Xsell Systems

Sales Training Rule # 1: Learn to Listen Sales is not just being a good talker, it's being a good listener. When you are in front of potential clients, listening to what they have to say is more important than what you have to say. Listen carefully and they will tell you what it will take for you to make them your newest clients. Sales Training Rule # 2: Ask, Ask, Ask Ask enough questions to gain insight on the issues that will truly motivate your potential clients to make a favorable decision. I shoot for 10 to 30 questions looking for the real reason they are looking for your solution. Sales Training Rule #3: Emotion Sells Not only are questions important, but asking those questions that uncover...

otive sales training is the one thing that we all think we have enough of until we get more. That's right no matter how good you are today, you can always become better. And once we do get a little bit better or learn a new technique it is normally pretty easy to reflect back on the deals that we have worked in the not so distant past and think, "Wow, If I had only known this last week when I was with "Mr. & Mrs __________, I probably would have sold them a car. This is why this column will be dedicated solely to the purpose of examining different aspects and situations that occur during the process of a car deal. Each month we will look either at a new method for contending with the obstacles...

If you've ever wondered why your sales teams struggle to consistently achieve sales targets despite investment in sales training, development and management, you're not alone. Despite their best efforts most organisations are failing to achieve their full potential from sales training due to four main reasons; 1. Most sales training has at best a short-term effect on performance because of a failure to consistently implement, apply and reinforce what is learnt. 2. Sales managers (often top sales achievers themselves) lack a proven methodology to be truly effective at getting top performance from their sales team. 3. Salespeople often find it difficult to maintain the correct balance between...

We all love cash don't we but do you love KASH as well?! At MTD Sales Training we use KASH to keep uson our toes and fresh when it comes to selling! Here's what it is. Go through the questions yourselfor pose them to your sales teams. Keep your team fresh, on the ball and ready to sell! K Knowledge Is your product and company knowledge up to speed? Is your knowledge of the Prospect and theirorganisation/industry enough to differentiate youfrom your competition? Is your knowledge of an effective sales process sufficient? A Attitude How is your attitude? Is it right for the customer? Does yourbehaviour reflect positively and with relevance to the customerenvironment? Are you treating the customer in...

How you think, or your mindset, sets the tone for what follows in your career.  It sets the tone for how you learn, how you interact with peers as well as prospects and clients. Confucius observed, "He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger." Learning and thinking are fundamentally linked. They need to be.   Let me state a working assumption, that is, people who choose to work in sales have been through a selection process to identify competencies and the individual has a realistic understanding of the sales role, responsibilities, and challenges. When starting a sales career, sales training plays a critical role. Development usually focuses on...

Would you like to increase your sales and grow your business? Well then, you must learn and use the ultimate sales training tip. Well - I just got back from delivering two sales training programs. Both groups were loaded with talented salespeople. Each group had specific objectives they wanted to accomplish with their sales training program. We had some fun, I spilled my guts, and shared lots of money making ideas with them. Both groups shared their challenges with me and I of course shared my ideas on how to deal with them. I told them the 12 dumbest things salespeople do. I shared some ideas on how to avoid sounding pathetic during a sales call. Judging from their reaction to this part of the...

Sales training tips, strategies and techniques for a successful marketing and sales performance. Whether you’re a zero or hero in your own company you can always improve as a salesperson. Becoming a good salesperson is a skill that really reflects who you are as a person. Almost anyone can memorize specifications of different items but it takes a rare kind of person to instill a feeling of need into the customer. Being able to have customers trust you and your opinions is a major part of being a good salesperson, and having them relate to you as an every day consumer is important too. If they can’t see you as someone who also shops there and knows what a customer wants they will have a...

SOS, also known as Morse code, is a universal distress signal. For salespeople, a "Save Our Ship," becomes a "Save Our Sales" distress call. While everyone selling likely has their own SOS, here are five common sales calls for help. 1. Cancelled appointments Are you confirming any appointments you set with prospects? Either the day before or the morning of, telephone or email prospects. I usually telephone. If something has come up for the prospect, I reschedule with them right then; they're already on the telephone. If they just don't show, that's an entirely different problem and solution. NOTE: never assume that a no show means not interested. 2. Prospects buying from competition Are you going...

