"COLD CALL SALES AND PROSPECTING CHECKLIST: 14 PRACTICAL STRATEGIES WHEN COLD-COLD CALLING" which had been here in four parts is now a short E-book, available via Amazon.
You can read it on a Kindle, or in various other E-reader formats, including your PC. Amazon offfers free apps to enable you to do that.
Order e-edition of Overcoming objections: why prospects DO NOT buy
When you're selling face to face, your non-verbal messages are usually at least as important as your verbals. If your body language, expressions, eye-contact, even voice tone don't synch with your words, then your prospects will tend to discount the words.
That is, if you talk-talk about what a great project you're selling, but your eye contact is minimal, if you look away, if you draw back — all those factors (markers of low enthusiasm and low trustworthiness) are sending the opposite message.
I had lunch the other day with William Shatner (well, not really Star Trek's Captain Kirk, just an incredible look-alike, Mike Broderick, the image of a younger, sleeker Shatner, but with that same infectious exuberance).
Mike, a former IBM financial type, took a buy-out and executed a career-change into the field of money-management, an aspect of which of course involves sales.
He wasn't there selling me anything, he was just running one of his presentations past me for my "expert" input, but, watching his moves, I was impressed.
P.S. A long time ago, when I was first in the business of tapping the selling skills expertise of top sales people, I interviewed Bob Tuomey at Xerox, Rochester. He took me through the whole body-language scenario: don't slouch, sit upright, but as call progresses, move forward more in your chair until you are (as the saying puts it) "on the edge of your seat with enthusiasm."
P.P.S. Forgot where I first learned this: when the Prospect begins leaning forward, holding eye contact, energy in the eyes, that tells you you've captured that Prospect's interest. Maybe now is the time to experiment with a trial close.
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.
Personality tests address the questions, "Who am I— really, down deep inside? What am I best at? Am I missing my real potentials?" — questions we all ponder from time to time.
Introspection can take us only so far, which is why personality testing has become a significant industry.
We'll be adding a new book on personality testing here soon. In the meantime, here's another take on
Telephone etiquette with the gatekeeper or secretarial screen . . . professional ways of speaking with, and maybe even winning the gatekeeper as an ally.
Continue reading Telephone etiquette with the gatekeeper or secretarial screen
The Wall Street Journal runs a regular section, "Career Journal" — nowadays often focused on career transition, and getting started in your new life.
"You Just Have to Do It," by regular Alexandra Levit, points out that "people in the midst of a career reinvention
Career transition rebounders such as those profiled in a Business Week article (and the related on-line slideshow) are examples demonstrating that you can leave the corporate nest and go on to successfully "sell your better mousetrap" or yourself. (Not explicitly mentioned is the very real issue of how to sell your newly-rebounded self, or your new venture. No matter: we cover that how-to-sell in this blog.)
The 29 people — career transition rebounders — profiled in the video/slide-show include,
Continue reading Career transition: After layoff, starting a new business from scratch
USA Today has been running a series, edited by Rhonda Abrams, on starting your own business. This article, by Christine Dugas, looks at some case studies of entrepreneurs tapping their retirement accounts to fund start-ups. The article also looks at some of the tax and economic ramifications of doing that.
Decision influencers: who are they, and how can you work effectively with them?
Even if the user, or the person in charge of an area, does not have the level of Authority, Need, and Dollars to be the actual Decision Maker, they may nonetheless be an important "Decision Influencer."
Continue reading Decision influencers: who they are, and how to work with them
Last post, we explored why it's usually not a good idea to begin with the purchasing department.
But there are situations when purchasing is the place to begin. Here are some considerations.
Continue reading When it IS good sales strategy to begin with the purchasing department
Some questions and objections are so easy that you can safely respond to them
quickly and directly, and move on.
For our meaning here, that kind of "easy" question or objection is in an area
in which your product or service is strong, or that raise issues that you can
handle quickly without raising secondary concerns.
For example, if the objection relates to a misunderstanding on price that you
can set right by pointing to a catalog, do that and move on:
"The answer is yes, we do guarantee our installations for three years, the
longest in the industry, according to this survey in Industry Times which I'll
leave with you. Now, moving on to the issue of . . ."
But if the objection or question is more complex, then use the Four-Step process for responding to objections. Go to that Four-Step Process for handling objections and questions