I have spent most of the last three decades teaching good people how to become great sales people. In doing that, most of my focus was on teaching them what to do – what are the steps they need to take on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.
One of my mentors in college was a man named Don Cheyne. An education degree requires a period of practice teaching in a public school classroom. Don was my supervisor when I did my practice teaching. Don said, “Sometimes the key to being a great teacher is to be able to come up with a hundred different ways to say the same thing. Everyone learns in the way that they learn – which is not always the same as the way you initially teach.”
As I moved into a sales leadership role, I never relied on just one method of doing anything. I would get creative and come up with numerous was to accomplish the same results. One of my favorite ways to teach people to close a sale was to embrace the prospect’s natural inclination to tell a sales person, “no.” They would rather say “no” – so why not get them to say “yes” by saying “no.” Then I would teach them to use the following closing question at the end of their discovery and recommendations – “Do you see any reason we shouldn’t move forward on this?”
Thus, when they said, “no”, they were saying “yes” and I had actually closed the sale.
So, instead of telling you some great things to do – I am going to direct you to a great post I just read from Jim Keenan about the 11 things great sales people don’t do.
Enjoy!
http://asalesguy.com/2013/12/12/the-11-things-great-sales-people-dont-do/
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