Imagine making sales statements so bold that you felt weak in the knees as you uttered them. Imagine always knowing that you could talk about the cutting edge of your marketplace and know you were delivering an accurate, timely, exciting scoop. There is a part of selling, whether it's strategic selling, or any other type of selling, that always counts and always needs support. That is your sales confidence. So how can you connect your confidence with that cutting edge knowledge? In fact, how can you regularly and easily refresh your confidence with the latest and greatest info? The answer is simple. If you regularly spend twenty minutes to a half an hour doing online research, guided by the most...

Running after a client when you don't know what prompts her decision to purchase is frustrating. Feeling as if your sales strategy is not working and that you are not connecting with that strategy in a successful way is uncomfortable. You begin to fear you are missing out on success, and every time you see one of your competitors close a deal that fear gets confirmation. You can ask your clients as many questions as you want, you can stay in touch expecting to be the most visible vendor when the time to purchase arrives but none of that really influences the client's decision to purchase. What makes this all so confusing is the lack of a hook by which to establish some control over your client's...

Why does your company need to set up a structured new hire sales training program? Let's see if this sounds like you - You spent the better part of a month interviewing new sales candidates. There were probably 50 qualified resumes out of about 200 submitted. After careful consideration and 3 additional days to go through all of the resumes you narrowed the 50 down to your top 15 and began the interview process. After 3 weeks of coordinating 15 interviews you narrow that down to 5 candidates and begin the 2nd round of interviewing. It is time for you to make your decision. Two candidates really impressed you and your team. You conduct your reference checks and finally come to a decision. The offer...

Have you ever worked as a salesperson in a large sales organization? If you have, you'll remember the rah rah sales meeting complete with company songs, slogans you repeated in unison, and the big sales contest. Sales organizations rely on these events far more than any other profession. Do doctors, dentists, plumbers, engineers, CPAs, teachers, electricians, retail store owners, truck drivers, or florists have rah rah meetings before each day of doing their job? No. Why? Because they are fully trained. They are completely secure in their ability to do their job. In most cases (but not all) sales motivation is a substitute for real training. Sales company CEOs love these types of meetings because...

In Part I and Part II of this three part series on Web Based Sales Training, we started learning the 9 Steps in the Consultative Selling Process. These nine steps are: - #1 Your Opening Statement - #2 Tell Them What You Have and the Benefits - #3 Prove it! (Tell Your Story) - #4 Special Bonuses and Guarantees - #5 The Price - #6 Call to Action - Ask For the Sale! - #7 Answer Questions and Objections - #8 A Further Call to Action - Closing the Sale - #9 Followup In Web Based Sales Training - Part III, it is time "close" on the sale, and that means, make some money! But don't get overly excited yet. In fact, this is the time to really keep your cool and continue to position yourself as a true...

Retailers face an intense competitive environment. With the growing availability of retail space there are more stores joining the marketplace. At the same time there is also a great deal of money to be made at the retail level. Consumers have more disposable income to spend, and have become accustomed to experience shopping as a form of recreation. Here are some strong selling strategies that can be used by retailers to produce more sales. Retail Selling Strategy #1 Display the original retail price, or manufacturers suggested retail price, next to your price. Make the two prices very clear so that shoppers will realize what a great bargain they are receiving. Retail Selling Strategy #2 Offer free...

-link"> Some people are wildly successful at selling, meeting and exceeding every goal placed in front of them, while others lack either the self motivation or certain key skill sets to get them to their next level of growth and performance. To improve sales in highly competitive sales environments, leaders must create a growth-oriented atmosphere that thrives on constant improvement, regardless of market conditions. Have you ever closely examined why some people are wildly successful at selling, meeting and exceeding every goal placed in front of them, while others lack either the self motivation or certain key skill sets to get them to their next level of growth and performance? After all, they...

The Natural Salesmen Selling is an art and there are people naturally gifted with this art. Right from birth these natural salesmen get busy marketing the only product they have - themselves. They clutch a tuft of their mother's hair or dad's ears and pull their faces towards themselves. They wave their hands, paddle their legs, clap, laugh, giggle, and cry to get attention as well as care. These smart babies grow up to be successful salesmen in school too. They make neat profits by selling lemonade, old comics, used video games, and other knick knacks thus laying the foundation for a remarkable sales career ahead. But that doesn't mean that those that haven't sold old video games for a profit in...

