1. I’m not interested.  Create interest by telling a short anecdote of how someone else benefited her home/work/play by using your product.
2. I don’t  have enough money.  Quickly recount how using this product saves money in the long run by  improving the client’s health, saving  his time, or increasing his influence.  State dollar examples of savings gained.
3. I don’t need it.  Be alert to the needs of the customer.  Don’t try to push more on the customer than she needs.  Does she need more space, more time, better methods, or just the basics?
4.  It’s too much hassle to set it up (such as a new phone, exercise equipment). Offer to set it up for him, according to your company’s regulations.  
5. My old one is good enough.  Make sure your client has product knowledge. Teach her the new features as you promote the latest device or service.  Discount it. 
6. Another company has a better offer.  Don’t say “no” to the customer.  Provide an in-store coupon, a sample, a gas card, service, delivery, or warranty.  Give people what they want.
7. I can’t decide.  How to handle objections involves eliminating excess information.  Narrow down the decision to two or three options and focus on the best selling point of each.  Offer your personal preference, if the client asks.
8. I’ll think about it.  Don’t let the client leave without providing specific facts and figures with which he can compare.  Tell him what day and time you will personally be available to discuss it again.
9. It’s not exactly what I want. If you are going to make a sale, you must know how to handle objections like this one. If it is not in stock, order the closest approximation to your client’s need. 
10. It’s just not for me. Show proof that having your product gives your customer greater advantage, potential, and possibilities than not having it.  Be honest, but do what it takes in devising how to handle objections.  Let your client know that you will make it happen for her.

10 Ways to Handle Objections Effectively is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

If you want to be a better salesperson personally, or you’re a manager who wants their staff to sell more effectively, then follow the following guide to the top ten sales training techniques to maximise your profits and reap the rewards.

• Keep it Simple

Too many people in sales overcook it big time when discussing the features of their products and services. The client only cares how they will benefit from what you are offering, so streamline your pitch and keep it simple.

• Ask Questions

A client may need some prodding to reveal exactly what they are looking for. Ask plenty of questions so when the time comes you can deliver a specific, tailor-made, and killer pitch. 

• Work Around the Clock 

Quite often the most important people in the world of business work outside the nine to five grind. An early morning or late evening call will often catch the exact person you need to sell to – the person with the power to make decisions.

• Network

Build an extensive portfolio of contacts who you can sell too. If one prospect dries up you should always have another one to hand. 

• Something for Nothing 

If you give a prospective client a little taster of the product and services your company offers for free, it might well pay dividends in the long run.

• Be Persistent

Do not take no for an answer. Don’t be pushy but be persistent. There is a difference. 

• Tone and Delivery

Study your voice, the words you use and the way you say them. Could they by improved? Do you sound friendly and warm enough? And do you sound, knowledgeable, confident, genuine and reassuring? 

• Set a Schedule

Selling can be an exhausting business, set yourself a timetable and a set of goals to help you organise your efficiency. 

• Put them at Ease

Cracking a joke is a great way to put the client at ease and get them to drop their guard. If you make a customer laugh they’re more likely to look upon you and your product in a more favourable light. 

• Customer Care

From the start of the selling process to the end, make sure you put the customer first. A happy client is a returning client. 

About the author:

Chris Goodwinis the Managing Director and founding member of Results Driven Training (RDT) 

Chris has a background in industry and 25 years’ experience in the skills arena in public and private sectors. One of his core skill sets is designing coaching, sales training and development packages that are bespoke to business need and linked directly to business growth (ROI).

Guest Post: Top 10 Sales Techniques is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Action Step

In order to create desire for your products, you need to believe in the product itself. Your feelings about the product are easily picked up on by your client. So, if you feel anything less than passionate about what you’re selling, your client will know that straight away. You need to ensure that you’re selling a great quality product or service and let your enthusiasm for that shine through in your presentation. If you love it, creating desire in others will be a piece of cake!

Answer These Questions:

• How could you create desire for the product that you sell?
• Are you enthusiastic about the product that you sell? Would you use it yourself?

*Take a look at these sales jobs from Jobboom, a supporter of this site.

Sales Tip #40: presentation secret is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

The power of suggestion is just as effective when used for a lawful and honorable purpose as for an unlawful and dishonorable one. Karen, one sales person I know, succeeds where others fail, largely because of her greater suggestive power. She draws such a vivid description of the products she is selling, makes it seem so very desirable, that her prospect feels he must give her an order.
 
Karen knows she is selling a good thing that it is to his customer’s benefit to buy. The transaction is therefore of mutual benefit to both parties, the buyer as well as the seller.

