What superstitions are there in sales?

The "common sense" about sales instilled by several generations of salespeople is mostly misleading or of little effect. So what? Come and have a look with

What superstitions are there in sales?

The "common sense" about sales instilled by several generations of salespeople is mostly misleading or of little effect. So what? Come and have a look with me. I hope you will be satisfied. Thank you.

Superstition in sales. Sales is sales-excellent salespeople can sell anything.

There is no doubt that the sales skills of one industry may be equally applicable to other industries. But the sales skills developed in the process of small batch sales may cause obstacles when you sell to big customers. Compared with small batch sales, large batch sales take longer, the process is more complicated and more strategies are needed. However, many sales experts don't realize that the key sales skills required for large-scale sales and small-scale sales are different.

In small batch sales, the salesperson takes the initiative when talking with the customer, and the customer may place an order for him because he is full of energy and enthusiasm and gives a vivid description of the product. This "product function promotion method" often works.

However, in mass sales, customers must take the initiative to talk. The research team of Sigma Project found that excellent salespeople often use some questioning modes to guide customers to participate in the conversation and lead the conversation to the ultimate goal.

When the members of the research team of Sima Project first discovered these phenomena, they studied them? A href ='' target =' _ blank'> Is coughing dragging your calf? Why did you send the emperor to steal Wei's comfort? What's the matter with you? Hey? π is ok, ⒐? Hey? A href ='' target =' _ blank'> cultural background. Interestingly, the results in 23 countries are the same. Even in Japan, most American sales training methods have failed, and the research team speculated that perhaps the communication method based on traditional culture may be the most effective way to predict the success of sales work. They finally found that choosing the correct questioning mode is the most effective behavioral factor to win orders from big customers.

Superstition in sales. To get more orders, you should make more sales calls.

When sales managers want to increase sales, their first thought is often to let sales people make as many sales calls as possible. After all, if the sales telephone number doubles, the sales volume may double, even if it doesn't, there will be a great increase, won't it? After studying two departments of a technology company, the research team found that this idea was not suitable for mass sales.

In the business department that sells electronic equipment with relatively low cost, there is a positive correlation between the number of sales telephones and the sales volume, that is, the more sales telephones, the higher the sales volume. But in the sales department selling high-end products, the relationship between the two is just the opposite. Compared with those who make more sales calls, those who make ordinary sales calls generate higher sales.

Of course, the other way around, that is, the fewer sales calls, the more sales, is not correct. If the sales phone number is zero, the sales amount is zero. However, generally speaking, salespeople can't increase sales by increasing sales calls, which will have a negative impact on sales.

The key to success lies in making excellent sales calls, and excellent sales calls require salespeople to make careful preparations and adopt appropriate strategies. In order to have more time for sales calls, salespeople often neglect planning and preparation, thus reducing the success rate of each sales call. However, if the salesperson has time to make more sales calls, make full preparations for each call, and ensure the quality of communication with customers, then he should do so, because they may not make the best number of sales calls.

Superstition in sales. Direct contact with senior customers.

Before the Six Sigma project research team conducted this research, the traditional sales concept believed that if salespeople contacted higher-level customers, they would achieve better sales results. If you have direct access to the top management, why waste weeks or months getting close to the decision makers in the client company? However, the research team found that successful salespeople often reach lower-level customers than those who are less successful. It may be a fatal mistake to contact the customer's senior management directly before making careful preparations. Without careful preparation, it is a waste of time to talk to senior customers about its product characteristics. Without understanding the problems that customers need to solve, salespeople can't prove that their products can meet customers' needs.

The research team reviewed the case of the son of a US senator. A big company once eagerly hired this man as a salesman of the company. They believe that this person is easy to get in touch with the bosses of enterprises all over the country, which will inevitably make him a salesman with good performance. Sure enough, he easily met the heavyweights in various enterprises. But because I haven't talked to other people in the client company in advance and don't understand the problems that customers need to solve, I often get answers like "Say hello to your father for me". However, his colleagues who lack background have succeeded in selling through contact with problematic customers, often middle-level personnel in the client company.

What are the lessons? First of all, you have to understand the problems encountered by customers, and then you have reason to contact each other's top management by yourself or through people in the customer's enterprise.

Superstition in sales. Use a lot of open questions-they are more effective than closed questions.

Among many sales professionals, front-line salespeople, sales consultants, sales managers and sales trainers are all convinced of the power of open-ended questions. If the purpose of asking questions is to make customers participate in the conversation more actively, open questions are indeed more effective than closed questions. Because open-ended questions can make the other person give longer feedback, while closed questions can only be answered with "yes" or "no". However, the Sigma project research team has to tell you that they find the power of open-ended questions only an illusion.

The research team found that there is not much relationship between adopting open-ended questions and achieving sales success. Through a large number of closed-ended questions, salespeople can also win orders or make sales progress.

It seems strange. Theoretically, open questions can get open answers, and closed questions can only get one-word answers. But this is not always the case. In sales calls, 60% of closed questions can be answered in more than one word. In other words, closed questions often get open answers. And about 10% of the open questions can only get closed answers. Imagine if an inexperienced salesperson asked this open-ended question, "Can you talk about your company's business plan?" As a result, he will only feel bored and get a "no comment" answer. Therefore, to some extent, the difference between open-ended questions and closed-ended questions is deceptive.

