Sales Training: Sales Tips - "How Do I Combat Price Objections?"

Salesmanship skills are extremely important in every given situation. What I want to talk to you about this week, are the benefits for those of you that are either in business for themselves, or are thinking about going into business for themselves. Whether that’s a true bricks and mortar business or becoming a commission based salesperson, it doesn’t matter, it’s all the same.

“Sell your products or services, not the price!”

See! All the smaller thinking guys will always put themselves in the bottom end of the market without even knowing it. Because they usually have a fear of one on one selling or negotiation situations. This means they’ve got to win their business on price only. Because they don’t have the ability to promote themselves as a person that’s totally believable and can instead put themselves across to people in a way that says “I’m offering you the very best price in the market place and that’s all that matters”. Rather than, “you should deal with me because I am someone you can trust, someone that you will enjoy doing business with and someone that will always supply you with the back up and support you deserve”.

The cheapest price in the marketplace, as most people are now aware, does not guarantee you value for money. To give you an example, say I pay $60 for a cheap no name DVD player which at the time seems like a bargain, right! What about if I told you that DVD player will break down after a thousand hours of use. What about the DVD player that has a great reputation, is well known for it’s high quality support and cost $90 instead of $60 and could give you 2000 hours of usage before it broke down. Which one do you think is the better deal?

This brings up a great point, and that is, you have to sell! You have to give the client all the facts and not just the figures, because that is what selling is all about. Can you now see why price is not the only factor and how it is your job to educate the buyer through salesmanship? Price really becomes irrelevant. Your selling the idea, your selling so many things, and don’t forget you’re also selling yourself.

So the better you are at selling and negotiating, the better the prices you will be able to command.

The point of this newsletter comes back to our motto of “Success Through Failure”, which stands for you not being afraid to go out there and give it a go. Make some mistakes, build your confidence up, enhance your selling and negotiation skills, and build a successful business. If you don’t, you will have to rely on winning on price alone, and that will be a long, painful journey.

Your mission for this week:

1. Find out everything that your product or service has that the competition doesn’t have. 2. Then, ask your existing customers what it is about your product or service that is appealing and what initially attracted them to you. 3. Find a way to promote your product or service in a way that makes it impossible for your competitors to compare it to, and this will help eliminate price comparisons. 4. Highlight all these facts to your potential customers. 5. Go and make lots of sales this week.

Ray Turnbull has extensive knowledge and experience in sales and negotiation accumulated and developed over a 4o year period. Ray Turnbull has been sharing sales tips and success secrets at his website http://www.successthroughfailure.com

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Seven Sales Skills You've Got to Have

The Art of Business: Seven Sales Skills You've Got to Have
Are your creative skills top-notch but your bottom line suffering? Here's how to convert prospects into paying clients.

(creativepro.com)
By Eric J. Adams, creativepro.com contributing editor
Wednesday, August 3, 2005

Few creative professionals are thrilled with the idea of sales, but needless to say, a little salesmanship from time to time makes the world go round. Consequently, every creative professional should learn the seven basic skills of sales, as outlined by Shamus Brown, sales consultant and creator of the Persuasive Selling Skills sales training course.

Here are Brown's pointers, reconfigured for the selling of creative services.

1. Learn how to qualify. You can't make a deal with someone who isn't in a position to make a decision, has no money to pay you, or needs different services than those you provide. It sounds simple, but many creative pros waste a lot of time chasing prospects before (and sometimes after) it's determined the prospects don't meet all three of the above criteria. Even before you pick up the phone, develop a list of qualifying criteria that prospects must meet before you invest your time with them. If you're not sure, don't be afraid to sprinkle your conversation with questions such as, "Are you the main decision maker?" and "Have funds been set aside for this project?"
2. Learn how to inspire. Creative professionals are like guitar players… they're a dime a dozen. Any good prospect will interview three to four creative firms before making a selection, particularly if they're looking for a long-term creative partner. Brown suggests you imagine that the prospect has a big "SO WHAT?" stamped on his or her forehead, and imagine that for everything you say, the prospect replies, "So what, why should I care?" Prospects care about solving their problems or how you can help make their business better. You'll stand out if you emphasize the benefits you can offer.

   Here's the golden key to inspiration: Prospects become motivated to work with you when you help them discover that you can solve their problem better than anyone else can. That means you have to prove to every client two things. No matter how brilliant you are, it's doubtful you'll get hired unless prospects feel like you understand the predicament they face. So first (and the sequence is important here), you must understand their problems and needs and convey that information back to them. Plan and ask questions to uncover and highlight those problems. Once you do that, then you can impress them with examples of your talent and creativity as it relates to their problems or challenges.

3. Learn to sell outside your comfort zone. It's important to speak your prospect's language even if it's not native to you. If your prospect is an analytical type, stay away from sweeping generalizations and back up your statements with statistics and proof. For many creative professionals, simply dealing with an authority figure can be uncomfortable. If that's the case, acknowledge the discomfort to yourself and consciously force yourself to speak as one professional to another. Rapport is the goal.
4. Learn to love voice mail. When prospecting, you can regard voicemail as your friend or your enemy. With 70% of your prospecting calls going to voicemail, it's time to make friends with it. Although you'll never get every voicemail returned, you can get a significant number of messages returned if you treat them as one-on-one commercials, says Brown. Prepare three to five separate benefit-focused voicemail messages that you can leave over a period of days or weeks for a single decision-maker before you give up. Each message should focus on a single customer-focused benefit. That way it seems like you're having a conversation, even if it's a bit one-sided at first.
5. Learn to be a great storyteller. It's ironic that in our digitized, wired world, the best persuasion is a great story. You can support the story with slides or a portfolio, but it's the drama in the story that will do the selling. Stories rich in descriptive detail let prospects picture themselves using your product and evoke that "I Gotta Have That" reaction, according to Brown. Study a few of your best customers and develop detailed customer success stories that will put emotional power into your presentations. Dramatize how you saved the day. Think Hollywood.
6. Learn the power of incremental commitments. When people imagine sales success, they often think of one big "YES!" But a complex sale is more often won on a series of many small "yes"s. "Can we set up an appointment?" "Can we talk about your needs?" "Can I work up a few rough ideas?" "Can I create a formal presentation?" "Can we get started?" By the time you get to this last question, the prospect has said "yes" several times, so it's much easier to say the important "yes" of all.
7. Learn to love the process. It's asking a lot, I know, but when you enjoy what you do, success seems to follow. Instead of rebelling against the selling process, see it as part of the creative communications process that ends with your finished work. If it helps to take the pressure off, focus instead on qualifying and motivating your prospects and don't even think about the signature on the contract.

The Power of Ps
There are hundreds of books on sales and sales strategy, and if you're game, they're worth a look. But selling is not rocket science: focus on the prospect's problems, and be patient, professional, positive, and -- above all -- persistent.

Read more by Eric J. Adams.

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Sales Training Is A Journey

Much to often I've seen many sales reps give up on sales training after their first couple of sales seminar they have attended, why?

I believe if you are serious in your sales profession (no matter what you sell, small ticket items or large ticket items) you should always, always, always update and polish your selling skills. There are always new selling skills to learn, pratice and use to help you boost your sales!

Imagine learning or finding out about 1 closing techinue that made the sales process that much easier to closing the deal! Or a new objection handling tactic that gets buyers to sign the contract! You should always be on the look out for sales training programs your company offers or sign up to an online sales training program.

I know of successful salesmen that earn $200,000 per year and they have always attended as much sales seminars and keep up to date with selling skills. I just wanted to remind everyone that your skills can always be updated and you can always learn new skills.... that will ultimately help you sell more!

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