So what is suggestion? Suggestion has been defined as “whatever creates or inspires thought.” As a science, suggestion shows us how to start and steer thought.

Over 100 years ago James Allen said, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” This is the essence of auto-suggestion. Thought is a creative force. It is a motive, impelling, sustaining force. Suggestion can help you to upbuild and develop yourself, to educate and train yourself in spirit, mind, and body. It can also help you to shape the desires and direct the will of the customers you seek to influence. In the first place, we direct the will of our customers by our very personality, which has been developed through auto-suggestion. Then the various steps of attention, interest, desire, and, finally, resolve, in the customer, must be induced by suggestion.

Our customer must forget himself and his own senses, ultimately; or at least, he must have had all his knowledge and experience so brought into harmony with those of the salesperson that he readily accepts the salesperson’s ideas. If you remember that suggestion is merely the working of the subjective mental force, you have a pretty clear idea of the use that may be made of suggestion in the progress of a sale.

The simple study of psychology reveals that the activities of the will must be stirred up by approaching and capturing the intellect and feelings.

We get attention through the senses, increase attention to interest through the intellect, change interest to desire through the feelings, and finally, in decision we have induced the will to act. There is no mathematical dividing line, no architecturally apparent flights of steps; nevertheless, you should be perfectly conscious of the different stages of progress of the customer’s mind, and you should lead him easily and naturally from one to the other.

A sale is a mental process, and depends largely upon the quality and the intensity of the mental suggestion, and the confidence communicated to the would-be purchaser’s mind. Suggestion is properly used in the conduct of a sale when it is unobtrusive, and should be honest and well aimed. It should help the customer’s mind and inspire confidence. Suggestions to the customer should have the goal of not to overcome the will, but simply to guide and influence it.

Character is largely made up of suggestion; life is largely based upon it. Selling is pretty nearly all suggestion. You will become much more successful once you learn how to use suggestion to help the mind of the customer, without making him feel that any influence is being exerted. You simply lead your customer to buy.

Let the customer feel that he is buying, not that you are selling to him.

Every salesperson should study psychology. You should be able to understand the mental laws by which the mind of your prospect acts, so as to be able to read his or her mental operations. Psychology in selling is in reality only a different name for the principles which good business people, expert salespeople, have used in all times. Diplomacy, tact, cheerfulness, the good-will habit, and the suggestion of confidence – all these form an important part of business psychology.

How Suggestion Helps in Selling is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Choosing to do your work well is a conscious decision – one that only you can make. Selling can be an incredibly rewarding career but if you show no passion for what you’re doing (no matter what it is that you’re doing) you can never succeed. So, begin by making the conscious choice to excel at your sales career and to be passionate about your success. Your enthusiasm will be easily transferred to your clients and they will be more inclined to hear you out.

By being enthusiastic about your career you will naturally want to be better; learn more; and sell more. Invest in some additional training that will take your career to the next level and you’ll find that your confidence increases ten-fold. With greater confidence, you WILL sell more! Thus begins the cycle of success in selling. Greater enthusiasm; extra training; bigger sales. And it all began with your conscious decision to do your job well. At the end of the day, it IS your choice.

Sales Tip #50: do your sales job well is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

The process of discovery is of paramount importance in your selling career and learning to ask the correct questions is a very necessary skill to acquire. Only when you have discovered what it is that your customers require can you begin to present them with the appropriate solution. Cold-calling can become a thing of the past if you become adept at learning as much as possible about your potential customers (before you call them). With this pre-knowledge in hand, you can be way more confident when approaching your client. You’ll also be better equipped to ask the best, most pertinent types of questions that will give you the necessary information to assist you in presenting the best possible solution.

By knowing your client, you’ll know what kind of questions to ask. Instead of coming across as a salesperson who is simply taking a swing at getting the sale, you present yourself as knowledgeable and as having an understanding of your client’s business. This already puts you in a far more superior position than those salespeople who will go in blindly.

Take the time to learn about your client; listen to his needs; and ask the best questions. This will help to fast-track your sales career as you continue to perfect your sales skills.

Sales Tip #31: ask more questions is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Action Step:

Ensure that you are able to identify the causes of various objections. This way you will be well-positioned to educate your customers when they don’t fully appreciate the product that you’re selling. A lack of understanding on the client’s part will put an end to any further negotiations regarding the sale. Clear up any misunderstandings before proceeding with your presentation.

Answer These Questions:

• Do you listen carefully to the objections made by your customers or do you simply bypass them and continue with your presentation?
• Are you easily able to identify the causes behind the various objections made by your customers?
• Are you adept at stopping to take care of your customer’s objections and clearing up any issues before continuing with the sales talk?

