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August 26, 2010

Impotent Questions – How Much Are They Costing You?

Filed under: Business — Tags: , — OBeDee @ 5:57 pm

Last issue we talked about what motivates people to buy something. A person or a business is motivated to buy when they perceive that a change needs to occur to fix or avoid a problem, or to enable a greater vision for their future. They buy when they believe that a product or service will bridge this gap for them.

In other words, people are most likely to buy when they are in a state of trouble, or a state of tremendous opportunity. Some people will seek you out as a seller, and tell you this. These are the easy sales. Most people do not do this however. Most people stay in their comfort zones, desiring not to get too worked up over what’s not happening in their lives.

Selling then, becomes a game of stirring up people’s emotions. When you become aware that you have a problem that you must solve, your emotions change. You get concerned, frustrated, upset, worried, scared, or even angry. Just how intensely you react depends upon your perception of the magnitude and the imminence of the consequences.

Consequences.

In one word, you have the key to all selling and motivation. Consequences give rise to the experiencing of emotions such as fear, despair and anger, or hope, want and excitement. And it is the mere thought of experiencing these emotions that motivates you or anyone else.

My dictionary defines a consequence as follows: -”something that logically or naturally follows from an action or condition.”

Once you think of taking an action, or not taking an action, and you consider the consequences of that decision, the opportunity for a strong emotion to be triggered has been setup. Whether the emotional response is a strong one or not, depends on you, and your own associations concerning a particular action.

The thought falling from the top of a 500 foot cliff, smashing onto the jagged, craggy rocks at the bottom, and becoming a bloody, gelatinous skin sack of red, pink, and purple would cause the emotion of fear in many people.

That is if you really think about it, and picture it in your mind.

What about sitting down and watching TV on a Saturday afternoon? That might trigger the emotion of boredom for some people. It might trigger relaxation, or escapism for another. To my wife it represents “being a loser”. For me, it represents an opportunity to escape, and not to think about reality for just awhile.

Consequences trigger unique emotional motivations for every person. Not all are intense, and not all are enough to move someone to act, to make a decision, to buy something. The ones that do are the ones that we care about.

Asking questions that stir up consequences and uncover motivations is not a natural course of action for most people. I’m not sure exactly why this is, but I believe that it has something to do with politeness, and a cultural value that you shouldn’t get too personal with people you don’t know well.

Yet asking such questions is one of the most powerful things you can do as a persuader. “Isn’t this manipulation?”, some are of you are probably thinking. Well, yes. But is this a bad thing? You are helping people to access the emotions that will motivate them to solve their own problems. If they are to solve their problem (and solving that problem involves making a purchase), then they will do this sooner or later. By helping them with the process, you are helping them to get what they want.

How does one question then in such a persuasive manner? To effectively teach you this here would require about ten times as much space as I have already written. I can tell you a couple of things though. You probably question this way on only a rare occasion right now. Also, most of your questioning probably centers around getting factual information, that is what someone wants or doesn’t want, what they have now, what they need, etc.

While useful to you, this information does not motivate your buyers. It helps you. But it does not really help your buyer. People bond with you, and want to buy from you when they believe you can help them get what they want. For this reason, too many sales calls end on a rather flat note.

Many people don’t take their questioning to a deep enough level. This is why I created the Persuasive Questioning Techniques Sales Teleclass. I have been sharing these techniques with my personal one-on-one clients for the last couple of years, and I wanted to share these with more people.

In a live teleclass setting, I demonstrate precisely how this technique works. I role-play with you, and show you how to acquire this skill. You need to know what to do, and you need to practice it. It’s not that difficult, but it does go against your nature a bit. I’ve seen great results in my clients success and my own business using these techniques.

© 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.

Shamus Brown is a Professional Sales Coach and former high-tech sales pro who began his career selling for IBM. Shamus has written more than 50 articles on selling and is the creator of the popular Persuasive Selling Skills CD Audio Program. You can read more of Shamus Brown’s sales tips at http://Sales-Tips.industrialEGO.com/ and you can learn more about his persuasive sales skills training at http://www.Persuasive-Sales-Skills.com/

Create a Magic Connection with Clients, Leads, and Business Associates Part II

Filed under: Business — Tags: , , , — tantan @ 5:55 pm

Part I of this article explored how strategies of Neuro-Linguistic Programing (NLP) can be used to gain instant rapport with clients, leads, and business associates, and more specifically, how to use physiology, matching and mirroring, to create instant magic communications.

