Without buyers there are no sales.

Bottom line: no sales, no revenue.

Sales cycles now revolve around the new economy of buyers.

In previous articles we discussed the numerous competencies that sales professionals possess. The most important traits are human interaction, communication, and relationship building.

We discussed the need to establish rapport and build trust. We learned the four universal needs of all buyers.

How can we communicate more effectively with buyers?

Questioning and listening are the two most important communication skills in all areas of life – at home, at social events, at work, in management, as part of a team, and within sales.

These communication skills contribute directly to building long lasting relationships and establishing trust. You will have the confidence to attract, engage and empower buyers.

Ask questions: Use open-ended questions which will encourage people to open up and talk without borders.

1. Use direct questions when in search of a specific answer or need to move the conversation in a specific direction.
2. Use fact-finding questions to gather the information you need.
3. Use close-ended questions to steer the conversation and reach a conclusion.

Listen to: The answers to your questions.

1. Listen 70% of the time. Ask questions the other 30% of the time.
2. Focus on what the customer is saying. Don’t be thinking about your next question.
3. Avoid formulating your next question while the customer is talking, particularly if it easily distracts you from listening.
4. Always question the answers in order to gain more detail. By questioning the answer three or four more times in succession, you will eventually get to the root of the problem.

Learn How to Execute the Disciplines of Attracting, Engaging and Empowering the “Buyer Focused” Velocity Selling System, to Up Your Bottom Line

For you complimentary White Paper “The New Economy of Buyers, Why Traditional and Consultative Selling Methods No Longer Work” visit www.BobU.com.

Tags: marketing and sales strategies, goal setting worksheet, how to sell, increase sales

Let’s face it, people buy from people, particularly people they trust and like, and people who remind them of themselves. Trust and understanding formulate a sturdy foundation for a solid relationship. Therefore, it is important that a sales professional learn how to quickly build rapport and gain the prospect’s trust.

There are a number of factors to consider in order to create a satisfying relationship with a prospect. First you must establish trust. The quickest and most effective method is to develop a strong rapport with the prospect. Then, you can proceed to ask specific questions and acquire further information once a beneficial rapport has been established and the prospect trusts you. Without trust, the prospect will not willingly answer any questions. You are about to discover the most important first step in the selling process of the Velocity Selling System.

The contemporary meaning of “building rapport” is to achieve a sense of relationship, agreement, and harmony. However, the word “rapport” is derived from the old French language and means “to bring back”. In sales, the concept of “bringing back” depicts the true meaning of “building rapport.”
Building rapport is an ongoing process and is only the beginning of the overall sales effort. As a result, you will have both short-range and long-range objectives for building rapport.

Short-Range Objectives

These are some typical short-range objectives for building rapport.

1. Make the prospect comfortable in the sales situation.
2. Find out why the prospect is present, gain a sense of the prospect’s needs, and discover how you can learn more about their particular needs.
3. Ensure that you will be able to continue the sales effort beyond the first encounter.

It is imperative you meet all of these objectives if you expect the prospect to be interested long enough for you to earn the right to proceed.

Long-Range Objectives
Here are some typical long-range objectives for building rapport.

1. Gain the prospect’s attention immediately and begin an informative and rewarding dialogue with said prospect.
2. Begin building a fundamental rapport between you and the prospect — the sense of “harmony, affinity, and agreement” that is key to your success.
3. Earn the right to proceed. Ensure the prospect will stay with you (and return if necessary), thus positioning yourself to learn everything about the prospect’s needs, and ultimately, complete the sale.

A key point about building rapport is this endeavour is an ongoing process which begins early in the sales effort. A sturdy rapport is by far the most important first step to building long term relationships.

Keep in mind that people buy from people first. If they buy from you, they trust you, and a mutually beneficial relationship begins. Your job as a sales professional is primarily to maintain that relationship.

You must create a secondary sales force via word of mouth which is the most valuable referral program. I urge you to stop selling and start building relationships.

Tags: sales coaching, marketing and sales strategies, how to sell, increase sales

There are a number of factors to consider in order to create a satisfying relationship with a prospect. First you must establish trust. The quickest and most effective method is to develop a strong rapport with the prospect. Then, you can proceed to ask specific questions and acquire further information once a beneficial rapport has been established and the prospect trusts you.

Without trust, the prospect will not willingly answer any questions. You are about to discover the most important first step in the selling process of the Velocity Selling System.

