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Sales Big Picture - Top Salespeople Combine the Art and the Skill

Written by: Patricia Weber

Article Overview: One of the frequent complaints of salespeople is the delay of a prospect’s decision. You can be highly effective in sales attraction, and find a graveyard for your efforts because of lacking the art and skills of sales effectiveness. Top salespeople are always, regularly and even on their own dollar, increasing their sales effectiveness.

Sales Big Picture - Top Salespeople Combine the Art and the Skill

When a salesperson steps back to take in the big picture of selling, often their main focus is to get a prospect or ask for a referral. These are pieces to puzzle of sales attraction. But this is only one strategy in the process. There are at least three strategic pieces: sales attraction, sales effectiveness and time and energy management.

Sales effectiveness includes the skill and art most often engaged one to one:

1. Deliver an introduction that has your prospect wanting to listen. This means much more “you,” than “I” or “we” statements.

2. Ask more questions, more effective questions, before you go into your spiel. Learn and use fat, lean and even deeper questions.

3. Build and check rapport often throughout your relationship. Even if your sales cycle is a year or longer, take time to manage your relationship and realign where you and your prospect are in terms of solidifying a customer.

4. Identify follow up strategies that you want to do which appeal to your customer. Maybe a follow up telephone call results in postponement. Right then and there ask your customer “how” they’d like to be contacted – through email, fax, in-person, another telephone call, or do they want you to follow up.

5. Uncover your prospect’s problems and pain and you will discover how to help them make a decision. You want the prospect to make a favorable decision for you; this is your key role.

6. Encourage, even elicit concerns from a prospect. The most unproductive prospect relationship is one like a “yes ma’am” retort from a manager. Invite concerns and questions so you continually get in tune with your prospect.

7. If you lose a sale, learn to manage it. If you have too many lost sales that you don’t recover from, you will find yourself in a sales slump.

8. Master the art of presentation... and presentation is an art. From eye contact, to handling a difficult listener, to getting your prospect involved, no matter what you sell presentation skills are crucial to helping your prospect decide to buy from you.

9. When the salesperson gets a sale, often they believe that is the end. In truth, the sale is just beginning for the customer! Top salespeople follow up regularly with prospects and clients. That is just one differentiation that makes them top salespeople.

Salespeople who attract prospects easily usually know that if they regularly evaluate their sales effectiveness, this keeps their success rate high. “Inspect what you expect,” is a most appropriate adage if you want to be a top salesperson. With a checklist of sales effectiveness actions and attitudes, inspect them after each contact with a prospect. As you fine tune your increase in effectiveness, you increase your sales. Then to keep your attraction and effectiveness in peak performance, identify your best choices for time and energy management.

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Article Tags: big picture, energy management, eye contact, favorable decision, key role, listener, management sales, master the art, postponement, presentation skills, prospec, referral, relationship, retort, sales effectiveness, salesperson, slump, telephone call



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