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Action Selling Sales Training

Can't Close A Sale? Maybe You Never Opened It!

Can't Close A Sale? Maybe You Never Opened It!

You’ve kept trying, and the prospect has finally agreed to talk to you. But she made it clear that she can only spare five or 10 minutes in her busy schedule. So you try to tell her as quickly as you can about all the glories of your company and your products. In other words, you bury her in a data dump, as hundreds of salespeople have done before. And when you leave, she’ll never want to lay eyes on you again.

Until you have asked good questions, you don’t know how to present your product.

Salespeople commit a fatal mistake when they jump directly into a product pitch. Why? Because they’re shooting in the dark, with no idea of the prospect’s unique needs or desires. When you do that, your products and services become undifferentiated commodities that sound like the same ones dozens of other salespeople are pushing.

The only way to differentiate your offerings in today’s market is first to differentiate yourself. That is, you, the salesperson, must first be seen as a unique part of the solution you’re selling. Prospects will only turn into customers if they see you as a consultant with a purpose—the purpose being to gain a commitment once you and the client understand how you can serve their most important needs. When you assume you already know what those needs are, you are leaving the customer out of this important process.

If you have just a few minutes of a prospect’s time, don’t use them to talk about yourself. Use them to ask about the prospect. In the Action Selling sales management system, Acts 2 and 3 are all about establishing rapport and Asking the Best Questions to uncover the prospect’s key needs and concerns. Not until Act 7 should you ever present your product.

The reason is simple: Until you have asked the Best Questions, you don’t know how to present your product to this prospect as anything other than a generic commodity. You can say you’re selling “solutions” instead of “stuff,” but you can’t do it. Not until you have uncovered specific problems to solve.

Got a minute? Good. Use it to act like a sales consultant with a purpose. Ask, don’t tell, and you may discover that prospects have more time for you than they thought.

In The Field:

Salespeople in the pharmaceutical industry work hard at getting even a few minutes of face time with busy doctors. One rookie sales rep for Schering Plough considered himself lucky when a doctor agreed to give him five minutes, and five minutes only, to “give me your spiel.”

Delivering a spiel is exactly what the rep ordinarily would have done. But this salesperson had just become Action Selling Certified. Instead of pitching products, the rep asked questions about the doctor’s practice. He didn’t act like a guy trying to sell something. He acted like a consultant who was genuinely interested in learning whether the doctor had any problems that he could help solve.

The five-minute conversation stretched to 15. And it ended with the doctor agreeing to a lunch appointment—which had been the salesperson’s commitment objective for the meeting all along. ”During the lunch appointment we wrapped up a substantial sale,” said the rep. “This wouldn’t have occurred without the certified skills of Action Selling.”

Author Bio:
Duane Sparks is CEO of The Sales Board, Inc. and creator of the Action Selling system. Action Selling teaches salespeople how to master the 5 critical sales skills within a proven sales management process that matches the buyer's decision-making process. Your salesforce will learn how to increase sales, protect profit margins, ask the best questions and build greater customer loyalty. For more information about sales training or this author, please visit http://www.thesalesboard.com or call 1-800-232-3485.

New Sales and Marketing Book on Customer Loyalty

Masters of Loyalty. How to turn your sales force into a loyalty force.

This sales and marketing book describes why 'satisfied' customers still leave.

You need more than customers. You need loyal ones. This sales and marketing book shows how to make customers stop shopping and be forever deaf to competitors' appeals. Learn how to make every sales call a Loyalty call.

This sales book is a quick and enjoyable read, in story format, that reveals the only real reason why customers will become genuinely loyal to a supplier - and why most companies get the customer loyalty equation all wrong. This book is a blueprint for transforming sales calls so that customers are not merely "satisfied" but move toward full-blown loyalty - during every sales call.

Get more information at http://www.thesalesboard.com

Sales Training Unlocks True Potential of Sales Force

The greatest hidden asset in any company is the untapped potential of its sales force. The best investment opportunity available to any company, or salesperson, is to unlock that potential. How many other investments can show a documented ROI of more than 3:1 in 90 days and 14:1 in the first year?

