You know, I’m asked every single day for sales tricks, mind tricks and strategies to help people just like you to close the deal.

And of course there are ways to gain an advantage but in my book nothing can win over a genuine, caring and selfless sales person whose only interest is in helping you out.

Here’s an example of what I mean;

Last night a sales rep from Hillary’s Blinds came around our house to meet with us to discuss “kitting out” about 6 windows with various variations of blinds.

I got the usual “pep talk” from Donna, my wife, who told me to go easy on him!

So, there we sat going through samples, different types of blinds – you name it! (and at the same time I was trying to watch Brazil v Italy over his shoulder on Sky Sports!)

I was looking out for any sales tricks, what approach he was using – you name it and I look for it when I’m being sold to.

And that’s the thing with this chap. I was not being SOLD TO. Instead he was helping me to buy.

He was caring, he was genuine and kind. He was a trusted advisor in his field and knew his stuff inside out.

To cut a long story short it was actually a pleasurable 2 hours even if I did miss Robinho’s wonder goal! We were a couple of grand lighter in the pocket but both of us were happy with the deal and that’s what it’s all about.

Will I recommend this guy?

You bet.

What did he do that was special?

Nothing really. He just cared and listened exactly to what we wanted.

He was a SUPERB LISTENER.

More often then not, all you need to master are the basics to exceed your sales targets. You need to become a master of the doing the basics extraordinarily well – day in and day out.

That’s the key to modern day selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

I was recently asked to write an article for Equestrian Business Monthly Magazine providing some tips and techniques on how to get the most out of Trade Shows.

Now whilst this article is for the Equestrian industry, the content of the article is applicable for any company who exhibits or is thinking of exhibiting at a trade show.

Please CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD the 2 page PDF of the article.

Puor yourself a cuppa, print off the article and enjoy!

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

MTD specialise in sales training, sales coaching and http://www.mtdsalestraining.com/sales_consulting.html

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

So you’ve verified the decision maker, you’ve got them on the phone and you’re making a direct sale there and then – so just what is the best way to close the sale?

You know, closing a direct sale completely over the telephone requires a few different skills and techniques than closing in a face to face meeting.

In person, if you mess up, say the wrong thing or get an unusual objection—you’ve a good chance to recover and it’s very difficult for the prospect to hamper your continued attempts to close.

On the telephone however, you may only get one shot at closing the sale. And it does not take much for the prospect to abruptly END your closing attempts. All it takes is a “click” and you’re history.

Now I’m going to give you a simple and concrete closing methodology to use on the telephone that will help you maintain control and close more sales. Now I’m not talking about some off-pat answers or exact words here, but instead a way to think and to go about this.

Ok, in order to close a sale over the telephone you’ll need to:

1. Summarise the offer
2. Reference the future of the relationship
3. Use a transitional closing statement

Ok, first you’ll need to briefly summarize your offer, including prices, totals and particulars. Now this doesn’t have to be some long winded speech because you should have covered all of this before but you’ll want to bring it all together…

Here’s what I mean:

“So, Jo, what we’re talking about is the two cases of our Super Deluxe Widgets, at 50 per case, that’s 100 total, and that’s at the discounted rate of just £5 per Widget. That includes the lifetime warranty as well. As I mentioned, we’ll pick up all of the shipping costs on this…so the whole thing comes to just £500…”

So that’s the summary.

Ok. Then you want to look to the future.

This is critical over the telephone. You have to remember that in most cases the prospect has never met you. You may be hundreds or even thousands of miles away and they’re about to give money to a voice.

So you want to help the prospect to visualise a “relationship” and the future with you there. You do not want the call to end with the prospect feeling as though they placed a one- time – never going to hear from you again—order with a strange voice.

You need to Paint the picture of the future; of a continued relationship.

So use words and phrases like this “initial order” and “this order to get us started.” If it is repeat business, still do same. Use words and phrases like, “in our next order…” or “as our relationship grows” and “over the next few years…” etc.

