Monthly Archives: June 2010
3 Keys to Outstanding Sales Effectiveness
We all want to be successful in sales but then again we don’t always get what we want now, do we? When you analyze your progress with prospects and clients, sometimes the results are not where you feel they should be. How can you best deal with the realities that we don’t hit a home run every time? Where does the root of this problem lie? I’d contend that the answer to these questions can be traced back to the engine that drives sales excellence….we call it KMR: Continue reading
3 Traits of Great Sales Questions
The ability to create great questions is arguably the most important skill that any sales person can learn. Why? Think about what you are trying to accomplish when you sell—you are trying to change the mind of your customer so that they see your product/service as the better option than what they are currently using or considering. Unless people change the way they think, they are not likely to change the way they act. You must not only provoke thought; you must have them think differently enough to want to act on that “new way of thinking”. How Continue reading
Words Matter—Choose Them Wisely
I was watching an interview on TV recently and the skill of the interviewer reminded me that choosing the right words makes all the difference when we are communicating with others. The person being interviewed revealed deep personal information on National Television that he had clearly not intended to disclose but did because of the skillful way the interviewer used words…..
This is precisely what we hope to do in sales…we use our words to elicit information and to help our customers see things Continue reading
Eye Opening Statistic
Yesterday I was blown away by a statistic that I saw on the internet that really made me think. I’ve always thought that we need to pay more attention to what our customers are saying…but research has shown that the majority of people who were tested for their listening skills receive failing grades. And I’m not talking about 60%…which was definitely a failing grade when I went to school. No, it seems that 95% of people fall in the 17%-29% range of listening proficiency. Unbelievable! Continue reading
Selling and the Wisdom of Fred Herman
One of the most profound statements I ever heard that helped define and shape my view of selling came from Fred Herman. He said: “If people want what we don’t have, we have no right to sell them what we do have.” Fred Herman was a world-renowned sales expert of the 20th century and he would explain this to the thousands of people who would attend his sales training presentations as well as the thousands more like me who bought his audio tapes. Many people find this one comment surprising. Why? Continue reading
