BEW: Business Expert Webinars – Knowing your buyer – The countdown is 4 days

A reminder that my first web-based sales training at Business Experts Webinar is this Wendesday!

CLICK HERE to find the first 6 trainings I am offering starting in June. Believe me, you will be hearing more about them as we get closer to the official date. Knowing your buyers, the first training will instantly help sales people improve their prospecting and negotiating skills.

Description:

This webinar will examine what triggers different types of buyers to make decisions. We will analyze what you can to maximize every situation by truly knowing your buyer. From innovator to excessive traditionalist, from discerning to dynamic, what do they want and how do you show it to them?

We will take a hard look at creating a relaxing environment that enables a greater likelihood of candid and beneficial communication. Join us as we clearly help you understand how to massage the buying process and then align your sales process.
For now remember, go to,

http://www.businessexpertwebinars.com?afflink=bewkarlgoldfield051008

Sales training: What do we really need to know about our products?

In every company there is that relatively successful sales rep that people joke knows nothing about their product. The people laughing are really confused since this person does not understand the inner workings of feature A and function B. However, if this person is a real sales person, when they tout ignorance, the comics are dead wrong. The person may not have a technical understanding of the product, but what they must possess to be successful in sales  is a clear understanding of how their product make a difference in the users life and why.

When working with your product or marketing team, whether it is a trainer, your CTO, or you, make sure you educate people on the why. The why is what sells, for at the end of the day, people rarely care about the how. As long as the how does not involve 8 year olds working in  sweat shops or some other horrific scenario, people just want to know how the things they use make a difference. Even price plays second fiddle to benefits in revenue, savings, productivity, and retention.

These are the things to train on when engaging in product discussions. If you are bringing in a new rep, share the unique value proposition and a high level overview of the features and functions that attribute to this value. If you are training current reps to a new version or upgrade, share with them the benefits to the customer that the changes offer. Avoid deep dives and too much competitive comparison. Competitive trainings should be completely separate and long after product education has had time to sink in.

When training on product, keep in mind that this is easily perceived as the dullest of trainings. Usually this is because some techie or marketing guru is sharing irrelevant content and going in many directions of how the ideas came to fruition. Nothing turns of a sales team faster. Sales teams want the why, even if they do not know it. I suggest that you do not spoon feed them the why, but make the engagement as interactive as possible. Get them laughing, and if the presenters lack this skill, it is your role as mediator/coach, to bring the levity to the room. Challenge the audience to uncover the value, get them communicating about the why, and it will leave the room and make it to the sale floor and sales meetings.

Finally, after every sales trainin, I like to send out quizzes a couple of days later. As with any non selling activity, cash prizes are always awarded to who gets the first perfect score, and the second, and the….

Brilliant: Sales Excellence stands alone!

In his post today on his blog Sales Excellence, Ian Brodie does such a great job at mentoring the young services company that I felt he would get this post all to himself. He shares an important concept in passive vs. active marketing. In his post, 3 Quick and Simple Steps to Improve Sales in Professional Services Firm, he shares with firms that cutting your budget on advertising and freeing up time for prospecting is a healthy way to increase sales. Read more here: http://www.lighthousebc.co.uk/blog/articles/3-simple-things-to-improve-sales-in-professional-services-firms.html

What I would like to add to the concepts shared in this fantastic post is why this method is so effective. Really there are two reasons this wil work:

1. Direct action and proactive targeted prospecting will generate leads in a quantifiable manner.  You can start to develop metrics and forecast what the prospecting will deliver. You cannot forecast an advertisement’s results.
2. There is a relationship with a prospect that is developed from the onset. If your professionals are the ones building the pipeline, the leads are more ikely to be valuable. They will cultivate them and once they have them as a client, the trust needed for a long term relationship is already there.

Ian really sheds some light on how less spending coupled with less demand will equate to more sales.

Get the free e-book from Top Sales Experts!

Now this one has me jumping through the roof! To be included in a book with the likes of Jill Konrath, John Farrington, and Jeb Blount, I am truly honored to join this group of stars!

As a reader of my blog you can be among the first to gain access to superb articles from fifty of the worlds leading sales gurus. Top Sales Experts (yes, I am one) just launched this quarters FREE E-book. Download this amazing 144 page compilation, click here now!

A complete collection of advice that will instantly challenge the way you are doing things today and increase your sales as soon as tomorrow. I am only half way through and have so much to think about I wish I could take tomorrow off. Instead I will apply what I have learned and make it a great day! Join me in my excitement and see what the leaders of the sales world are sharing!

By going to http://www.topsalesexperts.com/E-Book/registerE-Book.php and getting the free book, you are taking advantage of some of the greatest sales minds today. Again, I am honored to have my words surrounded by the all time greats. After you have read the e-book, post a comment and tell me about your favorite article.

Sales Training: Keeping a customer part 1 – Problems – how easy it is to be proactive

“But if we tell all of our customers about (INSERT SOMETHING THAT WENT WRONG), we will be needlessly upsetting the apple cart. Why not just let the people it effects contact us.”

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard a top ranking executive say something suprisingly similar to this. Worse, I watch sales reps shake in fear at the thought of sharing problems with customers. HEAR ME SCREAMING FROM THE ROOFTOPS! TREAT YOUR CUSTOMERS WITH RESPECT. Here is a thought, tell everyone when an issue arises and explain what you are doing to fix it.

BE PROACTIVE!!!

Send an e-mail, make phone calls, post it on your website, list it on the login screen of your service. and make sure everybody knows from you and not the irritation of discovering the issue for themselves. Some thoughts:

1. The people it effects will appreciate your candor and not have to go through the pain of disocvering the issue for themselves. They avoid wasted time trying to troubleshoot other things besides your problem. Best of all, they know you are working on it and did not have to go out of their way to notify you of the issue. Nothing is more irritating than calling someone about a problem and having them respond with, “We are aware of that.” Well, why did you not bother to tell me? While they might not be happy with the issu, at least they respect you as a business partner.
2. The people it does not effect will be grateful that you are so forthcoming and prepared. Why? Because if anything ever did come up that would cause them concern, they know you are the type to be up front and let them know. This is a tremedous advantage when looking at time. Now you have shown respect to someone who is not hampered by a problem.

When people are wooed by your competitors, the issues they had with your offering are not what gets them thinking about leaving. The way you handled an issue is what sticks in their mind. If you are a professional that shows the customer that you are looking out for them first and all else second, it will not be forgotten. A better price, a neat feature, they cannot succumb to these enticements, for the greatest benefit has already been delivered…trust.