51 Sales Tips E-Book

Raúl Sánchez Gilo

• Herausgeber: Raúl Sánchez Gilo
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

51 key advice and fundamental principles for selling more and succeed selling.
If you sell or want to sell, this book is for you. Turn your sales into extraordinary with hundreds of priceless concepts and essential advice for selling more.

A book 100% loaded with techniques for professional success and essential tips for selling, written from experience.

The second book in the "Salesman’s Thoughts" series, a series of sales books - independent but complementary - about fundamental and timeless concepts that will help you sell more and understand the keys to succeed selling.

Who this book is for: for new salespeople, entrepreneurs, start-ups, business owners, sales professionals needing a refresher, sales training, sales managers, sales teams, business students and anyone looking to increase their sales knowledge.
If you are looking for simple tricks for closing sales, this is not your book. No tricks or gimmicks, but rather the fundamental elements that any seller needs to know.

Among many other advice, it includes:

• The keys to modern selling, and how to help your client to buy.
• The keys and strategies to differentiate us from the competition.
• How to avoid competing only for price and sell for values.
• How to listen and ask your client better.
• How to sell more without lowering the price.
• How to overcome price objections.
• How to eliminate negative costs in the client's mind and go beyond price.
• How to optimize the customer and prospect experience.
• How to correctly qualify prospects and get quality clients.
• Keys to make advance your sales funnel.
• How to correctly develop your proposal.
• How to close more sales.

Readers opinion (from the original edition):
"A book that reminds us of the basics that have worked for so long."
Fantastic and Essential. An essential reading to understand the complicated world of sales. Recommended whether you are a salesperson or not. A reading that captivates you from the first page to the last, told in a simple and enjoyable format."
"A practical book to reflect on and deepen the sale, very well structured in commercial pills. People-based selling: relationship, trust and value."
“A highly recommended book. The book summarizes in a practical and easy-to-read way how to apply sales techniques to your real world.”

Each advice is a sales pill that will help you to sell more and better.
Click the buy button and start selling more today!

Leseprobe

51 SALES TIPS

KEYS TO SELL MORE

AND SUCCEED SELLING

(Salesman’s Thoughts 2)

Raúl Sánchez Gilo

All rights reserved

© Copyright 2018 by Raul Sanchez Gilo

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the owner of the intellectual property.

Cover design: Rosamaria Bertol Astasio

First edition in English, 2018

(Translated from the © Spanish edition 2018)

Acknowledgements

To all who have supported me,

and especially Rosamari, Betty and Lima.

Other books of the Author

Sell More and Better, Eternal Sales Techniques beyond Internet

Vender Más y Mejor, Técnicas de Venta Eternas más allá de Internet

51 Consejos de Ventas, Claves para Vender Más y Triunfar Vendiendo

https://allauthor.com/profile/raulsgilo/

INDEX

51 SALES TIPS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1: ON SELLING

Tip nº 1. Ten Sales Tips that weren’t Sales Tips

Tip nº 2. The Way of Excellence to Succeed Selling

Tip nº 3. The Trust in Sales

Tip nº 4. The Client is still the King

Tip nº 5. The Art and Science of Selling

Tip nº 6. The Importance of Knowing the Needs of your Clients

Tip nº 7. The “Secret” of Selling without Selling

CHAPTER 2: ON SALESPEOPLE

Tip nº 8. Logos, Pathos and Ethos

Tip nº 9. Some Mistakes of the Salespeople

Tip nº 10. Essential Skills of the Salespeople

Tip nº 11. The New Seller’s Perspective

CHAPTER 3: ON LISTENING AND ASKING

Tip nº 12. Listen to your Client

Tip nº 13. The Active Listening

Tip nº 14. Smart Questions

Tip nº 15. On Types of Questions

Tip nº 16. Try it, Ask your Clients

Tip nº 17. Try it, Ask your Clients (II)

Tip nº 18. Do not Argue with your Clients

Tip nº 19. The Non-verbal Communication

CHAPTER 4: ON THE COMPETITORS

Tip nº 20. Avoid Competing only for Price

Tip nº 21. Keys to Differentiate from the Competition

Tip nº 22. Keys to Differentiate from the Competition (II)

