SELL WITH COURAGE AND CONFIDENCE....!!!

Hello Friends,

Well,..' You can not sell anything if you do not have courage to sell '...

Lets Analyse :

I was talking the other day with one of my friend ( not Jay this time ) about what you can and can't teach in selling.

We were talking about a couple of other entrepreneurs that we know, both of whom are better at doing their business,than at marketing or selling of the products of their businesses.

Now one of the most common things we hear about sales ability is that you are either born with it or you aren't.

Personally I think anything can be taught to, and learned by, anyone else.

But not everyone believes as I do.

Many people believe in the lie of "the natural".

I call it a lie, because when we focus on how "natural"someone else is, we short change our own incredibly powerful ability to transform our own selves into what ever we wish to be.

( My friend SAL gave a good example as he does mostly :- Imagine you are a rash driver and you dont want to learn how to drive it slowly, people got fed up teaching you to drive slowly, but you never learned because it was your personality to not listen to anyone and not to follow good advice --- but what happens is in an accident - god forbid - you almost lost your dear ones...at that point because of the horrific event that took place you forced and compelled your personality to change and started to learn that following one's good advice often helps... )

{ So, the action and circumstances forces us to change ourselves }..,thanks Sal..

Anyway, I think that sales ability is relatively easy to learn.

But that's not what is holding back the two entrepreneurs that my friend and I were talking about.

What's holding them back is fear.

Lack of courage.

Courage is much more difficult to teach than sales ability.

Learning something new is one thing. Willingness to learn it though is another.

Napolean quotes : Life is the process of learning and the process of learning new things isn't really that hard,once you get started.

Now if you are afraid to get started, then of course you will never learn.

And you stay stuck "doing" the business, making products for it, prettying it up, but never getting enough customers. You need to go through the various ebbs and tides in the business if you ever want to flourish....

Also, I was reading this in 'The Metro Newspaper' yesterday that 90% of all businesses fail within the first 5 years of startup.

It is very true that you can not gauge the depth of ocean until you go in....and you can not see heaven until you die.... You need to be more courageous and take the decision quickly with lot of confidence...

Courage is one of the most valuable traits you can have and develop as a salesman and a businessman.

Courage is the ability to act, in spite of fear. It's being able to do things, when the fear would freeze a weaker man.

And courage is a trait that can be developed.

Developing courage is like building a muscle. You got to exercise it, work it out, stretch it and stress it. And as long as you don't over do it, your muscle will get stronger.

This means taking risks, big enough ones to stretch yourself, but reasonable enough ones that you can succeed at them.

So, one thing worth remembering is that Courage, Confidence and Persistence, properly applied will help you to sell any product or any service to anyone and everyone in any god-damn industry...

Trust me guys....

SID.....

Let's discover what the client wants ????

Hello Friends....

Just so you know - Last week i had a scathing attack on my sales thoughts by my x-colleague called Jay.... and i feel privileged to dedicate this post to him........

When we used to work together, we often had arguments over the way we sell...I am sure he will have good comments for me on this post as well....

I always said that 'Sales is really pretty damn simple, no matter which industry you are in'

Problem is our conditioning messes it up, and makes it hard for a lot of people.

People purchase things that get them their wants. ( 'Jay did you get that ???' )

I repeat I said that they purchase things that get them their wants.

That is different from someone acquiring something that he wants.

Now, Jay my x-colleague will question - SID what do you exactly mean by WANT ????

My answer wil be - 'Everything that people purchase is a means to an end. That end is the want.'

The want to feel good. The want to be happy. The want to feel capable.

The want to feel secure. The want to feel excited. The want to feel wanted.

The want to feel loved. The want to feel...anything.

No one starts out wanting a new computer system. Or a newcar. Or new office furniture. Or a new cleaning service. Or a new ... whatever.

People want these things in their business and personal lives because they discover that these things are a means to an end. To feeling the way they want to.

This is true, but a lot of people are unaware of this.

They just think that they want what they want.

Personalizing the sale then is your job if you are responsible for direct selling...

