Selling to Consumers | Sales Training Blog by Skip Anderson

Trade Show Magic

Do you want to maximize your effectiveness at a trade show?

Leave your booth. Visitors are more likely to visit your table or display when you aren't there. Once someone has entered your space, return to your space and engage the prospect in conversation. Apparently, people are intrigued by our displays, our table, our brochures and signs...but aren't so enamored with us. Therefore, step out of the way. Just for a few minutes.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Go for the Big Sale. Or Maybe Not.

Conventional wisdom tells us that salespeople should go for the big sale, the record breaker, the home run. And conventional wisdom is usually correct.

But once in a while, going for the "big sale" isn't the best selling strategy. Sometimes the more moderate transaction is in the best interest of the salesperson (not to mention the customer). Will going for the big sale offend the customer so they don't even make a small purchase? Will going for the big sale interrupt an ongoing stream of revenue from the customer (a big short term gain chosen over an even bigger long term gain)? Will going for the big sale effect the relationship with your customer, or your market, or have some other negative consequenceIf the answer to any of these is "yes," then maybe going for the big sale is not the right activity at the present time.

Only wisdom can tell us if going for the big sale is the best action. And wisdom isn't always developed through experience. There are many experienced salespeople who have little wisdom, and many new salespeople who seem to have born with it.

Going after the big sale is a great idea- most of the time.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Some Talking Points About Talking Points

Some talking points about talking points:

> Talking points provide consistency. If every member of your sales team uses the same talking points, they will provide a consistent message to your market.

> Talking points cab help create a perceived reality. Telling every single shopper that your fall collection of cashmere sweaters is "the new generation of cashmere" will eventually allow your product to stand out from all the other now generic cashmere sweaters available from other retailers.

> People typically react badly if they feel like they're being fed talking points- unless the talking points have been designed to resibate with that individual (or individuals) that they're being fed to. In that case, people love talking points, and might even remember them or share them with others.

> Talking points can help inexperienced salespeople know what to say. Almost anybody who can't think for themselves (yet) can remember to recite five talking points.

>Talking points lose their maximum effectiveness when you present more than five of them.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Sales Organizations: How Do You Define a Win?

In sports, the goal is to win. Everyone knows what a win looks like in a sport because a win is so clearly defined. Either your team won or it didn't.

In business, managers need to define what a win looks like so employees know when they've won. Employees want and need to celebrate their wins, and managers must lead these individual and group celebrations. But before we can celebrate, we need to make certain our employees know when we've won, when we've come close, and when we haven't won.

A playbook is the roadmap to success (whether for a sports team's or a business). Managers need to ensure that playbooks are written, followed, and revised and followed and revised again. Without a playbook, people will expend huge amounts of energy going somewhere other than toward a win. Activity does not get results. Focused activity focused in the proper areas gets results, and the only way to focus your team is to make sure your team knows what to focus on. That's the role of a business or sales playbook.

Sales plans, training initiatives, policies, procedures, value statements, mission statements, organizational charts and systems are the elements of a business playbook. Great businesses figure out the plays first, and then go about doing business based upon those plays. Struggling businesses never get around to creating the playbook, and in doing so, create a sense of randomness or confusion which causes organizational inefficiency, employee dissatisfaction, lack of profitability, or worse.

If you want to maximize your effectiveness to perform strongly next quarter, spend time and effort now to create or tweak your sales playbook. It will tell your team how to get where you want them to go, and that's what creates a win. Get ready to celebrate!

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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When Selling, do You Make Ear Contact?

Everyone knows how important it is to make eye contact when selling face-to-face. Eyes, being the windows to the soul and all, are a powerful vehicle to connect with another human being. Since prospects are human beings, this works out to everybody's advantage.

But equally important as eye contact is ear contact. If eyes are the windows to the soul, than ears are the heartbeat of the soul.

Do you sell using your ears as much as your eyes? Are your ears a finely tuned instrument? Does listening play as important a role in your interactions with your prospects and customers as your eyesight? And your voice?

The next time you are interacting with a prospect in a face-to-face selling situation, pay attention to how well you use your hearing, listening for nuance in communication, listening for meanings rather than just words, and listening for unique speech patterns and your prospect's choices of words. All of the data your ears pick up can be used to better understand your prospect and his needs and buying requirements. And the next time you're speaking with your prospect on the phone, shut your eyes to shut of visual stimulation (or distraction) so you can zero in on the clues being presented to you aurally.

Eyes aren't overrated. But ears are underated in selling. What better way is there to engage your customers than by actually listening to them?

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Try Something New For a Change

After a while, the ebb and flow of our days becomes second nature to us and we are no longer fully aware of what we do or don't do during a customer interaction. Just like most human beings, salespeople become creatures of habit.

Habits can be good, like when we see a red light and automatically ease our foot on the brake. Or, they can be bad, like when we finish our customers' sentences for them because we already know what they're going to say. To keep yourself, your selling, and your perspective healthy, it's beneficial to shake things up once in a while. But because we're creatures of habit, we have to consciously seek new, different, and fresh ways of doing things.

When's the last time you checked in with a prospect or customer on the phone and said something fresh? Or interesting? Or do you always say the same thing, such as "I just wanted to check in with you after your visit to our showroom to see if you had any questions or to see if I could help in any way." Blah, blah, blah.

How am I supposed to feel good about dealing with you, Mr. Salesperson, when you don't help me along a little bit? I've been greeted a thousand times in a thousand retail stores in the same way. How interesting is that? I want to be surprised, delighted, intrigued, entertained. Show me something different. Or show the same old thing in a different way. Speak to me in a new language or with a new voice or from a different lectern.

Prospects and shoppers are bombarded with messages, most of it being meaningless drivel. What if, for just a day, you helped your prospects sort through the drivel and acted as a filter for them, instead of adding to the din. What if you were the protector from the drivel, instead of a contributor to it?

Set asude your brochures and your Powerpoints for a day. Really listen to your customers. Really notice what words are coming out of your mouth. Take note of your body language, your posture, your facial expressions. Today is a new day in the universe. Shouldn't we treat it like one?

  

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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