The contemporary meaning of “building rapport” is to achieve a sense of relationship, agreement, and harmony. However, the word “rapport” is derived from the old French language and means “to bring back”. In sales, the concept of “bringing back” depicts the true meaning of “building rapport.”
Building rapport is an ongoing process and is only the beginning of the overall sales effort. As a result, you will have both short-range and long-range objectives for building rapport.

Short-Range Objectives

These are some typical short-range objectives for building rapport.

1. Make the prospect comfortable in the sales situation.
2. Find out why the prospect is present, gain a sense of the prospect’s needs, and discover how you can learn more about their particular needs.
3. Ensure that you will be able to continue the sales effort beyond the first encounter.

It is imperative you meet all of these objectives if you expect the prospect to be interested long enough for you to earn the right to proceed.

Long-Range Objectives

Here are some typical long-range objectives for building rapport.

1. Gain the prospect’s attention immediately and begin an informative and rewarding dialogue with said prospect.
2. Begin building a fundamental rapport between you and the prospect — the sense of “harmony, affinity, and agreement” that is key to your success.
3. Earn the right to proceed. Ensure the prospect will stay with you (and return if necessary), thus positioning yourself to learn everything about the prospect’s needs, and ultimately, complete the sale.

A key point about building rapport is this endeavour is an ongoing process which begins early in the sales effort. A sturdy rapport is by far the most important first step to building long term relationships.
Keep in mind that people buy from people first. If they buy from you, they trust you, and a mutually beneficial relationship begins.

Your job as a sales professional is primarily to maintain that relationship. You must create a secondary sales force via word of mouth which is the most valuable referral program. I urge you to stop selling and start building relationships.

Tags: sales tips, free sales training, increase sales, sales techniques

In the Velocity Selling System, you must first establish rapport with the client in order to build a lasting relationship. You need to know the components of the NLP rapport pie and how to build rapport in the first 30 seconds of meeting.

You must learn how to identify an individual’s predominant sense and how to use that sense to your benefit, especially during the presentation phase. When these techniques are applied, you enter into the Velocity Selling Cycle.

Once rapport has been established, questions can then be asked. However, when using the Velocity Selling System, you need to know why questions are so important. It is imperative to know the type of questions that should be asked, and how to deal with questions from the prospect or client without giving free consulting. There are a series of questioning techniques available to salespeople that will enhance the selling relationship and increase the velocity of your selling cycle.

In the Velocity Selling System, asking questions is like taking the prospect through a self-discovery tunnel lined with their needs, desires and expectations. You are helping them to discover it for themselves. You are building a relationship step by step while improving your velocity selling cycle.

Step one is asking questions and step two is listening intently. There are several active listening techniques outlined in the Velocity Selling System which you should apply. The foremost question is, “Do you really want to service the buyer or are you there for your own reasons?”

In today’s new economy of buyers, traditional and consultative selling methods no longer work. To increase the Velocity of your Selling Cycle you have to accept that your encounter with the buyer is not about you, your products or services. It is entirely about the buyers’ needs and desires, and their budget and time frame.

Good questioning and listening techniques will help your Velocity Selling Cycle engage and empower the buyer to buy while establishing a lasting relationship for additional business, referrals and introductions.

Tags: sales coaching, sales strategies, marketing and sales strategies, how to sell

Nonetheless, what do most organizations do when the economy heads south? They cut costs, typically in the wrong areas such as training, sales conferences, coaching and sale personnel. Sales motivation does not exist. They create an environment of uncertainty as well as contributing to and supporting the downfall of the economy.

Somewhere along the way the corporate world must understand that the economic world revolves around sales. There won’t be any transactions without sales and consequently, there is no revenue without transactions. Without revenue, organizations cannot survive, and no one would have a job. Sales is the heart of most jobs in an organization.

Sales is by far the most important profession in every organization, in every industry, and in every country in the world. The world revolves around sales. Without sales, the economy dwindles and we head directly into a recession. We cannot stay afloat without sales motivation.

Now is not the time to cut back in sales personnel, sales training, or sales motivation. Now is the time to step up and to increase your sales force or at least, maintain and motivate the present sales force.

Why? It is not considered selling simply by taking orders during a booming economy. It is necessary that organizations have a strong, sales motivational structure during these uncertain times. The sales group must seek out sales transactions even when their prospects are few and far between.

