General Sales Skills

  There’s one bugbear that most salespeople tell us about when we run Sales Training for them. And it’s the lack of ability to get the decision-maker’s name when calling a company. Now, I totally understand the rationale behind why […]

  We often get salespeople asking “What’s the best ‘close’ I can use?” or “How can I ‘close the sale’ more often?” Putting the emphasis on the ‘close’ can be a big mistake in the sales process. Too often, the […]

In any profession there is the risk that you will pick up bad habits, and it often seems the longer you have been doing the job the more bad habits you have accrued and the harder it is for you […]

  In our consultancies and trainings with salespeople, we consistently get asked how to be successful in the career they have chosen. There are so many answers to this question, and many books have been written with authors’ opinions on […]

  Have you heard of matching and mirroring? It’s something that we regularly cover on our Sales Training Courses, but do you know what it is and the background behind it all? It’s the concept psychologists talk about when they […]

This is an interesting question that came up in one of recent sales courses. The sales person wanted to know if there was an ideal time period to spend on idle chit-chat (or rapport-building, as he termed it) before getting […]

Many business people think they know what a sales professional does with their day and could map out exactly how the average sales person spends their time, which would probably involve a few meetings, some cold calling and (of course) […]

  All salespeople are judged on the results they achieve. It’s no good making all the calls, completing all the paperwork, asking for the sale countless times and overcoming sales objections time and time again if the orders aren’t coming […]

  We have all heard the terminology about the so called “Hot Button.” “You have to find the prospect’s hot buttons…” “Push their hot buttons…” etc. But here is a question for you: What exactly are hot buttons? The last […]

  Closing the sale is one thing. However successfully managing the account is yet another level of selling entirely. In particularly, when dealing with large, major or key accounts; after the sale management is where the actual selling begins. The […]

  You did everything right. You maintained an excellent prospecting track and qualified the decision maker. You got through a tough gatekeeper screen, set a good appointment, and sealed it with cement. The sales interaction was flawless; you covered every […]

  We all know the old rule-of-thumb in selling which is to try not to reveal or discuss the price of what you are selling, until after you have completed your sales presentation. However, dealing with today’s modern, more educated […]

  Once in a while, (and it really should be just once in a while,) there comes the time when you absolutely have to lower your price to close the sale. While this may seem like a simple and easy […]

  For some reason, an intrinsic part of human nature is to desire that which is forbidden. It seems that whatever it is that we cannot, or should not have, are the very things we want most. Take anything, and […]

  You’ve spent years perfecting your craft and learning everything there is to know about what you sell and the competition. However, you have to be careful not to allow that knowledge to flow too swiftly. The Instant Response Of […]