Does your sales team work to the same set of core principles or do you let
them ‘free-style’?
If you had the choice of them working to a set of ‘Sales Laws’, let’s call it the
‘Sales Team Standard Operating Procedure’, would you and what would be
in it?
If you took the fundamentals from your SSOP and put them on the wall in
your business, do you think it would make a positive difference to how you
served your clients and customers?

Here’s some to think about…

A mindset based on help not sell – the days of thinking you can outsmart
a buyer with sophisticated sales techniques are over. If your product or
service doesn’t help your prospect in some way shape or form, chances
are you can’t sell it to them.

Get passionate about your product – if you’re not convinced, you cannot
convince. Would you buy what you sell? If not, what makes you so
confident that anyone else will? If you’re not excited about it, find
something that does excite you.

Act like you’re in business – that means having the knowledge and
experience to instil confidence and belief in your prospect, so that they
are certain that hanging around with you is unbelievably good for their
future success.

Focus on “No’s” – most people aren’t waiting around for your call, so
prepare in advance for a ‘No’. Learn how to disqualify early; moving along
the tire-kickers and time-wasters is where the money’s earned.
Be genuinely interested in people – you don’t have to accept their opinion,
but you’re screwed if you don’t accept that they have one and it must be
understood. Knowing that people buy for their reasons, not yours, is the
key that unlocks the route to sales.

Become respectfully expectant – it starts with earning the right to be
treated as an equal and it’s the prerequisite to a collaborative
relationship. Create mutual benefit, assign individual accountability and
operate in an environment that seeks to progress.

Ask movement questions – the ones that shift the conversation forward;
the ones that progress a sale; the ones that positively challenge so that
their very purpose is to create a desire to commit to both parties taking
action. Sales conversations that don’t move the deal forward aren’t
usually sales conversations at all.

Use the C Word – from start to finish, your whole sales approach must be
predicated on getting Commitment. Do they Want to buy? Are
they Organised to take action? Will they Realign their business around
your product? Have the Decided now is the time to buy?

Avoid Risk – not yours, theirs. Reassure them that it’s in their best
interests to do business with you and that investing their hard-earned
cash not only makes sound business sense, it guarantees them a return.
Evidence beats expectation every time.

Always ask… – because usually, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. On a
personal level, you have to keep learning; better to ask and feel a fool for
a minute, then don’t ask and be a fool for a lifetime. On a business level,
provided you’ve done things above, there’s every chance your prospect is
waiting for you to do just that – so ask for the sale.