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Many more can talk than can sell. Did you ever hire someone because
they sounded so great - presented themselves so well - you thought they could
do anything? But six months later, you're tired of hearing how great they sound,
you just want some results? Why? What went wrong? To answer completely,
there are two areas that need to be addressed: - Behavioral Style.
- Knowledge of Selling.
Behavioral style refers to
the behavioral elements of selling a particular product for a particular company
to a particular client base. These elements include: - aggressiveness
- cold-call reluctance
- extroversion
- multi-tasking
- rules compliance
- natural enthusiasm
- self starting
tendencies
- servicing
- paperwork
- tendency to detail
- product information
- customer relations
- consistency
- follow-up and follow-through
- tendency to listen.
It
takes a very different style to sell computer parts directly to computer engineers
than it does to sell computers to the general public. Similarly, to close the
sale to a rural, easy-going, family-oriented type buyer requires considerably
different style than closing the same merchandise to a fast-talking, hurried,
bottom-line oriented urban buyer. By analyzing what you're selling, who
you are selling for, and who you are selling to, a company today can articulate
the customized behaviors optimum for their situation. Salespeople can then be
hired whose natural behaviors are ideally what you are looking for. Those salespeople
who are not exactly 'natural' in these behaviors will nevertheless benefit tremendously
from understanding just what behaviors are best to role-play, or emulate, to excel
for your company. | . |
Knowledge of Sales is totally
different then one's behavioral selling style. You may have the right personality
style - the right mix of extroversion, aggressiveness, empathy, etc. - but do
you know what to do and say in the selling cycle: when to ask for the close, when
to remain silent, what strategy to use, and when to use it. There is no
College of Sales, or BA of Selling. Most sales training programs, in effect, give
technical training, but very little in the art of selling. Likewise, the tools
for measuring these Sales Skills are different. What are the best things to do
and when? These elements include how to: - Prospect
-
Qualify
- Probe
- Impress
- Demonstrate
- Influence
- Close.
To communicate more effectively with a customer,
you may be required to adjust your natural behavioral style. These adjustments
may cause stress or require additional energy. "Pumping up" to get more motivated
and enthusiastic than one normally feels requires focus and energy. On
the other hand, stress occurs when the results-driven aggressive salesperson has
to slow down, listen more and show patience to slower-reacting people. That is
why sales knowledge - knowing exactly what to do - is extremely helpful to minimize
the extra stress or energy required to adjust behavioral style. Advantages include
shortening the sales cycle, reducing stress and closing sales more often! |
