Here’s some more on the topic of using and reading body language –non-verbal communications. Continue reading Non-verbal signals
“The secrets of the ‘high-potential’ personality”: From BBC.COM
The article asks, “Are there six traits that could really mark out your potential to achieve?” I won’t detail them here; best to read the full article, which I found well-worth the time.
Key take-away: For a good many years the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) has been more or less the norm. Now there’s a new contender, the High Potential Trait Inventory (HPTI), based around six key traits.
Here’s the article: http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180508-the-secrets-of-the-high-potential-personality
Here’s the link to the BBC story: Secrets of the high-potential personality
CONTACT
Want to contact us with comments, questions, your personal how-to tips?
Low Cost Ways to Gauge Demand for your Start-up: Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal just posted an extended article, actually the product of four interviews, with four start-up coaches. I won’t try to echo their advice, just give you the link.
The relevance here, to this site, Selling Face-to-Face, is that a lot of readers of the blog, and of my how to sell guides, are people who are already engaged in, or considering undertaking, new business start-ups. Reinventing your career (voluntarily or involuntarily)? Considering self-employment? Got a new better mousetrap– or better App– you think (hope?) the market really, really needs? You’ll find some savvy advice in this article.
Link to Wall Street Journal article “4 Low Cost Ways to Gauge Demand for your Start-up”
Decision influencers: who they are, and how to work with them
Who invented the techno-thriller? If your taste is military and hardware, then Tom Clancy. If other techno-areas, Michael Crichton gets the nod.
When we think techno-thriller, we tend to be looking forward—the newest ships and planes (in Clancy-land). Or medical or science technologies that are just over the horizon—as in cloning dinosaurs in JURASSIC PARK, the perils of nanotechnology in PREY, biotech in THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, quantum physics as a route to time–travel in TIMELINE. Continue reading Decision influencers: who they are, and how to work with them
Cold call prospecting: What if the prospect pushes you for more detail, too soon?
Cold call prospecting: your basic strategy on this first introductory phone call, when you are phoning to get an appointment with the prospect or decision maker, is simple: Avoid getting Continue reading Cold call prospecting: What if the prospect pushes you for more detail, too soon?
In selling, sometimes the best thing to say is nothing . . . just listen, then work from what you hear
Sales tip: silence is one of the essential communication skills . . . and a powerful selling skill, as well.
When you're in the 1-1 selling face-to-face mode, non-verbals can be just as significant—and telling–as words.
Think of the questions you ask in a sales call as seeds. It's crucial to give the questions time to grow, and the power of silence gives that time. After you ask, be silent, even if it means letting the silence hang in the air. That gives the prospect time to think and respond.
Ask a question, then let it "grow" in the silence and listen closely to the response. In some cases, you'll need to rephrase the question so it's clearer, or to focus the Decision Maker's response so it's more on target.
But those are exceptions. As a rule, once you've asked the question, bite your tongue and let the prospect talk. Listening well is at least as important a communication skill as speaking confidently.
There are other good reasons to ask fewer questions and allow more silence: constant interruptions to ask new questions may irritate the prospect.
Besides, if you let the prospect go at her own pace, and in the general direction she thinks best, you may find other potential needs opening up in ways that you wouldn't have anticipated.
Above all, don't be so busy asking questions (and thinking of what your next questions will be) that you neglect to listen to the answers you do get. That's another benefit of the power of silence: silence gives you time not just to listen, but also time to think ahead.
Why smart people should go into sales — from Fast Company
If you're thinking of going into sales, if you're already in sales, if you don't know what you want to be when you grow up (no matter your present age!) there's a top-rank article you need to read in the magazine FAST COMPANY.
It's "Why smart people should go into sales," by Andrew Yong, and among his accomplishments include authorship of the book, SMART PEOPLE SHOULD BUILD THINGS.
I'll leave the article to you, but add that "selling" is not just selling products or services, but it's also persuading, reading body language and other buying signals, pulling out objections and hesitations, presenting concepts, learning to find and fill needs (needs that often the other person isn't really aware of, so part of "selling" is showing the need and how you can best fill it). All of these abilities pay off many times over if you move from sales per-se to management, customer service — even to setting up your own business and marketing your skills, perhaps as part of career reinvention, or electing for self-employment as your new career option.
Elevator pitch
It seemed strange to find the term "elevator pitch" used by the New York Times in an article "Billionaires with big ideas are privatizing American science," but there it was. Beyond that, the Times had found the distinguished science magazine Nature had also used it in an article on how to "sell science".
In any case, the Times defined "elevator pitch" as ". . . a digest of research so compelling that it would seize a potential donor's attention in the time between floors." And, "Practice in front of the mirror and 'with anyone who will listen. [and] "when the pitch is smooth enough, 'aim high.'"
Couldn't have been said better. In another posting on this blog a while back I added that it should flow smoothly and run not more than 30 seconds.
By the way, sometimes it's termed "elevator pitch", other times "elevator speech" or "opening Business Statement"–the term I use in my book SALES TRAINING TUTORIALS (second edition) especially in . . .
Tutorial 1, especially section 5: How will I introduce myself and my product or service? What's my "Opening Business Statement or "Elevator Speech"?
Tutorial 6: How to get past the "gate-keeper" or "screen";
and Tutorial 7: How to ask the prospect for an appointment
Sales Training Tutorials is available in both E-book and paper-book formats.
You'll also find more related how-to in my SELLING 101 Third edition available in both paper and E-book versions. See especially . . .
Section 4: Getting past the Decision Maker's Screen;
Section 6: Convincing the Decision Maker to meet with you;
Section 8: Opening the face-to-face meeting with the Decision Maker
Non-verbal communication tips
There seems to be particular interest in the topic of using and reading body language –non-verbal communications — so here's more.
In the Harvard Business School HBR Blog Network, Prof. Amy Cuddy (of HBR) wrote a blog item entitled Want to Lean In? Try a Power Pose – Amy J.C. Cuddy – Harvard Business Review, which relates to her TED talk, the link to which she cites in the article. That runs about a half-hour, as I recall, and the title and link is Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are
NOTE: I started this post intending it for my blog SellingFaceToFace.com (Link here ) but realize it's equally relevant to another of my blogs, CareerSuccessHow-to.com ( Link here ) so will be dual posting in both places.
Now that I think of it, I'll probably be doing more dual posting on topics like this, such as using and reading body language, as career success how-to and the skills relating to selling and selling face to face are often very much intertwined.