|
Eye Contact at Closing
by Mark Hunter
When you're ready to close the sale, your eye contact should only
go in two places. Either looking at the item you're selling, which
may include the contract, or directly into the eyes of your customer.
Looking at anything else shows a sign of weakness and your customer
will notice. When you are verbally delivering your close and the price,
you need to make sure your eyes are squarely fixed on the eyes of
your customer.
If you can't give your customer eye contact when you're closing, how
do you expect your customer to believe in what you're selling? How
do you even expect you to believe in what you're selling? If you're
not confident enough to deliver eye contact at the moment of closing,
there is no way you'll ever achieve a high degree of success.
To overcome this problem, I recommend something that many people laugh
at, but at the same time, admit is extremely effective. Each morning,
look into a mirror and verbally state your price point 20 times while
looking at yourself. Again, it seems silly, I know. However, I have
had more salespeople over the years send me a note or call me and
tell me how, after they began doing this strange activity on a daily
basis, they've been able to dramatically increase their closing ratio.
Mark Hunter, "The Sales Hunter", is a sales expert
who speaks to thousands each year on how to increase their sales
profitability. For more information, to receive a free weekly email
sales tip, or to read his Sales Motivation Blog, visit www.TheSalesHunter.com.
Presenting to an ADD Generation
by Errol Greene
Statistics tell us that a majority of people suffer from at least
some level of Attention Deficit Disorder. That's strike one against
anyone tasked with presenting. If you're confident your PowerPoint
sales presentation is going to win you lots of new customers, consider
this: according to a College of Charleston study, average adult
retention from a lecture format presentation is about five percent.
In other words, 95 percent of what you say is forgotten within just
a few days, sometimes hours. The problem is that if that happens,
nothing else will, including a sale.
There is good news though. There are easy methods available to increase
retention. If you could get people to listen and remember what you
said after the fact, ideally during their decision process, your
close rate would increase dramatically. To help you do just that
remember: three's a charm!
A simple concept that many people don't comprehend is that the more
information given, the less will be remembered. The brain simply
becomes overwhelmed when it has too much to process. According to
memory studies, the optimal number for retention is three, an important
fact to remember in creating presentations. Limit your presentations
to the three most important concepts you wish to communicate to
your audience. By adding more, effectiveness suffers dramatically.
Need proof? Think of the things we can quickly rattle off in three's:
the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria; Winken, Blinken
and Nod; Curly, Moe and Larry. Now, think of something in fours
... exactly.
When writing your presentation, focus on the top three points you
need to convey, and at the end, summarize them again. By telling
your audience that, "If you only take away three things from
this presentation, these are what you need to leave with..."
the critical aspects of your message will be remembered, and retained,
when purchasing decisions are made later.
Errol Greene is a manufacturer's representative and consultant
for the mobile computing and software industry with over 20 years'
experience in IT sales and marketing. Founder of Green
Mobile Tech, Errol is available to speak on improving the quality
of sales presentations. Contact: Errol@GreenMobileTech.com
or call 770-476-7191.
Target Your Prospecting
by Kelley Robertson
A common mistake made by even the most seasoned sales professionals
is to use a shotgun approach when prospecting; in other words, trying
to target dozens or hundreds of different companies. In most cases,
this approach is not as effective as it used to be, especially in
today's challenging economy.
A more effective way to prospect is to create a list of 100 companies
that could benefit from your product, service, or solution. Once
this is completed, narrow your list to a maximum of two dozen organizations
and focus your prospecting efforts on that short list.
Carefully research each company and learn as much about them as
you can. Find out who the key decision-makers are and the names
of their executive assistants. Make contact with your prospect in
various ways: email, voice mail, fax, snail mail, and face-to-face
at conferences, trade shows, and networking events.
During each contact, demonstrate your expertise and knowledge of
their industry, potential business challenges and areas of opportunity.
Give them insights to improve their business or solve a particular
challenge. Do this on a regular basis: every 3-5 business days for
the first two-three weeks, weekly for the next month, every other
week for the following two months, and at least monthly after that.
If you discover that a particular company has no interest or need
for your offering, strike them off your list and replace them with
another company.
This is a challenging strategy which requires planning before you
can execute it. However, the results are typically much better because
you quickly differentiate yourself from your competition.
As President of The Robertson Training Group, Kelley has helped
thousands of professionals improve their business results with his
engaging approach to sales training and speaking. Learn more at
www.RobertsonTrainingGroup.com.
|
Advertise with SalesDog
Reach 33,000 sales and marketing professionals. For details
and rates, email
us or call 1-800-231-2340 (8:30–5:00 Pacific).
Trivia Question of the Week
What Great Lake state has more shoreline than the entire U.S. Atlantic seaboard?
Click here for the answer.
Sales Managers
Sign up your whole team
by clicking
here.
Not a Subscriber Yet?
If you'd like free sales advice, delivered to your inbox every
Tuesday morning – no strings attached – click
here to start your SalesDog.com subscription now!
Check out our Blog
For sales advice, news, recommendations and updates click
here. |
| |
 |
|
