How to sell more with persuasive expertise

How to sell: When it comes to persuasive sales skills or abilities there are few powerful things that have influence over you or your income. Many times these items are overlooked even though they are the building blocks of persuasive selling techniques. Even worse many times they are taught incorrectly and cause sales people harm because 60 year old sales strategies and tactics are used.

What worked 10 years ago in sales does not really work anymore without a ton of unneeded effort and frustration.

Selling more with persuasive selling skills and techniques

The most powerful influencers of your income when it comes to sales:

• ·         You ability to ask powerful questions
• ·         Your ability to answer powerful questions
• ·         Your ability to tell persuasive stories wrapped in facts

Many times weak salespeople do not understand that their lack of ability when it comes to asking questions hurt them. In most instances sales people think that they are asking powerful questions but in all realities they are asking all of the same questions that their competition is asking.

This means that a potential client is hearing the same thing from you as they are hearing from every other guy or girl that enters into the business or service. This is a bad sales formula where the potential client says “I wanna think about it” and then no sale is made. Even worse the salesperson in this situation has to discount in order to make the sale.

Now there are many circumstances where your potential client is using persuasive selling techniques or abilities against you. In instances where you are in a bid situation and the potential client sees salespeople all day long every day. This person has built up the ability to deal with sales people and has heard many “stories” and seen many selling techniques. This potential client for sure is going to have the ability to put a sales person in the corner with the questions that they can ask.

If you are meeting with a person who is not so savvy when it comes to buying may ask the same question of you that you have heard over and over and in this instances it is more of how you answer the question as if you had just heard it for the first time more than if it sounds like you have recited it 1000 times. Here is where you may want to make it seem as if the person is asking a powerful question to help along with the influence process.

Increase your sales with persuasive stories

Now lastly stories are where most salespeople slip up right behind question asking and answering. Most people cannot tell a story even though they think they can. Just for a second how many people do you know that can tell a good story? That’s right not many you more than likely can count on a few fingers the people who can get their point across without you or the audience falling asleep. Now throw in that they are trying to make the story funny and you defiantly have a sure loser.

The best stories are those that are planned out. The story should have a point and just be long enough to cover the subject.  This is where the facts also have to be planned out. In a sense this could be in the catagory as covert hypnosis for the way that the stories are told.

These stories need to be used at the appropriate time. If there were a sales formula that worked it would be along the lines of:

• ·         Questions
• ·         Answers
• ·         Story
• ·         Checking questions
• ·         Questions
• ·         Answers
• ·         Story
• ·         Checking questions
• ·         Trial close
• ·         Questions
• ·         Story
• ·         Close

Where most sales people go wrong is:

• ·         Bad story
• ·         Bad story
• ·         Questions
• ·         Bad story
• ·         Bad story
• ·         Then closing technique
• ·         Price drop
• ·         Possibly sold or “I wanna think about it”

This bad sales situation is known as a show up and throw up or pump and dump.

Taking the time to write down the most powerful questions you have heard or learned in a sales journal is a good way to keep track of these sales gems when you need them. You may even put the questions on flash cards to look through when needed.  

Persuasive sales skills or abilities are learned over time and require effort. This is said many times for a reason. There really isn’t a shortcut out there when it comes to sales without being unethical or a thief.

As always I would like to thank you in advance for your comments and or questions.

Now go implement!

Scott Sylvan Bell

Photo Credit:Pile Of Books by Felixco, Inc., Questions Man by Danilo Rizzuti

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