This is post #1 in the Ultimate Selling Skills series. For post 2 Click here
I’m in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to do sales training for a global organization, and while in my hotel I have a most unusual moment.
It’s breakfast in the lounge and at a table next to me a well-dressed businessman is Skyping his wife. I’m half-listening to the dialogue when her voice suddenly gets loud and she says, “Oh, honey—I was kind of in a hurry today. So I took the helicopter.”
Took the helicopter?
That’s awesome! Here’s someone who, as a display of their success, can go to the roof and fly, instead of drive, into town. And for the sake of the lesson, let’s just assume they haven’t inherited their wealth. Thanks for playing along.
This story now serves to set up sales training for me. It says to the sales pros in the room, “Wow—how high is high for you? What does true success—ultimate success—look like?” In other words…
What would it mean for you to become a world-class sales pro?
Aside from, and along with the cash, you could;
- Live on the beach, in the mountains, the downtown of your favorite city.
- Vacation in those places you’ve dreamed about.
- Drive the car of your dreams.
- Buy the toys and tools you read about and see others using.
What will you wear, where will you play? Who will you share it with?
Great sales pros have choices that mediocre reps do not.
In a moment, you’ll get an exercise you can use to set up your sales training. It’s designed to help each of your sales team members to cast a vision for the increase they’ll experience in their personal selling success.
First, let’s look at three things that distinguish great sales pros from the rest of the field. We’ll go into details on each of these, in the next post. This and other training techniques are taught in the
ASTD Ultimate Selling Skills experience, returning in September.
World-class sellers are great in their ability to…
- Refuse to chase poor prospects. This means you’ll need a distinct strategy to qualify and disqualify buyers. Let’s face it, too many sales reps tend to pursue too many bad buyers for too long, losing time, energy, and money in the process.
- Show agility in adjusting how they sell, depending on each buyer. This mental and verbal flexibility means you can switch your language between using gain (or benefits) and pain (or problems you solve), to fit the individual buyer’s motivation. We now know a psychologically sound way to identify which buyer uses which approach to make a decision. This essentially ends the argument over whether to sell using gain versus pain.
- Recognize that opening is more critical than closing. If you don’t open with strength and skill, you will never get close to the close. A specific technique for beginning your buyer dialogue can insure you set outcomes, clear next steps, and more. For anyone who’s had buyers go missing in action after a great meeting, this is a critical component to adopt as a selling skill.
As promised, here is your exercise to help your sales team cast a vision for their new behaviors which, when adapted, will increase their ability to take more money home to their families.
DAYDREAMING EXERCISE
Picture this; it’s one year from today’s training and you have begun to attain all the earnings you could possibly desire.
- What will you do with the money?
- Where will you go?
- What will you buy to wear, drive, live in, play with?
- Who will you share it with?
- When will you make your big purchase, or your big trip?
- How will you manage your money?
Notice this isn’t a goal, so we’re not concerned with specific earning outcomes. It’s just a fun way to see the future and get excited about improving performance from the upcoming training experience.
Each of these posts is intended to give you some great ideas to implement inside your organization.
You’ll get much, much more when you attend our workshop…
ASTD’s Ultimate Selling Skills: Creating a High-Impact Sales Training Program
What Does Every Sales Team Really Need?
The key to high-performing sales teams is selling skills. Every organization knows this, but how many of them have the training in place to make sure each salesperson can consistently meet their goals? How do you make sure that your training fits for your team?
This workshop’s approach is critical to creating selling skills programs that drive consistent sales team success. You’ll learn more about 10 critical selling skills your team needs to know, and how you can quickly design training material for each of them.
Who Should Attend?
This workshop is best for sales trainers, sales managers, and anyone who is tasked with designing and/or delivering sales training.
What’s In It for You?
- Build a foundational training program that uses 10 key selling skills your team needs to know.
- Leave with fresh ideas, potent techniques, demonstrated best practices, and actionable takeaways.
Receive a complimentary copy of Dan Seidman’s book, The Ultimate Guide to Sales Training.
For more information and to register visit http://astd.org/salesworkshop.