We at Tactical Sales Training actively promote sales tactics that try to encourage the good nature of a sales professional, there are however others out there that not only preach the poor and degrading methods of sales but they actually even teach it to others.
Sales is about constructing a relationship between you and the customer, the bond formed when someone has undeniable trust can produce far more in the long term then any quick fix.
Instead of showing you how you can become the exceptionally charismatic salesperson (another time, another free resource), we’ll bring up some of the more ‘unfavourable practices’ in the sales arena – be your own judge and see if you’re guilty.
Extroverts Are Awesome
As a confident and successful salesperson it’s your duty to educate the customer about certain things related to you:
- Company – History, forecast, financials and competitors.
- Individual – History, forecast, financials.
- Product – Why it’s going to blow them away.
If the customer knows every single detail about the product they’ll find a way for it to fit into the current system – regardless if they need it or not the endless amount of knowledge will make them want it.
Sometimes the customer is going to put up a fight with questions such as:
- How will this benefit my company?
- How much will it cost in total?
- What would be the need for this and my business?
These are the classic ‘digging’ questions that are designed to dig deeper and understand more – already you’ve overcome this with your endless mind of knowledge on product and company.
When the customer wants to quiz you on something or bring up their own issues jump in and predict what they are going to say or tell them that ‘this is what they want to hear’. Most customers don’t know what they want but you can certainly tell them what they require and when they need it.
Quick and Easy
Part of the sales process is to understand that the sale comes first, the need to have a relationship or some sort of bond with the customer is way over exaggerated – it’s business and business moves fast.
Cold calling represents a great way to get through to the decision maker but it’s also a great way to keep going back for more.
There’s a mysterious force when it comes to cold calling or general prospecting – 5 times the charm – most ‘average’ sales people will give up after 3 attempts at communications or cold calling a prospect, the superior sales professionals ignore the:
- “No thanks, we’re not interested”
- “No!”
- “We will never need your service or product”
- “Don’t call back”
These are stall tactics or playing hard to get – this is sales so everyone is going to be like this. Ignore these general replies and reactions and keep on calling back, everyone at some point needs something and that something may just be your service.
The weak give up or get scared but you are the awesome sales professional who gets things done – so if 5 is the magic number make it 8 for yourself.
Cold calling is about selling there and then, meetings take too long and targets need to be hit so concentrate on getting the sale on the first contact. No matter what sort of fight the prospect puts up, just fill their mind up with your endless amounts of knowledge – they’ll realise that you are in fact in possession of something brilliant and useful to them.
The World is Temporarily Your Oyster
Customers are there to be won over, sometimes your brilliant product and pitch just doesn’t get that extra bit of push needed. These problems present themselves with opportunities – promises and offers.
We all love offers but we love multiple offers too, so to get the customer salivating at the prospecting of not only getting your product but also getting a whole bunch of other stuff just give them extras and services you don’t normally offer.
The company bosses will love the sale, you’ll hit your target and the list of promises can be delivered whenever you feel like it. These extras should be subject to certain situations and generally given away at times of despair to keep the customer entertained for the little bit extra.
Offers and promises can include:
- One off discounts.
- Multiple discounts.
- Extra services for free or discounted.
- Extra ‘little’ things that don’t appear on the invoice sheet.
These are ideas to use when you need to close the deal – but chances are the pit of knowledge that you are will never really need to come to this.
But if you do, just remember that more is in fact more chances of closing the deal.
Screw the Wolfpack
Why would anyone else need to be involved with your sale or prospect? You’ve done all the dirty work and apparently everyone needs to get involved to ‘help’. Nope.
Commissions and rewards are paid on performance basis and the math is simple:
Prospect Value + Final Invoice Value/1 = Everything is mine!
Business is a tough game but the only people that need to know about the closed deal is the boss or company owners, the prospect potential is only my knowledge until it’s closed.
Then the team can know everything detail.
Just Keep Giving
The customers that keep coming back are the cash cow so there’s no real need in putting effort to keep on top of them, communicate with them, upsell to them as they basically are taking care of themselves.
New customers are the goal and should be the only focus – they could have deeper pockets so they need to be found and won.
Always Be Closing
This is for winners or coffee drinkers only so remember that. There’s no point of a sale or even speaking to the prospect if you aren’t closing. Your quota or targets are rarely met with:
- Attempts
- Chances
- Meetings
Your company needs the business and you need it also so fixate your mind on closing every single opportunity – can’t close them today, try them tomorrow at a different time of day.
The sales process is a long winded aspect of making your quota so cut it out, meetings are not needed, qualification is for weak minded individuals and closing is your only focus.
The best people in sales are always closing.
This is your Bad Sales Ethics Cheat Sheet!