Naturally, you don’t get results like that from just any sales training course. Just as there are right ways and wrong ways to sell, there are right and wrong ways to teach people how to sell more effectively.

How can $1 of sales training return $14 worth of better sales performance?

For sales training to unlock the true potential of a sales force and optimize benefits to a company’s bottom line, three things are required. They should always be present in any sales-training situation, but rarely are.

1. Teach a sales system that is genuinely more effective than what salespeople are doing now. This should be obvious, but it isn’t. Many courses teach selling as a collection of tips, tricks and techniques that might be helpful in various circumstances. Maybe they’ll boost sales, maybe not.
To achieve dramatic gains in performance, salespeople need to master a systematic and superior approach to selling that has proven to work consistently in virtually any circumstances. Tricks and gimmicks won’t cut it. Salespeople need a better way to sell.

The system must be based on the way buyers actually behave and make decisions. And salespeople need to know not just what the system is but how to execute it—every step of the way. That’s why we “Certify” salespeople on Action Selling skills.

2. Teach skills that can be taught. A thousand traits and characteristics may contribute in some way to sales success: an outgoing personality, the gift of gab, etc. The trouble is, those traits can be talked about (and often are in training courses) but they can’t really be taught.

Action Selling concentrates on five key skills. Research proves that improvements in those skills translate directly into greater sales performance. They can be taught and improvements in them can be measured. They are: Understanding the Buyer/Seller Relationship; Sales Call Planning; Questioning Skills; Presentation Skills; and Gaining Commitment.

We will talk more in the next article about those five skills and why they are so critical to unlocking actual potential to achieve measurable gains in sales performance.

3. Train according to the realities of adult learning and behavioral reinforcement. Educational research has established a great deal about how adults actually learn and master new skills. Salespeople learn far more effectively when sales training adheres to proven adult learning principles.

But teaching new skills is only half the battle. Sales performance can’t improve unless salespeople actually use their new skills consistently on the job. Old habits die hard.

What to teach and how to teach it are important issues. But, “How will we reinforce the new behavior on the job?” is critical. Reinforcement must be an integral part of the training plan, right from the beginning.

Select the right system, based on the right skills, then get the teaching and reinforcement right. You’ll have taken a huge step toward making sales training pay. What else is required? Stay tuned for the next article.

Action Selling In Action

A major automotive parts distributor decided to train and certify its 1,200+ North American salespeople and sales managers in the Action Selling system. But the organization also wanted to know exactly what kind of financial return it was getting for its training investment.

The company split its sales force into two groups, carefully matching them to eliminate regional differences and other factors that might affect sales results. One group was trained and certified in Action Selling prior to the company’s third financial quarter in 2005. The other (control) group was trained after the third quarter. This ensured that training was the only factor that could explain any difference in sales performance between the two groups.

At the end of the third quarter, sales revenue and gross profit for each group were compared with third-quarter figures from the previous year.

Results: In the first quarter following the training, the Action Selling group posted sales increases $7,631,367 higher that the untrained group. The increase in gross profits was $2,442,037 higher. Conservative projections showed that at the one-year mark, the ROI from Action Selling would be a staggering 1,383%--a return of 14:1! The company and its salespeople will make a lot more money as a result of Action Selling training.

For sales training that makes money, contact The Sales Board at (800) 232-3485.

Download the White Paper that describes this company's experience with Action Selling and its ROI gain.

Your Greatest Business Asset is Your Sales Force

The greatest hidden asset in any company is the untapped potential of its sales force. The best investment opportunity available to any company, or salesperson, is to unlock that potential. How many other investments can show a documented ROI of more than 3:1 in 90 days and 14:1 in the first year?

Naturally, you don’t get results like that from just any sales training course. Just as there are right ways and wrong ways to sell, there are right and wrong ways to teach people how to sell more effectively.