When you discover someone's wants you hold the key to making a sale AND to helping someone through the act of selling to them. ( Jay will promptly agree to this point and its absolutely right )

Personalizing the sale means to tailor it to your individual prospect with your knowledge of their wants. That is showing them how your stuff helps them get their wants...

Discover the wants. Tailor the pitch. And selling is easy.

A Note for Jay :- I stand by my words that - One has to discover the client's want - an emotional hot button - and exploit that button and if needed use extra force to ensure the client responds in affirmative..... You should not be that soft to release them if in the process they feel very sad, upset or cry.... that is not your problem.

A Lot may disagree as usual...

Please free to comment....

Goodluck...

SID....

ASKING GOOD QUESTIONS WILL UNLOCK THE SALE....

Questions plays a pivotal role in every SALES Process...

Asking the right questions at the right time can eventually unlock your sale...

Becasue of scripted agendas your prospects think that salespeople are going to waste their time.

Focus on what you are going to ASK your prospect, instead of what you were going to TELL them.

Then work off their answers to tell you where to go next with the sales conversation.

Always remember --- TELLING IS SELLING, ASKING IS BUYING.

So, you dont sell the product but make your prospect buy it...

Cheers,

SID...

SHOCK THE CUSTOMER OUT OF THEIR DENIAL MODE.....

Denial.

Most prospects are in denial mode.

And most prospects stay in denial, until they can stand it no longer.

Getting your prospect out of denial is your job when selling.

Prospects are in denial about the problems they have that they need to solve.

Everybody's got problems. Or maybe I should say everybody has got needs.

Your prospects are in denial about their problems because denial is a "useful" coping tool for most people to dealwith the overwhelm of everything they have to do on their to-do lists.

Tune-out your problems, and it's easier to cope and get through the day.

But like I said, people will stay in denial, about a problem that *you* could help them with, until they can stand it no longer.

And this is why selling them on your *product* is ineffective.

***Instead you got to sell them on solving or eliminating their problem.****

You see there are only two reasons why people deny and let problems linger in their life or business:

1.) The problem is not important enough for them to focus on compared to other things they have to focus on.

2.) They don't believe its solvable with the resources they have (this believing they don't have the time or the money,or that it will take too much effort).

So how do you smack someone out of denial?

By showing them what will happen if they don't deal with their problem RIGHT NOW.

To me :

Features is not selling.

Benefits is not selling.

Shocking someone out of their denial IS selling.

A lot may disagree, please free to comment....

SID....

WHY DO PROSPECTS LIE TO US.......

Prospects/Buyers lie to sales people.

Why?

I mean everyone accuses us sales people as being the liars.

Most sales people I know and have known are honest, ethical and strive to do well by all their customers, yet we sales professionals suffer the reputation of being dishonest liars willing to say anything true or untrue to get a deal.

And unfortunately we are the scumbags of business?

No, you and I know that we are not, but years and years of social conditioning have passed down and reinforced the belief among millions of people that anyone who "sells" is a scummy liar, or suspect of being so at best.

So sadly we start out with every new prospect having to prove that we defy this stereotype about sales people.

And that is why prospects lie to us.

They lie to us because it's OK to lie to a liar.

That's what they think, whether they are aware of it or not.

Lying is a defense mechanism.

Prospects lie because they are afraid that you are going to try and pressure them into doing something that they don't want to do.

That "something that they don't want to do" isn't that they are afraid of being tricked into buying something - (no most people are smarter than that these days.)

More often they fear that you are going to waste their time pitching them on something that they don't want, and then they are going to have to tell you no anyway, and they don't want to go through the discomfort of "rejecting" you.

So prospects lie to us because they think its OK too, unless of course we tell them not to.

Yes, you can stop getting lied to by simply asking them to agree not to do it.

No more lies like:

- "We already have a supplier for that",

- "You're still in the running for this deal",

- "Call me back in two weeks about that".

OK, I know that someone reading this right now is rolling his eyes, thinking to himself that I am really full of it.

