Secret #2:
In order to achieve above average sales results, one must first be open to thinking about above average sales techniques.

When I first started in sales, I remember being surprised that the training I attended did more to teach me to sound just like everyone else than teaching me to differentiate myself.

If you look around your company or industry, you will find that some sellers are more effective than others even though they are selling similar products to the same type of customers. It’s more likely that their success is the result of their approach than just relying on dumb luck or fortunate circumstance.

The most important business issue every sales manager faces today is the same: How can we duplicate the success of top performing salespeople? At some point, it all comes down to having a differentiable strategy and superior sales technique.

Executed properly, the act of closing a sale should end up being somewhat of an anticlimactic event. In today’s business environment, there are no magical closing phrases or sales tricks that you can use to force a prospective customer in to buy something they don’t really want.

Secret #145:
Success in selling hinges less on a salesperson’s ability to close and more on your ability to get prospects ready to be closed.

The trick is getting the opportunity “ready” to be closed, which means satisfying each of the prerequisite steps…including identifying a recognized need, proposing a viable solutions, justifying the cost, creating a sense of urgency, and you must be dealing with someone who has the authority to make a purchase decision.

Secret #87
Having an accurate read on your sales opportunities gives you a strategic advantage over the competition.

Most sellers have been conditioned to ask hopeful questions. Here are some examples of hopeful sales questions:

Seller:
“Would next Tuesday work for a conference call?”
“Does your boss like our proposal?”
“Are we still in good share to wrap the deal up by month-end?”

The problem is, hope-filled questions tend to cause people to share less information, that’s also less accurate. From my perspective, competent sales professionals aren’t afraid of hearing bad news. In fact, having a complete picture of the opportunity (good news and bad) increases your ability to address any outstanding issues and wrap up the sale.