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Practice – the rewards
I need to bring the topic back around to selling.
Ah, the practice of selling. It is a practice. There are so many elements: the practice of setting goals, the practice of connecting with strangers, the practice of asking discovery questions, the practice of presenting solutions to customer priorities, the practice of handling objections, the practice of asking for a commitment, the practice of being silent and still, the practice of follow up and outreach, the practice of organizing your bus…
Practice – the resistance
There are times when I am writing or teaching or coaching that I need to check my “Imposter Syndrome.” Maybe it’s the syndrome or maybe it’s that I really don’t do what I am preaching at the level that my communication would indicate.
That’s how it is for me with practice. I must recognize my resistance and manage it, which includes accepting it as part of MY process of practice. Even when I want something, my ego will resist the actions needed to achieve what I want. And it’s sneaky.
I s…
Follow Up…enough to get a result?
As an industry, whether retail or trade home furnishings showrooms, we tend to be weak in follow-up. Not everyone, but as an industry, this is a shortcoming. Please consider that there is room for growth here.
Start by planning to schedule follow-up and outreach actions into your work week, not letting them fall into 'when you get to it' status. AND plan them at the best time to produce the desired action –to connect and to get a sale or an appointment.
Notice: When do you give up? When i…
Asking for the Commitment…are you asking enough?
Here’s a question…when you KNOW that the solution you presented is spot on, and the customer agrees…and yet they have a question or a concern – which you overcome, do you then ask for the sale?
And if they hesitate or say: ‘I want to think about it,’ do you manage it and ask for the sale again?
And if the sale is not forthcoming, do you ask for and get an appointment – to ask for the sale again?
Okay, this might seem like waaaayyyyy too much for you. You may call it too aggressive. Too inse…
Handling Objections…what is enough?
Let’s extend developing our questioning skills to include handling objections.
As we evaluate our relationship to objections, it’s important to look at the reaction to objections and the response to the objection. They are separate yet related actions.
Ask yourself: Do I really know what they are concerned about…or am I assuming I know? Do I accept their concern as valid – and maybe even agree with them? Do I understand their concern, and do I have a response to address it and move beyond i…
Asking…enough… Questions
How do you know if you have asked enough questions?
What is it you want to know? And are you asking the questions that will find that out?
As salespeople, we can all expect to learn more and ask better questions as we continue to develop our skills.
One of the clues that you are not asking enough questions is that objections arise when you try to close. What are the objections that consistently come up for you?
Or equally important, do you know where your buyer is in their buying process…
Who should Summarize?
In the same way that sketching the room is a multi-purpose tool and skill, I assert that summarizing will be, too. And they both need to be practiced into second nature by everyone on the sales team.
The sales professional.
In the earlier posts, I itemized the situations that would benefit from summarizing. For the salesperson, this will be a skill to be practiced and to keep front of mind. It may need to be mentioned in the daily huddle – with some successes from the previous day and some v…
Why Summarize?
Summarizing is a fairly new concept for me to work with, so bear with me as I share my initial and inchoate understanding of this valuable tool…so enjoy and use what I know now and please stay tuned for more as I continue to learn what this tool will create and accomplish.
What does summarizing and recapping bring to the sales interaction? Why should we do this?
For both the salesperson and the client/customer it manages distractions. It’s easy to go off on a tangent or to start adding mo…
What does slow mean?
When salespeople tell me that ‘it’s slow’…I have to take a breath and get to neutral so that I don’t react. 😀 Why is that?
Because most salespeople who complain about traffic aren’t using the actual data as their complaint. They might be using one day of traffic against the same day a week earlier or another anecdotal comparison that is not based in fact. And even if it IS factual, now what?
My standard response to “It’s slow…” is something like, “I get that you have some concerns about the tr…
It’s not my job….Resist being resistant
In the showroom world, it’s understandable that sales associates will rely on incoming traffic for their business. After all, if they wanted to do outreach, they would be outside salespeople, right?!
Maybe.
Whether inside or outside, the role of a salesperson is to generate sales for the showroom and for themselves. The more flexible and innovative the salesperson is with HOW that achievement is executed, the more consistently their goal will be achieved. This is because they are not tethered t…
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