Web testing scorecards will focus primarily on the Graphic user interface (GUI) that websites use to enable web users to navigate within website pages easily. The functionality of website GUI has great influence on the volume of traffic a website generates. Graphic user interface is designed to give users effective control over computers. Control, in this case, will mean the ease with which the GUI responds to users commands. Establishing the quality of the GUI of a website will essentially be the first thing a web test scorecard will endeavor to accomplish. The goal logically will be to provide users the desired graphic interface functionality by using the most relevant web technology available...

A website is the online identity of an online enterprise. It introduces a business online and gives the first-hand information to customers. Isn't important to check usability and worthiness of a website before it goes live? After all, website represents your business and a web testing ensures that you make the right impression on the minds of targeted customers. Why do we need web testing? Good question. Not every mind thinks same. Also, the probably of their actions to be common is very low. That is why, web testing is important in every sense. What if your customers use Mac or Windows? What if they use Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Chrome or any other search engine? There are a number of choices...

There are many online marketing tasks to do. Something that makes you stand out in front of the crowd is the web testing that you do. Testing your product is something that will make or break you. If you can increase your conversion just by 2%, you're doubling your traffic. There are piece of software that you can use to help your testing process out. You can find some good free tools if you'll just take the time and look. You want to use different link building methods that go back to your website. But the thing that gives me the most bang for my buck is blog comments and forum postings. They are very targeted. What I'll do is use the search tool on the forum that I plan on linking from and type in...

Handling "the price is too high" objection is a sales skill that must be mastered by the professional salesperson, especially if they are selling high end products or services. Product here could also be a business opportunity. Because products or services do not sell themselves and customers raise objections that need to be answered; opportunity is created for the skilled salesperson to earn salary or commission. 1.) Answer the common objections during the sales presentation. If the salesperson believes the price is too high and other common objections for their industry are likely too occur then handle then the best way is the raise the objection and answer it during the presentation. 2.) Use a...

In Part 1 of How to Sell in a Tough Economy we talked about the basics of selling in a down economy, namely: how to keep a good attitude, how and why to get more sales training, keeping the economy excuse at bay, and the importance of economy proofing yourself. Following are 3 more tips to help you survive and thrive in today's economic climate. 1) Prepare for the price objection and build value.People are focused on price more than ever these days. Prospects and customers will do everything they can to commoditize vendors and simply go with the lowest price. Thus it is very important that you build value. What are your primary benefits? How are you, your company, and your product better than the...

Great sales training differs from what you're probably doing, in five significant ways. In your heart you knew these things. You've just forgotten! (1) Nobody ever learned a behavioral skill by being talked at. Want to improve that golf, tennis or baseball swing? Don't expect a speech by a retired Hall of Fame athlete or a video to do it for you. Yet, what do we do? We have classroom training sessions because most of us have warmed school desks for so long that we're used to that medium. Some chalk-talk is fine, as an overall orientation, but the best method is to coach trainees, one-on-one. (2) For thousands of years apprenticeships have worked in all of the skilled trades. Aspiring shoemakers...

You can make your telesales training more useful and more effective by making sure that you cover the following aspects: 1. Pre-call planning. Lack of prior planning can lead to poor performance. Explain the importance of pre-call planning to your trainees and teach them how they can exactly do it. They must have primary objective for every call they make, they must have prepared questions that they can use to discover and isolate the problems of their prospects, and they must have a sales script that they can use as guide all throughout the call. 2. Gatekeepers. Your trainees must also know how to treat the gatekeepers right as these are the people who will decide if the sales person will get a...

"> Things are rapidly changing in real estate investment and smart, resourceful, pre-foreclosure investors are having their best year in 2008. Those investors who continue doing the same old short sale techniques hoping for the results they got three years ago, will perish. Investors resistant to change who take on the rigidity of the Sequoia tree will be forced to crash into the ground of financial failure by the changing real estate winds. Smart investors are like palm trees, willing to be flexible with the changing winds. They'll generate huge profits, adapt to the new real estate market and increase their net worth substantially in 2008 if they work with new short sale techniques. There are two...

