Introduction to Successful Selling

Selling Styles

• Hunter
  • Positive
    • Seeks out new opportunities
    • Always looking to the future
    • Self assured and focused, lots of drive and energy
  • Negative
    • Quantity over quality
    • Can seem aggressive
    • Needs the freedom to roam and hunt
• Farmer
  • Positive
    • Nurtures and maintains accounts
    • Best when land is fertile with opportunities
    • Skill in following up leads and introductions
  • Negative
    • Tends to complain in tough times
    • Hunters down rather than goes out and hunts
• Shopkeeper
  • Positive
    • Likes to help people and provide an excellent service
    • Prefers to respond to the demands of others, inbound rather than outbound
  • Negative
    • Not great at closing
• Repairman
  • Positive
    • Technical problem solver
    • Work best with customers who understand their discipline ie. IT or machine parts
  • Negative
    • Don’t ‘sell’, they prove that their idea or product is best
• Consultant
  • Positive
    • Seen as an expert
    • Identifies unconsidered needs
    • Creative problem solver providing solutions that meet needs
    • Ability to interpret data and information
  • Negative
    • Longer process that requires trust

Positive Mindset

There is no failure, only feedback

Individuals are unique, and their perceptions are true to them

Accepting 100 percent responsibility for your results gets better results

Communication is only successful if it achieves your desired results

Resistance from a prospect or customer usually signals a lack of rapport

The process of identifying and contacting potential customers in order to generate new business.

Research
Find out everything you can about the potential customer and whether they are a good fit for your product.

Qualification
Determine whether a potential customer is worth pursuing and if they truly need your product or service.

Questioning Skills

Identifying needs is the process of discovering a customer’s

• Requirements
• Thoughts
• Feelings
• Motivations
• Experiences
• Expectations

Attention - Take a pause from anything else you are doing

Concentration - Listen carefully to the feelings behind the words

Total - Ask for clarification if you don’t understand

Interested - Only ask the question if you are genuinely interested in what they have to say

Valuing - Give them the time they need and don’t rush

Empathetic - Put your own feelings on hold, they need someone to listen

What can you do to listen more effectively?

• Tell me more about your current process for ordering stationery supplies?
• What do you find the most difficult in this current process?
• Having to be around personally to double check the order with the driver seems to be time consuming and causing you some frustration.
• So, if this step could be eliminated in the process – am I right in thinking that you would agree to switching your supplier to us?

Closing the Sale

PRICE
We don’t have the budget
I can get it cheaper elsewhere

EFFORT
It’s too difficult to change / install
We don’t know how to use it

TIME
Your delivery times are too long
It is not the right time now, call me next year

EFFECTIVENESS
Your product doesn’t work with our system
It won’t work for us

Soft or Trial Close
If I can sort out the delivery arrangements, would you be in a position to place an order today?

Close or Gaining Commitment
Which date and time is best for you?

• Work on the relationship
• Follow up with an email
• Communicate internally
• Prepare a proposal or contract
• Keep the customer informed of progress
• Ask for feedback
• Ask for a referral