So what does make a good salesperson?

Well, if I had a pound for everytime someone has asked me that question I don’t think I’d have to ever sell again!

That said here are my top 8 attributes (in no particular order but #1 is!)

1. The Desire To Help People

Note how I said “to help people” and not to “sell them”. The role of a salesperson is to help prospects and clients overcome some kind of problem and yes, this means at times that you’ll need to walk away if you can’t help them.

2. Listen, Listen, Listen!

Good salespeople have fantastic listening skills. They are no pre-occupied with what they are going to say. Instead they listen attentively to what their prospect is saying and act upon their agenda at all times. Two ears, one mouth and all that…

3. Questions Are The Key

Following on from the above the ability to ask quality questions is a vital skills for any good salesperson. Good questions will unearth needs, wants and pain and only then can the salesperson go to work by fixing these areas with their solutions.

4. Belief

Good salespeople have belief in themselves and in what they are selling. If you don’t believe in what you sell then you are fooling yourself and your prospects and clients. Here’s the acid test question as to whether you believe in your product or not: Imagine your mother or father was in the market for what you sell; could you, hand on heart, sit them down and give them a thorough presentation of what you sell and give them no discount whatsoever until they say yes. And would you be able to sleep at night? If the answer is yes then you believe. If not, get the hell out of here!

5. They Don’t Give Up

Face facts – you’ll probably get more “No’s” than “Yes’s”. But do you give up or do you keep moving forward? Good salespeople appreciate and accept that hearing a “no” is part of the sales process and if you’re not hearing some no’s then you aren’t selling hard enough.

6. No Cheese Please

The days of the “Have I got a deal for you” salesperson are over. Well, at least they should be if you’re going to be successful! People want to know, like and trust you so make sure that you put steps in place to accomplish just that.

7. They Understand The Science Of Their Selling

Good salespeople understand their numbers. They understand the value of their ratios at each step of the sales process and they use the numbers to continually improve and develop to improve the ratios at each step of the process.

8. They Continually Develop Their Skills

I was talking at a conference last month about the important of continuing to learn and develop new skills. The audience of Sales Directors and Sales Managers were astonished when I told them that I had invested in over 30 days worth of training during 2008. How did I do this? Well, by listening to sales, management, marketing and personal development CD’s in my car. Here’s the quick math; 30 minutes to work and 30 minutes home each day. This equates to 1 hour per day or 5 hours per week. 5 hours x 52 weeks = 260 hours. 260 hours divided by 7 hours in a working day = 37 days!
I haven’t taken into account time travelled to prospects, functions, clients etc but I’ve included 52 weeks to even that up.

What are you doing to improve your skills? Can you beat me? Bet you can’t!

Ok, so that’s my top 8 attributes of makes a good salesperson. There are others to add to the list but I’d bet that if you mastered these alone then you would be one hell of a salesperson!

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training
www.mtdsalestraining.com

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

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Here’s a radio interview I had for Insight Radio about the winners mindset!

Insight Radio was Europe’s first radio station for blind and partially sighted people and I was very pleased to do a 6 part series for them on success and personal development.

Here’s the recording which you can listen to now via streaming or you can download to your computer or ipod:

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Happy Selling

Sean

Sean McPheat
MTD Sales Blog

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

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See, there are honest car salespeople out there!

In fact a lot of your buyers would appreciate a more direct approach from you too (but maybe not this direct!)

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Happy Selling

Sean
MTD Sales Blog

Sean McPheat
The Sales Jedi
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!

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Just imagine if you were faced with a selling situation and you could look up which direction or action to take from a book that contained step by step instructions written down by the very best sales people in your company – do you think that would improve your results?

Of course it would!

Well, enter the SALES PLAYBOOK!

Now for those of you that a familiar with American Football you’ll have heard of what a playbook is but for those that don’t here’s a quick explanation. A playbook lists all of the moves, positions and tactics that an American Football team uses.