Here is our 4th article on Closing Sales and Becoming an All-Star Sales Person. This one is about the non-verbal aspects of making an approach. The non-verbal approach to prospects is about additional tools that help you build rapport irrespective of the language or words that you use. What you say is verbal, how you say it is non-verbal. Your appearance and body language are both non-verbal. Interestingly, what you say accounts for a 20% of the communication that your client or prospect receives. The other 80% is all non-verbal. Non-verbal Match and Guide is the cornerstone of my own philosophy of selling. Match your prospects, rate of speech, volume, tone of voice and attitude. You always...

We now have entire companies that do nothing but surveys. Why is that? Is it just a nice thing to do if you are a company? Do these survey companies know what they are doing? Well, that one could be argued as they have a tendency to just ask rather plebeian yes or no questions, in contrast to encoded point specific questions that could provide real data. Let's take a look at how this could help you re-write your sales representative training by approaching a prospect in a little different way. Try developing a commonality of issues sheet. It is a listing of what long-term issues a perfect client had BEFORE they purchased your product or service. Your product ended up being a solution, for their...

The traditional customer call once seemed indispensable to the selling process; the time and expense involved were just a basic cost of doing business. In recent years, however, the business community has come to regard the sales call as an expenditure for which there are substitutes. For many companies telemarketing and direct mail have made the sales call a choice not an inevitability. This is not surprising when various studies suggest that getting one sales person in front of one customer now costs £500 - this cost has trebled since 1983. As a consequence professional salespeople have to be more effective than ever to justify the investment in a face to face effort. In essence, we can draw...

As a sales manager and coach, I am often asked 'what does it take to become truly great at selling?' Sales is a highly competitive profession and naturally everyone wants to be the best. But as we all know, only a select few really ever achieve greatness, the vast majority destined for a career of mediocrity. There are many sales people, but very few sales professionals. This is what sets apart the best from the rest - professionalism. Sales professionals consistently exceed their targets, their results are always in the top 10% and they earn the biggest bonuses! So, what does professional selling look like? In my experience, having been fortunate enough to lead, manage and observe highly successful...

According to IDC's 2010 Customer Experience Survey of 213 senior level buyers, most people are not as effective selling one-on-one as they think they are. This comes in stark contrast to the perception of most business owners, consultants and sales professionals who tend to adopt the attitude of "get me in front of a prospect and I'll close the deal." According to behavioral psychologist John Crandall, this overly optimistic assessment of sales skills comes from the fact that for many people, the only face-to-face selling they engage in is with friendly prospects who are referred directly to them. Crandall explains, "Although referrals are terrific, they can give one a false sense of prowess...

Here are some selling techniques that can surely bring huge difference to your sales processes: 1. Understand the problem. Before you pitch your products and services, I recommend that you strive to understand the problems that your clients are currently facing. Use open-ended questions to gather as much information as possible and avoid jumping to conclusions too quickly. Listen actively and clarify anything that is not really clear to you. Encourage them to elaborate by using prompts such as "uh-huh" and "what else?" 2. When giving options; Avoid giving your potential buyers with too many options so they will not feel overwhelmed. It would be best if you can present them with two possible...

Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak. This point became overwhelmingly clear recently while eating at a local Mexican food restaurant here in Texas. Someone had ordered Fajitas. It was interesting to note that as the waiter brought out the plate of sizzling beef strips, all the heads in the room turned to notice what delicacy was heading their way. Hence the statement "Sell the sizzle, not the steak." Steaks had no doubt been brought to various tables with little or no fanfare. However, when the Fajitas entered the room, everyone took notice. You may ask what this has to do with sales. It's a question of selling features or benefits. The brochure mentality is prevalent in some sales organizations. The...

For decades, economists and sociologists have been talking about the impending gloom and doom that would come when the baby boomers decided to retire on a large scale. 72 million men and women, largely in management and executive positions, would suddenly leave the workplace, leaving a vacuum of profits and productivity. For the most part, it hasn't happened that way; a large portion of my generation has decided that continuing to work - at least for the time being - would be preferable to aimless days spent on the beach, and so we've hung around for a lot longer than expected. Slowly but surely, however, the change is coming. And as many of us are heading off into the sunset, it's leaving some...

