A buying signal is some kind of often subtle signal that the mood has shifted and the other person is now ready to agree . . . or at least to be open to what you propose.
In other words, a "buying signal" may signal readiness to . . .
Buying signals from the gatekeeper or screen: What kinds of cues should you be alert for? (For the record, gatekeeper and screen are usually interchangeable terms, and may apply to anyone from the guard at the gate, to the secretary, to the Decision Maker's personal assistant.)
"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.
Telephone etiquette with the gatekeeper or secretarial screen . . . professional ways of speaking with, and maybe even winning the gatekeeper as an ally.
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,
You’ll find here free sales training articles and tutorials, checklists and sales tips, as well as links to our sales training books — all focused on Selling Face to Face.
The free sales training articles and tutorials here 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
In a previous post, we addressed buying signals in general. Now we look more specifically at the kind of buying signals you might encounter once you're actually face-to-face with the Prospect.
Buying signals from the gatekeeper or screen: What kinds of cues should you be alert for? (For the records, gatekeeper and screen are usually interchangeable terms, and may apply to anyone from the guard at the gate to the secretary to the personal assistant to the Decision Maker.)
Be attuned for the subtle clues, or buying signals, gatekeepers may send that indicate that this secretary or other screen is becoming interested, and hence relaxing the barrier.