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Selling skills articles
Are you the
winning kind of salesperson?
(OnTarget Mag. Vol 5, issue 2
2005)
You've heard of the good, the bad and the ugly. In sales, it's the
successful, the mediocre and the ne're-dowells. Not all people fit into a
pigeonhole. But I believe it's important to identify your characteristics so
you can improve them, as well as to understand what works. Take a look at the
types of salespeople below. You'll see yourself. You'll also see salespeople
like the ones you work with or compete with. Note: You may possess traits of
several characters.
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Selling skills articles
The Black Hole
(OnTarget Mag.
Vol 4, issue 9 2005)
Everyone knows that nothing escapes a black hole,
no feed back, no phone calls, no orders, and no visibility. This is the black
hole that yawns as you send off your proposal. All you can do is wait!
A recent experience illustrates. The customer seemed clear about the purpose
and was open to as much exploration as we were willing to conduct. It was a
relatively small opportunity however; we invested a little time to get a fair
understanding of the situation and needs. There was a clear budget and time
table for reaching a decision. The response close date was driven by the
holiday schedule of the people involved in the decision. One person returned
from their vacation as the other departed for his. As it happened, the
following week, I also took a holiday break. A week after my return, we
received a polite note explaining that they had selected someone else.
Cold calling. To cold call or not to
cold call
(OnTarget Mag. Vol 5, issue 1 2005)
If marketing is not
producing enough leads to achieve the target, cold calling in some form,
becomes a necessity. Field sales people won’t make cold calls! I hear this
statement or a variation on it from many managers. The reluctance seems to be
universal. Even people, who have become experts at it, soon shrink from the
duty if it ceases to be obligatory.
Selling to current
customers
(OnTarget Mag. Vol 4, issue 7 2005)
Sometimes we all
get so caught up in marketing our services to new customers that we forget
about the easiest sell. I find myself often dwelling on how to reach new
customers to broaden my customer base, when really that isn't always the best
path. When you stop to think about the real goals of your company, increasing
income is likely the highest. In most cases broadening your customer base is a
way to get to that goal and should not be the goal itself. In this article I
will show you the importance of marketing to your current and past
customers.
What's
wrong with but?
(OnTarget Mag. Vol 4, issue 6 2005)
Language is
one of the most important tools you have to influence someone. The most
successful salespeople and persuaders use positive, active sales language that
instills confidence in them and their capabilities. Here is one word that
you'll want to avoid using as much as possible when you are selling and
persuading.
The
Risk of Being A Yes-Man
(OnTarget Mag. Vol 4, issue 5 2005)
Sales
is all about negotiating. You are negotiating from the first word out of your
lips on a cold call, to the moment that you touch the contract with your
customer's wet signature on it. Whenever you are listening to a prospect tell
you about something that they want or complain about a problem that they want
you to help solve, do not be too quick to agree.
Only here for the
beer?
(Date published: 24 November 2004)
In recent years,
successful pharmaceutical and healthcare companies have increasingly taken a
smarter approach to cultivating business relationships. In parallel with many
other sectors, such organisations have long left behind the scattergun - or
'spray and pray' - approach of the '70s and '80s, in which any business was
seen as good business. [read
article]
The
resolution of conflict by mutual compromise: The 10 Rules of
Negotiation
(Date published: 05 March 2004)
In today's
increasingly competitive sales environment, an absence of negotiation - or
negotiation skills - is perhaps the single largest contributor to the lack of
success many sales people experience. The changing nature of the buyer/supplier
relationship in this increasingly challenging marketplace has begun to
necessitate the need for sales teams to become ultra sophisticated negotiators.
Of course good negotiation isn't about you winning and someone else losing. A
satisfactory outcome leaves both sides feeling that they haven't compromised
too much, given way when they didn't want to, felt threatened or unnecessarily
pressurised, or made sacrifices that they didn't want to. It is about reaching
a win-win situation. People now expect to negotiate and see the process as a
positive builder of relationships rather than a potential threat. [read
article]
Learn to visualise and
achieve your goals
(Date published: 05 March 2004)
It's that time
of year again folks, Christmas has gone and for most of us all that remains of
the food is the extra couple of inches on the waist! The start of a New Year is
often a reflective time for people when they look back on the year just gone
and set in place some different goals for the year ahead. Maybe you have
decided to give something up or start something new - whatever it is you want
the question is do you have a clear direction in mind for the new year? [read
article]
NLP
(Neuro-Linguistic Programming) - five steps to success
(Date published:
21 October 2002)
Have you ever considered how Olympic gold medal winners
achieve such a high level of performance? People like Steve Redgrave, Jason
Queally and Ian Thorpe are three such performers who have just won gold medals
in the Sydney Olympics. They will have used some NLP techniques for certain,
whether consciously or otherwise. So what is it they do and how can you model
these peak performers, taking the skills they use to greatly enhance your
performance in sales? In this article I will show you how. [read article]
Shall we Negotiate?
(Date
published: 04 January 2002)
Your success in selling pharmaceuticals is
really dependent on three factors. You need to acquire and demonstrate a high
level of disease area and product knowledge, you must be able to communicate
effectively with others both within and outside of your organisation and you
need to be determined and motivated to succeed. Negotiation or the ability to
get others to co-operate with you, forms a major part of the communication
element; indeed your skills within this area may make the difference between
mediocrity and excellence. The ability to negotiate is a core skill which is
becoming increasingly important as we develop relationships with newly emerging
NHS customers. [read
article]
Managing Your Time More
Effectively
(Date published: 04 January 2002)
Have you noticed
how incredibly busy everyone is these days? Customers, colleagues, competitors
– life is crammed full of activity. The things we want to do today, get
postponed until tomorrow and we wonder at the end of each day, just what
exactly we have achieved? Those of us who prefer to be organised and
well-planned find ourselves fire fighting and managing crises, whilst even
those of us who enjoy the stimulation of the last minute rush, begin to
experience excessive pressure. [read article]
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