Sales Tip #12: Educate your customers is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

You might account for that by saying that this type of salesperson does not “feel” when the prospect is ready. But that is not a fact. They do feel it, but they figure something like this,

“I’ve got them coming now, but if I try to get an order they may say no. I’ll just keep on selling and make the thing a little surer.”

And in making it a little surer they lose out altogether.

Most of us hesitate to face a crisis. We are afraid of an adverse decision. That is largely why some people oversell their prospects. But no matter how diffident you feel about it, and no matter how great your hesitation, the secret of success lies in driving in and bearing down for the order just the second you feel the time is ripe.

And if you follow the rules, you’ll get the order.

Here they are:

1. Bring your prospect to the buying point.
2. The minute you feel the prospect is ready try to take the order.
3. Don’t directly ask the prospect to buy. Without giving offense, take it for granted the prospect is purchasing and start settling up the details just as if they had verbally said “Yes.”
4. If they are not ready to buy, drop your purchase order form and start selling them again.

And remember, no matter how you interest your prospect in your approach – no matter how convincing your presentation – no matter how strong his desire for your proposition, all the work that has gone before is wasted, and absolutely lost if you fail actually to get the order.

Someone said once, “Ask, or the answer is always no”. If you don’t ask for the order, rarely you will receive the business and commission you desire.

The Mistake of Overselling is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

The blogs on the list were selected for this Top 50 list based on the number of followers each blogger currently has on Twitter and chosen from hundreds that SalesCrunch regularly follows. They are extremely impressed and would like to recognize each blogger’s success in creating such a wide social media following.

Here is the list: Top 50 Sales Blogs By Twitter Followers

Top 50 Sales Blogs By Twitter Followers is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

What you say or do during the first few minutes of your conversation is the one thing which largely controls the later course of the sale. It doesn’t take brains to make a sale difficult or impossible. Your task is to pave the path and make it easy. And it’s just as easy to make a sale easy, as it is to spoil it altogether.

The whole object of your approach is to arouse fully your prospect’s interest, and bring them to the point where they want to see your product and hear your proposition.

That is the first specialized situation – to make the person you’re talking to really want particulars – arouse their interest and put them in a buying frame of mind.

How are you going to go about creating this situation?

In the first place, there is a factor in selling which few men seem to have recognized; yet it is a block over which we stumble time and time again, when by knowing that it was there we could just as easily walk around it.

This stumbling block is this:
The average person’s instinctive antagonism to being sold.

It exists and is a force with which we have to contend just as surely as the wind blows, the rain falls, and the sun shines. The minute a person realizes that you have something to sell, they instinctively – without realizing it – throw up the mental barrier.

Though they will hardly put it in words or even admit it. More likely they will respond this way in their mind:

“This person has something to sell. He thinks he is going to make me take it. I’ll show him he is wrong. I will not buy.”

You see the idea? The mere fact that you are a salesperson influences your prospect partly to make up their mind that they are not going to buy. This feeling is based on the fact that every person instinctively hates to admit that another person can make or control him or her to do anything. And remember, all this happens before either of you say one word. So your first task is to get past this barrier of instinctive antagonism to being sold.

How are you going to do it? Here’s the way to overcome that instinctive antagonism to being sold the quick way:

Forget forever that there is such a thing as forcing your business on the other: put yourself in their place and start right – working with the potential buyer to find out how their business will be benefited by your proposition.

In this way you can overcome this instinctive antagonism to being sold in much less time than it takes to tell about it. The earliest you manage this antagonism the better.

There is a right and a wrong way of meeting the objection of antagonism. Here is an example.

The salesperson says to the prospect:

“Your vacuum cleaner is a loser; mine has twice the power and suction. I can’t even give you a trade in on that piece of junk.”

The right way:

“I know you are interested in a clean environment and my company is too. This is the reason they designed this vacuum cleaner; it does not recycle the dust – it picks it up and securely holds it. It’s the best help you can get toward maintaining a clean home environment. Here, let’s compare in a operation test your old one with this new model.”

The question has been turned from salesperson’s proposition to discussing customer’s problem. The instinctive antagonism to being sold has been passed. And if he’s the right salesperson, the eventual solution of your problem will be his proposition.

Overcoming instinctive antagonism to being sold is a good deal like starting your plane by doing a pre-flight walk around first; it has nothing to do with your initial purpose but it is a necessary preliminary.

The real purpose of your approach is to arouse the interest of your prospective purchaser – to put him in the mental attitude of:

“If this is what he says it is – I’ll buy.”

Get the idea?

And once you have created the specialized situation, all you have to do is to prove that your statements are true; then the order is yours.

Nobody likes to be sold is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer