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

To ignore or try to dodge them is a confession of weakness which will not be overlooked by a prospective buyer. It is an opportunity for you to treat the question raised as if it were a point you would have reached very soon in your presentation even if the buyer had said nothing about it.

Among the usual objections are:

1. The product is cheaper elsewhere.

This may or may not be true. You may not know whether the statement is truth or false. If you know it is not true, it is not a wise plan to say so in a blunt, positive way. Neither is it wise to offer to bet that it can’t be done nor to offer an amount of money to charitable institutions if the prospect can make his word good. This comes too near an insinuation that the prospect is speaking falsely, and while he may know that what he says is false, he does not wish to be told so. You can simply ask: are you comparing apples to apples? What is included in that price?

2. Good points of a competitor’s products

An objection raised in this form is usually made for the purpose of starting you on a discussion of a competitor. This is always dangerous ground. You should say as little about the competing product as possible, emphasizing the points of difference strongly, and demonstrating the benefits of your own product for your previous customers (your own success stories create credibility!).

3. Your product is costing too much; customer can’t afford it

If you can show that the product you are selling will produce or save for the buyer more than it costs, your prospect can’t afford to be without it. Two classes of buyers raise this objection. In one class are those of whom it is true or for whose purposes a cheaper product will serve as well. In the other class are those who desire to put the salesperson off or whose experience has not been sufficient to enable them to know that the best is the cheapest in service and satisfaction.
To those in the former class you should make no further effort to sell. For those in the latter class you have a message. The price paid for a product is forgotten, but the service secured from it and the satisfaction enjoyed while using it are what counts toward future trade and repeat orders.

4. The product offered is not needed.

In meeting this objection it is worth while to raise such questions as:

• Is what the prospect has the best solution for them?
• Does it do the work in the most economical way?
• Does it enable the owner to meet the competition of those who are better equipped?
• Does it make the best possible impression upon those with whom the owner comes in contact?
• Would continued use of the inferior product indicate a lack of progressiveness (or vision)?

5. The prospect has no time to discuss your proposal further.

This is a method often employed to get rid of you in the hope that you will not return. A courteous request for a future time will usually find available time at the present. When the prospect realizes that you are not to be put off in that way, he will usually agree to hear immediately what you have to say.

6. Time to think it over.

In some cases this is bona fide, but in others it is only an excuse. You must judge between the two. If you decide that you are facing the maneuver or excuse, and your decision will probably lean in that direction as a rule, you should point out the disadvantages which are liable to arise by postponement, and the desirability of immediate action. If your products are satisfactory and desirable, if their ownership promises to be profitable, each day of postponement means so much loss to the buyer. Have you ever asked your customers – what is the impact of not making the decision today to buy? How much it cost you to stand still for next 60 or 90 days of postponing your decision?

Further reading:

• If you live by price – you will die by price
• Three Classes of Price Objections

Six Common Objections and How to Handle Them is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer