Commonly used professional sales skills (1)
Time: 2004-10-04 07:00 Number of reads: 23357 Managing the community
Twelve years ago, I He quit his job as a university teacher and became a sales representative for Ecolab Chemical Co., Ltd. in the United States. Ecolab is a chemical company specializing in the production and sales of cleaning and disinfection products for hotel agencies and the food and beverage industry. Its global annual sales are as high as 2 billion US dollars. Before joining the company, I had always wondered: How could a professional chemical company, one of America's Fortune 500 companies, hire a master of engineering with no sales experience and no major in chemical engineering as a sales representative? After years of training and growth, I gradually realized that the reason why a company with a history of 78 years can succeed in such fierce competition and such a small market space is that the company has a complete and systematic talent recruitment and training mechanism. The company's business purpose: to provide customers with the best cleaning and disinfection results. To achieve this, the company develops and produces products that best suit its customers' needs (various cleaners, disinfectants, dispensers, etc.). Provide customers with the best services (emergency services, regular regular services, irregular customer training, etc.) to ensure the best use of products. The company has strict requirements for business personnel, and their job responsibilities include: sales work planning, sales visits, customer service, new customer establishment and regional management. Business personnel are familiar with the company's business purpose, company products, customer problems and customer needs; can provide customers with targeted expert services; have professional sales skills to develop new customers. A professional professional sales team is the most powerful force for a company to participate in market competition. In order to establish and cultivate a professional sales team, the company has a complete set of business personnel training plans. All business personnel must pass 6-9 months of training and pass the test before they can officially accept the sales area. The training forms include: classroom learning training, on-site service training, on-site customer visit training with sales managers, etc. The training content mainly includes three parts: (1) Technical ability training: product knowledge and product application skills training; familiarity with the specific uses of products; the ability to install, debug, inspect, and repair some professional washing equipment and computer dispensers, and be able to provide Customers provide on-site guidance and training. (2) Work attitude training: sincerely care about customers and provide customers with the best services; emphasize teamwork spirit and jointly implement the company's business purposes. (3) Professional sales skills training: basic sales skills training; professional service skills training. Years of practice have proven that this is an effective sales training mechanism. It cultivates and builds an excellent sales team. Professional sales skills training is the most important component of the entire training course. The following is a brief description of this part of the training content for your reference. First, what is sales? A brief summary is as follows: · Salespeople and customers are in a position of helping each other · Artistically convey their own methods to each other · Provide customers with what they need, but not necessarily what they want · Promote business by estimating customer needs Creative activities·Coordinating product resources, goods delivery and service activities·Using personal charm to persuade customers to do things they originally did not want to do. In short: the job of sales is to meet customer needs and artistically make customers identify and accept our Work. To do this successfully, salespeople must fully understand their products and services and possess excellent sales skills. The sales profession has changed dramatically over the past two decades. As an excellent and professional salesperson, you must fully understand how to become excellent, make correct and objective analysis and evaluation of your own performance, and constantly improve and improve yourself to face the increasingly competitive market. A sales job is unlike any other. To succeed in sales and become a professional sales guru, you must possess the following key qualities.
1) Positive attitude 2) Self-confidence 3) Self-initiative, patience 4) Diligence, clear tasks and setting goals 5) Believe in the importance of role-playing 6) Establish a good first impression Sales personnel with the above basic qualities such as If you can skillfully use some sales techniques and add corresponding products and services, it is possible to ensure successful sales. Let's analyze the basic sales steps and methods and apply these methods to our own products and services. Each step has its specific purpose. They have been listed in the order that is easiest for people to understand and absorb, but we must also realize that in real life, we may be involved in any specific sales stage at any time, and we must use these sales steps flexibly and never copy them mechanically. Only in this way can we maximize the possibility of achieving our goals during that customer visit.