Here’s what I mean:

“Jo, I’ll carefully analyze your savings over the next few months, and then we’ll know which way to go on future orders…”

“Jo, over the coming year, you’ll see how well these widgets perform, and then we can talk about outfitting the entire plant…”

“Steve, once you see how your customers love our packaging and the product jumps off the shelves, all I ask is that we’ll talk about adding a few more stores in the by the end of the year…”

And finally, use a closing statement that makes it EASY for the prospect to buy!

Try something like one of these three closing statements:

“Does that make sense?”

This is a great transitional closing statement. Just ask the prospect if what you just proposed makes sense.

Or use something to the effect of, “Does that sound like a good fit for your office, Karen?”

Or third, “Is that fair enough?”

This is really good if you’ve changed the offer or reduced the price. You may have begun with a closing statement like, “Does that make sense?” And the prospect objected.

You then build value, and build value and build even more value and then you slightly reduce the price. Now you might close with, “Is that fair enough, Steve?”

So let’s put this all together:

1. You need to summarise the offer
2. Reference the future of the relationship
3. Use a transitional closing statement

“So, Jo, what we’re talking about is the two cases of our Super Deluxe Widgets, at 50 per case, that’s 100 total, and that’s at the discounted rate of just £5 per Widget. And that includes the lifetime warranty as well. As I mentioned, I’m going to pick up all the shipping on this initial order…so the whole thing comes to just £500 to get us started. And we can talk about discounts on future orders once our widgets have started to save you money in your bills, does that make sense?”

Here’s another example:

“So, Graham, what we’re looking at for this initial order, is the District-level version of our Help Desk Plus, which includes the six months of free maintenance and upgrades. I’m also going to add two weeks of on-site consultation during the installation and that’s at no charge to get our relationship started. So, the whole thing comes to just £2,670. And when you see how much more productive your staff become, and how much you save this year we take a serious look at our enterprise-wide edition that will shave off another 15% of your outgoings – is that fair enough?”

You know, closing directly over the telephone is the hardest sale to make. It’s a different animal altogether but with the right approach you’ll soon be outperforming everyone else in your company.

Happy Closing

Sean

Sean McPheat
MTD Sales Training

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

Check out our MTD Sales Podcasts

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

More objections, more price bashing, the economy excuse, stalling tactics, gatekeepers from hell and elusive decision makers – just what is going on in the world of selling?

Well, to me, it’s obvious – today’s buyers have changed; they are more advanced, sales savvy and more sophisticated than ever before and they’ll take the shirt off your back if you’ll let them too!

But here’s the question: WHY?

Well, let me give you 5 reasons why this is so.

REASON # 1 is that the internet has changed the face of selling as we know it. Before the internet it was very difficult for any buyer to check up on anything that the sales person was saying.

Not so today.

With a couple of clicks of the mouse they can get information about your company, your products and services, your clients, your turnover and even information about you.

They can then go on over to your competitors site and do exactly the same. Just think about how cars used to be sold?

Before the internet you’d most likely have to go to a dealership where the sales person would you show you the cars and tell you all about them. Today, a prospect turns up armed with print outs and specs about the cars they are interested in, HP checks and information about competitor models where they are visiting next.

This is the same for mobile phones, software, B2B products and services – almost anything can be checked out, read up on and verified due to the internet.

So the modern day buyer is more informed than their predecessors and you need to know and appreciate that fact.

REASON # 2 is that they are far more sales savvy then ever before.

A lot of them have even read the same books as you and have been on the same courses as you too. You also need to remember that they have been SOLD TO more often than a lot of sales people have actually sold especially in a business 2 business environment.

So they know the tricks, they know the process that you might go through and they are tired of the same old bull.

You’ve also got to appreciate that a lot of today’s buyers also need to know techniques about selling too.