Now, how can tonality and words establish rapport?

TONALITY

While physiology accounts for 55% of communication among humans, tonality accounts for 38%. Most people have had the experience of someone saying, "I’m fine. Nothing’s wrong." While the literal words indicate that this person doesn’t have a problem, everyone knows that the tone used can speak louder than the words.

Someone yelling "I’m not mad," isn’t convincing. If this happens in a sitcom, we laugh. In real life, we dismiss the words and read the meaning from the tone of voice. Often tonality is more subtle than these examples, but it is still a powerful communicator. Boredom, excitement, anger, melancholy, disbelief, questions, enthusiasm, honesty are more often communicated through tone, rather than words.

What do you wish to communicate to clients, leads, or business associates? Make your tonality appropriate.

Many people do business exclusively over the phone. When talking on the phone, it is crucial to be aware of tonality. In a phone conversation, both people are communicating via their tonality, often unconsciously. Don’t leave tonality to chance. Enthusiasm, charm, friendliness as well as boredom, depression, and annoyance are communicated through sound.

TONALITY

Tonality includes:

Tone (pitch: high, low)

Tempo (speed: slow, fast)

Timbre (quality: clear, raspy)

Volume (loudness)

If you are talking to someone, who has a high-pitched voice raise your pitch a little. Like matching and mirroring, you don’t want to imitate. Don’t be dramatic, be subtle. Match the last few words someone says.

Speed is important. People who talk fast are often impatient with people who speak slower. People who speak at a slow speed are often turned off by people who speak rapidly. For someone who naturally speaks fast, slower speaking people seems to take forever to say something. For someone who naturally speaks slowly, the fast talker seems hyper, insincere. The cliche "fast talking city slicker" captures this idea.

I was in New York giving a presentation; the person who presented before I did took more than her a lotted time. My presentation was cut short. I began speaking at what I considered high speed and told everyone that I was talking fast because I wanted to get through my entire presentation. Several audience members laughed and said, "We’re New Yorkers. No matter how fast you talk, it won’t be too fast." I couldn’t match their speed. In contrast to New Yorkers, I visited a friend in Georgia whose southern drawl was slow, hypnotic, and relaxed.

Notice timbre and volume! Volume of voice can be very effective with someone who is angry. A few years ago, I unwittingly angered another professor. As he became more angry, his voice grew louder. I kept my voice low and soft, believing that would calm him. I watched rather mystified as he grew more angry as I controlled my voice, trying to sound calm and in control.

If someone is angry, try matching the volume of his voice without matching the anger. It might feel strange, but matching the volume creates rapport.

There is one other thing to keep in mind for phone rapport. If you are the person calling, you set the pace for the phone call. If you have high energy, excitement, enthusiasm, you will put the person on the other end of the line into a better mood. You can maintain the energy, excitement, and enthusiasm while matching tone, temp, timbre, and volume. This was model for me about a year ago. I wasn’t feeling great and was rather down in the dumps. I phoned a business. The woman who answered the phone was energetic and excited. I immediately felt a shift in my mood. When I hung up, I was in a better mood. A few weeks later when I met this woman, I was predisposed to like her. She had immediately established rapport with me.

Use your physiology to get you in an enthusiastic mood: sit up straight, smile, and tell yourself you’re excited. Then dial the phone.

WORDS

Words may only account for 7% of our communication, but it is an important 7% and complex than other ways of establishing rapport.

When communicating, predicates (verbs), key words, common experiences and associations are vital in establishing rapport. Common experiences and associations are obvious. These areas are often the bases of friendships and business associations. It goes without saying that establishing a common bond with a client, lead, or business associate is good business. Be honest when doing this.

Key words sometimes slip by under the radar. Begin to listen for key words or phrases that someone repeats. This is a simple way of establishing rapport. Repeat back key words. Slip them naturally into the conversation. Again use caution.

Predicates are more complicated. This is going to be the abridged version. Most people have preferred verbs that they repeat. This is more important than key words because the verbs signal a way of thinking. There are four primary modes of thinking: visual, auditory, kinesthetic (feelings and touch), and audio-digital (self-talk). What this means is that people process information through their preferred mode of thinking. I am audio-digital, so I am in a constant mode of checking things out with myself and talking to myself internally. My son is visual. He thinks in pictures; he sees, visualizes.

VISUAL: Someone who is visual will use words like see, picture, clear, foggy, vision, appear, look, reveal, view.

AUDITORY: Auditory people use words like hear, clear as a bell, that rings true; harmonize, resonate, tune in, tune out.

KINESTHETIC: Kinesthetic people use words like feel, touch, get a handle on, grasp, tap into, hard, concrete, catch on. These people think in terms of feeling and touch.

AUDIO DIGITAL: Audio digital people use words like understand, perceive, think, sense, experience, insensitive. These people do a lot of inner self-talk. They are very linguistically cognitive

This discovery will help you communicate more clearly, using someone’s preferred way of thinking rather than your own. If someone is visual and you are talking to her using audio predicates, it’s likely that she’ll miss your point. Consider how this knowledge could change family dynamics? Or your business environment? Communicating clearly could skyrocket to new levels. As you begin to see and hear how this works, it is easy to come to an understanding of and get a handle on how people connect. Notice that the last sentence used all four modes

If someone is audio, you might say, "I hear what you’re saying." or "If this opportunity rings true for you, then . . ." With someone who is visual, you might say, "I can picture that," or "If you can see yourself with this product, then . . ." What you are looking for is their way of processing information, and you are using their preferred mode of communicating to communicate clearly with a client, lead, or associate.

I’d suggest practicing one area at a time. Start with matching and mirroring someone’s posture, or expressions, or blinking. Take it slowly. It’s like learning anything: practice creates ease. Then move on to voice and words. You’ll discover that you will become much more observant and more conscious of what you do and what others do. You’ll also become a better communicator.

Always use these strategies with integrity. You can use magic to make connections with others. Do it consciously and with volition. Make win win situations. If you win and if your client or lead wins, you have created magic.

About The Author

Cora L. Foerstner teaches English and composition at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She is also a Master Practitioner and Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programing (NLP), and most recently, a network marketer. You may contact her at cora@usana.com or visit her web sites at www.unitoday.net/cora and www.whyresidualincome.com/cora.

corausana@yahoo.com

August 25, 2010

Quotations Tell… Proposals Sell!

Filed under: Business — Tags: , — pinkjeep @ 11:59 pm

The traditional “Quotation” was originally devised during the Industrial Revolution of the 1850′s and has changed little to the present day. It is a totally Dickensian format and absolutely out of date in a situation where supply so completely outstrips demand. We are now 155 years on, and selling through proposals has gone way past this old fashioned legal junk. Continue to include it if the legal eagles insist ( and they will, but then they still wear stupid looking wigs, and bow to “Hizzoner”) – but don’t expect it to do anything but harm in terms of helping you achieve the sale.

Selling proposals are ideally designed with seven sections. These sections must be used in the proper order. They are:

Introduction & the Customer’s Objectives.

Start by thanking your prospect for meeting you and requesting the proposal.

Then state your understanding of the objectives your customer wishes to achieve. Show them that you understand their issues, concerns, problems, worries, doubts and fears. This achieves two things. It switches your customer’s concentration to the subject of the proposal, and shows that you are also focussed on meeting his needs- not your own.

Your Recommendations

Having defined your customer’s objectives you should now present a condensed picture of the product (s) you are recommending that will achieve these objectives, with a brief outline of how each objective will be achieved (preferably using the priority order established with your customer at the Fact-Find meeting).

Specification sheets for complicated equipment/furniture should be added to the proposal (at the back of it) and referred to in this section.

Summary of Additional Benefits

Additional Benefits, Value, Merits, Extras, and Differences that your customer will derive over and above the specification should be summarised in this section.

* Ensure these extra Benefits are relevant to your customer.

* When you list them, make sure they are benefits, not features.

Financial Justification

This is the most important section. Very few of us will buy anything unless we can see clearly that the goods we are buying will give us a return- in money saved or made, in time saving, in durability or less frequent replacement cost, in lower maintenance, reduced waste, more flexibility, etc.

Professional buyers also have an extreme interest in that animal known as the “payback period” or amortisation of the financial investment.

The majority of sellers expect the customers to work this out for themselves. Some customers do. Many of them don’t. One thing of which I am sure. If you work it out for the customer (when your competitors fail to) you have another significant edge when it comes to closing the sale.

You can cost justify in several different ways. And if you can show more than one cost justification, do it- putting your best one first.

