Streamline your business selling process in affidavits with airSlate SignNow

How to create outlook signature

everything in life is sales so if you don't know how to sell then you're not going to be able to get the things you want from trying to convince a prospect to buy to trying to convince your friends or family members on what movie to see or what restaurant to eat at it's all sales which is why in this episode I'm going to show you how to improve your sales process to make selling easy no matter what you're trying to sell alright let's get to it over my career I've sold pretty much everything from hockey nets to business jets and everything in between but I wasn't always good at sales in fact when I first got started I was pretty terrible in fact in the early years of my sales career and of my business career I believe my clothing line was so would you like to buy it which printed isn't terrible but it's not good either and it shows just how far you can get if you put in the time and the energy and the study and make sure that you're learning the right principles and building that foundational knowledge so you can get way better results wherever you're at in your sales career right now and that's exactly what I did and is the proof that you can go from whatever level you're at even if you're at the level that I was which was admittedly terrible to a proficient or good or maybe even a master salesperson later down the road so what I did is I started studying I started learning I started modeling after the greats and I started sort of in taking and incorporating as many new strategies and tactics and foundational sales principles that I could and over the years I've read a whole lot of stuff about sales some of it is good some of it was terrible and some of it was just downright disgusting plus a lot of the stuff that I had studied and even still come across today well it may have worked in the past and I may have worked decades ago but a lot of it isn't relevant today and that's where things get a little bit tricky is you have to learn how to separate the strategies and the principles and the foundational concepts about sales that are based on those timeless and proven things like consumer behavior and customer psychology and why people act the way they do which is based on our evolution and how we are as people and that stuff's not going to change anytime soon rather than all of the surface level stuff and the tactics and the hacks are the tricks and all the stuff that may work for a day or a week or a month maybe even a year but is not something you want to build your entire career off of because it's gonna change and people are able to see through it really quickly these days but the fact that your prospects and your customers can see through these tactics and through these hacks and through these tricks that's a really good thing and in fact it's made it easier than ever to succeed in sales today provided you've got the right process and you're doing it right so with all that said let's move right into tip number one tip number one is all about serving rather than selling and this is more of a mindset shift that you need to incorporate into your sales process to make sure that you're getting great results not just now but into the future as well the way to do this was described to me as diagnosing and prescribing so much like taking on the role of a doctor or a trusted physician or somebody who's there to really serve and really try to not just sell you something that you may or may not need after all can you imagine just walking into a doctor's office and just having them take a bottle of pills off the shelf and shove them down your throat pretty sure that'd be malpractice how completely unethical and also ineffective would that strategy be and yet when we operate as salespeople and we try to sell rather than serve first that's kind of what we're doing we're making recommendations we're pushing our product onto prospects that may or may not be right for them and even if they are right they're not going to feel like we truly took the time to understand where they're coming from what their pains and problems and frustrations are and how our product or service or solution is uniquely positioned to solve that for them this is why the very first step to serving rather than selling is to diagnose and prescribe and to diagnose you need to understand you need to listen you need to be empathetic you need to do all of those things that you know you need to do to be an effective salesperson so you can understand where they're coming from and what they're going through so it you can then diagnose a look I understand what you're saying I believe this is the solution to it would you like to learn more about it also your intentions matter and the energy behind you and when you're delivering your sales pitch or doing your sales presentation that matters - I know it sounds kind of woowoo and like we're talking about energy and things like that but all it takes for a second just to remember some kind of sales presentation that you've either given or being the recipient of and you can tell the person's energy you can tell the confidence that they're coming across with you can tell if they're passionate or not about what they're selling and most importantly you can tell if they care about you or if you're just another prospect just another sale this stuff is nearly impossible to and if people can't it that's kind of freaky because it does take a kind of a whole different level to that level of commitment and energy and passion so the best way to do it is to not it at all but rather to embody that energy and the way to do that is being confident in both yourself and the product or service that you're selling now the way to be confident in yourself is well beyond the scope of this video however you do want to make sure that you're confident in your knowledge about the product or