There is a definite need to target efforts in a direction that will give you measurable results within a short period of time – R.O.T.I. – Return On Time Invested.

Marketing and prospecting activities need to step up because one must do more to sell and do more to maintain any sales during this uncertain economy.

In order to accomplish all these things and many more that are unlisted, you need a sales motivating environment. You also need a sales motivated Management team to support a motivated sales team.

It is most important to engage, create and maintain a vibrant and sales motivating environment. One in which the sales people and the support team take ownership.

How do you do that?

Your can improve your current environment. Get your team together and engage them in finding the solution. Make it the team’s idea and allow them to take ownership and ultimately, make it happen. Now is the time for Management to be the facilitator and/or coach. Help your sales team get where they want to go.

As an expert in motivation, I know you cannot make someone else motivated. Only you can motivate you. Management can simply create an environment in which people motivate themselves.

Any attempt to motivate someone else is considered external motivation. External motivation is temporary and usually doesn’t last. However, personal or internal motivation is the true and deepest form of motivation. Internal motivation is everlasting.

We must engage teams to challenge themselves and find the solutions. I reiterate the need to create an ideal environment in which motivation comes from within the individual. In turn, that forward moving environment will stem from Management’s support and trust in the sales team.

There is an additional challenge. People have a natural tendency to be negative especially during slow or uncertain times. I strongly suggest you turn that negativity into a challenge. Firstly, re-secure your team’s trust before moving forward. If the organization has already contributed to cost cutting by eliminating part of the team and/or the sales training and conferences; then, involve the remaining team to work on the solutions.

They must believe in themselves and the future of the organization. Management can turn a negative into a positive with the right perspective and discipline. Move sales motivation to the front of the class and don’t ignore the possibilities of positive reinforcement.

Tags: goal setting worksheet, how to sell, sales strategies, increase sales

Let’s understand that a sale starts the moment you meet someone. They will have to buy you, before any sales will be made between the two of you. So, would you buy you?

This is the A in sales – Attitude. Do you believe in you, do you believe in your organization, it’s products and services, your team players and the market that you are making sales in?

If you do not believe in one, or any of these elements, nor will the customer. It all starts by believing in yourself, and the organization that you are making the sales for.

Buyers are sharp when it comes to sales. They know how to read body language and your level of belief is indicated through your body language.

The B in sales is for behaviour. Our behaviour is our habits when it comes to sales. Are you demonstrating appropriate behaviours / habit for sales by asking questions to qualify the prospect or are you demonstrating traditional sales behaviours of show and tell and wasting everyone‘s time?

The behaviour you demonstrate leads to perceptions. Someone doing a show and tell is definitely perceived as a sales person. However, someone who is asking questions, showing concern, listening and taking notes would be perceived differently – as an advisor or consultant perhaps, and still getting the sales, while maintaining a relationship.

How do you want to be perceived. What behaviours must your demonstrate so that you can be perceived as you want to be, while still getting the sales results you so need.

Behaviour is also knowing your sales numbers and where you sales time is spent and where you are getting your best sales results. What behaviours get you the greatest sales results- telephone, networking, e-mail, trade shows, etc.

In order to generate X sales this week, how many No’s do you have to get to get to a sales yes. How many sales prospects do you need? To get that many sales prospects, how many people do you have to make contact with?

Sales can also be targeted – another behaviour. Knowing the 80/20 rule can lead you to focusing on sales and relationships at the top end, as opposed to the bottom end.

Having a personal marketing plan to position yourself in the marketplace as a sales expert can be part of your pull strategy. Stop chasing and start pulling in sales.

Focus on building rapport when you meet someone. Build a relationship on trust and soon the sales from them, and others will start flowing.

Ask questions, listen and make the other person feel important and comfortable, before trying to make a sale.

Set some ground rules to work by, so that there are no sales surprise. Be present in the moment and sales will flow.

The Bottom Line. Buyers are everywhere. What are you doing to help them buy? Start by taking control of your attitude and behaviours and then engage people. Sales are more likely to be made with people are engaged and listened to.

Tags: sales techniques, sales coaching, how to sell, increase sales

Buyers know that salespeople have received sales training and they usually see the same techniques and tactics being applied. As a result salespeople have thought buyers everything they know and buyers have developed a sales process to counteract against the actions of salespeople.

