tell us that in speaking to one another, we actually communicate more non-verbally than we do with the words we say. When we are making a sales presentation we should be aware of what our body is saying while we are speaking and listening.  Just as ...

The Sale After the Sale … Getting Referrals. Referrals have always been the single most valuable commodity a salesperson can acquire.  The more referrals a salesperson is able to collect, the more income he is going to make.  After we have created a new client, it is time to start selling again.  We must sell the new client on giving us some referrals. In my 30-plus years of selling and coaching salespersons, I have noticed that most salespersons are very poor at getting referrals.  There may be a number of reasons.  If a salesperson is having a “run of success,” he may be ...

What is “Post Closing” and Why Is it Important? “Post closing” helps to prevent the prospect from “changing his mind” after he has made a purchase.  We do this by helping a new client reduce any “post purchase” doubts that may be entering his mind just after making the buying commitment. Do you remember the thoughts going through your mind the last time you made a major purchase (i.e. automobile, home, life insurance policy, etc.)?  It is not uncommon for a person to begin to “second guess” his decision.  This is often called “Buyer’s Remorse.”  It does not ...

One of the longest standing, most respected and basic presentation methods is F.A.B. Selling.  I do not know who first identified this method, but I learned it from Larry Wilson in a Sales Sonics course in the late 1960s.  The abbreviations stand for Feature, Advantage and Benefit.  Many salespersons would tell you that they understand F.A.B. Selling.  My 40+ years experience in sales training has taught me that this is not necessarily so.  When salespersons say they understand it, what that has usually meant is that they know that prospects do not buy Features but they buy Benefits.  ...