How can $1 of sales training return $14 worth of better sales performance?

For sales training to unlock the true potential of a sales force and optimize benefits to a company’s bottom line, three things are required. They should always be present in any sales-training situation, but rarely are.

1. Teach a sales system that is genuinely more effective than what salespeople are doing now. This should be obvious, but it isn’t. Many courses teach selling as a collection of tips, tricks and techniques that might be helpful in various circumstances. Maybe they’ll boost sales, maybe not.

To achieve dramatic gains in performance, salespeople need to master a systematic and superior approach to selling that has proven to work consistently in virtually any circumstances. Tricks and gimmicks won’t cut it. Salespeople need a better way to sell.

The system must be based on the way buyers actually behave and make decisions. And salespeople need to know not just what the system is but how to execute it—every step of the way. That’s why we “Certify” salespeople on Action Selling skills.

2. Teach skills that can be taught. A thousand traits and characteristics may contribute in some way to sales success: an outgoing personality, the gift of gab, etc. The trouble is, those traits can be talked about (and often are in training courses) but they can’t really be taught.

Action Selling concentrates on five key skills. Research proves that improvements in those skills translate directly into greater sales performance. They can be taught and improvements in them can be measured. They are: Understanding the Buyer/Seller Relationship; Sales Call Planning; Questioning Skills; Presentation Skills; and Gaining Commitment.

We will talk more in the next article about those five skills and why they are so critical to unlocking actual potential to achieve measurable gains in sales performance.

3. Train according to the realities of adult learning and behavioral reinforcement. Educational research has established a great deal about how adults actually learn and master new skills. Salespeople learn far more effectively when sales training adheres to proven adult learning principles.

But teaching new skills is only half the battle. Sales performance can’t improve unless salespeople actually use their new skills consistently on the job. Old habits die hard.

What to teach and how to teach it are important issues. But, “How will we reinforce the new behavior on the job?” is critical. Reinforcement must be an integral part of the training plan, right from the beginning.

Select the right system, based on the right skills, then get the teaching and reinforcement right. You’ll have taken a huge step toward making sales training pay. What else is required? Stay tuned for our next sales training article.

Find our How One Company Grew Profits by $ 2.4 Million in 90 Days. Download the White Paper.

The Sales Training Series: Five Buying Decisions

Have you ever had a customer that seemed to reject nearly everything that you were presenting? We all have. Research on the customer's buying decisions has revealed that a customer's resistance may not be caused by what you present. It could be the sequence of your sales presentation.

Our research has shown 76% of sales presentations are out of sync with buying decisions. When making a major purchase decision, your customer goes through a process of five sequential decisions.

1. SALESPERSON. Customers decide if they like and can trust you.

2. COMPANY. What is your company's reputation? Is your company a good match for them?

3. PRODUCT. Is your product the right solution for their needs?

4. PRICE. Is your solution competitively priced? Is it a good value?

5. TIME TO BUY. Is now a good time for them to move forward with the purchase?

Customers will find reasons not to buy when your presentation is out of sync with their buying decisions. To increase your chances of increased sales productivity, you must sequence your presentation to follow the decisions of the customer. When you do, you'll sell the customer on each buying decision. This is exactly how professional salespeople orchestrate their sales calls.

In The Field:

Jerry Montgomery, one of the horticultural industry's top sales and marketing consultants, recently spoke about how the Action Selling Sales Training Program has impacted sales performance.

"Today, product and service differentiation is harder to define and communicate." noted Montgomery. "But the right training can translate into increased sales. Action Selling is especially effective because it focuses on unique methods for uncovering the customer's needs, resulting in a differentiated solution."

As the playing field becomes increasingly competitive and the buyer's time is at a premium, innovative sales skills are key to success. "And yet," said Montgomery, "many companies provide their sales organizations with little or no sales skills training with which to meet these challenges."