Commonly used professional sales skills (2)
Time: 2004-09-26 07:00 Number of reads: 16900 Managing the community
Sales model (seven steps for short) Sales method): (I) Opening statement: Your self-introduction must indicate the following points: Who are you? Which company do you represent? What is your purpose? Why should they spend time listening to you? Example: "Mr. Chen, We once enabled a company in a situation similar to yours to reduce their product purchases by 15% without any extra work on their part. I believe we can do the same for you - to fully understand your situation, I want to. A few questions for you... (II) Chills Your chits should be friendly and brief, and your appearance and smile should be conducive to creating a friendly atmosphere. Pay close attention to the feelings of your future customers to buy or not. It's usually pretty obvious. It tells you where you should be in sales mode. You may have made a sale, but on the other hand, the customer may not be interested at all. Either they have a very negative attitude, or they don’t listen to what you are saying. Every time we visit new and old customers, we will find ourselves facing one of the following three possible purchasing atmospheres. Positive buying atmosphere: Customers are actively inclined to buy. No need to do any promotional lobbying, and the transaction can be made directly. ·Neutral buying atmosphere: Customers are neither actively inclined nor negative towards buying. You must start to find out. His needs. If you use your sales skills properly and have sufficient product knowledge, the customer is very likely to buy. · Negative buying atmosphere: The customer adopts a closed mentality, he is not interested at all, and sometimes he may say so. If it is extremely negative, in this case, it is impossible for them to make any purchase decision, then we need to lead the customer to a neutral area in a very short time, otherwise you will have no chance of doing business during the first visit. The main challenge that may arise is how to lead customers from the negative zone to the neutral zone so that they are psychologically and emotionally ready to receive new content. Many knowledgeable sales professionals believe that including pleasantries is the key. You generally have less than 25 seconds to win the customer's interest. At the same time, more and more salespeople insist that pressing for a passive and indifferent buying attitude will not help. (III) Focus on promoting interest. Winning the customer's interest is the first challenge we encounter when making a sale. If we agree that pressing harder will not help, then we have only one option: we must find ways to reduce the customer's resistance in order to attract the customer's interest. , many successful salespeople use a technique similar to the way newspapers use headlines to get readers to buy their paper or read the article. This same technique has proven to be extremely effective in sales. Effective. For sales, the title is a general question or statement whose sole purpose is to pique the customer's interest.
Examples: ·Have you heard about a new and exciting service being introduced in our industry? ·Would your company be interested in a technology that expands productivity? To be effective, what you use to attract people should be able to pique people's interest without being too specific. When we introduce our products, it would be extremely risky to go into too much detail at this moment because we don't yet understand what our customers' needs are. Prepare at least three questions that you feel comfortable using, and test them with peers, family, and friends first to see if you are effective in piqued their interest. When preparing these questions, follow the following principles: ·Be general rather than specific. ·Don’t involve yourself, your company, or your products. ·When introducing a situation, don’t say anything you can’t justify. Be sure to choose carefully when using these questions. A significant portion of your customers will be turned off by overly dramatic content, so only use it when you need it. After hearing these headline questions, your future customers are now ready to listen to your detailed introduction. But because you haven't discovered the customer's needs yet, you don't have the conditions to make a detailed introduction. We need our customers to join us in making this discovery possible. A commonly used method for discovering customer needs is: "Before we discuss, can I ask you some questions?" Few customers will refuse the above request. This critical question can reduce tension and make customers ready Prepare for participation (before we discuss it) and delay your detailed presentation until you have gathered enough information. It allows you to involve your customers in the problem being solved.
