Seven Lessons to Learn from Great Salespeople – By Kevin Eikenberry

Chances are this article’s title gives you a strong opinion about whether or not to continue reading. You are either in sales and want to understand your work better and therefore very interested, or you are being kind and giving me until the end of this paragraph to convince you to continue, because you aren’t in sales, you don’t want to be in sales, and you don’t see a connection between your work and sales.

If you are in the second group, please give me just one more paragraph before you decide, ok?

If you think of the stereotypical high pressure used car salesperson when you think about sales, rest assured that isn’t what I’m referring to. Think about this. Do you ever need to persuade others to see your position or take a particular action? Do you ever need people to follow your recommendations? Do you ever benefit in a tangible way when you are able to be more successful in persuading others? If your answer is yes to any of these questions (and I’m sure it is for everyone), then you are in sales – regardless of your job title or how you feel about “salespeople.”

So regardless of your experience in or feelings about sales, there are likely things you can learn from the best in the sales field – because we are all in sales.

The Model in your Mind

With all due respect to the many truly outstanding used car salespeople, the “high-pressure, used-car-salesperson” stereotype is one held by many people. And while we may have experience with this type of salesperson, most of us also have experience with someone who was extremely helpful. Someone who helped us select the best possible product or service for our situation and really cared about the results we would receive from the products we were buying. In other words, when we stop to think about it we all have some very positive experiences with salespeople.

It is those positive experiences that I want you to reflect on as you read the seven lessons below. Chances are some – or all – will be consistent with your experiences, and by reflecting on your experiences as you read you will make these lessons even more valuable for you.

The Seven Lessons

Listen more talk less. How can a salesperson know what you need unless they listen? If they don’t listen they are making assumptions as to your needs, wants and desires. The same is true for us. We will get much further much faster when trying to persuade or influence others when we talk less and listen more.

Ask more and better questions. One of the ways to talk less is by asking more questions. Great salespeople are masters at asking questions. They collect and use questions intelligently to learn more about our needs. They use questions to understand us better and to strengthen their relationship with us. Questions are one of our greatest learning tools and one of the best ways to further relationships. Whatever your work, being more skilled at asking questions will make you more successful.

Focus on the longer-term, big picture. The best salespeople aren’t trying to sell one car today. They are trying to sell you your next 5 (or 10) cars. They know Rome wasn’t built in a day and that they won’t reach their goals – or best serve you – by pressuring you to buy now. So it is for you in your interactions. When we think about the longer term we will make better decisions and behave more appropriately.

Build relationships. Business success is about relationships, and great salespeople know that. One of the fastest ways to become more successful is by building more and stronger relationships. One of the fastest ways to lose your job is by neglecting relationships. Take it from the best salespeople – business is based on relationships.

Follow-up and follow through. One of the ways to build relationships is to follow-up and follow through. Ever had a service provider call you and check on your satisfaction? How did you feel about that provider and his/her organization after that? How do you feel about people who send you handwritten thank you notes? How do feel when people go above and beyond to stay in touch with you and make sure you are satisfied? You feel good about them and their services, right? Apply those approaches to your work. Send a note. Remember a birthday. Mention the article you read that they would be interested in. Do what you said you were going to do. Follow-up and follow through.

Lose the techniques – focus on the other person. There are many helpful techniques that we can learn from training, from watching others and reading. We look for a magical formula or approach. While it is important to learn the techniques, they will only help us if we integrate them into who we are and what we stand for. For example, there is a difference between practicing active listening techniques and actively listening. When the focus is on the result, we relax and use the techniques in support of the end goal. Great salespeople learn the skills, but focus on their Customer. In an almost paradoxical way, by focusing on the Customer (remember your colleagues and your boss are your Customers too) and being sincere and genuine, you will gain the advantage of the techniques you were trying to use to begin with.

Help them buy. People don’t want to be sold, but they do want to buy. Just like a master salesperson, help people be persuaded to your position. Help them see the value. Help them own the decision. Help them remove the roadblocks – real or perceived.

Some Final Thoughts

There are likely many areas of your life where you can apply the lessons above. Consider your work, but also your role as a neighbor, in a community group and as a parent as places where you can benefit from these lessons.

You may have never sold magazine subscriptions door to door for a school project. You may have never had a job selling furniture or other products. You may never want to be in “sales.” Even if this is true, I urge you to think about what you can learn from the true masters of sales – because they are lessons that can make you better at whatever you do. Because it is really true – we are all in sales.

About the Author:

Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group, a learning consulting company that helps Clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services. To receive your free special report on Unleashing Your Potential go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/uypw/index.asp or call us at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.

** Article: Powerful Words in Sales – By Greg Woodley **

I’d like to discuss the most powerful words you can use during the selling process.

After all Rudyard Kipling said, “Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind.”

Plainly, THE MOST POWERFUL WORD is YOU. You should be looking to use the word You in your sales meetings a lot more than you use the word I. As I’ve mentioned before the idea is to be focused on your client’s needs but I’m sure this is restating what you already know.

I want to discuss words that you can use in your speech that will make your language more effective at controlling the thoughts of your prospect.

OK, let’s assume you have established Rapport with your customer or prospect and you have identified a problem they have where a product you offer could be useful to them.

The idea then, at this point in the sale, is to control the internal representations that your customer is making in their head. What I’m about to offer is a linguistic pattern that focuses your client’s mind where you want it to focus and just about forces them to accept your concepts and ideas as true. Now, STOP … and just image how useful it would be if you could easily do that.

The Power Words are:

Naturally

Easily

Unlimited

Aware

Realise

Experience

Before

During

After

Among

Expand

Beyond

And

As

Causes

Because

Now

Stop

Now you may be thinking what’s so special about these words?

Well, they become much more powerful if you follow the rule below.