"With Action Selling," he went on to say, "Sellers can turn to the work at hand, confident that they are utilizing the most advanced sales techniques available today. And that's beneficial to the seller, the buyer and the bottom line!"

The Sales Training Series: How To Sell Solutions

Salespeople are commonly told to sell “solutions” and “value” rather than just product features. But when the time comes to present their products, they fall back on generic scripts with no direct connection to any specific needs the customer has revealed. The customer winds up in a one-sided conversation, listening to the salesperson present too many low-priority capabilities.

What salespeople lack is a structure for presenting products in a way that ties features and benefits directly to the customer’s expressed needs.

Lack of structure in a presentation is a prescription for lack of perceived value.

There is such a structure - Action Selling’s TFBR method (for Tie-Back, Feature, Benefit, Reaction). It lets you create sales presentations that communicate a compelling reason to move forward by connecting product features to actual needs the customer has already agreed upon. In other words, TFBR provides the answer to, “How do I sell solutions?”

Solution: To present your product as a solution, tie a specific need the customer has expressed to a feature of your product. Tie-Back by restating the need, then describe the corresponding Feature.

Value: Demonstrate the feature’s value to the customer by explaining its Benefit, again in terms of the customer’s expressed need.

Confirm: Cement together the solution and value by asking for the customer’s Reaction. This tells you if what you have presented is, indeed, perceived as a valuable solution.

Here is an example:

Tie-Back: “You said you were dissatisfied with the unnatural light of your fiber-optic unit.”

Feature: “Our Model 2000 uses a color-correcting system that delivers perfectly white light.”

Benefit: “This improves the visual sharpness and reduces eye strain and fatigue."

Reaction: “How would a sharper image help with your work?”

When you structure your presentation using the TFBR format for each product feature you discuss, you have a self-correcting method to ensure that what you are presenting is a valuable solution that hits all the right targets.

In The Field:

The TFBR method becomes even more powerful when salespeople get product training and marketing support designed to reinforce it. After introducing his sales team to the Action Selling process, Gerry Giorgio, regional manager with Vaughn Seed, a Division of Sandoz Nutrition, decided to take product training and marketing to a higher level.

“We trained our marketing staff in Action Selling Sales Training as well,” Giorgio said. “Now we have successfully integrated our sales skills training with product training and marketing develops presentation pieces using the Action Selling TFBR procedure. You know it’s working when customers go out of their way to comment on how thorough your salespeople are with their presentation of your product solution.”

For more information about this author/company, visit The Sales Board, Inc. or call 800-232-3485.

The Sales Training Series: The Right Way To Sell

In the next couple of weeks I will be presenting a Sales Training Series on Selling. If you want to pick up the RSS feed, please go here.

Let's begin today with:

The Right Way To Sell:

Three-quarters of the secret to professional, strategic selling boils down to asking The Best Questions and listening carefully to the answers. Most of the Best Questions have to do with uncovering the crucial, underlying needs your products or services might serve. But you also must know how to sell to a particular account. Using the same strategy for all customers is a big mistake. The issue is: how do you compete for this customer's business?

How do you know the right way to sell to a customer? You ask.

For instance, you need to know when to time your sales calls, who to call on, what to present to each individual or group who will influence the buying decision, and how the decision ultimately will be made. How do you learn all of this? You learn these answers by asking questions early in the game.

Competition: Whom are you competing against for this sale? Once you know, you can ask targeted questions to draw out specific customer needs that you can resolve but your competitors can't. And when presenting features and benefits of your products, you can lead with your specific competitive strengths.

Time Frame: When does the customer expect to make a buying decision? More importantly, when does the customer want to begin to reap the benefits expected from the purchase?

Buying Influences: Who controls the budget? Who analyzes the technical aspects of your product? Who will be responsible for making your product work correctly in the organization? This information tells you which features and benefits to stress to which audience.

Buying Process: How will the buying decision actually be made? Who must be "sold" before the transaction can be completed? Which criteria will be most important in the decision?

