We are all in sales. Title or no title, we need to influence family, customers, team members and other people who support our life and business toward helping us accomplish a common mission. Today’s world is more connected, competitive, and distracted all at the same time. Our ability to authentically connect with people is arguably the most valuable skill we can develop. I’ve been in sales for over 15 years. Whether I was meeting with a prospect, speaking from a stage or running a group workshop it was becoming increasingly harder to complete a presentation without losing their focus. I felt like I was in the midst of a zombie invasion, striving to survive in a world of people wandering around reacting to every bing, buzz and ding of the little pocket computers. I was still closing enough sales to win a couple national championships; but I felt like I was pulling teeth sometimes! I began studying other masters in my industry who were competing at the same level but...

When I was 18 and left the trailer park for college, I took we me the 4 years of experience I had working as a waitress and in fast food.  I was practically an expert at scrubbing pots and pans, mopping floors, pulling fat off of raw chicken and changing out the grease in the deep fryers.  Being on my own to pay for school, I wasn’t sure how that type of work was going to cut it, and I didn’t love the work anyway, so when I stumbled across a sales job, it was the universe opening up a whole new world to me. 

Though I had never been in sales before, I took the position and worked that direct sales job around my college classes.  Not only did it pay for my college, including all personal bills, without taking any loans, it is what began my path of personal and professional development. 

I graduated college and opened up my own business where I recruited and trained sales people – most of whom had never sold anything before.  I did that...

More tips to making the prospect feel good while you present your product or service.  By making them feel good and feeling good yourself, your closing ratio will be higher.

 Find the deal for them

· When showing them their options (different products or various packages), ask a lot of questions so you know exactly how they are feeling and what they are thinking.   Know your various offers so well that you can find one that fits their needs perfectly rather than trying to persuade them to get what you’d like them to get or what a lot of other people get.  Don’t be a one-size-fits-all sales person.  Be the person who will help them get exactly what works best for them

Some example questions to personalize it, not waste their time, and close more effectively are:

• If you don’t mind me asking… (fill in the information you seek to better serve them).  For example:  “If you don’t mind me asking, what...

I worked in direct sales for over ten years.  My sales ratio was above 70%, and here is what I believe.  The better job you do leading up to closing, the less effort you have to put in to the actual close.   That means the more the prospect wants what you are selling, the easier it is to write up an order.  Makes sense, right?

Feel good closing is about just that - feeling good.

• The better you feel, the better, more confident closer you’ll be. 
• The better your customers feel, the better closer you’ll be.
• People may not always remember what you say, but they’ll remember how you make them feel.

When you make people feel good, everything goes better.  This applies to sales and to interaction with people in general.

• You feel more confident.
• Often, they offer helpful information without even having to ask for it.
• The energy in the room is better.
• It is healthier... laughing is good for the body and spirit.
• You are more likely...

Whether it is you who schedules your appointments with your prospects or an assistant of yours who makes the calls, it is important you know how to be effective on the phone.  Who is better to teach your assistant how to be an effective phone communicator than you?   After all, if you have a level of customer service you want to uphold, a type of experience you want your prospects to have when communicating with your company, or a conversion ratio you will use as a measurement of success, then it’s a good idea to be able to set the example.

Keys to success while phoning your prospects

Always share your golden points

There are things that make you unique or different than your competitors, and those are your golden points.  Make sure you are mentioning them to your prospects.  If your sales call is quicker than most, share that.  If your appointment will be personalized and fun, it’s good to let them know.  If your prospect was referred...

Using the phone for appointment scheduling used to be a skill that nearly anyone could
learn easily, because people were normally using the phone for all communication that
wasn’t face-to-face.  Now, with the popularity of emails, texting, and social media as means
of communication, an individual with elevated phone skills is becoming a sought after asset.
To be marketable and successful in business, it’s advantageous to develop good phone
communication skills. 

I propose that there will never be a time when phone communication will not exist in business.  No matter how technologically advanced we become as a society, many professionals will always do a portion of their conversing via telephone or video chat, and their voices will come into play.  The cell phones of the world will always be used to convert voices to binary information and send them across a frequency from one person to another; they will not solely be used for typed responses. Phone...