A Revolutionary กNEWก Dimension in Sales

A Revolutionary กNEWก Dimension in Sales

by: Linda Blew Carlson

A Revolutionary กNEWก Dimension In Sales: Make many more closings in the same amount of time!

By Art Nelson and Linda Carlson

Phase I

Phase I: Learning the Product is the first thing Paul does as he begins his career in sales. This กnewbieก envisions three major factors that will determine his success or failure in sales. They are:

Knowledge of his product.

Knowledge of the benefits that it offers to his prospects.

How well he communicates that knowledge and benefits to his prospects.

Most salespeople don’t have a problem with product knowledge. The company usually spends plenty of time and money to assure the competence level of its sales force. So, Paul is fine at 1, 2, and since his mother said, กYou can sell an icebox to an Eskimo,ก he figures he will do well at 3.

The problem shows up when Paul (now on his own) tries to share this knowledge with his prospects. He finds that some prospects get really ‘turned onก by the product and its benefits; but there are other prospects that never seem to get interested or กunderstand.ก Talking to them is like ‘talking to brick walls.ก

He doesn’t understand why every prospect doesn’t insist on purchasing. He is warm and charming every time! It must be the way he closes. There has to be a secret he needs to discover.

Phase II

Upon realizing this, Paul enters Phase II of his career: The Search For Enlightenment. The great question of a salesmanกs life haunts him on his prospecting calls. In the face of obvious need, why doesn’t my prospect buy?

กHe needs this product. I qualified him carefully. Why can’t I close him?ก

So, Paul begins reading, listening to tapes, attending seminars, etc. for every gimmick that comes along promising the กSecret of Closing.ก

Phase III

After a season of this, he enters Phase III of his career: The Stasis Of Superstition.

Paul (like most sales people) is making 2 or 3 sales for ten presentations. But since he really doesn’t understand why he sells sometimes and sometimes doesn’t, he กfreezesก or กcansก his presentation. He is afraid to change it because he might mess up his success so, he plays the กnumbers game.ก

Paul falls into a pattern of expecting to close กjust so manyก sales. No amount of reading, listening to tapes, or taking sales seminars changes his pattern for long. He is hoping to keep enough prospects on the line that the ones he doesn’t sell won’t really matter. Heกll still be a กsuccessfulก salesman.

Phase IV

Before ICTech® (Individualized Communication Technology) most of us (salespeople) ended our career growth in Phase III. Now with the Natural Styles strategy used in ICTech® we can move into Phase IV: Natural Persuasion.

Knowing how the 5 styles are born to process information, allows the salesperson to tailor his presentation for the format most easily understood and agreed upon by the prospect.

It doesn’t matter how well you know your product or how smooth your presentation is. Until your prospect UNDERSTANDS your product and its applications for him you won’t close a sale.

Understanding the strategy lets you dispense with gimmicks and integrate all of your sales knowledge into a cohesive whole that you will automatically adjust in each new situation. This means more sales! And more satisfied customers!

How ICTech® works:

You’re a salesperson whose Natural Style is กSingle.ก What do you do with a กMultipleก style prospect?

Don’t bore her with too many details; give her the overview of the product and its effects on her. Be sure to ask her what this product could do for her or in some way let her think this whole thing is her idea.

The fastest way to lose this prospect is oversell too many details. You are ‘tellingก not กselling.ก

Now reverse the example. You’re a กMultipleก salesperson and your prospect is a กSingle.ก What do you do?

Don’t overpower him with too many examples or applications of the product. Let them apply to him. Again, กsellก don’t ‘tell.ก Concentrate on the strongest feature of your product and give as many details as possible.

Give him plenty of time to think; don’t rush him. The fastest way to lose this prospect is to appear too vague because you’re trying to give him an overview and he wants an explicit example.

Just a couple of simple examples, but Paul practices the simple strategies of ICTech® and it has made him one of his industryกs กhottestก sales people.

Many sales people who use ICTech® close 5 to 7 of ten presentations. What would happen for any salesperson who could cut through the mental baggage of a prospect and give a presentation with a 50% to 70% chance of closing?

Simple. Revolutionary!