By getting clear answers to these questions early in the process, you can develop a strategy that will shorten your sell cycle, allow you to anticipate and defuse objections that otherwise would arise later, and make a lot more sales.

Action Selling In Action:

Veteran salespeople are often astonished (and a bit embarrassed) by the brave new world that opens up to them after they learn to ask the Best Questions.

The day after an Action Selling Sales Training Workshop at Eaton Cutler-Hammer, the southern regional sales manager received an excited voicemail message from one of his account executives.

"I put one of the selling techniques of Action Selling to work today on a sales call and was amazed," said the account exec. "By knowing how to ask the Best Questions, I uncovered additional opportunities that I never knew existed!"

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Keywords: sales training, sales training workshop, selling techniques, sales calls, sales training company, buying decisions, strategic selling, sell, sell to a customer, customer needs, features and benefits, buying process, sold, sell cycle, make more sales, salespeople, sales manager, selling training sessions

Sales-Training-Programs

Sales-Training-Programs

Nice Sales Training Success Story

A New Sales Book - Questions, The Answer to Sales

"If you're going to do one thing about an improvement to your sales, it better be Questions."

Here's is a new sales book offered by one of the most popular and effective Sales Training Company around. It's called "Questions, The Answer to Sales".

This is a quick and enjoyable read, in story form, that shows vividly why questioning and listening skills are a salesperson's most valuable asset.

Review:

Mitch is a top pitchman, with charisma to burn. So why is his sales career going down the tube? In desperation, he puts the issue to his old pal Harry during a game of golf. Thanks to the sales process and selling system called Action Selling, Harry already knows what Mitch has yet to learn: Great customer relationships aren't forged by great presentations but by great sales questions. Can Mitch change his sales game and turn pro? Or is he a gabby dinosour headed for extinction?

The sales book will soon be available at The Sales Board site.

The Five Buying Decisions

The 5 Buying Decisions

Have you ever had a customer that seemed to reject nearly everything that you were presenting? We all have. Research on the customer's buying decisions reveals that a customer's resistance may not be caused by what you present. It could be the sequence of your presentation.

Our research has shown 76% of sales presentations are out of sync with buying decisions. When making a major purchase decision, your customer goes through a process of five sequential decisions.

1. SALESPERSON: Customers decide if they like and can trust you.

2. COMPANY: What is your company's reputation? Is it a good match for them?

3. PRODUCT: Is your product the right solution for their needs?

4. PRICE: Is your solution competitively priced? Is it a good value?

5. TIME TO BUY: Is now a good time for them to move forward with the purchase?

Customers will find reasons not to buy when your presentation is out of sync with their buying decisions. To increase your chances of success, you must sequence your presentation to follow the decisions of the customer. When you do, you'll sell the customer on each buying decision. This is exactly how professional salespeople orchestrate their sales.

Learn more about Selling Skills.

Increase Your Sales! Read Action Selling.

Need More Information about Sales Training?

Sales Training Resources

Sales Training is a must if you want to increase your sales effectiveness. But of the many sales training programs out there, who are you going to turn to and why? How do you select a sales training seminar or sales book that will bring about positive cultural change within a sales organization?

I hope this blog will help to do that. There is a sales training organization that has been instrumental in helping over 200,000 sales people win more business and increase their bottom line without teaching those sales tips and tricks that try to manipulate the customer into a sale.

I read the book Action Selling. It took me about 2 hours and it's very easy to read but it completely changed my perspective on selling. The book describes the sales process as a 9 act drama. That doesn't mean selling is all about acting. Quite the contrary. But the process of selling anything can be boiled down to 9 steps and it's called the Action Selling Process.

Action Selling is a sales management process that combines the Five Critical Sales Skills with relationship skills into a high-impact, non-manipulative procedure that is guaranteed to be effective for virtually any sales application.

This is a must read if you are sales professional. You can also take a free sales skill assessment to see how your sales skills compare with others that have taken the assessment. It is a transforming concept. Good selling.