Whether that be selling ideas internally, selling themselves or whether they sell a product too – this type of knowledge is becoming a must-have in today’s commercial world.

REASON # 3 is that the modern day buyer understands that the balance of power has changed – no longer do they have to hang on every word that you say. Quite simply put it has become a buyers market.

They know that they can find alternatives to what you offer very quickly, they know that they can play you off against other suppliers and they’ll demand more value at a lower price all of the time.

REASON # 4 is the fear of failure.

The damage that might occur to their career, their self esteem and their standing in the company if they select the wrong product or service is more prevalent now that at any time in history and it’s important to bare that in mind when you sell.
That’s why there are so many committee decisions these days.

A lot of buyers have to also get internal buy in and input from other parts in their business before a decision is made so you might often find yourself talking to a number of different people before a decision is made.

REASON # 5 is the state of the economy. A lot of your buyers will use this excuse even if it does not affect them directly. They’ll use it to squeeze the life out of your prices, to play games with you and to stall on decisions.

You know, it’s very important to understand the modern buyer of today because the old sales tactics of yesteryear are simply less effective with them nowadays than they once were.

So my take away action for you is this: think about how you are currently selling to the modern day buyer in light of what I’ve covered.

What can you do differently to all of the rest of the sales people out there?

You know, sometimes you don’t even need to be better to get the business, sometimes you just need to be different.

Sure, you’ll get some buyers who don’t do any of what I’ve said during this session but the tide is turning and it’s turning fast and when you do come across a sophisticated and sales savvy buyer, you’ll need to have a different approach to make them sign on the dotted line.

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

MTD offer sales training, sales coaching and sales consulting to all types of businesses!

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

Raw Entrepreneur Magazine Feature

How To Blitz Your Sales Targets In 2009

I was recently interviewed in Raw Entrepreneur Magazine for my thoughts on how sales people can blitz their targets in 2009.

Please CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD the article. I’ve put it into a 2 page PDF doc.

I hope you enjoy it!

Happy Selling

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

Useful Resources:
Sales Audio Tips – MTD Sales Podcasts
Sales Blog – Sean McPheat’s tips and advice
Sales Training Courses – MTD offer in-house and open courses

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

We all talk about what you should be doing during sales presentations but what about what you shouldn’t be doing?!

Here’s 5 sales presentation mistakes to avoid at all costs:

1. Don’t bore your clients about the features all of the time. Yes, do mention them but spend more time on their benefits

2. Off The Shelf RIP – Make sure that you bespoke and tailor each of your sales presentations. It’s not one size fits all.

3. Seeing your presentation as a transaction and not a relationship. You want to have a long term relationship with your prospects. It shouldn’t be viewed as a one off transaction. Make sure you mention this in your presentations.

4. It’s all about ME ME ME! Make sure you relate your presentation to your prospects. Don’t just spend time talking about you, your products and services and your company. Involve your prospects and talk about their situation, hopes and aspirations.

5. Not clarifying the next steps. During your presentation everyone needs to be crystal clear about what the next steps are? Poor presentations end with a whimper and a tumbleweed!

Avoid these mistakes and you’ll deliver more effective sales presentations that will get you closer to the sale.

Happy Sales Presentations!

Sean

Sean McPheat
MTD Sales Training

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

PS Don’t forget to check out my MTD Sales Podcasts

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

There are 3 types of sales people in this world….

There are:

1. Those that make things happen

2. Those that watch things happen

and those that say “Oh my god, what happened?”

As a sales person you need to make things happen.
You need to create
You need to get out there and prospect
You need to make connections
You need generate the pipeline
You need to work your sales process
You need to follow up
You need to educate yourself about the client
You need to educate yourself about your industry
You need to educate yourself about the sales profession

I could go on and on and on!

Don’t wait around waiting for that big deal or allow things to happen to you.

Get out there and MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Happy Selling!

Sean
Sean McPheat
MTD Sales Training

Telephone 0800 849 6732

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…