Your Guarantees, After-Sales Service and Testimonials.

Don’t leave your Guarantees and After- Sales Service to the small print in the document. They are much more important than that, so spell them out. Maybe it is the most important thing in your customer’s mind – if anything goes wrong down the line. He/ she will have to carry the can if they made the purchase decision!

So put their minds at rest. Tell them how good your Guarantees and After Sales service is and how fast your service technicians will respond.

Back these up with third party references. Customers whom you know will be happy to take their call and make the right noises on your behalf – because you have asked them to, well in advance (don’t tell them what to say, please).

Another method of increase your credibility is to include a page headed “Our Capabilities” outlining the success of various applications of your equipment in different situations. Every sales professional always has a dozen appropriate third party references ready to go.

Offer names and phone numbers in this section or include copies of testimonial letters at the back of your proposal.

Budget Summary

All factors that may be used for negotiation purposes should, if possible, be mentioned on this page….in other words layout the complete package, that will enable you to change the package if the budget needs to be changed to suit a customer requirement. Include such things as; Quantity, Specification, Delivery, Installation, Training, Technical Service, Guarantees, Service Charges,….anything that is in the package that you can use for negotiation. Of course, this will also help reinforce the overall value you are offering your customer.

Re-name it “Budget Summary”, a term perfectly understood and acceptable in today’s business world. Stop perpetuating this out of date crud.

Conclusion

Proposals that follow this template can be constructed in the form of a letter or as a series of separate pages (my preferred option), enclosed in a professional-looking binder.

Where the proposal is important enough it must always be delivered personally to your buyer, giving you the opportunity to take him through it under your control, highlighting or marking the most relevant / important aspects of it, and ensuring that these items will draw his attention in subsequent readings.

Quotations Tell, Proposals Sell.

Keep Selling with Integrity

Maitiú

Maitiu MacCabe is the CEO of Great Expectations Coaching, a Dublin, Ireland, based coaching practice. Visit: Great Expectations Coaching Home page for a wide range of articles related to selling matters.

Read Maitiu’s Sales Blog here

Do You Want to Know the 8 Tips to Selling More Products?

Filed under: Business — Tags: , — mommywithapenis @ 8:58 am

So often sales men and woman are the very people that prevent themselves from obtaining additional sales and increasing their commissions. It doesn’t matter if it’s counter sales or door-to-door.

They get caught up in the newest method or someone’s latest spin on how to get their customers to buy. What most forget is that sales is a process of developing long term customer relationships.

For 36 years I have been selling to the public. I’ve sold just about everything you can sell. In all those years, I’ve learned that selling simply comes down to 8 simple steps, that has always increased my sales and drives customers back for more.

1. I know my products well. You want your knowledge of the product to be almost second nature. You never want to flinch in front of a prospect. Any hesitation could cost you a sale.

2. I always ask questions of my prospects so they can tell me what they want. I want them to open up to me. You really don’t need some planned out sales pitch to get the customer interested. Customers love to talk about themselves. So encourage them to keep on talking. The more they talk about themselves the more you know what it is they are truly looking for. They will begin to think you know more about them than they do.

3. I listen intently. I’m not preoccupied with what I have to say! I have seen to many sales people listen but will not pay attention to what is being said. They were to busy thinking of how to sell their product. If you know your product well, then you will be preoccupied with your prospect.

4. I know I won’t sell to everybody so I don’t sweat it. You will be turned down more times than you can imagine. It’s nothing personal it just goes with the territory.

5. “No” means right now! Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not next month and not next year. Customers change their minds all the time. That particular person who turned you down last week may have a different consideration next month. So don’t write them off.

6. You have to be persistent. Knowing that “No” is not a permanent decision, is the very reason you stay the course and never quit. I had a client place a large order with me after nearly 9 months of phone calls and canceled appointments. Had I not been persistent my competition would have swooped in and made the sale.

7. I plan my work and work my plan. Get up early and focus on what you need to do today and today only. Do not concern yourself with tomorrow. It will come and bring with it a whole set of situations of it’s own. Then begin implementing your work that you’ve planned for the day.

8. Work smarter, not harder. There are so many ways to do this. Here is just one way I did it. I wanted to drive more people to my website: www.Impactyourarea.com. Instead of contacting people I knew, I decided to put out a press release. It was about something my business did and how it helped others around Christmas time. Within hours of it’s release, my phone started ringing with inquiries and people placing orders. My only effort was writing the press release. The company I submitted it to did the rest.

