Know the animal you hunt. Understanding that customers are not strange creatures with an entirely different culture than your own is step one. Put yourself in the shoes of your clients and how would you like to be approached if you were being presented to.  Many sales people remove themselves so far from the perspective of the customer that it is difficult to make that all to important connection with the individual in front of them. To sum it up simply, treat others as you would like to be treated even when selling.

Stop forgetting to follow up. The second biggest killer of sales people, other than the C word (complacency), is failing to follow up.  If a deal is big enough to quote it’s big enough to follow up on.  I have heard countless tales from past customers whose main reason for giving me the business was the fact that I followed up.  Customers want to know that you are interested in earning their business and that they are important enough to at least get a phone call.  Why waste the time going through the motions of a presentation if you aren’t going to call back and see if they want to buy?

Sell the sickness not the symptom. If every customer truly knew what the needed and not what they think they want, then all of us professional salespeople would be out of a job.  You should always ask plenty of questions and dig deep to see what is going to create the best fit for a customer.  There are always opportunities to sell a customer what they want or sell them more than they need but fight the urge.  Unless you’re an industry nomad, you may want to be in the business you are in for a while and like a tailor people follow whoever gives them the best fit.  Find out what pains or  inefficiencies your customer is trying to remedy with your product.  If your product isn’t really a need then find out the motivation for wanting a particular item.  Knowing what motivates your customer is the best way to making a sale that sticks and avoid buyer’s remorse.

Stop Closing, ask for the business. Don’t get caught up in closing.  If you have done your job properly there should be no doubt in you mind as to the outcome of the meeting.  In the Army the Drill Sargent  told us that when we fired our weapon, if we focused on the target it should be a surprise when the trigger was actually pulled and the round fired.  If you concentrate too much on delivering a witty super closing phrase then you may pull left or right of your target.  Build a stone foundation of information, discovery of needs, build trust and then know the answer before you ask.

Now go and put KSSS to work for you and your organization.  The fundamental ideas here coupled with some due diligence on your part may not guarantee success but it will increase your average.

So now that we’ve decided to stay in this crazy game called sales, what can we do to impact the market.  I’ll tell you what we do, move our wares!  The single biggest issue right now is that we are in an economic drought.  The clouds are full to the bursting point of cash, probably more so than they have been in years, but no one has been able to do the right dance.  We as sales professionals are the rain makers.  We are the people that identify the needs of our prospects and motivate them to own what we have to sell.  We must be rattling the bushes, and turning over the stones to find those people sitting on the fence and push them over.

Trust is a big proponent of the ongoing dollar drought.  There are trust issues with the government, the banks and markets.  What can we do about this?  Absolutely nothing.  What we can do is create a bubble around ourselves and our customers, a small pocket of peace.  The way we accomplish this is first by identifying the right customer.  Does this customer have a pain that can be solved by my product?  Can this customer benefit significantly from my product? Then we must decide whether or not its monetarily possible for this customer to own my product.  Once you have a customer who meets these criteria then the onus is on the sales pro to make that customer feel comfortable owning their product.  We do this by professionalism in our communication, details in our proposal, zealotry in our follow up and by having impeccable character.  We must make our customer feel like they are buying a carton of champagne even when they are buying a six pack of cheap beer.  By making our customers’ experience from start to finish one of professionalism and relative ease, we encourage consumers to get back out there and buy.  Every good experience they have makes a consumer braver about buying.  We have a responsibility to make our customers feel like they can get value, in a professional way no matter what the state of the union may be.  We set the tempo of the precipitation and our responsible actions have a definitive impact on how the general consumer population feels.

Now I don’t want what I’m saying to be directed only at people who business card says “sales” in some form.  Everything here applies to anyone who needs to move a product from the hot dog vendor to the cashier at the pharmacy.  We are sales professionals in one way or another.  When someone visits our shops or agrees to an appointment to demonstrate a product we must put our best foot forward.  Think of trying to entice a squeamish animal to let you pet it, making loud noises and flailing your hands really does not benefit your agenda.  When you do get the animal close, don’t grab it by the neck.  Give it a few minutes to stop shaking and speak softly.  Once you have it’s trust, you may  get to pet it again.

So get out there, put on your dancing shoes and make it rain!

So come and share your greatest sales victory or worst sales blunder, if you’re willing to admit it.  We love to hear success stories and we can all just try and not repeat our mistakes.  A free Sales Tactics Today.com t-shirt goes to best one!

Probably the most difficult part of the job is dealing with the human factor.  One of the biggest mistakes that is sure to make your sales career miserable is trying to base your success on numbers alone.  You cannot and will not be able to sell using only numbers but they can be valuable in keeping your perspective and knowing your performance history.  In the end though the numbers can only show you the facts.  You have to be real with yourself too and know where your strengths lie and work with your weaknesses.  The key to this job is getting to know people and how to read what they are really saying.  The numbers just tell you whether or not you’re reading them right.  You must be able to understand what the customer wants, why they want it and then deliver.

Your price may be perfect and  even if you do have a 30% closing rate, that does not spell victory.  The person on the other side of the deal is just that, a person.  You can’t forget that 90% of the deal is getting the person to trust you and feel comfortable in doing business with you.  Sometimes our egos and prior successes make us cocky and while confidence is a key factor in selling, arrogance is a killer.  So don’t forget, before we get the deal we have to get the person.

More to come soon, I promise!

Feel free to check out www.perfectchoicemarketing.com when you have the opportunity!