{"id":7595,"date":"2010-12-31T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2010-12-31T11:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/37d57f8fa2.nxcli.io\/blog\/?p=7595"},"modified":"2011-01-03T07:00:28","modified_gmt":"2011-01-03T12:00:28","slug":"10-ways-to-improve-your-sales-in-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/sales\/10-ways-to-improve-your-sales-in-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Sales Killers To Avoid In 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"
Any sales veteran can tell you a story about the one that got away. Veterans who are successful today learned valuable lessons from those situations and, hopefully, never repeated them. As challenging as the business of selling might be for some, losing sales is unbelievably easy. Learn from the mistakes of others so you won\u2019t have many of the sad stories to tell.<\/div>\n
Sales Killer #1 \u2013 Lack of professional appearance. If you want people to listen to you and heed your advice regarding your product or service, you have to come across both in appearance and demeanor as a professional expert. This includes grooming and the level of confidence you exude. People will buy from you based more on your conviction and enthusiasm for your product than they will your product knowledge.<\/div>\n
Sales Killer #2 \u2013 Talking too much. When you\u2019re talking, you\u2019re telling. When you ask questions to get clients talking about their needs, you\u2019re selling. You\u2019re finding out what they want to own. Only then can you guide them to the right product or service.<\/div>\n
Sales Killer #3 \u2013 Your vocabulary. Words create pictures in our minds. Certain words that are inherent to selling turn people off. For example, I caution people in business to avoid using the word \u201ccontract\u201d when handling the details of a large sale. We all know that contracts are legally binding documents and require legal efforts to get out of them. If appropriate, call your contract an \u201cagreement,\u201d \u201cform,\u201d or \u201cpaperwork.\u201d The mental image is less threatening. Think about other words you use and replace any negative word-picture images with gentler, more positive ones.<\/div>\n
Sales Killer #4 \u2013 Not investing time in building rapport. Establishing good rapport builds trust. No one will want to make a purchase from someone they don\u2019t like and trust. Don\u2019t just jump right into a presentation on your product. Get to know your client a bit.<\/div>\n
Sales Killer #5 \u2013 Lack of a qualification system. A certain percentage of the people you talk with will not be good candidates for your product or service. Your challenge is to figure this out as early in your communication with them as possible. Come up with at least 3 or 4 questions the answers to which will tell you if they\u2019re qualified to own your offering.<\/div>\n

Anyone who’s ever sold anything \u00a0– whether toothbrushes, printers, or stocks – can tell you a story about “the one that got away”. You know that story – the sale you were this close to closing – the one that would’ve made your year -only to have your potential client interrupted by an all too familiar distraction.<\/p>\n

If you’ve ever sold, you also know if you had changed just one thing – your story might have ended up a lot differently.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Sleazy<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2011, don’t fall victim to these sales killers. Avoiding these 10 things will get you more sales so hopefully, you have a lot less of “those stories” to tell.<\/p>\n

Sales Killer #1 \u2013 Lack of professional appearance. If you want people to listen to you and heed your advice regarding your product or service, you have to come across both in appearance and demeanor as a professional expert. This includes grooming and the level of confidence you exude. People will buy from you based more on your conviction and enthusiasm for your product than they will your product knowledge.<\/p>\n

Sales Killer #2 \u2013 Talking too much. When you\u2019re talking, you\u2019re telling. When you ask questions to get clients talking about their needs, you\u2019re selling. You\u2019re finding out what they want to own. Only then can you guide them to the right product or service.<\/p>\n

Sales Killer #3 \u2013 Your vocabulary. Words create pictures in our minds. Certain words that are inherent to selling turn people off. For example, I caution people in business to avoid using the word \u201ccontract\u201d when handling the details of a large sale. We all know that contracts are legally binding documents and require legal efforts to get out of them. If appropriate, call your contract an \u201cagreement,\u201d \u201cform,\u201d or \u201cpaperwork.\u201d The mental image is less threatening. Think about other words you use and replace any negative word-picture images with gentler, more positive ones.<\/p>\n

Sales Killer #4 \u2013 Not investing time in building rapport. Establishing good rapport builds trust. No one will want to make a purchase from someone they don\u2019t like and trust. Don\u2019t just jump right into a presentation on your product. Get to know your client a bit.<\/p>\n

Sales Killer #5 \u2013 Lack of a qualification system. A certain percentage of the people you talk with will not be good candidates for your product or service. Your challenge is to figure this out as early in your communication with them as possible. Come up with at least 3 or 4 questions the answers to which will tell you if they\u2019re qualified to own your offering.<\/p>\n

Sales Killer #6 – Not knowing when to stop presenting and close the sale. Too many salespeople think they have to tell potential clients everything they know about the product. Even after a client has indicated that the product is right for them, the salesperson keeps talking. Doing so could easily turn the client off about working with you and cost you the sale.<\/p>\n

Sales Killer #7 \u2013 Ego. Selling is a service business. You must set aside your wants and needs to serve the wants and needs of others. Get the dollar signs out of your eyes when you\u2019re with clients. If they suspect you\u2019re pushing the sale because of what\u2019s in it for you instead of what\u2019s in their best interests, they\u2019ll find another salesperson to do business with.<\/p>\n

Sales Killer #8 \u2013 Not knowing how to close. In many cases, all you have to do is ask a direct question in order to close a sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I have the red one you mentioned, do you want to take it with you today or shall I ship it to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWill you be making your purchase today by cash, check or credit card?\u201d<\/p>\n

Of \u00a0course there are many other ways to close. The point is that you need to actually do it. Never assume the sale without specifically asking for their business.<\/p>\n

Sales Killer #9 \u2013 Not paying attention to details. If you skim over details or shortcut your presentation because you\u2019ve done it so many times that you\u2019re bored with it, you\u2019ll lose sales. Remember, every presentation is new to your client. So give it with enthusiasm and without shortcuts unless your client indicates that certain details you would normally cover aren\u2019t of interest to them. This carries over to your paperwork and ability to handle a computer (if your orders are entered that way). Any missing information can cause clients to quickly lose faith in their decision to buy from you.<\/p>\n

Sales Killer #10 \u2013 Poor fulfillment. This ties into paying attention to details. If you or your company does not have the practices and policies in place to properly fulfill the expectations of your clients, you will work harder and harder to get new business. Invest some time and effort in knowing all aspects of product or service delivery to your clients. You should not promise anything above or beyond the company standard. Everyone should be expected to meet or exceed it.<\/p>\n

When the sales killers are avoided, you can achieve sales acceptance faster and will build your business through referrals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Any sales veteran can tell you a story about the one that got away. Veterans who are successful today learned valuable lessons from those situations and, hopefully, never repeated them. As challenging as the business of selling might be for some, losing sales is unbelievably easy. Learn from the mistakes of others so you won\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[384],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7595"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}