Tip nº 23. Competitive Benefits and Advantages

Tip nº 24. Customer Service as a Competitive Advantage

CHAPTER 5: ON THE PRICE

Tip nº 25. How to Sell More without Lowering the Price

Tip nº 26. The Price Objection

Tip nº 27. The Best Strategy to Price Objection

Tip nº 28. Tips and Ideas for Overcoming Price Objections (I)

Tip nº 29. Tips and Ideas for Overcoming Price Objections (II)

Tip nº 30. Beyond the Price (I)

Tip nº 31. Beyond the Price (II)

Tip nº 32. Beyond the Price (III)

Tip nº 33. Beyond the Price (IV)

CHAPTER 6: ABOUT THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Tip nº 34. About the Customer Experience

Tip nº 35. The Customer Experience (II) - the Perceived Value

Tip nº 36. The Customer Experience (III) - the Influence on the Brand

Tip nº 37. The Customer Experience (IV) - The Loyalty

Tip nº 38. Customer Experience Tools

Tip nº 39. The Prospect Experience

CHAPTER 7: ON PROSPECTING

Tip nº 40. Generating New Opportunities - Prospecting

Tip nº 41. Searching for Potential Clients

Tip nº 42. Importance of Opportunity and Prospect Qualification

Tip nº 43. Prospect Qualification – BANT Method

Tip nº 44. Beyond BANT

Tip nº 45. Initial Keys in the particular case of RFQ/RFP

CHAPTER 8: ON THE SALES PROCESS

Tip nº 46. The Sales Process

Tip nº 47. The Previous Preparation

Tip nº 48. Development of the Proposal

Tip nº 49. On the Objections

Tip nº 50. Keys to Remember in Any Negotiation

Tip nº 51. Considerations on the Closing

CHAPTER 9: THE VISIT OF CR

Author’s Note

PROLOGUE

Thank you very much for purchasing this book. These 51 Sales Tips are sure to inspire and motivate you in your profession. But you don’t just have to read them. You have to make them your own and act accordingly. Only then you will be able to sell more and succeed selling. Some will be more useful to you than others for your particular case. Some will change the way you think about selling. But everyone will help you to fulfill your dreams and personal goals.

In this regard, I like to think that these lists of tips are like commercial pills, small doses of medicine to improve the disease of bad sales. As such, they should be taken continuously and repeated as often as necessary. Of course, without choking.

Second book of the Salesman’s Thoughts series

This is the second book of the “Salesman’s Thoughts” series, a series of ideas, concepts and thoughts that will help you sell and understand the fundamental and timeless concepts to succeed in your profession, whether you are a professional salesperson or a sales manager, a CEO, an entrepreneur or you have a relationship with the entrepreneurial and business world. At the end, we’re all salespeople.

It is necessary to clarify that it is not a series in the style of fiction sagas where the plot remains unfinished from one book to another, but that they are independent books, although they complement each other and share several common concepts.

Some advice insists on concepts discussed in the first book of the series, as it could not be otherwise (“Sell More and Better, Eternal Sales Techniques beyond Internet”, which I will cite from here on as “Smab” to shorten), ideas that, due to lack of space, needed to be expanded and nuanced.

It also includes, with modifications and further explanation, some of my most popular publications and articles in social networks and blogs, which seek by this means a greater exposure and permanence than the temporary one they had in their day.

Many other sales tips, most of them, are unpublished, trying with all of them to deal with a great variety of issues and sales topics of great application in the current and future business world. In any case, all of them respond to the same sales philosophy, which is the one I want to share.

Stop fighting and your client will thank you

I don’t believe in ready-made recipes for selling, nor in the need to learn phrases, question types, models of answers and counter-answers, nor in the many so-called sales tricks that have become so widespread in many manuals on the subject. In these practices, what prevailed was the seller’s interest in selling at all costs, based on predefined conversational traps, where the client/seller duality was considered as that of a battle, as a game of hunting or fishing where the prey was the client.

In every battle there are winners and losers; winning a battle does not mean winning the war, and doing an operation does not mean winning a client. Old practices may be useful in some cases, but nowadays they are not enough. Stop fighting and your client will thank you...

You can learn to sell with tricks, but you will always find new situations for which there is no script, unless you understand how to sell more through the real balance between products, sellers and customers, the one that looks to the long term and is not only based on optimizing customer satisfaction, but also aims to obtain and strengthen their loyalty.

The current paradigm has completely changed. The main focus is on the client and in our relationship with them, a relationship that is based on trust and above all on providing value, on giving to receive. The client is the king, we’ve given them all the power and they don’t want to lose it.