service that you're selling you want to be confident in your appearance you want to be confident in your delivery which means probably practicing and researching making sure you know what you're selling and then obviously confident in the product or service or solution that you're selling as well this means understanding it inside and out knowing the features and the benefits and all of the materials that go along with it but also being confident that it's a good product or a good service because you don't want to be a snake oil salesman you don't be selling something that nobody wants and isn't gonna help anybody otherwise again your energy will suffer you won't be able to make the sale you should probably not make the sale anyway all right the next tip to improve your sales process is to embody the position of authority now when I'm talking about Authority this does kind of circle back to that diagnose and prescribe position that you want to take you want to come at it like a trusted adviser like a doctor or somebody who is going to listen and evaluate and prescribe the right solution to your prospects needs this means in the context of the sales conversation you are going to need to hold a position of authority which means you're going to need to control the flow of the conversation now you don't need to be a dick about it but you don't want to let them jump in and interrupt you and continually cut you off and throw you off your track and ask all sorts of questions that are out of place or out of sequence you want to maintain that authority this is because you're the experts you're the one who has more knowledge about your product or your service and you're the one who's there to diagnose and to prescribe the right solution so yes obviously don't be rude don't cut them off don't continually interrupt them however definitely don't let them continually cut you off and continually interrupt you otherwise the sale is pretty much already lost anyways my best advice here by far when it comes to maintaining that authority position and how to do it ethically and authentically and without being rude is to simply ask more questions in order to control the conversation first of all asking questions has the obvious benefit of giving you valuable information that you're going to need in order to diagnose and evaluate and learn more about your prospect where they're coming from and again what their pains and problems and frustrations are a secondary benefit however is that by continually being the one to ask questions and to guide the conversation it puts you in that position of control after all you need to do is think about people in power people in those positions of authority and when they're the ones asking the questions these are things like if you go to a job interview obviously the job interviewer is going to be the one that's asking all the questions or you could think of something a little more devious like an interrogation where a suspect is being interrogated by an officer or by a lawyer and there's many more examples just like that where the person that's asking the questions is the one that's in command and in control so make sure that when you're working through your sales process you do include a number of specific and well researched questions that you're going to have ahead of time and realize and factor in when you're going to ask them so you can deliver them with the utmost of accuracy and efficiency all right let's move on to the next tip which is a little bit counterintuitive and that's all about adding friction now when I'm talking about friction in relation to you a sales call or sales process or even a sales funnel what we're talking about here is not making things too easy for your prospect or for your potential customer or client the tricky part here is that there is a balance if you have way too much friction you're going to make it way too challenging and way too difficult for people to buy from you to want to do business with you in the first place but too little friction and you make it way too easy for tire kickers or unqualified people to get through and waste your time waste your energy just waste everything you got the key thing here though is to understand that a little bit of friction is a really good thing because number one you're going to ensure that you filter out some of those unqualified prospects and people that you just don't want to work with or get on a sales call with anyway and the second thing is is that a little bit of friction when you introduce it in the form of small steps or baby steps or micro commitments and they actually go through the stages and jump over the hurdles and make those small commitments well they're proving to you and more importantly to themselves that they are serious and this is something worth paying attention to what I just said there is incredibly important so if you missed it make sure to rewind and re-watch that part again because by getting someone to take micro commitments it really does embed a level of commitment and it makes them far more likely to make that final purchase at the end of the sales call so how does this look in the real world well for myself as an example to work with me at the highest level in a one-on-one setting it requires a lot of hurdles to jump through and there's a pretty strict screening process because I only work with a very select few people at any given time so to work with me at that level I first require an application then I require possibly a appointment with my setter or maybe even with me and then a final application call with me personally to make sure there's the right fit the point here is you don't want to make things too easy but you don't want to make them too hard as well and I appreciate that as a completely broad and very general recommendation so you are going to have to go through your sales process and decide for yourself depending on the price point of what