( I hope that's not you...? )

You can stop the lying and get to the truth behind any sales interaction fast by simply asking your prospect to agree not to lie to you. Also, you have to ensure that you dont throw the customer out of their comfort zone.

This technique is pretty simple to learn, but not very easy to figure out straight away and it can only come with repeated practice because you have been so conditioned against doing anything even remotely like this all of your life.

Let's avoid the situation where Buyers/Prospects are scared and intimidated of getting manipulated and their time wasted by pushy, talk-too-much sales types.

Your job is to get the truth about each deal, and not tolerate vague answers and with little white-lies.

When you do, you can win the deals you should win, and you'll walk away with confidence early from deals that you would've eventually lost later.

SID....

* Persistence vs. Stupidity *

What is the difference between Persistence and Stupidity?

In the broad sense - Persistence is a sign of strength, courage and stamina...

Often this is true.

And - Stupidity is being too much persistent..

Persistence has personally always been one of my strengths, and something that I put high value on.

Early in my sales career, I thought that with persistence and determination, I could easily outsell my competition.

I decided that I will be more persistent than everyone else.

I figured the other guys were just weak and I could easily beat them because I was more determined.

Well turns out I was a bit stupid.

Stupid because sales people are a tough bunch. A LOT of us are determined. A LOT of us are persistent.

So when everyone is persisting and being determined in the deal, then that factor is no longer an advantage for you.

You got to get your competitive advantage from something else.

Persistence is important, but at the same time you need to pay attention to the feedback you are getting in a deal though, In fact you have to engineer getting constant feedback into the way you sell.

You have to always ask for commitments in return for the value you are giving out. I learned that it is very imperative in modern selling that one should always construct the persistence with appropriate objection handling techniques..

It gives me a bead on where I stand in the sale, and it exposes reasons that I can use as leverage to ask for something in return.

Another way of being persistent without sounding stupid is to ask questions back, when other people first ask you question, albeit its not a natural thing for most of us to do. In fact if you do it wrong, you can come across as really annoying.

The key to being effective here is not to always know what you are talking about, but to always be in control of the sales process. Questioning people back when they question you is one way to stay in control & persistent and to get high quality feedback while selling.

Worth mentioning is - Amidst the persistence and insistence yak, don't ever forget that :

'A sale is not something you pursue or you get when you argue ; it's what happens to you while you are immersed in serving your customer.'

SID............

WHAT TO FORGET TO 'SELL MORE'.....!!

A Quick Question....

Who's responsible for "solving the problem" during the sale?

You?

Or your prospect?

Your prospect is likely to put this responsibility on you(particularly the less experienced buyer).

But you can't actually solve your prospect's problems.

You only provide the means to solve them.

The prospect has to buy the means from you and solve the problem himself, with your assistance and guidance of course(and possibly your services if you sell those too).

'Yes, it is the prospect's responsibility to solve his own problems.'

Remember *that* on your next sales call.

What you do need to forget is *yourself* when you sell.

Instead your focus should be on finding problems, and getting the prospect to want to solve them with your stuff.

You do this by keeping the conversation focused on the problem they are experiencing, and by getting them agitated and feeling the need to solve it.

You should be talking about your stuff very little when you sell.

Get into and maintain rapport with your prospect, find a problem you *can* solve with your stuff, and ask questions to get them stirred up and motivated to want to do something about solving the problem.

All this demands that you focus on your prospect, and forget about yourself when you sell.

The emotional desire to solve a problem is what drives every sale.

Harness this power, and you can sell almost anything.

Goodluck....

SID...

REAL POWER IS IN ---- DIRECTING YOUR PROSPECT'S FEELINGS...

There's a well known phenomenon among sales managers that strong sales reps will sometimes falter in their performance because they know too much.

This doesn't happen with old-timers, with guys who've been selling for years.

It happens typically with the newer sales reps (age not relevant), who have just figured out sales, and have started getting good results.