Art Nelson is an entrepreneur and consultant in various areas of media organization. He found ICTech in a public workshop, and since has been learning more about it and applying it in his businesses Linda Blew Carlson, is President of FOCUS I, Inc. a company dedicated to supporting American businesses by helping them find innovative ways to individualize their service. Reach her at http://www.styleworks4u.com/pages/homepage.html or [email protected]

About The Author

Linda Blew Carlson, is GM of FOCUS II, LLC, a company dedicated to supporting businesses, families, and individuals by helping them find innovative ways to individualize their communications and strengthen each other. To become a part of this effort go to http://www.styleworks4u.com.

This article was posted on June 19, 2003

by Linda Blew Carlson

Sell Without Feeling Like A Used Car Salesman

Sell Without Feeling Like A Used Car Salesman

by: Julie Chance

Many business owners and professionals are appalled at the thought of having to sell their products or services. If you are going to be successful though, regardless of your profession, you are also going to be in the business of selling. But you don’t have to don a plaid jacket and adopt the sales techniques that have made the used car salesman infamous.

If we are uncomfortable ขsellingข our services, it is generally because we are trying to ขsellข before someone has reached the purchase stage of the buying process. While selling may never be the favorite part of your job, by implementing a systematic process you can move potential clients into the purchase phase and increase your comfort level and success with selling.

Imagine that you were in the market to purchase a big screen TV. You had visited a couple of stores to see what was available, done some research on the internet, talked with friends, and narrowed the choice down to 3 models. Now you have a few questions you need answered to help you make your decision. You go to the appliance superstore, a salesperson approaches you as you enter the department and asks if she can be of help. She asks you a few questions about where you plan to put it, your budget, and what the primary use will be. She answers your questions and helps you decide on the model that is best for you. Not only are you not put off by the salesperson, you would have been upset if there would not have been a salesperson to help you.

Contrast this with a situation where you are visiting an appliance superstore with a friend. You decide to go check out the big screen TVs because you’ve been thinking about getting one. The same salesperson approaches you and asks if she can help you. You say, ขNo thanks I’m just browsing.ข As if she hadn’t heard your reply, she starts asking you the same questions as in the scenario above. However, this time you find the questions annoying and the sales person pushy.

The difference in these two scenarios is simply your position in the buying process. How would it have been different if instead of insisting on asking you a series of questions she had simply given you an article reprint from Consumer Reports and a list of 10 questions to consider before purchasing a big screen TV with the store’s name, her name and telephone number at the bottom?

The process people go through in making a buying decision is:

Phase 1: Awareness and Knowledge

Phase 2: Liking and Preference

Phase 3: Conviction and Purchase

The only people you should try to sell your products or services to are those people in the conviction and purchase phase. The problem is many businesses do not implement the necessary steps to move prospective clients to Phase 3 so they are constantly trying to sell to prospects that are in Phase 1.

Think about it like this, you and your products or services are standing at the edge of a chasm on Mount Everest. I call it the Purchase Chasm™. Your potential customers are on the other side. Your job is to get those prospects to cross the chasm on a flimsy aluminum ladder, one step at a time and ultimately purchase your services. At this stage your objective is simply to get them to take that first step out onto the ladder, followed by another until they reach the ultimate decision to purchase. You don’t push, manipulate or cajole them into purchasing. You simply serve as a guide providing information and assistance through the process.

So how can you begin to move your potential customers across the Purchase Chasm™?

Step 1 Awareness and Knowledge: Before someone can purchase your product or service they must be aware of it. They must also be able to picture in their minds the problems the service will solve for them. And that picture must be enticing enough to motivate them to take that first step. At this phase your objective is to make your potential customers aware of your services and give them knowledge about the benefits they will gain from working with you. This is generally done through activities where you can reach a large number of people at one time. A major goal at this stage is to collect contact information so you can continue to provide information to help these prospective clients move across the Purchase Chasm™.

Step 2 Liking and Preference: Awareness alone is not enough. Potential customers must also have a positive disposition regarding your services. During this phase it is important to maintain consistent contact. Consistency builds credibility. You also want to let prospective clients ขsampleข your service in order to minimize the perceived risk of purchase. You can do this by sending out a regular newsletter (email or hardcopy); sending out a monthly tip related to the service you provide; offering free or low cost introductory trainings; participating in selected networking events on a regular basis; and offering teleclasses. The important thing is that you are consistently in contact with these potential clients. After all, you don’t want to leave them out on the middle of the ladder over a deep chasm without a guide.

