Category Archives: Sales Techniques

Are you listening? Part 2

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In part 1 of my post, I shared with you two videos from sales experts on the importance of having good listening skills. Below are two more videos to help you.

Victor Antonio, a sales expert, and speaker says the key to successful selling is listening. By listening, you make the prospect feel good about him, and in turn, he wants to be around you more.

Here is his video –

Michael Kies, Real Estate Sales, Trainer, and Sales Coach, outlines 12 steps below on how to be a better listener.

Here is his video –

Are you listening? Part 1

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The greatest skill in selling isn’t talking – it’s listening.

Think about it. What do your prospects and clients like to do? Talk. They want to talk about their problems. You, on the other hand, would like to talk about your products and services. Well, that’s OK. But before you start talking, shouldn’t you listen first? I mean, rather than do a product dump, and tell everyone how great your products are, shouldn’t you first find out what the prospect actually wants? How are you going to do that?

By listening.

Below and in the next couple of posts are YouTube videos from experts on their take on how to be better listeners.

Gerry Layo, speaker, and sales coach argues that listening is a skill that you can learn. He makes the point that it’s the dialogue not monologue that will help you get sales.

Here is his video –

Dan Caramanico, author, and sales coach advises salespeople not to jump the gun when speaking to prospects.

Here is his video –

Good questions to ask during Trade Shows

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What is the best way to find good prospects during a trade show?

It all begins on the exhibit floor. When a prospect arrives at your booth, don’t treat him like a side of beef ready to be cooked.

Don’t treat attendees like they are a side of beef.

Instead, treat him like a human being. Your goal is to engage in a conversation with the prospect and determine his needs and interests. Remember, the prospect doesn’t care about your products, he only cares about his problems and how you can help him.

Some good opening questions are –

1). Why are you attending this trade show?

2). What do you hope to gain from attending this show?

3). Is there anything that catches your eye in our booth?

4). Can you tell me a little about what you do and some of the problems are you trying to solve at your company?

5). How is the show?

By asking some open-ended questions like the above, you can determine fairly quickly if you are dealing with a serious prospect, or just a sovereign hunter looking for swag. It also helps you create rapport.

Time is very critical at a show. You have to look at a trade show from the prospect’s point of view. There may be literary hundreds of booths for him to visit. He is spending most of his day walking from booth to booth listening to sales pitches and watching presentations. So you have to determine his needs and problems quickly, gain his interest, and most important of all, try to arrange a phone conference or meeting with him after the show. This is not the time to try to hard-sell the prospect. It is extremely rare that a prospect will make a buying decision on the spot. This is especially true if you are selling services or products with a long sales cycle.

As a general rule, the longer you speak to a prospect at a show, the better chance you will have to continue the conversation after the event. And if the prospect is asking you a lot of questions and showing interest, that’s definitely a good sign.

From your point of view, you will only work at your exhibit booth for two or three days max. On top of that, you will be taking some breaks or going to lunch. So you need to use your time wisely and try to engage with as many serious prospects as you can.

Finding good prospects at a trade show isn’t difficult. You just need to be patient, ask good qualifying questions, quickly establish rapport, and arrange an appointment after the show.

How to handle Price Objections, Part 3

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I hope you enjoyed the videos on how to overcome price objections in parts 1 and 2. What can we learn from the sales experts in those videos?

1). Price objections will always occur. It’s only natural that prospects will raise price concerns. We all do it. When you buy a car, a house, a computer, you always want to negotiate to obtain the lowest price possible or shop around for a better deal. As we all know, the internet has become a game-changer for many industries. It’s extremely easy for prospects to do their own research and find better offers. I’ve worked in industries where some competitors will cut their prices in half just to win over customers.