Commonly used professional sales skills (3)
Time: 2004-09-23 11:17 Number of reads: 7341 Managing the community
(IV) Discover customer needs The process of demand discovery allows us to reveal the specific needs of our customers. It is a business in which we understand his/her personal and corporate needs. Our success in this regard depends largely on our ability to directly and continuously involve our customers in the process. The basis of this process is effective questioning and listening. At this point, all customer questions should be open-ended. · Closed questions: Refers to questions that can only be answered with "yes" or "no". ·Open-ended questions: Refers to questions that require providing relevant information. The open-ended questions we ask generally fall into two categories: 1. Fact-finding purpose: 1) Make the customer relax 2) Collect valuable information 3) Show that you have made preparations 2. Opinion-seeking purpose: To solicit the customer’s opinions Opinions and Attitudes Usually the first 2-3 questions are about relevant facts, are generally easy to answer, and are less likely to cause the customer to become nervous. When we talk to customers, the opening pleasantries and the end of the meeting are most likely to cause customers (and salespeople) to be nervous. The level of nervousness plays a big role in the success of your visit. Nervousness: When the level is low - your client is more likely to want to find a solution to the problem. When the level is high - your client is more likely to try to get rid of the source of his/her tension - you! 1. Facts. Start with questions aimed at understanding facts to help reduce tension. 2. Feelings/Opinions After asking the first 2-3 questions, we can begin to understand the customer's relevant opinions and feelings. The content of the questions may include future plans (such as expansion plans, future demand, etc.). Here we can both learn specific facts about the past and ask how the client thinks or feels about the many possibilities for the future. Asking a future or existing customer about a similar product he/she is currently using can be risky. Risks include: ? Criticizing the buyer's previous purchase decisions - the buyer will insist that there is nothing wrong with him or her and become less cooperative.
·Inadvertently increasing competition - We must face this because buyers fully expect you to say that your products and services are better than what your competitors are using. ·Intensify the buyer's nervousness to the point where he/she no longer wants to continue the discussion with you. One way to increase the likelihood of getting this important information while reducing the risk of alienating customers is: Part 1: "What do you like best about the product you are currently using?" Your customer's answers can help you gain a clear understanding of what your customers want. Which benefits are most important to them. Therefore, in the upcoming product introduction, you can provide more benefits to customers in these aspects. Your response to the information you receive could be: "Yes, I'm glad you're getting these benefits." Part 2: "Can I ask what you like the least about them?" Even though you don't ask your clients what they don't like, that's often exactly what you hear. By carefully phrasing your second question, "What do you like least?" you're making it easier for customers to talk to you about what they don't like, without forcing them to admit to their last purchase. A mistake was made. Method: "observe" + "question" + "listen" to discover customer needs. The questioning and listening conducted help create a relaxed, informal atmosphere for discussion, making the gathering of information extremely possible. One problem that plagues most salespeople and prevents them from performing their work in this important area is the fear that they will "lose control" when making product introductions. After all, sometimes the customer may be doing the talking most of the time. Experienced salespeople understand that maintaining control of the situation doesn't mean you have to do the talking. In fact, the opposite is true, the more involved our customers are, the more likely we are to understand and act on their needs, and the better we can act on their needs. The more credibility and trust we can build between both parties, the more we can control the situation and the more likely we are to achieve our overall goals during this visit.
Commonly used professional sales skills (4)
Time: 2004-09-23 11:17 Number of reads: 5452 Management community
(V) Introduce product features , provide methods to solve problems: In the inquiry and listening process that has begun so far, we are trying to reveal some of the customer's needs or problems that need to be solved. We are also understanding where our customers' needs are being met. By understanding which of our customers' needs are already being met, we can determine whether it is necessary to satisfy more of their requirements than can be obtained from currently using a competing product or service. Sales professionals propose ways to solve a problem or satisfy those needs only after they and the customer have agreed upon the nature of the needs and the importance of those needs relative to the customer. The sentence above shows that the salesperson cares about the customer's needs rather than the company's products or services. Note: People don’t buy our products or services, people buy needs satisfaction and problem solving from those they think can understand their needs. We are not selling our products or services, we are selling the benefits that come from our products or services, and that these benefits meet the needs of our customers. Key points for a successful product introduction: 1. Keep it short and concise We need to express our ideas as clearly and concisely as possible. Wherever possible, avoid using industry jargon and strings of initials. These terms and words are often understood only by ourselves and our peers, but are meaningless to most other people. Buyers aren't always as familiar with those industry terms as we are, and if they don't understand what we're talking about, they often won't tell us. The main risk we face at this point is that people generally won't buy a product they don't understand. Whether we can use these terms depends on the purchaser.