Rule: Always put adverbs before the verb and adjectives before the noun!

(Truthfully, the words above are only examples of the types of words you can use and I have produced this abridged list merely to help you focus on the learning task at hand, i.e. how to incorporate these words into your sales language. Once you have done that you’ll find that you just naturally start to use other similar words in your speech.)

So let me go straight into some examples of how to use these words to good effect.

Have you ever found yourself saying?

“Could you make the change from your current supplier to us?”

Well, that is just a question and your prospect could just as easily say “No! I can’t”

What about,

“How could you make the change from your current supplier to us?”

Now, that is focusing your client on what you want them to be thinking about (i.e. how they could change to using your product or service) but you’re leaving a door open for them to say that they don’t know how.

What about the sentence below?

“How easily could you make the change from your current supplier to us?”

Now where is your customer’s mind focused?

Not on whether they could make the change, nor on how they could do it, but on how easy it could be. They could still say “it would not be very easy” but notice that they are still likely to use the word “easy”

Also, notice that I did not say,

“How could you make the change from your current supplier to us easily?”

Because, the first thing that would enter your client’s mind is how they could make the change and they would already be considering the answer to this question before they ever heard the word easily (if they heard it at all).

It’s subtle and it has a profound effect.

Let me give you some more examples of sentences using these words.

“Have you discovered how easily you could make a consistent product if you used our improved raw material?”

“Naturally, you’ll find more than enough reasons to go ahead today even if you can only see a few of the unlimited benefits that our product provides.”

These “power words” become even more powerful when you stack them into a sentence. The more of these words you use in a sentence the harder it is for your prospect’s conscious mind to filter out the inferences these words are forcing them to make.

“Once you begin to easily absorb this information, you’ll naturally discover the unlimited potential it has for readily making your communication infinitely more effective.” (Perhaps this sentences is a bit over-the-top?)

“Have you become aware yet of the many ways that our product could help in your production?” (The inference being there are many benefits and you will become aware of them at some point in time.)

“After you experience our product , by trailing it in your plant, you will realize the many ways in which it will easily improve your end product” ( infers you’ll try the product and there are many ways this product can benefit your production )

Here are some more examples for you.

”Naturally, as you start to realize the unlimited ways you can easily become aware of how using our product will help you to rapidly and effectively accomplish your goals, you’ll start imagining the success you can really achieve with our help” ( Phew ! )

“After you use our product you’ll understand it’s many benefits” (the inferences being that they will use the product and it has more than one benefit)

“Before you decide which of the many benefits that our product offers is the most important in relation to your purchasing decision let me tell you a few things that might help.” (The inferences are that they will decide on a benefit that is important to them and that our product offers many benefits.)

“During the first few months of experiencing our service you’ll likely become more aware of the many ways in which we offer substantially more than our competitors.” ( The inference being that they will use the service and it is more than a little better than the competitors in a number of ways.)

Before I go any further how much of this have you grasped, so far? Can you see how this will naturally make your communication more vital and alive and can you guess how much more effective your communication will become once you have mastered the use of these words. Does this sound like something you need to practice?

“From among the many positive benefits that you are starting to realize our service offers, which ones are likely to give you the most benefit? ”

“As you expand the range of products you buy from us and our business collaboration moves beyond it’s current boundaries what do you see as the best way we can easily move forward to the next level?”

I already discussed the power of the word “because” in YSS edition #2, so I wont go through it again.

The word ”cause” can function much like ”because” in many situations. Along with “As” and “And ” they are example of “cause and effect statements”. Here are some examples.

“Simply making that statement causes you to understand why you already don’t believe it.” (Every time they make that statement they’ll doubt it.)

“As you start to assimilate the information we have provided you will begin to recognize the many ways that our product can help in your process.”

The last two words on our list “Now ” and “Stop” are really commands that can be used to great effect. These words work better if you speak them louder and in a deeper voice tone. It also helps to actually stop speaking when you utter the word “Stop”. Like below. (Emphasise the words in bold.)

“You may be considering the effort you need to switch to our product. May I suggest that you just STOP… NOW consider the many advantages our product will easily bring to your production process and all the positive effects that will have on your bottom line.”

“We’ve been back and forth a lot with this agreement and perhaps it’s time-- NOW – to consider how we can most easily finalise this deal to our mutual benefit. Now, that seems reasonable, doesn’t it ?”

How do you go about talking like this and utilizing these powerful words?

You practice by writing out sentences employing these words.

Here’s how to practice.

First, think about a specific sales call you have coming up.

Then think about some of the comments you are likely to make during that meeting.

(Use your imagination and run through the meeting in your mind.)

Write down the things you would say.

Now, rewrite the sentences inserting the powerful words.

You’ll notice the power words are grouped in the list above. Take one group at a time and try to incorporate the power words into the sentences you would have spoken.

(This may seem clumsy at first like the process you went through acquiring many new skills in the past and wasn’t that momentary discomfort back then well worth the eventual progress you made?)

Don’t add the words in, actually rewrite the sentence.

Write up to a page on each group.

Then rewrite the sentences again allowing you the freedom to use any of the power words in any of the sentences. Really pack them in!

Repeat this process for one sales call a day or just do the exercise once a day for a month and you’ll likely notice how naturally and easily you can speak using the power words.

You may have been wondering where this issue was heading. How useful these words would be. And, as you consider just that, you may find yourself just naturally beginning to experience excitement about what the future holds for you as you begin to understand how easily you can incorporate these words into your sales language, allowing you to enhance your sales results and move beyond the past sales limitations you had before you mastered the skill of using language to direct the thinking of your customer. Now, as the realization begins to sink in of how easily and rapidly your sales results will improve, that will cause you get excited about practicing the use of the power words. Now…

Happy practicing.