The Quaterback calls out instructions via a special password or series of numbers and everyone on the offensive team knows exactly what to do, where to go and what their role is during that play.

The same analogy can be said with a Sales Playbook. It’s what moves you need to take as a salesperson to get a successful outcome.

So what should a Sales Playbook include?

Well, your playbook should list all of your sales processes from beginning to end. It should detail what to do, what to say, who to get involved, what resources you need, what you need to send the prospect, what to do next – you name it!

You should be able to pick up the playbook and know EXACTLY what to do to maximise your chances of success.

So how should you put a Sales Playbook together?

Well, get your best sales people around a table and map out each of your sales processes (and these can be by industry, product, service – whatever to make it bespoke and specific to your company) and find out who is the best sales person at each step of each process and ask them what they do and then write down what they do and how they do.

Soon you’ll have a “play by play” book of best practices which will become your holy grail!

There’s lot’s more to a Sales Playbook than what I have mentioned but at least you can make a start if you’re not using one already.

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
The Sales Jedi
MTD Sales Training

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

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What are your hit rates?

Do you understand the numbers behind your selling?

If you are deadly serious about becoming the best sales person you can be then you need to understand the numbers at EACH and EVERY stage of your entire sales process. Whatever you do, you need to measure it, keep score, track it and then improve it and then modify it and so on and so forth…

Did you know that even the NYPD keeps tabs on each of the shootings that their officers make?

Oh yes!

In a report published by the NY Times it was revealed that the majority of shots made by NY police officers actually miss their target! (See, it’s not only sales people!)

NYPD only had a “hit rate” of 34% and when you think that the majority of officer combat is conducted less than 10 feet away then that’s a remarkable low stat!

So what’s your “hit rate”? I’m not just talking about your closing ratios, but what’s your “hit rate” at each stage of your sales process.

I’m talking about areas like:

# of calls made
# of calls answered
% of calls spoken to a decision maker
% of calls returned from left answerphone messages
# of meetings made
# of meetings actually taken place
etc etc

You get the picture.

NYPD have set themselves some stiff measures to improve their “hit rates” – and at least they know what their current performance is.

So if you ever have the unfortunate position of being faced with a gun from a NY Cop you know you’ll be ok 66% of the time so leg it!

You’ll need to know what your numbers are as well when a prospect looks down the barrell of your gun too!

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
The Sales Jedi
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling

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!

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I’ve just been fortunate enough (I think!) to interview the world’s laziest, most unsuccessful sales person and entrepreneur and he’s given me his top 7 tips for guaranteeing that you’ll get nothing done. So please, put down that “to do list”, close that MS calender and take his advice right now!

TIP # 1 – Use The 2 Step Lead Qualification Model
Don’t bother qualifying your prospects. There, that’ll save you about 20 days per year in time alone! Instead, have an open door policy and use the two step model for qualification:

Step 1
Has the prospect got a pulse? If yes, please move on to step 2, if no then what are you doing talking to dead people or pieces of furniture?!

Step 2
Place a mirror in front of the prospect’s face and ask them to breathe on the mirror. Do they make some condensation on the mirror? If yes then they are a qualified prospect, if no then you’re in real trouble!

TIP # 2 – The Short Cut Way To Prioritize Your Tasks (if you have them that is!)
Write down your top 10 tasks and put them on 10 pieces of A4 paper. Go to the top of the stairs and thrown them all up in the air at the same time. The sheet of paper that makes it down the stairs the furthest is the task you should start on and then work you’re way up the stairs in order. See, who needs a £500 time management system after all, this one’s free!

TIP # 3 – When Harry Met Sally Works For Me!
As Meg Ryan groaned “YES, YES, YES!” Don’t learn to say NO to get more done instead say YES to everything! You won’t have the embarrassing feelings of letting anyone down too!