Otherwise just leave them in your office! Ultimately, it’s best to solve one problem at a time and get constant feedback from your customers. Only in this way can you greatly increase the possibility of being understood, and thereby increase the possibility of you getting an order. Note: Talking endlessly is not sales. We must use the most concise, clear, and understandable language to communicate with customers. 2. Visual means The use of visual means helps us display our products and services clearly and clearly, and helps our customers visually understand the benefits he/she can get. If you put these visual materials in a binder, you must be familiar with their order so that you can quickly find the information that the customer you are visiting needs. Product samples and trials are useful in helping customers understand whether their needs can be met. But don't leave too much time between trial and order solicitation. The longer the delay, the greater the risk of not getting an order. 3. Use third-party examples. The so-called third-party examples refer to introducing to customers examples of people who have successfully used our products or services to meet their needs. In addition to making our introduction more vivid, these examples It also helps our customers visualize the benefits our products or services can bring to them. It also helps us build credibility. When introducing an example of a third party, we can either use the common pronoun "other people" or use the name of a specific company or individual to illustrate that their needs that are the same as customers have been met through our products or services. satisfy. These examples can also help avoid embarrassment for the salesperson because if the customer disagrees with the salesperson's point of view, he is disagreeing with the third party's approach. If he holds a favorable view, he usually agrees with the salesperson. When giving third-party examples, if you use the name of a specific company or individual, always tell the client that you have permission to cite the example. If you don't, your client will be convinced that you will. Tell everyone about everyone. No one wants to do business with someone who doesn't respect information that is theirs. Therefore, never cite any specific third-party examples without first obtaining permission. In this way, you can greatly reduce the risks you may encounter when using this powerful sales tool. 4. Describe the features, functions, and uses. Another extremely important tool that professional salespeople can use is to describe the features, functions, and uses (of the product/service) to the customer. This is a technique least understood by customers and therefore least used by salespeople. We often start with the needs of a specific customer. Features - the "what" introduced, that is, what products customers need. Functionality – describes what the product can do. Purpose - describes what needs it can meet the customer's needs. The main problem most salespeople have is that they don’t know how to distinguish between function and use. Unless we can learn to do this, we will face the problem of only focusing on introducing what our products or services can do, while neglecting to introduce what they can satisfy customers. What needs or problems to solve for customers. The so-called purpose means that the customer's needs can be met. After introducing each key point, we must spend some time to confirm whether the customer agrees with our introduction. This feedback tells us whether the customer will "buy into our solution to the problem" and whether he or she is confident that our product or service will solve his problem or meet his need. Without this feedback, we find that the problem we are trying to solve is not the customer's primary concern. Our most common technique at this time is to ask closed-ended questions, such as: "Saving time is very important to you, right?" "The quality of it is very important, isn't it?" Customer comments Your words of approval show you are aiming in the right direction and give you a chance to reach your goals.
