The Selling Newsletter
The Selling Quote for the Month
“Chris Matthews listens with his mouth.”
Denny Hatch, Direct Marketing Guru
If you watch CNBC you know what Denny Hatch means about Chris Matthews. Chris Matthews often interrupts the guests he speaks with, especially when he disagrees with them. He often talks very fast and gets louder to talk over his guests. One way he listens with his mouth is to get in their face as he tries to make his points. I’ll bet his guests don’t feel like he heard what they had to say. What’s this have to do with sales? I’m sure there are times you have strong opinions as you talk with customers. There’s nothing wrong with having strong opinions in sales. After all, you had better have strong positive opinions about the products and services you sell. If you’re going to listen with your mouth to sell, you have to do it the right way. The way that Matthews does it is wrong for sales. Instead of talking over a customer, pushing your own point of view or even arguing, why not first use your mouth to demonstrate that you’ve heard the other person’s point of view? Explain what you’ve heard and understood. Ask for clarification to make sure you got it right. It might not be good television to listen with your mouth that way, but when customers feel like they’re heard, they’re more likely to buy. You’re not on television. You’re there to sell.
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THE BLOG S AND OTHER COLUMNS
I’m now writing The Real Deal, a column on women in business for Allbusiness.com
Worried for Women
You know what happens when things get tough. You’ve probably heard the saying, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. But what happens to the ones who aren’t so strong? When the going gets tough, the weak get stomped. This is a scary economy. Times are tough. So what’s going to happen to women in business? Unless they’re tough, they’re going to get stomped. Here’s how to toughen up..
If you want to read more
I’m also writing a sales blog for Salesmecca.com. Here’s a recent post:
Who’s Taking Care of You?
Here’s a quote from an email I got from a friend. “I’ve been working 10-14 hours a day, 7 days a week for the last 4 months. Needless to say, I feel like I’m going to drop dead on my feet. However, the good news is after next week I am going to take a week off and sleep. No work, no kids, no husband, no phone and certainly no computer!” My advice to her was to start saying “no” more and redefining the work she is accepting.
If you want to read more.
Leave your comments and I would love to respond to you.
I’m now a guest columnist for the Dallas Business Journal. My column is called “Customer Connections.” I’ll be answering readers’ questions about selling. Do you have any selling questions? Send them to info@bestatselling.com
What’s sales tip has helped you be even more successful in sales?
Send your helpful tip to tip@bestatselling.com
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The Selling Ideas for this Month
Fancy Footwork
Picture this. You’re at your next sales call. A customer lobs a difficult question at you. You effortlessly respond with an answer that calms your customer, pleases him and leaves him smiling. Seem like a dream to you? You can make this dream a reality when you do a better job of thinking on your feet. Here’s how you can make your dream come true.
Don’t answer this. Dianna Booher is the author of 42 books including Contact to Contract: 496 Proven Sales Tips to Generate More Leads, Close More Deals, Exceed Your Goals and Make More Money. She is also CEO of Booher Consultants, a communication training firm (www.Booher.com.) One of the sales challenges that trips up sales professionals is when customers ask hypothetical questions. A hypothetical question posits a “What if?” situation. Booher says, “Answering hypothetical questions will get you in trouble.” Yet salespeople often confuse hypothetical questions with clarification questions. Clarification questions ask for more information. Clarification questions must always be answered. Booher points out the differences. She says that hypothetical questions have a lot of emotion and contain a lot of detail. To handle hypothetical questions, Booher advises salespeople to focus on the issue or concern, not the details in the question.
Here’s how to respond to a hypothetical question. The question is “What about the rumor that your company is merging and there’s a management shake up? If there’s a new vice president, he could change the design for the airplane wing. That will put our production behind schedule and increase costs. What will you do?” You should respond by addressing the questioner’s concern about change. You respond, “Is your concern about our flexibility with change? Let’s talk about that.”