In line with the above, this book of sales tips aims to provide that necessary additional value and to offer the salesperson, the entrepreneur and anyone else involved in the business world, a series of concepts, ideas, experiences, inspiration, motivation and also own beliefs, which will help them to be more successful in their profession, in their company and with their business. Beliefs that are the result of my years of experience as a salesman, and that have led me to discover what works and what does not.

My personal experience

I have visited over 30 countries, and have sold high-tech products in over 60, including the organization and delivery of multiple seminars, conferences, presentations, customer and distributor trainings, sales meetings, countless trade shows, etc.

As a director and sales coordinator I have been involved in B2B industrial sales, as well as in B2C sales. I have been a distributor and have been on the other side of the table, helping distributors grow in their market. I have opened new markets, new countries, looking for representatives, evaluating them, training them and giving them all the necessary support and assistance to maximize sales in each area.

This necessarily involved maintaining and improving the business relationship with these distributors and customers, keeping a constant search for new ways to grow together in the market and also developing a close cooperation, which leads to getting to know the people behind the jobs, to understand their motivations, their day-to-day problems, and ultimately, to always look for the best way to meet both the needs of representatives and their end clients.

The variety of cultures, customs, ways of doing business, as well as the multitude of people you meet and learn from, lead you to seek common values that can be applicable to all situations, to understand the hidden truths behind each experience, positive or negative, and to learn from mistakes and successes.

In this search, these beliefs have become values, not absolute truths, but they have proven their effectiveness in the world of sales, and will continue to do so, as many of them are eternal, universal concepts that will always be applicable to any field, any industry and at any level.

Then you contrast those values with the trends and concepts in vogue that the experts and sales gurus advocate, and you realize that behind the fashions and high-sounding names that pretend to be novelties in the world of sales, there are always a series of sales techniques and eternal concepts that we should not forget, and that are the necessary basis for not only improving our commercial understanding but also that of human nature. It is also necessary to highlight the importance of having a concrete sales process, not only to sell more, but also to improve it by being able to analyze where and why we have not been successful. That is precisely why the last two chapters are dedicated to important stages of this process.

Objective of the book

Even if you find in this book just one valuable advice for you, I will have fulfilled my objective, which is to help all the professionals involved in the commercial, business and sales world to be more successful in their jobs. I am not only referring from a labour perspective but also from a personal one, because many of the advice are related with the part of humanity that we are somehow losing lately with the rise of new and multiple technologies. In today’s complex business and sales world, we must vindicate the human side of selling and the social aspect that sales have always had.

Precisely, it is this client/salesperson duality that must be broken. We are human, persons, and that is what we must not forget when selling. However, we must not go crazy and forget the business part either. It is not a matter of forgetting to sell, but of selling differently and more effectively.

Therefore, although one may think that many of the tips in the book refer to the B2B environment, most of them are also applicable to B2C, where this paradigm shift is also taking place. Brands today do not want to win customers, but to conquer their hearts, and in the midst of all this noise, excess information and advertising bombing, the competitive difference is made by people and ultimately the sales based on trust and human relations.

I have not classified the tips under any strict logic, although they are listed by similar topics that I have grouped in chapters. It is not necessary to follow an obligatory reading order, it is also possible to jump from one to the other, but it is advisable the indicated by the index.

On the other hand, I wanted to start each tip with one or more quotes by great wise men, some classical and others modern, who continue to inspire us, encourage us to reflect on them and enrich each advice itself. I hope, reader, that you also find them interesting.

Each of the tips on the list can be, and indeed are, objects in themselves of many other books, and in that sense I hope they also serve to motivate the curious reader to delve deeper into any of them.

I have tried to make them brief, and thus be able to complete the list of 51 in a reasonable number of pages, easy to read and understand. It is not a step-by-step guide, nor does it pretend to be a sales bible, since there is no such thing that responds to everything, neither of this nor of any other matter.

Go ahead, reader, start the medication, each tip is a pill that will help you sell more and succeed selling. You don’t need a medical prescription, just the motivation to improve yourself and grow professionally and personally, which is what it’s about as well.

CHAPTER 1: ON SELLING

Tip nº 1. Ten Sales Tips that weren’t Sales Tips

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

Serendipity is discovering something valuable and unexpected accidentally, discovering it when you are looking for something different, a lucky find. Interestingly, the word has its origin in a traditional Persian tale called “The Three Princes of Serendip”, in which the protagonists, princes from Serendip Island, the ancient Persian name of present-day Sri Lanka, solved their problems through coincidences.

