Selling Face to Face — about this site

non-verbal communication No Comments

You’ll find
here in Selling Face to Face.com free sales training articles and tutorials, checklists and sales tips, as
well as links to our sales training books.

The free sales training
articles and tutorials here in Selling Face To Face.com  are adapted from the courses and workshops I
developed on contract for the “sales universities” of world-class marketing
companies such as Xerox in the United States and abroad, Kodak, Motorola,
Sylvania, Bank of America, and others . . .  as filtered through my own
experience in marketing consulting services.

The aim is to provide practical sales
training across the spectrum from beginners (starting up new businesses, or
making career changes) to experienced sales people looking for fresh approaches,
or hoping to gain the kind of professional selling skills they would have
developed as attendees in big company sales training
programs.

In the
free sales training articles here, and in the related books, we cover topics
including,

  • Finding and getting through to sales
    prospects
  • Telephone etiquette in getting past
    screens
  • Sales cold calling: when, when not, and
    how
  • Consultative selling— selling by asking smart
    questions
  • Helping sales prospects become
    more aware of the value of filling needs
  • Ways of closing
    sales
  • Handling objections, questions, and
    hesitations.
  • The how-to of Sales presentations and
    demonstrations

Independent contractors, consultants, free agents: article in New York Times

Free sales training articles New business start-up Sales training Selling skills for new business start-ups No Comments

The nature of work may be changing, suggests Michael Luo in The New York Times, as work may be "becoming more temporary and project-based, with workers increasingly functioning as free agents and no longer being governed by traditional long-term employer-employee relationships."

Michael Sinclair, featured in the article, speaking of his role as an independent contractor in the

Continue reading → Independent contractors, consultants, free agents: article in New York Times

5 steps in responding to sales objections and questions

Consultative selling--developing prospect's awareness of need Handling sales objections & questions Our sales training books-- info, samples, order Sales tips & techniques -- how to sell Sales training Selling skills for new business start-ups No Comments

The five-step model approach in responding to objections and questions: Explore, Listen Well, Restate (if appropriate), Respond, then Move on.

1.    Explore. Ask questions to get the person talking about what they really mean by the objection, and why it's important to them.  (Why do you feel that way? will do if nothing better comes to mind.)

2.    Listen well to their response.  You may have heard this objection a dozen times already this week, but this person may put a different twist on it.  Don't be too quick in cutting off the Prospect's response in order to interject your response.  The more you know about the Prospect's needs and mindset the better you can target your response.  Sometimes, the Prospect will actually respond to her own concern, and say something like, Never mind, I think I've answered myself. That's really not so important, after all.

3.    Restate, if appropriate.  In many cases, it can be helpful to both yourself and the Prospect to paraphrase your  understanding of the core of the Prospect's response.  For one thing, it forces you to listen closely, so you can restate it clearly. Second, it forces the Prospect to listen to you in turn, to ensure that your restatement is accurate.  Further, in some cases, by restating, you may be able to defuse, or take the edge off, the customer's concern.

4.    Respond to what they have actually said.  There may be a deeper meaning behind the objection, so focus on that. Example

    “You say that your firm has already tried using consultants, and isn't interested.  But I'm picking up a deeper message  that your dissatisfaction was with the work of one particular consulting  firm that didn't work out for you.  I'd like to explain how  . . .”

5.    Move on from there; don't get bogged down in your response.  Respond to the objection, then go on with your sales call.

    If you say too much in response to an objection, you may blow it up into something larger and more significant than the Prospect originally had in mind.  If you bog down on it, repeating and elaborating your reaction, the Prospect will think this really must be a major concern, and take that as a reason not to buy.

    Conversely, if you treat the objection as a small issue not very important, you are send  the subliminal message is that it is just that— minor, not a significant concern, not an issue that could possibly stop the sale. 

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The content in this post has been adapted from my books, How to Sell Face to Face: Survival Guide, and  Selling 101.    They are available in various e-book and paper editions; see below:

Survival Guide: Order paperback edition via Amazon

Survival Guide: Order e-book as Amazon Kindle (Amazon offers free apps that enable you to read it on your PC, Apple I-pad, I-pod, Blackberry, and others)

Survival Guide:  Order e-book via Kobo, usable on various kinds of e-readers

Selling 101 (third edition):  Order e-book as Amazon Kindle   (Amazon offers free apps that enable you to read it on your PC, Apple I-pad, I-pod, Blackberry, and others)

Order as e-book via Smashwords, available in various formats including PDF, E-pub, and others.

“Good-paying jobs don’t come from bailouts. They come from start-ups”– Tom Friedman in NYTimes

Free sales training articles New business start-up No Comments

Yeah, it surprised me, too, to read that in what I'd long viewed as the ultra-liberal, pro-big-government New York  Times.

But it wasn't really the Times speaking, rather it was Tom Friedman, one of the Times' most savvy and open-minded columnists. 

Continue reading → “Good-paying jobs don’t come from bailouts. They come from start-ups”– Tom Friedman in NYTimes

“Best presentations ever” — see Squidoo

Handling sales objections & questions Marketing your skills Non-verbal communication skills Sales presentations & demonstrations No Comments

Sales presentations– I'm doing my homework before branching into Squidoo, and part of that homework involves seeing what's out there.

This "lens" on Squidoo is titled "Best presentations ever" . . . and it's very good.  It's actually a sampling of what the author thinks are the best.

Maybe most interesting is a young Steve Jobs, wearing suit, white shirt, and long hair(!) doing the introductory presentation for the first Mac, back in January 1985.

Anyway, here's the link to "Best presentations ever," via Squidoo

Finding sales prospects: three basic rules for locating the decision maker who can in fact say yes to what you offer

Finding & getting through to sales prospects New business start-up Opening sales calls Sales tips & techniques -- how to sell Sales training Telephone etiquette & selling skills No Comments

  Finding sales prospects, first basic rule: You can make a sale only if you deal with the person who can say Yes to what you offer.

That’s obvious enough, especially if you’re selling to individuals.

But it’s more difficult if you’re selling to organizations. The selling skills you use in finding prospects within organizations in both the public and private sectors is more complicated, as

Continue reading → Finding sales prospects: three basic rules for locating the decision maker who can in fact say yes to what you offer