28Jun/070

The Answer is Questions

What keeps sales managers, executives and business owners up at night? Bennett Zucker seems to have a pretty good idea:

  1. Unsold and undersold inventory.
  2. Sales productivity.
  3. Operational inefficiency.

Zucker's expertise is in the advertising industry but that list of woes is probably universal. His prescription for the advertising community is also one that applies to nearly every business:

We need better sales training in the basics, that's for sure: Are there tools that can help us uncover the value, bring more potential buyers to the table, and get them on board easily?

The most obvious tool that springs to mind is questions. Questions are a powerful way to uncover value. They can also help you bring potential buyers to the table and get them on board. Questions are vital at every stage of the sale -- from prospecting all the way to negotiation. One of the smartest things you can do as a sales manager is teach your team to rely on thoughtful questioning as their chief selling strategy.

This month's free email IMPACT Newsletter offers some specific suggestions for using three types of questions to get to the heart of what your prospect wants.

Filed under: Overcoming Objections, Professional Selling, Sales Motivation No Comments
27Jun/070

[Audio] A Winning Self Image (Part 1)

How do you look at yourself? This one is deep, Bill talks about the psyche and what to look for in a winning self image. This is only the first part, second part will post later.

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Click the green play button above to play the audio

This and other podcasts are available to download at itunes to help your selling career. If you have never used itunes and need help to download and install it click here for a tutorial.

You can click the "itunes" icon on the sidebar to take you directly to our podcast site.

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Filed under: Sales Motivation, Sales Training Audios No Comments
26Jun/070

Tuesday’s Sales Truth {6.26.07}

Tuesday's Sales Truth Number 29

The Tuesday's Sales Truths are taken from Bill Brooks' Book Entitled: Universal Sales Truths
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Filed under: Sales Motivation No Comments
25Jun/078

The Most Offensive Word In Selling

The word pitch offends me. I hope you'll help me eliminate it.

Why?

Would you want to get pitched? When I hear that word, I'm confident some prospect is about to suffer from an attack of sleaze.

Anyone in sales knows that the opportunity to meet (in person or over the phone) with a prospect or customer is a rare treat. Give it the respect it deserves. Don't demean your prospect by hurling an unending stream of canned or memorized words at them. Don't pitch. Instead, carefully choose your questions, observations and tailor your presentation. Then remember to reserve any recommendation until you:

  • Understand exactly what your prospect wants and
  • Are certain you can provide it.

Stop calling a professional sales presentation a "pitch." I, for one, believe that word is one of the reasons our profession has a bad reputation. Help me eliminate it.

If other professions want to continue to use the word (PR, advertising, etc.), that's their problem. Let them suffer the fallout. Frankly, they already have.

Filed under: Asking the right questions, Sales Presentations 8 Comments
22Jun/070

CEO Bill Brooks Answers Your Questions: Week 6


Thanks for participating!

Filed under: Hiring / Retention, Sales Videos, Time Management, Videos - Ask Bill No Comments
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  • Sales Evolution is a B2B Sales Blog for curious people. We talk about things like sales training, sales management, sales assessments, sales leadership, prospecting, and sales relationship building. I’m Jeb Brooks and I’ll be your host. So, please sit back, relax, and join us!

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