What makes a great sales person great? When thinking or dreaming of a great sales turnover not many sales people think about themselves closely enough to realise that you do not need to have necessarily the best products or services in the market place to achieve success.
Of course it helps to have good products but it is not the be all and end all of it.
We cannot all have the best products and similarly not every company can have all the best sales people.
What we are in control of though is making ourselves great at sales.
The following areas are paramount to success in sales and they are the difference between what makes the average sales person average and the great sales person great.
The great sales person focuses on all of these aspects and keeps focused at all times; they demonstrate the following; Great Listening Skills - We need to make sure our minds are focused.
It can be easy to let our minds wander if we think we know what the person is going to say next, but we may be wrong! It is this area we can fall into assumptions and miss the vital central points of what we may need to hear in order to tailor the benefits we can match to their needs.
Great Questioning skills - We all use questioning in every day or our lives without really paying too much attention to it.
But we all do it for the simple reason of gaining information for something we don't know.
This is the vital thing we must keep in the forefront of our minds when dealing with others especially our customers.
We are questioning them to find out messages, their views, their opinions, their thoughts and also and most importantly of all their needs.
Developing Great Trust - Lasting Relationships that bring fruitful longevity are relationships that have the cornerstones of three vital areas.
o Trust o Rapport o Respect It is imperative therefore we build relationships in our business lives that will not only bring wealth but also subconsciously a feeling of emotional wealth.
Wealth can mean financial benefit but wealth in relationships also can be meaningful bonds of growth and communication.
In order to grow a bonding relationship we need to build the three vital areas of Trust, Rapport and Respect.
Why would any new or existing customer want to buy our services if they could (i) not trust what we said or delivered, (ii) we did not have any fabric of friendship or mutual appreciation with each other and (iii) we showed no level of respect for each other.
People buy the salt seller and not the salt! Matching customer needs to product benefits - The desire to purchase from us will be driven by matching their needs to the benefits our services offer.
By use of good listening and questioning skills from earlier in our conversations with the customer we should have gained a very good understanding of what they need and require from us.
The great sales person will determine what benefits are relevant, compelling and will satisfy their customers business.
Recognising buying signals - One of the magic bullets of sales is to ask for the sale.
Many people are afraid to ask, thinking that it would be too pushy, or believe that the prospect should tell you when they are ready to buy.
The great sales person understands and recognises that people do indeed tell us when they are ready to buy, but the average sales person simply does not read the signals correctly or respond appropriately.
The great sales person is not embarrassed to ask for the sale, in truth you should expect to get it.
If not you do not believe in it yourself.
Great closing to land the sale - One key point is to recognise the time to close from signals and then close.
There is nothing more irritating than a sales person going on and on and on when our customers have decided to buy.
You can actually talk your way out of the sale.
Also the great sales person will deliver the right close and then shuts up! They will know which type of close to use for the most appropriate customer and for the particular deal they want to close.
Overcoming objections - From time to time the great sales person will get some resistance on being able to land the deal.
As people we are not always comfortable when others are not 100% supportive or in agreement to what we say.
The great sales person recognises this and can overcome or outweigh most problems by simply taking a few steps focusing on;

• Staying cool and collected and listening and learning to and about the customers objection.
  
• Then showing they acknowledge the objection and showing consideration to the customers concerns.
  
• By managing the objection by providing solutions and alternatives
• The great sales person gets themselves into a position where they can overcome it or outweigh it.
  
• The great sales person never forgets that once overcoming an objection they need to return to the closing of the sale and they simply then use the most appropriate close for the situation

Remember to always be closing.