Without being a prince, this serendipity found me that day in the following way:

I was waiting for someone in an old school which no longer worked as such for many years. I was thinking about my things, including this book, and looking for a place to sit when casually, or causally, I saw an old sign on the wall that caught my eye. It was probably there for decades, and possibly it will be many more, as the site did not seem like it would be reformed shortly. But it had stood the passage of time, and even though it wasn’t so bright anymore, it still held a kind of magical light that encouraged such serendipity. Its title was “The Welcome Decalogue”, a list of advice written by a deceased former local bishop, supposedly to better welcome any visitors, people in need, relatives, etc., and that once illuminated the minds of the students with the following tips:

The Welcome Decalogue

Each person is a gift, here, now and always.

To facilitate the meeting is to get it right.

To welcome is to start well.

Smile is the best therapy.

Listen to the end is the best welcome.

I make your needs my own.

Everything human interests me.

Eye contact is our friendly lifestyle.

Welcome to the house of my heart.

Thanks for coming, thanks for being here.

Casually, or causally, it seems like a modern list of tips from any customer service and support expert, or keys to improving the much-named customer experience. Reread each of the tips from that perspective, substitute person by customer and you tell me whether they are wise and appropriate sales tips or not.

They are very appropriate for any salesperson, especially when attending or receiving a client’s visit. Sure they are not all that should be, but I’m sure all of them are.

In fact, it refers to several of the timeless principles that will appear in this book and that are necessary to keep in mind to be successful selling, among others, such as: understanding the customer’s needs, not forgetting the human and personal side, the importance of listening to sell, addressing the customer’s heart, the key of the sincerity and trust in sales, making easy and pleasant the customer experience from the beginning, connecting with the customers and thanking them for choosing us.

The old is the new, and the new is the old … Welcome your customers. This is your serendipity of today, and it’s not a tale. Always remember this Decalogue and welcome your customers. They are the most important part of your business.

Tip nº 2. The Way of Excellence to Succeed Selling

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” (Aristotle)

There are many features and skills that are required of the salesperson, but apart from these, there are certain routines that are obvious but essential to being a successful seller, regardless of the product and the company. Therefore, it is important that we list them, understand them and make them our own:

Wanting to help clients

: we must ask ourselves at all times what is the best way to help our customers and ask them too. This genuine attitude of wanting to help will be one of the biggest drivers of the seller’s success. This attitude will be recognized and rewarded by the clients, as it will generate the necessary trust to commit to the salesperson and to become loyal customers to the brand, product or service (see also tip nº 7, the Secret of Selling without Selling).

Sell value, value and more value

: we must never stop selling value, we will never tire of repeating it. We must always go beyond price and discounts. Regarding them, do not rely on a possible final discount to close a deal. In that way we mislead clients, accustoming them to that routine that does not add value but reduces it (see chapter 3, On the Price).

Generate new opportunities

: the salesperson should never forget to prospect and create new opportunities, do not get stuck in the existing ones. For this, it is important to set aside working time for this task, and not to stop doing it even if it does not produce immediate results. The opportunities must be generated, not just expected. This means that a large part of the daily or weekly plan must be aimed at prospecting, looking for new clients and projects (see chapter 4, On Prospecting). Don’t forget that one of the best ways to find them is to ask current customers, especially to satisfied customers, who can give us references for other potential customers.

Wanting to create relationships

: we buy from people we like, whom we get on well, whom we have some understanding, have good relationship, respect and trust. It’s all about creating a good and genuine relationship with the customer, having that attitude, following it and getting it. If you get the customer’s trust, you get the customer. And the competition will not be able to do anything against this (see also tip nº 3, the Trust in Sales). The excellent salesperson mainly seeks to create that relationship with his clients, who in turn will bring other clients, recommended by those clients thanks to the relationship and building of trust.

