As you try to determine which sales prospects to pursue and which ones you should continue to invest time in, it can help to have clarity around which ones are likely to purchase from you. Your time is very valuable, and you need to protect it from being wasted on poor-quality sales prospects. To improve your ability [...]
One of the most potent sales tactics is the sales takeaway. This refers to the sales tactic of taking away what you are trying to sell to either motivate the prospect to move forward or fully disqualify them and move on. While this is a great sales tactic, it is critical to use it only [...]
One of the most essential elements to include in a new sales hire onboarding process is a step for sales role-play. This would consist of practicing sales scenarios before a sales hire is put into action. Decrease the Amount of Learning Through Trial and Error There is no way to teach a new sales hire [...]
In a previous blog post, we discussed how to use soft closing questions. There are also times when you will want to be more direct and hard close a sales prospect. Here are some examples of hard closing questions and some explanations for each closing question. Are you ready to move forward to the next [...]
If you were to ask a group of salespeople what the one thing they wanted to be better at was, in many cases, most would answer that they would like to be better at closing sales prospects. This is understandable because closing the sale is actually the most important step and what directly leads to [...]
There are many different opinions about whether or not someone can truly develop selling skills. Many believe that salespeople are born and that you either have the natural ability or you don’t. I personally don’t agree with that. I see selling as a skill that can be developed and improved regardless of your personality or [...]
We currently live in a very narcissistic world today. If you are ever on social media, you will notice a steady flow of selfies and status updates that are solely centered around what the person posting is doing, has received, achieved, etc. The Problem with this Behavior The interesting thing is that what motivates this [...]
In the cult classic sales movie Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin’s character outlines a sales process using the acronym A-I-D-A. While the movie is quite entertaining, this scene reminds me of many things I feel are missing from sales processes and the techniques taught to salespeople. Here is a quick breakdown of those. Missing Item #1 - [...]
One of the most common sales role-play exercises you will see in training programs or interviews is where the request is made to sell a pen. If you have ever seen someone try to do this, most of the time, they will not handle the test well. In this post, we will explain exactly how to [...]
While working at a software company in my first sales role, I attended a workshop on the Sandler Sales Methodology. This was actually one of the first real sales training programs I went through during my sales career, and I loved it. Here is a quick review and summary of what I liked about their [...]