Step 3 Conviction and Purchase: The final step in the process is getting those potential customers who have begun the journey across the chasm to actually make the decision to purchase. Now it is time to sell. And if you have developed a relationship with the potential client throughout their journey, this step should be as simple as reaching out to take their hand as they reach the end of the ladder, reassuring them they have made the right decision by embarking on the journey and asking when they would like to get started. At this point, it is critical that you ask them for their business. If you don’t, they will wonder why you had them take the journey. They’ll feel like the person in the appliance superstore who is ready to make a purchase and can’t find a salesperson.

It may take as many as five to 15 exposures to your product or service for a potential client to move through the process and cross the Purchase Chasm™ from lead to loyal customer. The key is to build those exposures so each one matches the level of the process where the potential customer currently is (i.e. direct mass media activities to potential customers in the awareness phase and use personal selling with prospects in the conviction and purchase phase).

Writing, speaking and networking are activities that many coaches and consultants enjoy. By systematically using these activities as marketing tools you reduce the time you actually have to spend selling, you focus your selling activities to people who are actually ready to buy, and it becomes a natural ending to the relationship building process.

© 2004 STRATEGIESBYDESIGN. May be reprinted with credits and contact information

About The Author

Julie Chance is president of StrategiesbyDesign, a Dallasbased firm that helps businesses from independent professionals to specialty retailers Map A Path to Success by bridging the Purchase Chasm™ from Lead to Loyal Customer. StrategiesbyDesign provides a unique combination of consulting, coaching and training to help clients improve the return on their investment in marketing and promotional activities. For more information or to signup for their marketing tips newsletter, go to www.strategiesbydesign.com or call 9727019311.

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 20

by Julie Chance

Disillusioned About Your Home Based Business?

Disillusioned About Your Home Based Business?

by: Glen Snethun

Do you sometimes feel like packing it in? Like you’ve made the wrong decision in starting a home based business? Feeling disillusioned? If the answer is yes, read on to find out where you are in your dissatisfaction cycle and how you can get out of it.

When many of us begin a new home based business or project, the ORIENTAION PHASE seems so exciting, doesn’t it? Even though we don’t know a whole bunch about what we’re exactly supposed to do and the amount of detail that we actually do is low, our energy is high. It’s kind of like starting to renovate…we are all excited at the beginning, we haven’t actually got into the nitty gritty and results are, of course, zero. To summarize the Orientation Phase, we could say: Energy = HIGH, Details = LOW, Results = NONE.

After one to five weeks, we might start to experience the DISSATISFACTION PHASE. There are lots of details to contend with. The more we come to know, the more we realize what we don’t know. It’s the old scenario of ripping up the carpet and finding the subfloor needs replacing and while we are at it, we should replace some drywall. Didn’t this renovation start out to be cosmetic? Our energy starts to wane. And still…the results are next to negligible or zero. To summarize the Dissatisfaction Phase, we could say:

Energy = LOW, Details = HIGH, Results = NONE.

Now, let’s stop here a moment. How many of you are stuck in Dissatisfaction in other areas of your life, e.g., your exercise program, your health, your relationship with your spouse? I bet you wish you could find a way to get beyond this neverending cycle you keep finding yourself in.

The key is support. The right support. Perhaps it’s a mentor, or additional education, or bringing in an outside contractor. Whatever it is, the correct and directed support will thrust us ahead into the RESOLUTION PHASE. In the resolution phase, we have ขresolvedข to get to the bottom of what is holding us back. We do whatever it takes! We pay our dues. Guess what happens then? Energy = HIGH, Details = HIGH, Results = SOME.

When the support kicks in and everything starts to move, we graduate into the PRODUCTION PHASE. All systems are go. Everyone is working together as they should, things are getting accomplished. The last coat of paint is going on. Energy = HIGH, Details = HIGH, Results = HIGH.

While we may have the same exercise program we started with (energy is low, details are high and results are nil), by engaging a trainer or a mentor, we have noticed our energy and enthusiasm about our exercise HIGH and the results HIGH as well.

The right support is critical to any endeavor. We are not created to go it alone. Build your support structures in each undertaking and seek to move into PRODUCTION as quickly as you can.

Copyright 2005 Glen Snethun

About The Author

Glen Snethun is a stock/options trader as well as a fulltime Internet Businessman, Author and Coach. Glen dedicates his time to showing others how to create multiple streams of income using the Internet.Get ideas from Glen at http://www.GlenSnethun.org

This article was posted on August 10

by Glen Snethun