Peady’s Selling Engagement sponsored by IRD Prospector
Welcome to the latest weekly episode of Peady’s Selling Engagement, now available in living audio via Branded Podcasts.
In this episode entitled The Essential Skills Radio Sales People Need, Stephen Pead outlines the big four…
- Asking great questions
- Active listening
- Demonstrating value, not talking price
- Closing
To listen to the PODCAST go HERE.
The Essential Skills Radio Sales People Need – actually not just media salespeople ALL salespeople!
In my opinion there are several crucial skills that can make or break your sales career.
Asking great questions
Many sales people fail to effectively ask great questions – most ask low value questions such as “tell me about your business” or “what’s your budget?” or “can you explain your needs?” – irrelevant and ineffective.
Great sales people ask questions designed to uncover real issues, opportunities or challenges. They use the answers to effectively position a solution for their product or service.
Active listening
You can ask all the great questions in the world but if you don’t listen carefully to what the other person says they are wasted. Active listening means really hearing and understanding what people tell you and what they don’t tell you!
One effective way to show that you have listened and understood is to quickly recap the key points the other person has spoken about.
Demonstrating value and not talking price
How do you get the customer to agree to your rates?
In any list of buying motivations low price is never the primary motivation; it’s important and can be the deciding factor but never the primary one.
The biggest issue in the mind of most prospective customers isn’t price and isn’t value….it’s the risk. The risk of making the wrong decision. You need to demonstrate value and lessen the risk by using recommendations, case studies and testimonials
Closing
Where the rubber meets the road! The experts define closing as “asking a question, the answer to which confirms the sale”. After you ask your closing question follow the golden rule of selling. Be quiet, wait for the answer.
The close of a sale is only one step in the sales cycle. You don’t just close a sale, you lead up to it by building rapport, asking great questions, active listening and demonstrating value while lessening risk.
Until next time good selling!
About the author
Stephen Pead is a media industry veteran of 30 years with significant experience in direct sales, sales management and general management. He is based in Sydney and specialises in helping SME’s market their businesses more effectively and providing training for salespeople and sales managers.
He can be contacted at [email protected]
