Need Sales Help

Hey folks,

So I recently took a sales position and while I do have plenty of sales experience this job is higher stakes and higher pressure than I’m used to. Anyone have any advice for reading, listening, or anything else that you think would help? Part of working there is that I spend at least 10 hours a week working on stuff like this so I’m looking for some stuff to work with.

Thanks folks.

STU

[quote]Sturat wrote:
Hey folks,

So I recently took a sales position and while I do have plenty of sales experience this job is higher stakes and higher pressure than I’m used to. Anyone have any advice for reading, listening, or anything else that you think would help? Part of working there is that I spend at least 10 hours a week working on stuff like this so I’m looking for some stuff to work with.

Thanks folks.

STU[/quote]

10 hours on stuff like what? And what do you sell? High pressure as in quotas or you are expected to pressure prospects to buy immediately? In general look in to Brian Tracey and John C. Maxwell.

[quote]angry chicken wrote:

[quote]Sturat wrote:
Hey folks,

So I recently took a sales position and while I do have plenty of sales experience this job is higher stakes and higher pressure than I’m used to. Anyone have any advice for reading, listening, or anything else that you think would help? Part of working there is that I spend at least 10 hours a week working on stuff like this so I’m looking for some stuff to work with.

Thanks folks.

STU[/quote]

[/quote]

I agree. Of course, I was a Sandler trainer for a period of time :slight_smile:

Hello, sturat? It sounds like you have three qualified people happy to help?

The sales job is in a jewellery store, basically we have sales goals we have to hit week to week along with close percentages.

I’ll look into the sandler stuff for sure.

The good news is that I don’t have to generate my own leads, while I’m certainly welcome to I’m not required to bring people into the store. Bascially it’s selling the people who walk through the door and then being a pestering phone monster toward anyone who didn’t buy.

Retail shouldn’t take much dude.

Just settle in and let the nervousness of a new job fade out.

Marketing and an existing reputation do the hard sell for you.

If you get to call people though, make sure to keep up with clients every now and then. Maybe build a spread sheet where you can keep notes on people. As you build rapport notate b-days, fav sports teams et cetera. Send b-day cards, call occassionally just to say hello (don’t mention business) and every now and then ask for referrals. You will get referalls by staying relevent this way when you ask and when you don’t.

[quote]HoustonGuy wrote:
Retail shouldn’t take much dude.

Just settle in and let the nervousness of a new job fade out.

Marketing and an existing reputation do the hard sell for you.

If you get to call people though, make sure to keep up with clients every now and then. Maybe build a spread sheet where you can keep notes on people. As you build rapport notate b-days, fav sports teams et cetera. Send b-day cards, call occassionally just to say hello (don’t mention business) and every now and then ask for referrals. You will get referalls by staying relevent this way when you ask and when you don’t.
[/quote]

Yeah i was looking at client tracking software. If I can’t find anything I’m after I might talk to some friends about getting something quick and easy put together. Something that will allow me to track birthdays, anniversaries etc. I figure easy reminder calls a week or two prior to a wife’s birthday, an anniversary etc is never a bad idea. Plus I’m going to go get some congratulations cards to send to weddings etc since we pretty much specialize in engagement rings.

Mostly if anyone has any reading that they think might improve my close percentages I’d appreciate it since that’s what it’s all about.

Jeff Gitomer for Face-to-Face sales

Jim Domanski for Telephone sales (also has great hints for effective emails)

Thank me later

[quote]PimpBot5000 wrote:
Jeff Gitomer for Face-to-Face sales

Jim Domanski for Telephone sales (also has great hints for effective emails)

Thank me later

[/quote]

This stuff looks great, I’ve already ordered the sales bible. Let’s see how it goes.

Lots of good suggestions here. I particularly like Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar.

I’m going to suggest a somewhat contentious one, but it is hands down the best sales program I have ever encountered, and I’ve read a LOT of books and listened to a LOT of audio. It’s Tony Robbins’ “The Power To Influence: Sales Mastery Course.” It is a full multi-day seminar on audio with a 175 page study booklet that goes along with it. It breaks down the sales process into it’s most core elements and then structures a step by step, easy to follow, highly systematic approach to selling that can be modified to many different situations. Most sales instructional courses and books are structured around selling products, which I have sometimes found frustrating, as I sell a service, but I found this seminar to be easily applicable to my situation and it was a MASSIVE help to me in getting my business off the ground and establishing my own sales system for my business. Think what you will of his self-help stuff, this course is extremely valuable.