Is it this or that? Another trap is the two-option question. You have a limited choice if a customer asks you, “Can you or can’t you install this equipment by March 10?” With only two choices, you may be forced to present yourself or your products unfavorably. Unless you can easily answer the question, you should expand your options. Your answer should focus on what you want to address. Without knowing all the extenuating circumstances about meeting a March 10 deadline, you could respond, “Meeting a deadline is important and it’s especially important that we have the right model. Here’s what we’re doing to ensure that that happens.” Of course if your customer asks the question again, you should answer it. Expect two option questions when you close. Just be prepared to expand the options.
In your face. Customers who have had a bad experience in the past will ask hostile questions. Hostile questions contain “hot” words. “Why do we have to experience ridiculous delays when we order?” is a hostile question. To defuse the situation, the salesperson should reword the question without the hot words. The salesperson eliminates the word “ridiculous” and answers, “If you’re asking why it takes 48 hours to receive product, we have a quality process to ensure that on spec product is delivered.” Booher suggests that salespeople use a soften technique with hostile questions. The technique involves reversing all the things that make you energetic and animated. This deescalates emotions. To do this, avoid voice inflection, soften your voice, avoid using your hands when you speak and be firm and address the question as if it were routine.
You can think better on your feet when you avoid giving an answer on the spot. Booher suggests buying thinking time by playing with props. She says, “Five or six seconds is an eternity for thinking about how to respond. Restack your paper. Close your briefcase. Repeat the question to ask if you’ve understood it. This will give you more time to answer.”
In the perfect sales world, we could script our calls and have customers ask us only the questions we want to answer. That will never happen. Instead we can be prepared to think better on our feet and give great answers to customers’ tough questions. Now that’s some fancy footwork.
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Action Items
1. Look back at your sales calls. What questions have you answered that you should have answered differently?
2. Plan your strategies for future questions.
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Programs
When: January 23, January 30, February 6, February 13
11.30 AM- 1:30 PM
Where: Small Business Development Center
4800 West Park Blvd.
Plano, TX
What: Master Selling Series For more information: 972-985-3749 or
972-985-3758
Here are some selling tools to help you sell more now. Click on the photo to find out more!
Sales Quotes: A book that has quick ideas for you to be more successful in sales. Real-World Selling: A book with selling skills and strategies that work in the real world of sales. Secrets of Persuasion: Audio CD for the clues to use to speed-read people and close more business.
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Articles from this newsletter may be used in your free publications or posted on your web when given the following credit:
Written by Maura Schreier-Fleming, Best@Selling (https://www.bestatselling.com/). Maura Works with business and sales professionals who want to sell more and be more productive at work. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results.
For free articles, selling ideas and morale boosters
visit https://www.BestatSelling.commore »
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About Maura Schreier-Fleming
Invite Maura to speak at your next conference or sales meeting! Contact: info@bestatselling.com
Maura Schreier-Fleming works with business and sales professionals to make it easier to sell more and be more productive at work. Her Best@Selling clients want to create long-term client relationships. They include Fujitsu, Fannie Mae and Dr Pepper/7UP. She has an M.S. in Textile Engineering from Georgia Tech and was Mobil Oil’s first female lubrication engineer in the U.S. With over 20 years of sales experience, she teaches the art and science of selling with a unique hands-on perspective and a great deal of real-life insight. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results (a book filled with ideas to make selling easier and more productive. Her business column ‘Selling Strategies’ appears in the Insurance Record magazine and her column ‘Street Talk’ appears in Jobbers World. You can contact her for seminars at company or trade association meetings at 972 380 0200 or info@BestatSelling.com
Privacy: At Best@Selling we take privacy issues very seriously. Your information remains with us and will never be sold, shared, or distributed in any manner, for any reason.
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Contact Information
1. Our Web site: www.BestatSelling.com
2. E-mail: info@bestatselling.com
3. Call: In Dallas 972 380 0200
4. Write us:
6757 Arapaho Rd., Suite 711-183
Dallas, TX 75248
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