Armed with this information, we go see a lot of people, select only those people who might benefit from our product or service and ask them questions about why they might need whatever it is we sell. The best salespeople talk twenty percent of the time and listen eighty percent of the time. When it's our turn to talk, the best salespeople ask questions to keep the customer talking. When the customer talks, he will say things that take us closer to our sales goal, in which case we agree with him and support him in his astuteness. He will also say things that take us away from our sales goal, in which case we withhold support and let him have his own opinion, all by himself. Experience tells us that most objections, in the absence of support--positive or negative--from the salesperson, will simply go away. The best salespeople know that we never argue with a customer, as in arguing, the customer locks himself on the idea that he is right and we are wrong. His objections become hurdles impossible to overcome.
When we have firmly established in the customer's mind that he has a need for our product/service, we demonstrate the benefits of our program to help him fill his need and satisfy his wants. We need to establish a position of NET GAIN, where we have something the customer needs and wants and cannot get from anyone else. When we have created a net gain, we have largely eliminated problems like price, color, delivery and other objections. They just fade away into relative unimportance.
We then obtain a commitment from the customer to do business with us. Please notice I did not say close the sale. The best salespeople do not "close." I hate to be "closed" and so do you. When someone "closes" you, you feel that you have abrogated control over your life to someone else and that is a very uncomfortable feeling--rather like a turtle on his back. In fact, in my later years, I've grown to dislike the word "close." "Close" is a final sort of word, meaning the ending of things. I fly a lot and hate it when they call those buildings airline "terminals." The pilot says, "We are now on our final approach." Don't tell me that. No, I don't believe in "closing," but I do believe in opening. If we can open enough relationships of sufficient quality, we need never worry about "closing" again. Our success is assured.
The best salespeople then follow up with the customer to nourish and cultivate the relationships they have so painstakingly built. This relationship selling minimizes the necessity of prospecting and eliminates any need for "closing," "overcoming objections" or the trickery and chicanery that have so long sullied the reputation of we salespeople. Every time we make a sale, we make a friend and make all the following sales just that much easier and faster.
I find the preponderance of time at any sales meeting, or conference, is dedicated to increasing product knowledge. Product knowledge is important. If we don't know what our product does, how will we know what sort of questions we should ask? Product knowledge is only about twenty percent of a salesperson's effectiveness, however. Eighty percent is people knowledge and that's what our programs work on.
TRISLER TOPICS
"NO BULL SELLING!" A sales seminar based on the principles contained in the best selling book of the same name. This program will be customized to fill the needs of your specific sales organization and is very flexible in time frame. From forty-five minutes to seven hours.
"NO BULL SALES MANAGEMENT." Proven principles of effective sales management are covered in a workshop format in this up-to-seven-hour program. Based on the best-selling book by the same name, these concepts work "on the street".
"HULLO? A TELEPHONE EXPERIENCE." A three to six-hour workshop designed to improve telephone skills for the sales professional, or customer service person. Amplified "live" telephone calls are used to provide the most exciting and informative telephone training available anywhere. Secretaries, fund-raisers, in fact anyone who uses the phone will benefit. Includes the use of computers in lead and list maintenance.
"THE VELVET HAMMER," is a negotiation process that is hard on problems, yet soft on people. This Mutual Problem Solving workshop makes power plays, manipulation and dirty tricks obsolete and unnecessary. This truly WIN-WIN approach is useful in sales, customer service, inter-office communications, family relationships, or any other instance in which people interact. Available only in a seven-hour module with a limit of forty participants.
"SELL IT LIKE IT IS." The world is full of difficult people (defined as those people who do not see situations the same as we do) who need to be dealt with effectively. This one-hour excerpt from "THE VELVET HAMMER" is both entertaining and useful to any group that needs to communicate with people more effectively.
"HOW TO RAISE YOUR PRICES 5% AND HAVE YOUR CUSTOMERS LOVE YOU" If you could raise your prices 5%, would that money drop right to your bottom line? Why don't you do it? Customer push-back? Competition? Your sales team can't handle it? Value exists only in the mind of the seller and prospective buyer. Control that perception and you control the price. I can show you how to do it.
"HAVE IT YOUR WAY, DEVELOPING YOUR UNIQUE SALES SELF." A three-hour overview of the success ingredients and common enemies of the salesperson today.
"IT'S ABOUT TIME." Getting the most out of every minute in the busy life of a contemporary sales executive. Goal Setting and Time Management. One to seven hours.
"KEEPING THE WHEELS ON." Divorce and other stress related aberrations are rife in the sales field. This power packed one-hour presentation outlines proven methods for getting and keeping control of your life. Improved life style equals improved earnings.
"THE SWEAT SHOP" A 2-day intensive training seminar for Instructors or Sales Trainers. Utilizes all up-to-date forms of information transfer and skill building.
"PRESENTATION SKILLS." A condensation of "THE SWEAT SHOP", focusing only on those skills necessary to conduct a superior presentation before a group. Fitted to a seven-hour time frame, maximum involvement is enhanced by allowing each participant to make a short presentation for group evaluation and video review. A group maximum size of thirty is suggested.
