Personal Selling Skills Part 1.
How bad are yours?
My personal sales skills suck. Last week, I managed to blow two contracts worth nearly £4K, no one else, it was me. We’d beaten the competition; both enquiries should have been a formality.
One enquiry was from a swimming pool manufacturer wanting an interactive multimedia CD, as part of a large mail out and the other was a printing company wanting to completely revamp their web site.
And my sales skills blow it.
Why? Because I haven’t even thought about selling for over 5 years. The calls came in, I took both of them and I made the following mistakes:
I was engrossed in a different client’s problem
I was barely listening to what they said, within seconds I knew what they needed, so I switched off
I even forgot one of the callers first names, I was so preoccupied
I was reading some data on a PC monitor whilst I was on the phone
I told them what they needed, rather than listen and explain what the options and subsequent benefits would be
I suck, big time. In 5 years I have become so engrossed in the ins and out of my profession that I have forgotten what selling is all about.
I have forgotten the golden rule.
“People buy what things can do for them -- they don’t buy a web site or some multimedia product, they buy what it will do for them.”
How is this going to help you in your next job interview? Remember the golden rule.
“People aren’t interested in you, they are interested in what you will do for them, if they employ you”.
Personal Selling Skills Part 2.
Refreshing Your Selling Skills - How I’ve made sure that mine improve:
Ok, so how is this going to help you that dreaded telephone interview? Before that call comes in ask yourself, are you ready to sell yourself?
Remind yourself of the sales tale:
A man walks into a shop and says to the assistant "a packet of gum please", he pays 35p and leaves.
What did the shop assistant sell him? The answer is nothing! He was going to buy the gum anyway.
So, what have I done about my seriously bad telephone sales skills? I went back to the beginning and reread all the material that I read 5 years ago. I’ve stuck a note on all the monitors, it says:
Pen and paper at the ready
Switch off monitor
Talk to the person not the monitor
Write down their name or memorise it
Write down their initial ideas, no matter how vague
Stand up, don’t slouch in an office chair
Remember I’m talking to a person not a telephone
Remember people are buying the benefits of what we do – not what we do
Listen to what they say, even if you can solve their problem instantly, listen.
Do these every time you answer the phone make it a habit!