From our interviews with more than 6,000 sales professionals, we estimate that 85% of the dollars companies spend on sales training and customer service training is wasted. The goal of training is to educate and change behaviors, and we all know you don't change habits over night. In other words, sales and customer service professionals have to practice new behaviors for at least a month before they become part of their professional DNA. That's why a follow-up component is essential. Without it, employee behaviors regress back soon after the training event. Our research shows that a 6-8 week follow-up program is the most effective way to iron in the new attitudes, habits and skills that were learned...

Even with the Internet and the various high tech gadgets available to help businesses remain constantly in contact with their clients, there is one aspect of business that has not changed. What is that? The majority of sales must be made face to face and that requires a sales staff. And not just any kind of sales staff, but a sales staff of professionally trained sales people who are consultants as well as sales people. Today's sales market is extremely competitive and it is essential each company expecting to successfully participate in that market possess a sales staff which realize the importance of setting high standards of sales performance. Today's sales staff must be information gatherers...

Sales force management is all about organization, planning, and recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of the individual members of your sales force. Just as there are different learning styles and personality types, there are three types of salespeople that most sales professionals identify with. This article will provide information about these four types in order to help you discover which types of sales professionals currently make up your sales force. As you read on, you will probably gain insight into which type of salesperson and sales manager you are as well. The first and most common type of salesperson is what is known as the team player. Team players are typically top performers, and...

How are you planning on selling your product? In retail stores? Through the internet? Licensing? On TV? These are some of the options that most inventors consider, but there are many more options that you probably haven't of even thought of. There are so many different ways you can sell a product that the list would be without end. In this article we will explore just one of those options: building a non-traditional sales force. A traditional sales force would involve either independent sales representatives, who often represent your products and other related products from other companies, or an on-staff sales force, ranging from one person to a whole marketing department. While these are the most...

So let's say that you were going to drive to some place far, far away. Let's go a step farther and say that you sorta knew where you were going to go to, but that you had never been there before. Can you imagine yourself just jumping into the car and driving with doing any planning? Believe it or not, this is exactly how some sales negotiators jump into a negotiation. What, Me Plan? So how would you get ready for that long car ride? I'm betting that you'd fill up the gas tank. You might check the air in the tires. Probably you'd pack some food and bring along some tapes / CDs to listen to. You might even go so far as to get a map (or these days a GPS system) and figure out how you were going to get...

Sales prospecting is probably one of the least fun things to do in business. It takes a lot of work, discipline, and consistency. It may also seem like the results aren't that great. You expend all this energy, but only have a few sales to show for it. But here are a few tips that will help you get better results from your efforts. 1) Be proactive Prospecting is usually only done when sales are down. You need to make more money, so you go looking for sales. But this can come across to the customer as desperation. They can sense your need for the sale and balk at what they perceive as pressure. If you prospect when sales are up, you seem more relaxed. You can focus more on what you can offer the...

es business wouldn't be profitable with a lack of a lot of patrons to buy its merchandise. Advertisements and promotions contribute in enhancing the sales of a product by attracting prospective clients, but the effectiveness of this method doesn't linger for long, and it doesn't often bring in a a couple of fresh new buyers. This is why learning sales prospecting techniques is very beneficial. Sales prospecting techniques, when done right, can really impose a big positive impact on your sales. The reality is that majority of prospects never feel fully secure on buying a product until they have directly been speaked with by a company representative. That is why in order to acquire higher sales, you...

No matter what a guru, trainer, or coach says there isn't a sales script that will close every deal. There isn't a magic script that will turn your clients melt to be like putty in your hands and purchase anything you have to offer. The silver bullet of sales scripts is just a myth. Some might say, but "I can sell ice to Eskimos". What they never tell you is they are selling that ice in the summer when it's warm! Sales objections are part of human nature. People naturally will raise objections out of fear, lack of information, and even a lack of trust. When you understand why people raise sales objections it will be easier to handle their response with interest piquing rebuttals. When many sales...

If you have been in sales for any period of time you have run into sales objections. Objections are what happen when you ask a prospect for an order and the prospect responds with anything other than "Yes." My experience has been that most objections arise because a salesperson hasn't done a thorough enough job of sales opportunity qualification. NOTE: For more information on the topic of sales opportunity qualification, read The Secret to Closing More Sales and How to Avoid Wasting Time on Prospects Who Can't or Won't Buy. How do you become expert at sales opportunity qualification? If you do a great job of answering the following questions and build the answers into your everyday sales approach...

