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 ...
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 ...
As salespersons we know that occasionally (really more often that we like) we are going to get an Objection. The question is, “When do we handle those objections.” For many years professional salespersons have followed a practice of handling objections at four different times in the sales process. Understanding exactly which objections should be handled at which places in the sales process is another of those great sales techniques. The four times to answer an objection are: (1) before it comes up, (2) immediately when ...
What Causes a Qualified Prospect to Buy … and to Buy Now? A prospect buys all products/services on emotion! However, there must be a “logic safety net” in place when he reaches the “Buy Zone,” so he can justify his emotional decision. What causes a qualified prospect to buy and buy now? The answer is: a professional salesperson has taken a prospect into the “Buy Zone” and then closed. What is the “Buy Zone?” The “Buy Zone” is that point in time when our prospect has bought our ...
Why Doesn’t a Qualified Prospect Buy Now? It is not uncommon for a thoroughly qualified prospect to stall on making a buying decision after he has heard a perfectly delivered feature, advantage and benefit presentation on a correctly priced product/service that is exactly what he wants/needs. Read on and find out why? Often after a prospect has heard a presentation and has been asked to buy, he puts up some resistance to buying at that time. Very often what he says has a tendency to cause the salesperson to lose momentum and ultimately bring the sales process to a halt. ...
Zig Ziglar, one of the most well known sales authorities of all time defined selling. Zig said, “Selling is the transference of feelings. If I can get my prospect to feel about my product or service the way I feel about my product or service, he will not only want it … he will demand it.” To persuade someone, it is not nearly enough to get them to think as we think, it is imperative that we get them to feel as we feel. Getting a person to feel the ...
Often we as salespersons become disheartened due to the number, frequency and sort of objections we receive from prospects. Some salespersons may even begin to feel a form of personal rejection. In an attempt to help clarify what is really happening when a salesperson is given an objection, I would like to begin by getting rid of the cancer of personal rejection. I was fortunate to learn at a very early point in my sales career exactly why I should never take an objection as a