The worst part is, salespeople don’t even realize they have lost control, leaving the buyer in control of the interaction when salespeople themselves should always remain in control of the sales process.

It is the salesperson’s responsibility to qualify the buyers. However, over the years the buyers have taken control through their sales process and end up qualifying salespeople and their products and services.

Think about it – how do prospects respond to most of your sales methods and techniques? Are you in control of the sales process?

The time has come. Now, it is a clear-cut case of being professional and following a non-traditional proven sales results process. Doing the opposite of what you may have been trained to do – that is if we want to be different than most salespeople out there.

The difference is that you will have your prospects buy from you, rather than being sold by you. A sales process that will help you to establish rapport and build trust, to communicate effectively and to develop and maintain lasting relationships. A sales process that will put you in control to quickly qualify prospects on several levels, to determine next steps, to prescribe solutions, to let the prospect or customer buy while retaining and developing the client relationship for more business, referrals and introductions.

Without a sales process, salespeople are working on a hit and miss basis, wasting time and not getting the results they could be getting.They become a slave to the Buyer’s Sales Process.

A professionally trained salesperson following a sales results process is a very powerful tool in any organization. Remember, without sales, there are no transactions. That translates into no revenue. Without revenue jobs and organizations don’t exist, no matter how good the product or service is. Training your team on a internationally proven sales process is well worth the investment, considering you will Up Your Bottom Line!

The Bottom Line: Salespeople need to learn to be in control of the sales process by following an internationally proven sales results process.

Click here to get Up Your Bottom Line Series…

Tags: sales coaching, free sales training, how to sell, sales strategies

Who is the most important person in the world? Yes, you are. But in sales when you have a customer in front of you, who is the most important person in the world? Yes, the customer! Without a customer, you do not get a sale. Times have changed and so has the golden rule, do unto others as you would have done onto your self, has been overruled with the Platinum Rule. Now, it is do onto others as they would like done onto themselves. In other words, it is not about you anymore. It is about them.

Think about being a customer and how you would like to be treated. Do you want the salesperson dropping their pants and showing you everything they have, or would you prefer a few simple questions to better understand you and your desires? Start thinking of how you can be different than every other sales person out there. Customers are looking for value, and dropping your pants does not show value.

The Bottom Line: It is all about the customer and making them feel important, comfortable and talkative.

Want to know what the Universal needs of buyers are? Leave a comment to ask Bob…

Tags: increase sales, effective time management skills, sales coaching, self motivation techniques

However, are you as a sales professional asking or telling? Are you as a sales professional asking questions to qualify customers or are customers asking you questions and qualifying you. Who is rejecting who? That will tell you who is in control, and who thinks they are in control.

Sales Professionals need to learn to follow a proven sales results system or sales process. With a sales process a sales professional will learn that it is not about them or their products or services, but about the prospect or customer. Yes, you are the most important person in the world, but without a customer you have nothing. So, when a customer or prospect is in front of you, who should be the most important person in the world? Yes, the customer!

Therefore what will make the customer feel important? When a sales professional shows interest, ask questions, listens and show concern. People like to talk about themselves, and sales professionals just like to talk. If sales professionals can stop talking and start asking questions, life as a sales professional would be different and more productive.

The Bottom Line: A.S.K. more to sell more!

What does A.S.K. stand for? Leave a comment to ask Bob…

Tags: effective time management skills, increase sales, sales coaching, personal goal setting

The job of a Sales professional, or business leader, is to ask questions, listen and qualify prospects. If there is no need, no money or decision making capability it is the sales professional’s job to reject the prospect, not the other way around.

But that is not what is happening in most sales encounters. Buyers are the ones asking the questions, and salespeople being the most knowledgeable people in every organization end up answering their questions and falling into the second step of the Buyer’s System – offering free consulting.

The job of a Sales professional is not to be answering questions or to provide free consulting. As a sales professional, it is your job to ask questions, to get, not give information. But, you need to follow a sales system or process. If you have no sales system or sales process, you end up falling into the buyer’s system. You need a reliable, proven system that will give you the edge over the competition. The system to follow is the internationally proven ABC, 123 Sales Results System.

The Bottom Line: Stop talking, telling and selling and start asking questions to engage, and control the sales process.

What is the ABC, 123 Sales Results System? Leave a comment here…

Tags: increase sales, self motivation techniques, personal goal setting, sales coaching