·Solicit orders ·Book preliminary orders ·Bids according to specifications ·Arrange a product demonstration ·Submit a proposal Recognize buying signals The best time to solicit orders should be when customers have mentally accepted our products and services. If we can correctly position our products and services to meet customer needs, customers will be able to foresee that their needs will be met and will send us corresponding signals. To identify "buying signals," we must be able to focus on the customer. Unless we are already very familiar with our products and processes, we will find ourselves paying attention to what we have to say rather than listening to what our customers are telling us. Simply put, buying signals are physical and vocal expressions of satisfaction. This means that everything the customer says and does tells you that he or she has made a decision to buy. In most cases, the appearance of buying signals is relatively sudden. Sometimes, customers may even interrupt your speech with some kind of buying signals, so please keep your alertness. 1. Verbal signals · "That sounds interesting..." · "I would like to..." · "What are your sales conditions?" · "Can it be used for...?" · "How much does it cost? ?” 2. The body’s buying signals are sometimes non-verbal and subtle. Watch to see if the client: ·Suddenly becomes more relaxed. ·Turn to the person next to you and say, "What do you think?" ·Sigh suddenly ·Suddenly let go of the hands crossed in front of the chest (crossing the hands in front of the chest means denial. When you put them down, the obstacle is eliminated. · Lean forward or lean back and relax. ·Reach out to touch the product or pick up the product manual. When any of the above situations occur, you can ask for an order because you have observed it. Correct buying signal. 3. Express friendly gestures Sometimes customers suddenly show friendly and polite gestures to you. "Would you like a cup of coffee?" "Would you like a drink?" "Would you like to stay for lunch? ” · “You’re a really good salesperson. ” · “You’re really familiar with your product.” Pay close attention to everything your customers say and do. Perhaps the biggest stumbling block to getting an order is the salesperson himself. Be too talkative and ignore the customer's buying signal. Any time you think you hear or see a buying signal, you can solicit an order. If you still don't get an order, it's your turn. Unfortunately: you will hear a different opinion that has not been mentioned before.
Commonly used professional sales techniques (5)
Time: 2004-09-23 11:17 Reading. Number: 4872 Management Community
How to deal with customer objections? Why do people raise objections? Mainly because: 1) Don’t understand your explanation 2) Customers need not to be understood 3) Fear of being “betrayed” 4) Not convincing 5) Primary buying motivation not met Experienced salespeople like to have objections. Because they know that if they can meet a customer's true needs, they are one step closer to closing the business. 80% of objections come from the following basic categories: 1. Price 2. Quality 3. Service 4. Competition 5. Application 6. Delivery 7. Experience 8. Credibility When customers raise objections, don’t argue or fight back. Provide more convincing information. Steps to deal with objections 1. Listen to objections The first step is to listen to the objections raised by people and see whether they are real problems or imaginary problems. If it is a real problem, it should be dealt with immediately. If it is just an illusion, it still needs to be dealt with. It's just that we can postpone it until we find a suitable place to deal with it during product introduction.
2. Express understanding. Expressing understanding means understanding the customer’s objections, rather than agreement or sympathy. For example: Buyer: "Mr. Li, I'm afraid your price is too high." Salesperson: "I understand why you feel that way." The purpose of this expression of understanding is to acknowledge the buyer's concerns about price. But don't express agreement or show defensiveness. Never use transition words like "but" or "however" when responding to people's objections. Using these two words seems to immediately negate the sentence before them, thus erecting a barrier between the salesperson and the buyer. If you must use a conjunction, please use "then" . Wrong statement: "Yeah, it seems a bit expensive, but..." Correct statement: "Mr. Chen, I understand your point of view, let's talk about this issue." In this way, the two parties established a cooperative relationship, and It's not a feeling of resistance. 3. Prepare the client for your rebuttal. Our goal at this point is to reduce the client's nervousness, thereby reducing the possibility of conflict. 