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August 10 - August 31, 2015 20 Working World l WorkingWorld.com FEATURED ARTICLE by Anthony Caliendo S ales can be complicated! Whether you're a career sales professional or just starting your first sales job, being a good salesperson can be frustrating and complex. Different factors contribute to sales complexity: • Being able to find the right lucrative opportunity • Having access to the right resources • Selling the right product or service that appeals to businesses and consumers • Developing effective lead generating techniques • Learning how to navigate through a complex sale I've watched sales professionals expend an enormous amount of energy making sure all these aspects align so they achieve the success and income that they desire and deserve. One factor in achieving sales success that is the absolute most essential but most frequently ignored is the "human factor." The two most important and critical components to a successful sales process are you and your customer, no matter what you're selling. As humans, we have different personalities, tendencies, habits, quirks that can simplify or utterly complicate sales. At the end of the day, salespeople must recognize that when you strip away all of the other variables in the sales process, the two constants that will always dictate sales success or failure are who is selling and who is buying. Once you accept this fact, then sales suddenly becomes less complicated. Why? Because now sales is all about your desire to sell and their desire to buy. With literally thousands of different sales techniques and philosophies that salespeople attempt to master, we find ourselves using trial and error, sampling and tasting until we think we've mixed the right sales cocktail that will increase our closing ratios. However, as a sales leader, coach, and the Ultimate Sales Assassin, I know that the most effective sales techniques to produce results and achieve desired outcomes focus on the human factor and the emotions that drive desired behavior: • Make an impression • Make connections • Build relationships and build trust This requires that salespeople perfect the techniques that get you in front of your potential customer, make you likable and above all, persuasive. 5 TOP TECHNIQUES FOR MIXING A SUCCESSFUL SALES COCKTAIL 1. Sell Yourself. My one universal concept that never varies or waivers no matter if your sales business is B2C, B2B, retail, real estate, insurance, technology, securities or manufactured goods: selling is not about selling your product or service, it's about selling yourself. That doesn't mean that you don't need product knowledge or that you don't need to create value to influence the close. But consider this: having an A+ product with A+ product knowledge means nothing if you can't even advance to the presentation. First and foremost, you have to think of yourself as your product. What attracts consumers to a product? The packaging, its features, its price, its guarantees. Manufacturers design and market their goods with consumer appeal uppermost in their mind. As a sales person, you have to market yourself in the same manner. You are the manufacturer of your product: which is you. Dress for success, channel confidence and charisma from within, and attract your buyer to you. You have to make an impression. Be unique. Be distinctive. Be remembered or be forgotten. At trade shows, I'm known as The Suit. Even if the dress code is business Mixing the Perfect Sales Cocktail

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