Remember, even though we live in fast paced times you are still selling to individuals. People still have wants, needs and desires met. In thousands of years it has never changed. The only thing people want from you is for you to listen closely to them. They have a problem and simply want you to solve it for them, but only after you learn what it is. It doesn’t get any easier than that.

Copyright 2005 Woody Quiñones & www.Impactyourarea.com.

Woody Quiñones is the owner of Hardee Lock & Key and http://www.Impactyourarea.com., a promotional products website. He is also a Specialty Advertising Dealer and New Dealer Sponsor with Kaeser & Blair Inc. You can go to his website anytime to view his product line, apply to become a dealer or stop by his forums to gather ideas about promoting your business.

August 21, 2010

How to Leverage Your Influence

Filed under: Business — Tags: , — emjei0625 @ 11:57 pm

Why do we get into sales? Typically it is two reasons for most people. One is to make money, and the other is often that we like working with other people.

Yes, there are good reasons to be in sales. To be highly effective and win on a consistent basis, we must remember that sales is a team effort. Its great to have a big ego (of course you would here this from me). A big ego will carry you far. A big ego is also a strong ego in my world. A strong ego is someone who knows when and how to put him or herself aside, and bring whole team along.

There are two sales then that we must constantly win to be effective in sales. The first is the one that we talk about all of the time – selling to our prospects and customers. This is where we spend most of our time.

The other is the internal sale. To be effective, everyone who supports us in our jobs has to believe that we are as great as our customers think we are (and we that we are). Top salespeople know this. They make sure that their sales consultants, sales engineers, financing specialists, product support personnel, contract administrators, office managers, administrative assistants and receptionists absolutely love them.

This is an important way to achieve real influence. When your internal team loves you, you are a force to be reckoned with. You can call resources to bear when you need them most. When a big deal comes up, and you need the extra help for the fight, the support staff will want to give it to you because they like you.

Salespeople that behave like raging assholes around their support staff don’t get a lot of help when they are in a bind and really need it. Sure, you can have their boss order them to do it. Then their boss will dislike you too. And the first time you stumble, people will be line up to pile on you. And in today’s less than certain economic environment, you’ll be on high on their hit list.

Having been in sales for a long time myself, I admit that there have been times where I have been less than wonderful to some of my support people. Since I’ve been there, I know how it happens. You’re under a lot of pressure. You’ve got a quota that you gotta make. Maybe you don’t know everyone well because you are new. You are not so certain that you are going to get the help that you need before either losing the sale or being fired.

The common reaction for some people is to become a little Hitler. We have all this work that has to get done. It has to get done now. There’s not enough time in the day or in the week. Yet these people that work with us, they don’t seem to share our commitment to doing whatever it takes to getting the job done. Doing whatever it takes to win the deal.

So we get strident with them, speaking in stressed out voices with wrinkled faces, repeating over and over just how urgent things are and that they must get done now.

Well, these people that work with us and support us, don’t for the most part have the financial incentives that we do. They aren’t the risk takers that we are. If they were, then they would be in sales too.

This is the source then of the stress that comes up at times between salespeople and our support staffs. We have different incentives towards the same common business goals of selling products and acquiring new customers.

To be a leader then, one must have perspective. One must remember that while we may be in a risky business, the potential rewards are why we are here. Our support staff do not share the same rewards as we do, nor the same risks.

It is unreasonable then to expect our support people to “do whatever it takes” without having a reason for such a commitment.

You must become the reason.

When you do, you will feel your influence increasing and your power multiplying.

We want to sell and influence our support people just as we sell and influence our customers. That is, first get to know them individually. Find out what their wants, desires, and pains are. See how you can make their job easier and more enjoyable while working together to make more sales. Everybody wants to enjoy their work and to get some fulfillment from it. They will enjoy working with you, and will want to help you.

Doing this will help you to get what you want out of sales – to make money and to enjoy working with people.

© 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.

Shamus Brown is a Professional Sales Coach and former high-tech sales pro who began his career selling for IBM. Shamus has written more than 50 articles on selling and is the creator of the popular Persuasive Selling Skills CD Audio Program. You can read more of Shamus Brown’s sales tips at http://Sales-Tips.industrialEGO.com/ and you can learn more about his persuasive sales skills training at http://www.Persuasive-Sales-Skills.com/

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