4. Provide new evidence At this point, now that the objections have been cooled down, we can present a rebuttal. Depending on the category of objection, decide on the most specific, logical, and precise response, then memorize it and use it over and over again until it sounds natural to you. 5. Solicitation of orders The final step in handling objections is to solicit orders. After you've given the best possible response, you can ask the customer for their opinion on whether or not they'd like to make the purchase. Tips for Handling Objections When handling objections, the goal is to eliminate the disagreement without causing the client to lose face. 1. Convert it into a question Almost all objections raised by buyers can be converted into the form of a question. If the buyer agrees to see it as a problem, he or she will never see it as an objection. At this time the buyer is waiting for an answer to this question. After you respond, he has only two choices to make: (1) "Yes, this is indeed a problem" or (2) "No..." If the buyer says "no", then you can collect More information. Buyer: "No, that's not a problem." Salesperson: "Oh, really! So please tell me what your main problem is?" Buyer: "Well, what I want is... ” Look, he’s about to reveal the real problem. This first one is really not a problem. If you can satisfy his second question, the two parties may do business. 2. I feel - others feel - and find that using the method of "my own feeling - other people's feeling - and finally finding out..." to handle the customer's objections can effectively guide the customer to accept our conditions, and at the same time also Potential dangers of conflict can be avoided. Below we can analyze this method and intersperse our own objections into this method to simulate and practice. Feel it yourself - "I understand how you feel..." Purpose: To express understanding and empathy. How others feel - "Others also feel..." Purpose: This helps the client not lose face. Discovery - "...and they found..." Purpose: 1. Relieve the pressure faced by the sales staff 2. Prepare the customer to accept new evidence. In this way, if there is any disagreement between the two parties, the problem lies with the third party. But if an agreement is reached, who do you think will benefit? you! We must have the mentality of "expecting objections" to face customer objections. This shows that customers are interested in us, and it can lead to a happy ending. So far, during our visit to the customer, we have achieved the following goals: · Aroused his/her interest · Discovered his/her needs · Proposed solutions to his/her problems · Handled his/her original problems The objection was that even if we did everything well, if we didn't ask for an order, we might not get it.
Although we both believe that our products/services meet the customer's needs, the decision-making process may still cause the customer so much tension that he or she may be unable to make a decision. Our role at this point is to help our clients overcome this dilemma. The question now is not whether the customer is willing to buy our products/services, but how we can help him/her complete this decision-making process. Only by making the customer's decision-making as easy as possible can both of us benefit to the greatest extent
Commonly used professional sales skills (6)
Time: 2004-09-23 11:18 Read Number: 6072 Management Community
(VI) Techniques for Obtaining Contracts/Orders (Dealing) Professional salespeople should know how to master various techniques of finalizing. Here are some frequently used clacking techniques. Now that you have reached an agreement with the customer that the product you provide can meet his/her needs, and you have also noticed what you think are the buying signals, you must seize the opportunity to use various methods to finalize the deal and obtain the order. The following are some frequently used and effective methods: 1. Consultation method Sometimes we are not sure whether it is time to solicit orders from customers, and we may not be sure whether we have correctly observed the customer's buying signal. In these cases, it is best to use the solicitation method · "Mr. Chen, do you think this service can solve your delivery difficulties?" · "In your opinion, will this be beneficial to your company?" · " If we can solve the problem of this color material, Mr. Chen, do you think this solves your company's problem? "This method allows you to detect the "depth of water" and solicit customers in a pressure-free environment. Order. Of course, if you can get a positive answer, then you can fill out the order. You never have to figure out how to close a deal again. Like any other field of sales, the more you talk, the more likely you are to risk losing an order. 2. Start with a smaller problem. To end the negotiation by starting with a smaller problem is to ask your customer to make a smaller decision instead of making an important decision all at once. For example, ask them to answer "Are you ready to place an order?" "?" and other questions. The questions asked should be: "Which day do you think will be the best for delivery?" "What color do you like for the first batch?" "Where do you want it to be assembled?" 3. Use the following selection method Asking questions gives your customer a choice—either one indicates that he/she agrees to purchase your product or service. ·"Would you like delivery on Thursday or Friday?" ·"Should we pay cash or buy on credit?" ·"Should we sell at 20,000 or 50,000?" ·"Do you want the red one or the yellow one?" 4. Summary Through the summary method, it mainly summarizes the services that the customer will receive, but ends the interview by asking a smaller question or multiple-choice question. "Mr. Chen, we both agreed to use large packaging. Do you want to send 20 boxes or 50 boxes first?