8 Secrets To Being The Best Salesperson Ever

1. Sales meetings are always about the prospect and never about the salesperson. Prospects talk, salesperon listen.
2. Almost everything that comes out of a salesperson should be questions not statements: questions about facts and opinions, questions that highlights gaps between where they are and where they want to be, questions that lead them to the path (solution) the saleperson would like for them to take and questions that help the prospect commit to a solution. Questions, questions, questions and only questions.
3. It's not necessary to have the most product features to win a sale.  Selling is about demonstrating relevancy. The product or service that has the most relevance to the prospect wins.  
4. A salesperson's job is to establish relevancy between her product's benefits to the prospect's hopes & desires. To do that, a salesperson has to know as much as she can about the prospect. This goes back to being able to ask the right questions and listening carefully.
5. Salespeople are not necessarily the best speakers but they HAVE to the best listeners.
6. A salesperson listens hard to what her prospect has to say and more importantly to what a prospect should have said but didn't.
7. When at the prospect's site, read the room and watch how other people interact with the prospect.  That's part of "listening".
8. Often repeated but forever true, salesperson close their prospects and often. Always, always, always ask for the order, ALWAYS.

Reasons why Client Objections are Good for Salespeople

Salespeople love objections because they realize the toughest prospects to sell are the one with NO objections. Yes: salespeople love objections because getting NO objections is worst.

Reasons why they don't object :

• They don't see themselves using your product for whatever reason.
  
• They are just not mentally engaged, they don't see how your product is relevant to their lives, at all!
  
• They are not the decision makers and they don't want to spend too much time with you.
• Or may be they decided to buy anyway before they even spoke to you but how many of these do you really get?
  

They said they are fine with everything. They are just not buying.

The best salespeople know their daily battle is not one of price or features. Their daily battle is one of RELEVANCE. The question the best salespeople have to address is how relevant their products' benefits are to their prospect's business and/or lives, their hopes and desires. When your prospects start giving you objections, they are getting engaged with "the idea", they are beginning to see how your product fits with their lives, they therefore see possible places where it doesn't seem to fit and they care enough to ask you about them. Objections are therefore signs that your prospect is giving you and your product a chance. Objections are an essential process to work through on the way to making sale.

Objections are good.

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Three Key Ideas that will Help You Sell

A student I knew from two years ago called me a couple of days ago. She said she's looking for work and was wondering if she can come talk to me and take a look at the firm. I said "sure, come on up, I am happy to have a chat."

She came by sat down, and for a while she couldn't get to the point. Eventually I realize she's actually working for an insurance company as a financial planner and I am the prospect. She started talking about how she aim to make it to the Million Dollar Round Table this year, how much she'd like for me to share her other clients' financial success and how well she looks out for her clients.

There's one small hitch : she lied to get this appointment.

I told her that I am quite well taken care of, and that this meeting wouldn't be as productive as she might have originally hoped. She wouldn't budge. I ended up telling her again and again for about 4 more times. I am especially nice to salespeople as I work as one all my life, but my goodwill for this one began to sour. Not only did she have zero chances of making a sale today, she had worn out all possibilities of me ever letting her back into this office again. I finally announced that I was hungry and needed to get a bite, walked her to the elevator, let her walk in and wave goodbye as the doors closed.

Several thing went wrong with this meeting:

• She lied to get the meeting, especially in a business where there's a premium on integrity.
• She told me how much she aims to do well this year and how much she wants to be in the Million Dollar Round Table. Now, am I supposed to be happy to hear how much she wants to make loads of money off me?
• She overstayed her welcome several times over.

Things that all salespeople should remember :

• Integrity above all else. It's the most important thing. It's the ONLY thing.
  
• Meetings are about the prospect, not the salesperson. Benefits are those that pertains to the prospect, not the salesperson.
• A salesperson should be persistent, but you don't have to make the sale in one meeting. Take the time to build trust, don't kill your chances of making the sale another day.
  

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