2). Sometimes they don’t tell you its the price. Prospects may not want to directly raise price concerns because they are embarrassed to tell you that. They may think that “hey, you’re a nice salesperson, so I’m going to be polite and give you another excuse.” The excuses could be “I have to think about it”, “I have to talk to my partner,” or “I need to review the information more.” Whatever the excuse, you need to dig deeper to find out what it is. Frankly, my experience has been that no matter what objection is raised, 99% of the time, it is the price.

money, and price objections3). Don’t get so defensive. When someone raises the price objection, don’t quickly jump to defend your price. Shut up and listen. Hear them out. As mentioned in some of the videos, it’s critical that you ask good questions and dig deeper. Sometimes prospects are just testing you to see how you would react if they raise the price objection. They may have already decided to buy from you, but they just want to see if you can offer them a slight discount or price break. Or maybe they want better terms or get a payment plan and pay a small interest on the payments.

4). Be prepared. As mentioned in some of the videos, be prepared for the price objection. Have some good answers ready. In fact, with price or any objections, you may want to start keeping index cards of all possible objections and have answers prepared when needed. If you are a newly hired salesperson, ask your colleagues or sales manager for advice on the best way to handle objections in your industry.

5). How to handle price objections. There is no right or wrong way to handle price objections. You have to deal with the objection on a case-by-case basis because you know your prospect better than anyone else. When I deal with price objections, I will sometimes ask “putting price aside for a minute, do you think our product or service is good and will meet your needs (or solve your problems)?” If the answer is yes, then I will remind them of the value that we offer, and point out the long-term cost savings in using the product or service.

For example, when I was selling tax research software, some of my clients would argue that they could get most of the information for free other websites. My answer – “Yes, that’s true. You could get a lot of free information from other places. However, as a tax preparer, you mentioned that time is critical for you, especially during tax season. With our tool, you could save yourself an enormous amount of time rather than jumping from one website to another. Don’t you agree?”

Another example – “You also mentioned Mr. Prospect that getting accurate and timely information was critical to you. When you go to free sites you get what you pay for. However, with a paid subscription from us, we have paid experts on staff whose sole purpose is to ensure that you receive the most accurate and up-to-date information possible. Is that important to you?”

Do you see my point? As mentioned in the videos, always remind the prospect of the value he’s receiving from you and his problems or pain points. Price is usually a smokescreen. The prospect wants to buy – he just needs you to convince him.

 

How to handle Price Objections, Part 2

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In part 1 of this post, I included three YouTube videos from sales experts on how they would handle price objections. Below are three more videos to help you.

Victor Antonio, from the Sellinger Group – Sales Coaching and Motivation, argues that customers are so focused on price that they don’t see how badly they need your service or product. Your goal as a salesperson is to create a sense of urgency. He also makes a very good point that using visuals is more effective when trying to convince prospects to buy from you.

Here is his video below –

Scott J. Vail, from The Customer Servant, argues that you need to empathize with clients when they raise price objections and that you need to stress the value of your service or product.

Here is his video below –

Chris Murray, author of The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club & Selling with Ease, offers his suggestion for handling price objection in his video below –

In part 3 of this post, I will offer my own suggestions and discuss the key takeaways about how to overcome price objections.

How to handle Price Objections, Part 1

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One of the most common objections salespeople hear is about price.

How would you handle price objections? Below I’ve collected some YouTube videos from leading sales experts on how they would handle this objection. I will summarize each video, and in my last post on the topic, I will offer some of my own suggestions and key takeaways from the videos.

Victor Holman, from Lifecycle Performance, outlined 7 suggestions to help you. His suggestions are – Ask thought-provoking questions, discount, change the package, explain your value added, argue your case from the buyer’s perspective, reassure the buyer and deal with the objection later.

Here is his video on YouTube –

Alan Gordon, from the Big Book of Sales, has an excellent two-part series on how to handle price objections. He makes a very good argument that price objections are really buying signals from the client. The client has already made up his mind that he wants to buy the product or service. The real question is does he buy it from you or your competitor. He also argues that it’s the job of your clients to raise price objections and that you need to be prepared with different strategies on how to handle them.

Here are parts 1 and 2 of his videos –