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Selling Skills Overview

Written by: Andrew Bryant

Article Overview: Selling is a science and an art - you can improve your sales results by learning the principles of understanding and influencing people

Selling Skills Overview

We were in the boardroom, the CEO, his Marcoms Manager and myself.The CEO was animatedly and effusively telling me what he wanted for his sales team. He was making my job easier. Firstly because he had intelligently identified that the sales methodology they were using was not getting consistent results and secondly because as he unconsciously shared his values with me, I was able to respond in rapport and make the sale.

Two years on, the sales training that I 'sold' to the CEO is continuing to reap rewards for his organisation. Specifically the sales team is able to sell more at a higher price and reduce the time to identify qualified prospects.

In this month's newsletter I will share a few of the soft skills that the CEO and his company have been using to get a solid return on their training investment.

1. Get on the same wavelength

Everyone we meet communicates on a unique frequency that lets the trained observer know how that person processes information and makes decisions. Imagine a radio station transmitting on 94.5FM and the listener tuned in to 101.6FM nothing will be heard. You can get on the same wavelength by matching voice speed and tone. When you pick up and use the speaker's key words, phrases or metaphors you build rapport.

For example, I was once speaking with a sales manager who told me "It's like a battlefield out there, but we've got to capture new ground." Picking up on the intensity of his speech I enquired whether if I could help him identify and train some sharp shooters would he be interested? He was!

People like people who are like themselves, and so if you develop flexibility in your speech patterns you can communicate with and influence more people.

2. Get Precise

Most language is pretty vague and so we need to ask questions to find out what a person really thinks and wants.

Precision questioning is a technique that enables you to recover the lost data that occurs in verbal communication.

Example 1. Recover the reference - for example in the sentence; "They said it was a good idea." Who they are, is deleted and so we don't know how important this information is. So a precision question would be "Who specifically are they?"

Example 2: Check comparisons, eg, "We want the best product." A precision question would be "What do you mean specifically by the best?"

Example 3: Bust the generalisations "We always buy from the competition", to which you might enquire "Always!?", "Have you never purchased anything from another supplier, even once?"

Vague language is hypnotic and to avoid being entranced you must learn to hear what's missing and challenge it with precision questions.

3. Get to the value

Values are what we unconsciously decide are important. People buy or are motivated by what they value. Using lots of rapport ask; "What's important about this purchase?" Affirm the value and then ask; "And what's important about that?" Affirm the value again and repeat the question. You will be pleasantly surprised that what you then discover is the real value or reason for the purchase and then you can match that value to your product or service.

Obviously these 3 tips are just a small sample of what is possible in terms of reading and influencing people in a positive way. If you are curious about getting soft skills training into your company review www.selfleadership.com and then give us a call. Also read the other articles, soon to be posted on this site.

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