TIP # 4 – Start Work Later
None of this “get to work 1 hour earlier each day and you’ll make up an additional 30 odd days a year in work” Just imagine an additional 30 odd days worth in bed!? Yeah baby Yeah!

TIP # 5 – Business Plans & Sales Plans Are For Whimps
Why have a plan of what you’d like to achieve with your business or sales when you can just “go with the flow”. Heck, writing things down is hard work and there’s loads of great shows on the TV so fitting the time in is really difficult to write the list.

TIP # 6 – Ask Yourself “Will meeting this prospect today get me out of the office and will it enable me to drive straight home afterwards instead of going back to the office?”
If the answer is yes then get that booked into the diary quickly before someone else gets the lead.

TIP # 7 – Make A To Do List For The To Do List
To do lists are over-rated but if you have to make one make sure you plan it out and make a to do list for the to do list. This makes sure it never gets done. And anyway, by the time you’ve written the damn thing it changes anyway and it makes a right mess of your writing pad!

Interviewing the world’s most unsuccessful and laziest sales person and entrepreneur was a real joy and a positively uplifting experience (NOT!). In-fact, it was a complete waste if my time! So read the advice of my “interviewee”, learn from it and completely ignore it!

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
The Sales Jedi – Master Of The Sales Force!
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!

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For those of you that have been on any of my 121 coaching or consulting programmes and have gotten to know the “Real Sean” (whatever that means!) then:

A. You know that I’m a big fan of the The Godfather films!

and

B. You also know that I am obsessive about knowing all there
is to know about the competition

Now these two points actually came together nicely when Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) said in the movie:

“Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer”

You see, you need to know everything there is to know about your competition. And I am VERY big on this.

My question to you is this:

What are you doing on a monthly basis to keep your enemies even closer?

Forget about sales techniques, tips and strategies for a moment and focus in on your competition.

Here are some areas that you SHOULD know. If I called you right now and asked you about these questions or areas you should be able to tell me the answers without hesitation.

Are you ready?

Now this is not an exhaustive list but it will give you an idea of what I mean by keeping the enemy close!

Here goes:

When was the last time that you stood in your own queues and mystery shopped your own company?

What is easy? What did you learn?

Who are your top 5 competitors?

When was the last time that you stood in their queues and mystery shopped them as a prospect?

Where are they based? How many staff do they have?
How much do they turnover? What’s their profits?

What products and services do they offer that are:
A. The same as yours
B. Different to yours

What are their key USP’s? Per company and per product and service?

How much do they cost? Are there any fluctuations in the prices they charge?

What do their proposals look like? What are their payment terms?

What was their speed of response for email enquiries? What did the email say? Did you get an email response to an email enquiry or did they call you?

Did you speak to a receptionist when you called them? Were you put through to the “sales department”?

When did you call your competition and say “I love your product but I also like ABC’s product too (where ABC is your company/product) Please can you tell me the differences between your company and theirs? (This gets you to know what the competition are saying to the same prospects you are
going after about you)

In summary:

You get the picture here! There are many other areas and questions to explore.

But you need to know the competition inside out (and don’t forget you need to do this type of thing with all of the information about your industry as a whole too! But I’ll leave that for another time)

There are many ways to do all of the above and I must admit I am a master at it! (So modest in my old age)

So, are you keeping your enemies close? Or are you so busy sorting your own house out that you are neglecting this very important area.

If you are, don’t beat yourself up about it but you need to start now. In a changing economy “your enemy” might be constantly changing what they are doing to stay ahead of the game – you need to know this and then go one better.

Action:
Get some base level knowledge about all of the areas above and then schedule in a couple of days each quarter to revisit your intelligence and go again.

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
MTD Sales Training

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

Click here for the MTD Sales Blog

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!

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Sales Performance Coaching – How To Be Your Own Sales Coach

One of the key skills that you need to master if you are going to be the top sales person in your company is that of being able to review your own sales performance.

Don’t just rely on your sales manager or sales director to coach you to improve your performance.