There is a PDF of the study packet available online (link below), but I HIGHLY recommend getting the 6 CD audio course. It’s good stuff. No vagaries or hype aimed at pumping you up. Just a full on, complete course jam packed with usable, concrete stuff.

[quote]Cortes wrote:
Lots of good suggestions here. I particularly like Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar.

I’m going to suggest a somewhat contentious one, but it is hands down the best sales program I have ever encountered, and I’ve read a LOT of books and listened to a LOT of audio. It’s Tony Robbins’ “The Power To Influence: Sales Mastery Course.” It is a full multi-day seminar on audio with a 175 page study booklet that goes along with it. It breaks down the sales process into it’s most core elements and then structures a step by step, easy to follow, highly systematic approach to selling that can be modified to many different situations. Most sales instructional courses and books are structured around selling products, which I have sometimes found frustrating, as I sell a service, but I found this seminar to be easily applicable to my situation and it was a MASSIVE help to me in getting my business off the ground and establishing my own sales system for my business. Think what you will of his self-help stuff, this course is extremely valuable.

There is a PDF of the study packet available online (link below), but I HIGHLY recommend getting the 6 CD audio course. It’s good stuff. No vagaries or hype aimed at pumping you up. Just a full on, complete course jam packed with usable, concrete stuff.

Thanks for this suggestion! I will be checking this out.

What kind of service do you sell? I’ve encountered the same issue… there is absolutely a difference in strategy and psychology between selling widgets and services!

[quote]HoustonGuy wrote:

[quote]Cortes wrote:
Lots of good suggestions here. I particularly like Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar.

I’m going to suggest a somewhat contentious one, but it is hands down the best sales program I have ever encountered, and I’ve read a LOT of books and listened to a LOT of audio. It’s Tony Robbins’ “The Power To Influence: Sales Mastery Course.” It is a full multi-day seminar on audio with a 175 page study booklet that goes along with it. It breaks down the sales process into it’s most core elements and then structures a step by step, easy to follow, highly systematic approach to selling that can be modified to many different situations. Most sales instructional courses and books are structured around selling products, which I have sometimes found frustrating, as I sell a service, but I found this seminar to be easily applicable to my situation and it was a MASSIVE help to me in getting my business off the ground and establishing my own sales system for my business. Think what you will of his self-help stuff, this course is extremely valuable.

There is a PDF of the study packet available online (link below), but I HIGHLY recommend getting the 6 CD audio course. It’s good stuff. No vagaries or hype aimed at pumping you up. Just a full on, complete course jam packed with usable, concrete stuff.

Thanks for this suggestion! I will be checking this out.

What kind of service do you sell? I’ve encountered the same issue… there is absolutely a difference in strategy and psychology between selling widgets and services!
[/quote]

I own an English school for kids here in Japan. We teach from basically babies up to high school seniors. It’s extra-curricular and not connected with their schools, and it isn’t cheap for the parents. This is not actually a problem in Japan, where everyone is pretty much enervated against sticker shock because everything here is ridiculously overpriced, but it is still quite a commitment for a parent to agree to pay almost $100US a month plus material fees for something that it is often difficult to measure the value of and for which they have to wait a long time to see the results.

One thing I have learned though, much of it through the program I recommend above,is that, at the core, selling a product and selling a service are actually NOT that different. The basic rules are the same. You need to establish the necessity or value of your service (product), then show how not having this service (product) is going to cause them pain, then offer them the solution to cure them of that pain. All the while demonstrating that the particular features of your service (product) are superior to those the prospect would find at one of our competitors.

What makes selling a service seem more difficult, I have found, is that you are often dealing in the abstract and unknown rather than the concrete and tangible. However, think of it this way. If you want to sell a Mercedes, what are you going to do? Same stuff I just mentioned: You find the prospects emotional reasons for buying (probably status), his logical reasons for buying (maybe quality, value) and his dominant reason against buying (possibly price or maybe he wants a Jaguar instead). Using questions, you find these thing out and you work on creating an image in his head that involves those beliefs. So the car itself is an object, but the way you approach selling it still must involve creating fantasy scenarios in the head of the prospect.

I will add that solid, consistent, marketing makes selling A LOT easier. It was WAY harder for us to close the first couple of years, because we were new and no one knew who we were or if they could trust us, so we had to do most of our rapport building after they walked in the door. Now most sales are nearly decided before they walk in the door.