Selling A Competency or a Responsibility
Selling A Competency or a Responsibility
Who is a sales person anyway? Is selling a responsibility restricted to those who have sales in their title, e.g. car salesman, clothing saleswoman, insurance sales agent? Or is selling a capability that transcends titles?
Selling, with or without the commensurate title, is about a set of skills which are important to not only those who deal with customers but anyone who wants to influence others including their managers, employees, partners and suppliers. Fundamentally, selling is about understanding people’s needs, satisfying those needs and influencing opinions in the process. These three skills are valuable in any profession. In fact, they are of value to everyone. Like it or not, everyone sells.
Selling skills or better put, understanding, satisfying and influencing skills, largely determine who is successful in business. Having competence in these areas turn average architects into great architects, e.g. by translating their client’s wants into dream home designs. Selling skills turn average property managers into extraordinary property managers by enabling them to find a rental unit perfectly suited to the family’s unique needs. Selling skills turn average business executives into very successful business executives by enabling them to understand, inspire and lead their employees.
Here are four principles to remember that will enhance your selling ability:
1. It is not about you. It’s about your customer or whomever you are trying to influence. It is about putting yourself in their shoes and thinking about what you can do for them. Replace any temptations to demonstrate your superiority with a confidence grounded in humility. Don’t think less of yourself, just think of yourself less. Think more of them.
2. It is not about what you offer. It’s about what the other person needs. Be an attentive listener first, a good talker second. Seek understanding. Let them tell you what they need. Take notes. Reflect back to them key points of what you heard. Ask questions. You can then tailor your follow-on thoughts and suggestions to their specific needs shaping their opinions in the process.
3. It is not about your solution. It’s about the value of your solution. As familiar as you may be with your product’s features, the details of your services or the fine points of your capabilities, they are secondary to the value they provide. Focus your comments on the benefits your solution provides.
4. Influence comes easiest by adding value. Anything you can do for someone that adds value to them will in turn create value for you. Look for opportunities to give them something of value first. It will come back to you with interest.
Whether selling to customers, motivating your employees or negotiating with suppliers, put these four principles into practice and they will greatly enhance your ability to understand, satisfy and influence.
Copyright © 2008 Alpine Link Corporation, www.alpinelink.com. All rights reserved.
Selling A Competency or a Responsibility - To learn more about this author, visit Mike Hawkins's Website.
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When you think of a sales person, what characteristics come to mind? Pushy, arrogant, loud, unprofessional … or empathetic, proficient, consultative and helpful? Your answer is hopefully more of the latter, but likely both, depending on which past buying experience you recall.
Who is a sales person anyway? Is selling a responsibility restricted to those who have sales in their title, e.g. car salesman, clothing saleswoman, insurance sales agent? Or is selling a capability that transcends titles?
Selling, with or without the commensurate title, is about a set of skills which are important to not only those who deal with customers but anyone who wants to influence others including their managers, employees, partners and suppliers. Fundamentally, selling is about understanding people’s needs, satisfying those needs and influencing opinions in the process. These three skills are valuable in any profession. In fact, they are of value to everyone. Like it or not, everyone sells.
Selling skills or better put, understanding, satisfying and influencing skills, largely determine who is successful in business. Having competence in these areas turn average architects into great architects, e.g. by translating their client’s wants into dream home designs. Selling skills turn average property managers into extraordinary property managers by enabling them to find a rental unit perfectly suited to the family’s unique needs. Selling skills turn average business executives into very successful business executives by enabling them to understand, inspire and lead their employees.
Here are four principles to remember that will enhance your selling ability:
1. It is not about you. It’s about your customer or whomever you are trying to influence. It is about putting yourself in their shoes and thinking about what you can do for them. Replace any temptations to demonstrate your superiority with a confidence grounded in humility. Don’t think less of yourself, just think of yourself less. Think more of them.
2. It is not about what you offer. It’s about what the other person needs. Be an attentive listener first, a good talker second. Seek understanding. Let them tell you what they need. Take notes. Reflect back to them key points of what you heard. Ask questions. You can then tailor your follow-on thoughts and suggestions to their specific needs shaping their opinions in the process.
3. It is not about your solution. It’s about the value of your solution. As familiar as you may be with your product’s features, the details of your services or the fine points of your capabilities, they are secondary to the value they provide. Focus your comments on the benefits your solution provides.
4. Influence comes easiest by adding value. Anything you can do for someone that adds value to them will in turn create value for you. Look for opportunities to give them something of value first. It will come back to you with interest.
Whether selling to customers, motivating your employees or negotiating with suppliers, put these four principles into practice and they will greatly enhance your ability to understand, satisfy and influence.
Copyright © 2008 Alpine Link Corporation, www.alpinelink.com. All rights reserved.
Selling A Competency or a Responsibility - To learn more about this author, visit Mike Hawkins's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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