Instead, I recommend that you learn how to become your very own sales coach!

I’ve recorded a short 4 minute audio that will give you some tips on how to be your own sales performance coach. You can download the audio to your computer, your ipod, MP3 player or you can listen to it online right now.

The choice is yours sales coach!

[display_podcast]

Sean

Sean McPheat
MTD Sales Blog

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!

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Body Language Tactics For Successful Sales People

I’ve asked my long time friend and public speaking guru Aileen Bennett to write a guest blog for me today. Aileen is an award winning public speaker who is Brit living in America.

You know, body language plays an important part in face to face sales interactions so read carefully to the tips that Aileen is about to tell you:

As a sales person it’s not always what you say that clinches or loses the deal, but how you say it. If you say one thing and give another message with your body, people will ALWAYS believe what your body language over your words. And it gets worse, not only will they believe your body language – they will also assume that they know what it means.

If your words and body language aren’t congruent your buyers won’t trust you; If you show that you are nervous your buyers won’t trust you. If you aren’t sure of yourself, they won’t be sure of you. You need to be physically and mentally confident for them to have confidence in you.

The easiest way to get your body language to match what you are saying and therefore, get your buyer to believe what you say is… to sell something you really believe in, to know your product, know it is a good deal. Your job is to convey this honestly and match the right product with the right person. If you believe in what you are selling there is a good chance that your potential customers will too. Faking body language is an art that you probably don’t have time to perfect unless you are a scam artist. If you don’t feel sure about selling something – don’t do it!

Where learning about your body does help is for salespeople who are sure of their product, sure it’s a good deal, sure they are selling for to the right person or company but aren’t sure of their own ability as a salesperson. They tend to get uneasy about closing a deal, or talking about money, and their body language shows this uneasiness and it is perceived as doubt in the sale.

Your body can make it seem you are asking a question or leaving room for negotiation (or doubt):
by raising your eyebrows
by the tone of your voice going up at the end of your sentence
by a slight shoulder shrug
by turning your palms upwards as you speak
by a slight holding of your breath after you finish speaking (as if waiting for a question)
by a tilt of the head to one side or the other
by pursing your lips

You need to practice the parts of the sale that make you nervous – talking about money gets easier over time, say the amount to yourself over and over until it sounds normal. Compare it to other things until you are comfortable with the amount. Think of it as potatoes rather than currency. Whatever it takes, do it. When you exhibit any sign of nervousness or ‘question’ after you have mentioned money, your prospect will not trust you in the same way as if you were confident about it. Smile and delight in telling them the price – if you believe they are getting a bargain you are giving them good news, not bad.
Relax when you ask them for their business (I believe you should be closing from the beginning and this step is hardly necessary) but it should be the fun bit. You have a great product or service and you have found the right match for it. Enjoy.

Once you change your mindset you will change your experience. You will spend more time listening than speaking, more time evaluating what your buyer needs and creating a match. More time watching their body language than monitoring your own.

Aileen Bennett www.thatspeaker.com

You can do your part by continually learning about communication, update and remind yourself of your skills, sign up for weekly communication tips at http://www.thatspeaker.com/newsletter.htm the most valuable thing to land in your in-box every week. Aileen Bennett is a professional speaker and author who is obsessed with communication so you don’t have to be.

Hope you enjoyed that guest blog? If you are interested in writing a guest post please email me.

Thanks again

Sean McPheat
MTD Sales Blog

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!

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Well, it’s a Friday and it’s time for reflection on the week that you’ve just had in sales.

Did you give it your upmost best? What went well? What didn’t go so well?

You see for us sales people, it’s the small things that count. It’s those one percenters that when you add them all up, make a huge difference to winning the business or not.

Al Pacino says it all in the video below.

So if you ever need a little bit of inspiration, need a kick up the backside or just need to regroup and “go again” listen to this. With the economy as it the only way out is to fight!

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Sean

Sean McPheat
MTD Sales Blog
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…