There are times when you are meeting with prospects that you only ever seem to get objections. People tell you they can't invest in your product or service because of "price" or because they don't have "time" or "maybe later". It doesn't seem to matter what you share with them they just raise an objection to everything! Some days it might even feel like you could give away what you are selling and they still wouldn't take you up on it. Many sales professionals and entrepreneurs, when faced with objection onslaught go into "sales" mode. They start defending their product or service with zeal. They mention how the competition isn't even close. They reveal how they offer features that no one else can...

The first technique to handling objections is to use CRIS - Clarify, Rephrase, Isolate, Solve Clarify - As I understand it, state the objection, is that right? Rephrase - So you want the, work or product, it's just that you... (Money) need away to pay for it, right? (Shop) want to be sure your getting the best solution at the best price, right? (Think) want to make sure this is the right decision, right? Isolate - Is there anything else other than this? Solve - find a financial plan, take the customer shopping, break the decision into it's components. You can handle any objection using this acronym to close more sales. The second technique to handling objections is to use Feel, Felt, Found - It's...

The word "objection" for salespeople can be a horrible word. A skilled salesperson acknowledges that only a small amount of objections are actually legitimate and the rest of them are really ploys to subliminally hide the true objection. This is something that a salesperson deals with every day on the job. Regardless of your selling style, you will still face objections but how you deal with them will determine if you close a sale or not. It will also determine whether or not you will be able to survive in your career as a sales professional. Below are some tips on how to deal with sales objections: - When hearing an objection, always thank your prospect for bringing up a good point. Thanking...

Home security is often a tough sale. It is the kind of decision that is easy for the customer to put off unless we help them make the right decision. Here are a few foundations that will help you overcome objections and get more home security sales. Make An Order Your Goal In Every Home Before you go into any home, make the decision that you are leaving with an order. Remind yourself that you are not there to educate, to entertain or to meet. You are there to help them make the right decision and to leave with an order. Focus on writing an order in every home and end every presentation with an order. Use Trial Closes Throughout your home security system presentation, be sure you are focusing on what...

Telephone sales tips can stop your sales appointment and telesales calls being stopped early by sales objections from the prospect. You can avoid those early illogical objections that prevent you from gaining the appointment or sale. The early call stoppers are usually, I'm not interested, not thinking of buying, or a, no thanks don't want anything. Don't you feel like asking the prospect what it is they are not interested in as they don't know why you are calling yet? If you could stop these objections from happening how many more appointments or sales would you make, and how much more money would you earn? Many of the objections and negative responses that stop your call will be caused by the...

In March 2002, the comic strip Beetle Bailey contained a valuable lesson for business presenters. As General Halftrack walked into his office, his secretary asked: "How was Lt. Fuzz's presentation?" The General replied: "Like the Washington Monument." Puzzled, the secretary asked "The Washington Monument? General Halftrack responded, "Yeah, it took a long time to get to the point." How often have you felt the frustration of General Halftrack because the speaker didn't "get to the point?" Worse, have people listening to your presentations been exasperated because they didn't know where you were taking them, didn't know what was your point? An audience, whether it is one person or many, wants speakers...

Objections from customers can be difficult to overcome, but with the right training objections become part of the normal sales conversation. You must be able to handle multiple types of objections, but you will find that you also have many different ways to handle them. You may want to start by learning a few techniques and then start adding more as you master these methods. 1. Boomerang Bounce back to them the objection. Take what they say and use it to get them closer to the objective. By using what they say, you are saying that they are right. And when you attach what you want to what they say, then by association, what you want is right. 2. Objection chunking You take a wider or narrower...

Sales objections! Reading those two words gives me the heeby jeebies! When I was a sales person, trying to sell clothes and market them in the best light possible, right at the beginning of my career, during my college days, I would have to deal with all kinds of clients and trust me; I have had my fair share of sales objections to handle. In fact, there were times when I felt like quitting because I thought that overcoming sales objections was just not my kind of thing. But a bit of patience and perseverance changed all that for me. I've come a long way since then and now I actually have two apparel stores of my own. But the knowledge I gathered during my days as a novice has still stayed with me...