In a post for Eyes on Sales, Kevin Eikenberry outlines several uncommon approaches you can use for better presentations. More visuals, less words. Eikenberry says many PowerPoint presentations have too many words, and suggests replacing the words on your slides with images; but pictures hat help tell your story. More emotion, less logic. “Give your audience the facts they need, but don’t overload them,” he writes. It’s also important, he says, to speak to the emotional part of people as well. More stories, less “facts”. Eikenberry suggests creating stories around your…

 

In a post for the Jonathan Farrington blog, Farrington explains the difference between selling and negotiating. “The fundamental difference between selling and negotiation is that selling is a process to identify the fit between what the seller is offering and what the buyer is seeking,” he writes. “Negotiation is the process of agreeing the terms of the deal and is part of the selling continuum.” Farrington says the negotiation should only begin when there is a genuine commitment from the buyer and seller towards a conditional sale. Farrington says negotiations are…

In a post for Heavy Hitter Sales, Steve W. Martin explains how to close using sales linguistics. Martin says closing sales calls should employ a primary closing strategy, utilize fallback positions, and select the appropriate technique to deliver the close. He offers up several examples of commands (hard close), foreground suggestions (medium close) and background suggestions (soft close) to use in sales situations. (See Recruiting Sales Reps: How Do You Recognize a Winner?) Time-based technique. Command (hard close). “This is the last time we’ll be able to extend this offer and we need…

 

In a post for Mind Mulch, Don Perkins offers up a few translations for the often heard phrase ‘your price is too high.’ “Stop thinking about what you’re going to say next and think about why I am saying it,” he writes. This Is a Good Deal, But I Feel Obligated To Get You To lower Your Price Anyway Perkins says many B2B prices are bloated and many B2B sales reps are desperate for business and when pressured, will sacrifice their margins in order to win the business. “I am simply…

 

In a post for Both Sides of the Table, Mark Suster outlines the best way to negotiate with buyers. “I could sum up my negotiation mentality as a seller in one phrase that I’ve used as short-hand for my portfolio companies for years, ‘Everybody wants their pound of flesh’,” he writes. So as distasteful as it might be to you,it’s vital to build in a buffer into your negotiations, Suster says. (See Where to Go For Software Negotiation Training) After dealing with your buyer and making concessions (dropping the price, including more…

In a post for the Customer Collective, Frank Belzer offers up some tips on controlling the selling process. “Sometimes sales people have to navigate dangers and there are points in every sales relationship where things could and often do go disastrously wrong,” he writes. Belzer says, often times, too many sales people jump and do what the prospects ask rather than helping the prospect work within their process. Start off in control He advises talking to the right person, describe your process, let them know how you want to be treated and…

Ignoring customers is never in a company’s best interest.

When a customer is angry, it become increasingly important to mollify them. But your efforts shouldn’t stop there. That customer can become an advocate for your company with the right approach. That’s precisely what Jonathan Farrington, sales expert, aims to demonstrate in a recent article. The way you solve a customer problem says a lot about your company. Although you may be at fault, that doesn’t mean that your customer has entirely written you off. That’s the backbone of Farrington’s argument; the point…

The focus of most salespeople is typically inward, toward the sales process.

Because of this, external factors are often ignored. And this is where the buying process is rooted. Your customers aren’t concerned about how you manage your leads or feed prospects through a pipeline — they want to be spoken to on their terms. Salespeople that can facilitate the buying process are at a distinct competitive advantage, writes David Brock of Partners in Excellence. A salesperson’s role within the buying process should be a supportive one. The buying process belongs to…

When your salespeople need a coach, make sure you’re not playing the role of a manger.

Sales situations that arise during the course of a quarter rarely ever call for both coaching and management. It’s either one or the other and the two are mutually exclusive. If you can’t differentiate between them, you may be in trouble, writes S. Anthony Iannarino. What are the main differences between a sales manager and a sales coach? A manager is, first and foremost, all about the numbers. A sales coach is concerned about the…

In a post for the Jonathan Farrington’s blog, Farrington explains why consultative selling isn’t quite dead yet. Farrington says in the next three years, around 90% of external sales roles are going to disappear leaving those individuals that remain who will be extremely influential. “Developing a consultative sales process means developing a comprehensive, formal, realistic, and step-by-step outline of what salespeople are expected to do,” he writes. (See Recruiting Sales Reps: How Do You Recognize a Winner?) Farrington suggests creating an outline that should include the activity and calls they must make,…