For salespeople, the key is to skillfully ask questions that can be close to the sales target. If they are just worried about asking each other many open-ended questions, it will be as unhelpful as tidying deck chairs on a sinking ship. What they should be worried about is: Are the questions asked closely related to the needs of customers?

Superstition in sales. There is always only one chance to make a first impression.

Many sales experts firmly believe that the most important part of a sales call is the opening remarks. They will tell you, "The first 60 seconds are the key to the success of a sales call." However, the research shows that there is no necessary connection between the opening of sales telephone and the success of sales except for small batch sales. When the whole sales process includes only one visit, the first few seconds are really important, such as door-to-door sales promotion. But in the complicated sales process, if customers think that salespeople can solve a problem for them, they will not care too much about the first impression left by salespeople.

If the opening and closing remarks are not the most important part of the sales call, what is the most important part?

A complete sales process includes four stages: beginning, investigating * * * to find customer needs * * *, showing your ability to meet customer needs * * *, obtaining customer commitment * * * and making sales progress * * *. Among them, the most important is the investigation stage, because if you don't know the customer's needs, you can't win the customer's order.

Nevertheless, sales people still need to get started skillfully. A good opening statement must achieve two purposes: one is the necessity of establishing a dialogue, and the other is to allow customers to ask questions to the sales staff.

The prologue is over when the customer allows the salesperson to ask questions. If a salesperson calls a strange customer for the first time and only gets a reply from the customer's voicemail, is it necessary for them to start with the message system? In fact, they must give the customer a reason to answer. In this case, the salesperson must let the customer know that it is necessary to talk to you in the form of information, but you should not directly provide solutions to the problem to "get the customer hooked".

Superstition in sales. Sales talent is innate and cannot be cultivated.

Do salespeople need certain qualities? The answer is no. A large number of studies conducted decades ago show that the number of extroverts in the sales team far exceeds that of the general public. However, recent research does not show a strong correlation between extroversion and sales work. what has changed? Nothing has changed except those cliches! Those enterprises that have actively sought extroverts to undertake sales work now understand that people of all personalities can learn sales skills and achieve good sales results.

From the customer's point of view, what do they want from the salesperson? There is evidence that most customers want the sales staff to be trustworthy. We have all heard an old joke: "sincerity is the most important thing ... if you can fake it, you must have done it." But in fact, even sincere salespeople often cannot win the trust of others. Customers can't see their sincerity or honesty, only their actions. Before placing an order, the customer will not examine whether the salesperson has a specific personality, but only whether he can provide an effective solution.

Superstition in sales. Customers are welcome to raise objections-they are a definite signal that customers are interested.

Although there is definite evidence that this "standard" is incorrect, it still exists. Like many other "norms", the reason why it won't die out is that it sounds comforting. It makes you believe that if customers have doubts about your products or services, it means that the dialogue between you begins to become meaningful.

In fact, this kind of objection is a big obstacle between you and your customers, and you won't like obstacles. You don't have to be afraid of dissent, but you shouldn't welcome it either. The existence of objections means that customers don't want your products or services, perhaps because they are too cheap, but more likely because they don't see the need to buy your products or services. If the salesperson says, "Our machine is the fastest of its kind in the market", the customer may say, "But the speed of the machine is not our concern".

Compared with less successful salespeople, successful salespeople face much less opposition. What is the reason? Because they always try to stop objections, instead of waiting until they appear. In the above example, the skilled salesman will not talk about the characteristics of the product he provides * * * "It is the fastest" * * *, but will adopt the questioning mode and ask "How important is the speed of the machine to you" first. If he knows that the speed of the machine is not important to the customer, he will avoid leading the conversation in the direction that leads to the customer's opposition.

If salespeople are trained to find customers' needs by asking the right questions first, and then only talk about the characteristics of their products or services related to the needs, the probability of incurring objections can be reduced by 50%.

Usually, those inevitable objections are the most serious. The best way is to be honest, admit your own shortcomings, and then focus on your competitive advantage.

Superstition in sales. Never attack your competitors.

Many enterprises believe that salespeople should not mention competitors when dealing with customers, because doing so will eventually damage the sales results. This used to be IBM's consistent policy: in the sales process, salespeople should not mention the names of any competitors or competing products.

However, research shows that excellent salespeople will definitely mention competitors, provided that customers need them to do so. Although they often don't take the initiative to comment on their competitors, they certainly don't shy away from answering when asked how their products or services are different from those of competitors.

The key is how to comment on competitors. The best way is to change from a competitor's shortcoming to your competitive advantage as soon as possible. If a customer asks, "What do you think of SlowCo's machine?" The salesperson may want to answer "that's the slowest machine on the market, 40% slower than ours", but it would be better if it could be adjusted to the following answer: "SlowCo? Yes, our machines are 40% faster than theirs. In fact, our machine is the fastest on the market. "

A little-known but very effective method is to highlight the advantages of your own products or services with the general weaknesses of competitors' products or services, rather than belittling specific competitors or their products.

For example, suppose you are a sales representative of a small company, which is competing with a big company in the industry for a small piece of business. If a customer asks "How do you compare with GiantCo", a skilled salesperson may not say "GiantCo is too big to provide you with personalized service"; Instead, they will say, "There are many differences between big companies and small companies. We are a small company, so we can pay more attention to the needs of our customers. It is difficult for a company to do this after its scale is expanded. For a big company, you may be just one of 5,000 customers, not one of 50. "

Effective salespeople will always attack their competitors, but they will skillfully avoid the negative impact of such attacks on their own enterprises.