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How Well are You Applying Effective Sales Skills?

Written by: Cheryl A. Clausen

Article Overview: Have you read, studied, perhaps even trained on the sales techniques offered by the best salespeople out there yet they just don't seem to work when you use them? Are you frustrated and confused as to why and how that could happen?

How Well are You Applying Effective Sales Skills?

Have you read, studied, perhaps even trained on the sales techniques offered by the best salespeople out there yet they just don't seem to work when you use them? Are you frustrated and confused as to why and how that could happen? Whether you’ve studied Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, Jeffrey Gitomer, Neil Rackham, or any other of the biggest names in sales training there is one thing you know beyond a doubt, and that is that there is unequivocal evidence that what they’re saying works; but somehow it isn’t working for you.

And the fact that it isn’t working for you has you in an emotional frenzy because you need sales and you need sales now. First, calm down and accept that it isn’t your fault and it isn’t their fault that it isn’t working for you. I’m going to help you to understand there is a perfectly logical reason this is happening to you, and that there is a way for you to overcome your challenges.

Here’s a big secret. There isn’t one single selling system that works for everyone, and there really isn’t anything new about any of the selling systems that exist today. People have been selling since the birth of man and we’ve been doing it pretty much the same way.

Is there a selling system that will work for you? Unless you happen to be one of the rare few who enter sales when you simply aren’t wired to be a sales person, any of the selling systems out there can work for you. The one that will work best for you is the one that is closest in required behaviors to who you are.

If you’ve ever had children or have a sibling you fully understand that everyone is born with a personality. Each of us are our own person from birth. Now that isn’t to say that we haven’t been heavily influenced by those around us because we have, but children and siblings raised in the exact same environment with the same parents still think and act very differently.

Why is this difference important? The differences in our natural behaviors are very important because when we try to do things that aren’t comfortable for us, or that are in conflict with our natural behaviors we do them poorly. It doesn’t matter how often we try to force ourselves to fit into behaviors that aren’t right for us we just won’t ever be able to pull them off well.

When you try to be someone or something you’re not other people sense it and they misread the signals. If you’ve ever had an experience where a salesperson said the right things, and they did the right things, but there was just something about the experience that set alarms off in your head you understand what I mean. Rather than thinking the salesperson must be new at this and uncomfortable your instincts were telling you there must be something wrong with the offer or whatever was being sold and that the salesperson must know it. It wasn’t that the sales technique was wrong it was how the sales technique was implemented.

So does this mean you’re doomed as a sales failure because you don’t have the right natural behaviors and motivators for sales? In most cases, no. It does mean you need to understand your natural behaviors and motivators, and based on that understanding you need to adapt whatever sales system you want to use to fit you. And when you do your sales success will automatically increase.

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Article Tags: challenges, doubt, frenzy, jeffrey gitomer, logical reason, natural behaviors, neil rackham, parents, personality, sales person, salespeople, sibling, siblings, that exist today, tom hopkins, zig ziglar



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