Salesmanship University

The Foundation Of All Sales Techniques

As sales professionals, we are all exposed to sales techniques that performed miracles for others. But when we use these techniques in the exact same way they were taught, nothing happens. Our prospects remain cold. I often wonder why this is so.

Fortunately I managed to discover how to make sales techniques work with amazing results and the reasons why they initially don’t.

Many people from different industries become disappointed with the effectiveness of classical sales techniques. This is due to the absence of an emotional foundation. What do I mean?

Sales techniques are like carpentry tools that help a craftsman build furniture with ease. While carpentry tools are physical things, sales tools are not and can only be used by flexing your emotional muscles. With skill, you can use them to build solid emotional states that empower your prospects to buy from you.

The main pillars that help set your foundation to build your sales skills are:

1. Sincerity

There is nothing more repulsive than hearing a salesman shoot his canned sales script mechanically to you with lightning-fast pace. It feels even worse when he pressures you to buy his wares at the end of his meaningless babble.

In fact, the harder he tries the more disgusted you feel. And like the overwhelming majority, you’ll eventually think of ways to say no and then walk away, won’t you?

The most powerful statement in the world is one that comes from your heart. Only when you connect with your prospects heart-to-heart can you appeal to their buying emotions. When prospects are motivated to buy from you, selling becomes infinitely easier.

Many people believe sincerity is one of the most difficult assets to acquire. However I beg to differ. The simplest way to have sincerity in all your business dealing is to sell stuff you truly believe in and never compromise this position.

If you believe in what you sell, you don’t have to pretend your widget is good or chant rhetorical sales scripts that make you feel guilty each time you make a sale. You also won’t need to try squeezing out the last drops of faked enthusiasm as you meet your prospects. You’ll have the glow of energy and excitement as you talk about how your product can improve your prospect’s life.

2. Get Away From Emotionally Draining Imaginations

In business, you’ll meet all kinds of people. Some of them are real blessings while a few suck every ounce of energy out of you. Yet however difficult it is, you have to flee from negative emotional states that doesn’t serve you.

For many of us, bad feelings stay on longer than we want them to. This is because we habitually recall and repeat specific events that caused us to feel distraught — the offensive body language, those hurtful words, harsh tonality, et cetera.

The problem with holding these events in your mind is they tend to discolor your judgment and suppress your creative ability as you meet with yet another prospect. If you are not careful, you can easily make skewed assumptions about him. And this can drive your conversation to awful places.

It is more effective to get away from lingering, distasteful feelings before working on your next prospect.

Personally, the best way to prevent negative feelings from ruining an otherwise good day is to engage in aerobic activities like jogging or swimming. Many people also find relieve by engaging in a sport they enjoy.

If you are able to drop any emotional baggage before starting business conversations again, you’ll regain your inner resources to relate to your customers and solve problems better.

3. Managing expectations

Your prospects come from all walks of life and have various ideas about what your business can or cannot do for them. The best way to manage other’s expectation is to first manage our own.

We have to be realistic about the opportunity that presents itself as new conversations unfold. Many sales professionals get disappointed when they find out later their prospects aren’t going to commit as much business as they imagined. This severely disables them from serving their clients well.

On the other side of the transaction, customers expect to receive everything you promised before the agreed date.

In order to manage their expectation, you have to deliver all that you promised on time. If you cannot, you’ll have to negotiate an alternative with him in order to fulfill the expectation he has in his mind.

Whenever you fall short of a customer’s expectation, you put your career at risk. Disgruntled customers soon bring their business to your competitors and often talk about their bad experience with you.

Misalignments in expectation often lead to miscommunication and misunderstanding. This is also the fastest way to break a relationship in business as well as in life.

The opposite is also true. When customers get the value they expect, you can easily deliver beyond their expectation simply by appreciating the relationship with a nice gesture such as a gift. And you can keep this customer for life.

Having built these qualities as foundation, you can begin using even the simplest sales techniques and they’ll work effectively for you. With the ability to persuade your prospects, you can close sales easily and with minimal effort.

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