it is that you're selling depending on the market or the industry or the business that you're in and tailor it ingly all right let's move on to the next tip which is you want to script it now if you can get your hands on a sales script or a process or a template or something that someone in your industry has used before and they recommend this is highly recommended certainly if you're just getting started because you don't want to go into a sales call cold with no idea of what you're going to say and you even want the conversation to go yes a sales call is a combination of diagnosing and prescribing but it's also a bit of a dance with a bit of back and forth and a bit of a conversation to build rapport and dive right into providing value establishing yourself as the authority and painting your product or your solution or your service or whatever it is that you're selling as the best solution for your prospect if of course it is the best solution for your prospect so where can you get your hands on a script and why isn't there just a generic script that I recommend well the reason that there isn't a one-size-fits-all script is because it is going to be different depending on your market in your industry in your business and who it is that you're serving so there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach that said by researching old sales books or by reviewing sales calls that you've either done or you've had when you've had a sales call with a salesperson and they've sold to you perhaps you've been lucky enough to been able to record it and review it all of these things are going to provide good markers and give you good indicators of what are good lines to use what are not when did they use pauses when did they change intonation and tone and when did they say the right things when did they say the wrong things that really just turned you off for example years ago when I was buying one of my first cars we went in and had a great presentation by a car salesman and we were all set to buy a Volkswagen Jetta which at the time was a great car and something I was really looking forward to driving because it was way more reliable than my early 1980s Mustang which was terrible and dangerous but that could mostly be due to the bald tires it had and the fact that it was put together with duct tape and bondo regardless the presentation was going well and everything was working okay until he finally said so tell me Adam is this your dream car now this was a lot of years ago and I had not yet achieved the level of success that I'm lucky enough to have had now however it was a great car but by no means was this my dream car I'm not sure a Volkswagen Jetta is anybody's dream car I mean sure it's a really good car but dream car so with that one single line he kind of lost all credibility and he showed that he had no idea what I was looking for why I was even getting this car in the first place and all of that rapport and all of that trust was kind of flushed down the toilet so did I buy the Jetta after all stayed to the end to find out now I'm just kidding I'll tell you I did end up buying the car but not from him and I found a better deal with a better salesperson later down the line the point here is find a sales script but don't be rigid if there's a line in there that you think you have to say and it just doesn't feel right don't say it alright this next tip will dramatically improve your sales process and that is to focus on being crystal clear about what it is that you're selling there's a cognitive bias which is something that our brains use kind of automatically in order to help us make decisions faster and easier and hopefully with more certainty occasionally though they go a bit wrong well anyway one of these cognitive biases is called the ambiguity effect and it states that when a prospect is confused they do not buy this is incredibly important to know because I have overheard way too many sales calls and evaluated so many more where I was confused with what my client was trying to sell to the prospect let me say that again I knew the client personally because they were a client I knew what they were trying to sell outside of the sales call because they were a client and yet during the sales call I was getting confused listening in on what they were trying to sell so if I was confused you can only imagine how their prospect was feeling the answer is confused so did they buy no they didn't because they didn't understand what the person was even trying to sell so more importantly they didn't understand how this would help them or why they needed it and this is why it is so incredibly important to be crystal clear about exactly what it is that you're selling who it's for and how it will benefit them seriously you can't make this to clean to clear or to simple if you have to dumb it down all the way to a sixth grade or a third grade or even a first grade level that's okay with me I'd way rather that than you filling up the sales call with Tech Talk and jargon and all sorts of words that are just going to confuse them and sort of messy value statements and all sorts of stuff that's going to leave them completely lost completely confused and wondering why they're even talking you in the first place if you want to make more sales you need to understand the psychology of your prospects and of your customers as you're speaking to them as well as the psychology and all of the head stuff that's going on before they even get on the sales call in the first place and that's why the next piece of the puzzle is the video that I have logged up right here on the psychology of marketing which is gonna arm you with everything you need to know to help close even more sales so make sure to check that out now and I'll catch you in the next episode it is important to understand that while people are emotional creatures while they do make decisions emotionally we still need to have facts