Neuro-Linguistic Programming

There a lot of people in the NLP world, and a lot of hocus-pocus claims. In the real world, it’s not magic that works magic, but observation and thought.

One of the most powerful preferences that individual prospects have  are for one dominant mode of communications: visual, auditory or kinesthetic.  Exceptional sales people know how to observe the preferred mode for clients and advance ideas and sales.  Tim and Steven look at techniques to help you classify and turn communications preferences to your benefit.

Make it a Metric Driven Introduction

New sales people are not trained, but that first day on the job is an opportunity to get them into a metric driven environment – calling on leads that are cold or unknown accounts. Building confidence begins with getting the story down about your company and products.  New sales people are happier knowing what motivates their customers.  Exceptional sales people know how to manage new hires, push them into metrics driven work and knowing that they are going to be measured each day. Tim and Steven look at techniques that will make your new hires productive and engaged.

Universal Techniques – With a Tailored Approach

Most of the sales principles and techniques that effective sales people use work across geographic boundaries. But the fast paced American style and informality can quickly get in your way – or even torpedo a deal in a few seconds. Exceptional sales people know how to manage their approach, adapt to the culture of an account, and communicate. Tim and Steven look at techniques that will make your sales skills effective world wide.

Managing Upwards – Your Sales Manager Lifeline

If you have just started that job, your first five days as a new Sales Manager are critical. And you have to realize that your sales manager is your lifeline – so managing up is just as critical as managing your direct reports. You were probably an exceptional performer, but you can’t manage and sell everything for everyone else. You’ll be tempted to move to your comfort zone, but you must resist that temptation.  Exceptional sales people know how to manage a pipeline of replacements, and communicate. Tim and Steven look at the impact that managing and planning  have on your performance as a new sales manager.

When and Why to Close -

Are you losing to competition or losing to no decision ? No decision means you did not qualify properly and are in the deal too long. But if you are losing to competition, you are losing because of poor closing skills. Sales people are very comfortable in the middle of the sales process. Not prospecting or closing, but in the middle of meetings, proposals, and updates.  Closes never “just happen”.   Tim and Steven, look at the impact that knowing when to close effectively will have on your sales performance.

Hashtags are the Key to Using This Free Tool

Twitter is all about becoming an informational resource for your clients – not pitching product, but building credibility.  There’s a lot of work in an effective outbound campaign that most salespeople cannot support.  The value on Twitter to the salesperson is not the outbound, but the inbound. The Twitter  hashtag (#) allows you to connect with customers, getting specialized news from clients and prospects.  Tim and Steven, along with special guest Courtney Wallin look at the impact that knowing how to use social media effectively will have on your sales performance.

Stories:  How to Use them to Defuse Situations

Stories about speeds and feeds – the wonderful fact about your products and company are comfortable for sales people. And generally irrelevant to customers.

People don’t change unless they want to acheive a goal or avoid a problem. They have to connect emotionally, and product features, speeds, and feeds are not going to get there. The product is in the mind of the client.

Tim introduces the technique called triangulation – a technique to handle objections by telling stories about how other clients were able to use your product.

Exceptional sales people know how to make a prospect feel that they can set aside a negative situation. Tim and Steven look at the impact that knowing how to tell stories that offer something of value will have on your sales performance.

Exciting Tales with a Purpose

Stories must be exciting tales of how your helped others solve similar problems in a convincing way. And the real secret is leveraging the power of your best customers – CASE STUDIES . Make it real. Talk about what you know that your company has done well.  Exceptional sales people know how to make a prospect feel that they can get special access to thought leaders. Tim and Steven look at the impact that knowing how to tell stories that offer something of value will have on your sales performance.

Save Something for Them

You’ve got to figure out their personal value in addition to the business value of your product. The CPM – Certified Purchasing Manager – is trained to insure that the emotional value of the sale is discounted to zero. Of course elsewhere you are selling directly to emotion.  Exceptional sales people find ways to emphasize value, and have a plan.  You have to understand the process and make sure that your champion- who is selling for you when you are not there. Tim and Steven look at the impact that knowing your walk away point will have on your sales performance.

Getting Good at Basics

Research, prospecting, and calling high in the organization are keys that really good sales people use – and in a down economy disciplined approaches are required.  Exceptional sales people find ways to be interesting and valuable at the Executive level. You are not selling at that level, you are competing at that level – for attention, ongoing communications, and recommendation. Tim and Steven look at the impact that working on your network will have on your sales performance.