Follow a long-term plan

: any plan, even a bad one, is better than no plan at all. We need to establish a way forward, a plan for day-to-day activities. You can deviate from it by the daily events, urgencies and unexpected issues that arise, but always with the awareness of returning to the established plan as soon as possible and knowing at all times what the planned process is. This means having a day-to-day control, and knowing when you have not fulfilled the plan and what actions you should take to follow through in the following days. But targets aren’t just daily targets. It is important to comply with them, we have said that it is essential to be consistent and have a day-to-day plan, but we must not lose the long-term perspective, the monthly and/or annual objectives, which makes these goals more attainable and also reduces pressure and anxiety. You must keep in mind that there are and there will be bad days, ups and downs, but the optimism we mention below, together with an awareness of long-term objectives, will allow us to overcome all the obstacles. The salesperson must have vision and perspective of the future, and in that sense he should start from his annual target and not only look at the results of a week, knowing that it is more important the constancy and results maintained throughout a longer period of time than the ups and downs of the day to day (see also chapter 8, On the Sales Process).

Constancy

: constancy, constancy, constancy, I will not tire of repeating it either. The objectives are not met in a day or two, it’s a long-distance race. It takes discipline. There is no need to stop, there is no need to keep celebrating your day-to-day successes, nor regretting your failures. Whatever happens, good or bad, don’t stop and what matters is constant effort, perseverance and keep working, which is also closely related to the previous point of always having a plan to follow.

Prioritize

: we must focus on the hottest opportunities, where closing is most likely. There are customers who are still studying your solution, they are not ready yet to make a decision and it is not convenient to force it, although we must not lose sight of them and should be followed, but we must always prioritize the opportunities that are closer to their resolution. On the other hand, some clients take more time, others less, but you should not miss one because someone else calls or because distractions or emergencies arise. Don’t leave things half done, nor the client. Each client should feel like he is the only client, regardless of whether the seller later assigns priorities in private, but always, always, everyone should feel heard and valued (see chapter 7, On Prospecting).

Approach

: related to the above and also to the famous Pareto principle, it is necessary to focus our efforts on what gives us the best results, to look for that 20% of causes or actions that produce 80% of our results. In short, to select where and how we target, which customers have more potential and which are not worth losing a lot of time. This does not mean that we do not attend all clients, but we do have to stablish priorities and focus our work on the real objectives (see tip nº 42, the Importance of Opportunity and Prospect Qualification).

Optimism

: this is not only a necessary attitude for the seller himself, but also for the client, who sees and feels it; it is reflected in the relationship with them and mainly in the complaints or claims that are also opportunities and not just problems. Complaints are great opportunities to build customer loyalty through our good service. The ability to solve problems requires this optimism and positivism in order to finding the right solutions (see also tip nº 24, Customer Service as a Competitive Advantage). Optimism is also essential in everyday life, to overcome daily refusals and obstacles, optimism that is one of the keys to success. An optimistic salesperson sells more. Much better if he is also a happy seller, since this is reflected in the client and he will convey that optimism and happiness that our clients also need and seek.

Learning from mistakes

: sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but you always learn. This means that by learning from these mistakes we try not to repeat them again. But you have to be humble and recognize them, and at the same time to have vision to detect them, because many times they are mistakes that we are not informed about, or the clients do not tell us about them, unless we ask them, and therefore it is also essential to seek excellence by searching for and preventing the mistakes that can occur. This is also closely related to the analysis of which actions give us the most results and which do not, to monitor our work and adjust those ineffective jobs, optimize processes and make as few mistakes as posible (see also tip nº 46, The Sales Process).

Disconnect

: it is not productive to work to exhaustion, in fact it is counterproductive. It is necessary to rest, disconnect when necessary from work, relax, have our time and get enough sleep.

All this will increase our productivity.

Always look at our product or business from the customer’s point of view

: why do we sell differently than how we buy? Put yourself in the customer’s shoes, and think how they like to buy. Look at your business and your product from the eyes of your customer, put yourself in their place, have empathy and really understand what they need (see also tip nº6, the Importance of Knowing the Needs of your Clients).

Training

: the excellent salesperson must be constantly in training mode. The market and your customers so require it. You must have a routine and concern for learning, for continually improving the way you help your clients, for being an expert in your field and for being curious not only about your market but also about everything around you, a genuine desire to know and grow as a person and as a professional (see also chapter 9: The Visit of CR)

Competitiveness

: which is related with the desire to improve and grow from the previous point as well as with the optimism necessary to be better than the competition, with the also mentioned constancy and with the ability to fight daily, self-confidence and proactivity. The excellent salesperson enjoys competing, has fun selling, and this is reflected in his or her daily routine (see also chapter 4: On Competition)