You see the new sales rep will ask a ton of questions, if he's smart. He'll ask questions of his prospects. He'll ask questions of his management, of his company, of everyone. He's a sponge, soaking up information.

At some point though he starts to think he's mastered the knowledge he needs to do his job.

And so he begins to ask fewer questions.

He starts telling people what he knows, because of course now, he knows most (maybe even all) of the answers.

And this is where he gets dangerous. Dangerous to his own success because he can't listen as much.

I won't be so cliche as to say he stops listening (though may be a few do).

Rather, the fact that he knows all the answers, makes him prone to talk more, to want to tell the prospect with confidence the right solution that he just knows is best for them. And by the simple fact that he is doing more of the talking, he by definition will be doing less of the listening.

Too bad.

Because the real control, the real power, the real position of influence is had by the man who strategically uses questions to direct the thoughts and feelings of the prospect right where they need to go so the deal can be closed with much more ease and comfort.

Persuasion is sooo much more effective when people persuade themselves. And people persuade themselves when they are allowed to think. When they are directed to think about their wants, their desires, their problems, their pains.

When they think about themselves, images, sounds, thoughts,feelings occurs that are hundreds of times more powerful than anything you can ever describe in your own words.

So no matter what you do, don't stop asking questions. Don't ever let yourself be the one who is doing "most" of the talking. You should always strive to be the one talking less than 1/3 of the time.

Get your prospect talking, thinking, imagining, feeling, 2/3of the time, and you'll have a much better chance of closing thedeal.

Let the client make the decision of buying rather than you selling....

SELLING ISN'T JUST FOR EXTROVERTS !!!

A Brief Insight into myself :

I used to be somewhat shy. I think still i am to some extent.....

OK, may be not shy in the wallflower sense of the word. But I am not a natural extrovert.

In fact I took one of those personality tests a few years back, and it told me what I already knew. It told me that my comfort zone is being an introvert.

And that was one of the reasons I made the decision to go into sales. I had always been interested in persuasion, influence, and speaking, so when an opportunity came to join selling industry as professional salesman, it seemed like just the right thing.

"I figured the fire of selling would develop me into a stronger more charismatic man."

"I thought I would become this great powerful speaker by going into a career in selling."

Something different happened though instead.

I found out that modern selling isn't all about giving presentations.

No.

It's more about conversations.

I've sold stuff with 7-figure prices attached, and very,very little of my sales success was ever the result of a"presentation" I made.

The sale almost always happened in a small conversational meeting with 3 to 4 people OR 3 to 4 phone calls. Things aren't always as they expected you were when you started them.

A common misconception about selling is that you need to be an extrovert to do well at it.

Now it is good to be able to talk to lots of new and different people and about many different things. That's something extroverts are natural at.

You also need to be able to listen to other's well, to contemplate what is being said, and to probe further for the real meaning in a conversation. Those are skills that introverts are good at.

The truth is to be great at selling you need to be able to play both as an extrovert and as an introvert. And contraryto some people's beliefs about the fixed nature of human personalities, both extrovert and introvert skills can be learned.

You can't just stay in your comfort zone of being either an introvert or an extrovert.

"To be complete as a sales person,you need to be able to do both well."

SID......

Create Your Own Deals !!!!!!!!

Hello there.....

My Sales thought of the day.......

If you only go after the deals that are already competitive with vendors like yourself, then you are working harder than you need to and probably closing less than you could be.

You should also be spending part of your time prospecting for deals in accounts that haven't contacted you or your competition yet.

Your closing rate will be significantly higher when you create your own opportunities.

Have a good day......

SID.....

Real Salesmen Don't Have to Close.....

Hello Mates, Firstly thanks to my friend SAL (sal.typepad.com) who urged me to start this blog....

Here's my First Sales Thought : !!!!!!!!

Real salesmen don't have to close their deals at the end ofthe sale. Real salesmen qualify their deals up-front, and then put their time and sales effort only into the deals that they have high-odds of closing. Real salesmen ask "the hard questions" early so they can make these decisions quickly.

Sell with Pride,

SID...