Good Attitude, Always

Even if you have been replied by prospects with a ‘no’ for several times since you came in this morning, you must imbibe resilience to keep reaching out to prospects even if it’s been a very bad day. After a bad call, go onto the next, telling yourself ‘this is going to be the sale of the day’. 

Without a positive attitude, you will be easily caught in a spiral negativity. Hold your head up high and hang the sweetest smile on your face in every call you make.  

The Right Words To Say

The words you say and how you say them will reflect the kind of salesperson you are. So remember these important verbal communication when you’re on a sales call

• Use descriptive language to give your prospect a vivid picture of the subject
• Make your sentences short and straight to the point
• As much as possible, avoid buzz words and jargons 
• Avoid tag phrases like ‘I guess’, ‘I think’, ‘probably’ as these might leave a negative impression on the prospect of you being not knowledgeable 

Get To Know Your Prospects Well

There are days when you come to work feeling so hyped and so excited to pull up your call list and make your first call. Oops, hold on, before you press on those numbers on your phone keypad, conduct a pre-call or pre-meeting research about your prospect – the company, the business, products and services and the person in charge. Understand that corporate leaders are always busy and may not have much time to stay on the phone or meeting just to educate you about their company overview, product or service specifics or business history. Instead, they’d presume you got in touch with them because you know who they are and what they do; and that you have something better or new to offer. 

If you don’t do your homework, you run the risk of losing the business to a clever and proactive competitor who took time to read and research about the prospect and the business.

Give Them What They Need, Not What They Have

When you’re in an event rentals business, you need to provide your customers with every possible thing they might need like Chinawares, audio, linens, tables and chairs, lighting and electrical, etc. Offer, and at the same time anticipate what your prospect may need – something they do or may not have on hand but a surefire need in the business that would help them achieve effectiveness and future benefits. 

Your prospect would always expect to hear good news that what you are offering would bring positive effects to the business, increase productivity, scale up sales number and draw more customers.

Never Underestimate Your Prospect

Industries come in different sizes, and prospects have varied buying styles, but these profiles should not affect your impression and how you should deal with every prospect you speak with, big time or small. Always think that your prospect can either make or break a chance to close a sale. Regard them with respect.

Compete Against No One, But Yourself

Sales is synonymous with quota, and that’s for real. It may be quiet pressing most of the time as you will be competing against time, numbers and peers. However, drawing the idea of competition per se can exhaust you mentally and drain you physically. At some point, you would feel insecure towards peers as they reach their targets while you struggle with several declines and lost deals. 

Do not be too conscious of scaling up your numbers against others especially when you’re new to the team. You have to learn the ropes first and ensure that every sales call you make is a quality call. Challenge yourself to make a difference in every call or meeting you make with a prospect. Sight your mistakes and find a better and the best way to do it correctly. 

Compete with no one, but yourself, first, before you jump onto the track and run against others.

Persuasive Or Pushy?

Persuasion is the act of causing people to believe in something. While push is to press against with force in order to drive or impel. These are two adjectives with similar goals and that is to bring something into completion, but carried out in different ways. 

When the prospect says ‘no’ or ‘not for now’ for the 6th or 7th time now, but you forcefully make them decide to agree or give in, you’re being pushy. You might just not be aware that you’re pushing your prospect’s back against the wall, and that’s a sure way of losing a probable sale. 

What you must do is Increase your persuasive prowess by being:

• Persistent. Sales persuaders say that 80% of sales are seized on the fifth call, recognising that one of their most persuasive abilities is refusal to give up. They added that more than 75% of sales people negatively tag contacts after the third call fails.
• Positive. The best persuaders are the most confident and positive about themselves and what they can achieve, the company they represent, the products or services they sell, and the prospects they are attempting to sell to. They have that superior feeling and power to persuade as they make prospects feel the same way.
• Proving. Every information, fact and figure appear and sound persuasive, believing that third-party endorsements could go a long way to build credibility. They are always prepared and are equipped to prove every claim they make with hard data, test results and performance records.
• Personalizing. Persuasion experts recognize that prospects would want to know one thing – WIIFM or ‘what’s in it for me’. This is where the persuaders expertise in probing and drawing the prospect’s need comes in.

Be Yourself 

Prospects can tell when you are genuinely interested in the product or service you are offering, and they very well know when you can stand or not behind them. Your prospects will be able to detect whether you are being yourself or pretending to be putting on somebody else’s robe.

Lay Down Options

When you are offering a product or service to your prospect but which may be deemed not feasible to carry out their targets for the business, be ready to lay options. Give your prospect other choices but make sure that these choices are designed based on the prospect’s need.