Expert Insight From Tony Smith

I was a teenager when I began my very first sales job. I was selling advertisements to the local community for the high school newspaper as part of my journalism class. Clearly this was more of a donation as opposed to any benefits that would be garnered from an advertisement since 95 percent of the readership would only be high school students.

I remember walking around town and hitting up all the local doctors, dentists, vets, florist shops and other small businesses I was sure would buy an ad. I kept getting turned down over and over. I was just showing up telling everyone why they should get an ad and why our school needed their support. The problem is that many of these business owners never went to my high school.

Eventually, a friend’s dad who was selling for IBM suggested that I find out if these business owners were concerned about the quality of educational programs at the local high school, since many of them would hire students for part time summer work. He helped me craft a few quality questions to use and told me to shut up and listen to the answers. He said once you really listen you will know how to approach them in the right way. In one semester, I raised over $1000.00 because of his advice!

Telling is not selling, so pay close attention to these key pointers on how you can listen your way to a sale!

Five Secrets to Correcting the Most Common Selling Error

Put yourself in this situation: You are in a restaurant, you look over the menu and your server comes and asks,

“What would you like to have tonight?”

You order — let’s say a steak, steamed spinach and a diet soda.  A short time later, your server brings you a plate of shrimp, french fries and a glass of red wine.

How would you react?  You might assume there’s been a mistake. 

Now imagine that when you begin to explain that this is not what you wanted, your server tells you:

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Let Your Questions Do The Selling For You

Since this month’s topic is questioning (or the Probe Step of the IMPACT Selling® System), let’s start with a few questions for you, the professional salesperson:

1. What is the most essential, most valuable tool for salespeople? (Hint: If you guessed your cell phone, PDA or laptop, you need a reality check—successful selling was happening long before those things were invented)

2. What is fundamentally the most critical part of the face-to-face (or telephone) sale? (Hint: If you said, “the close” you’re probably focusing too much on your own agenda in the selling process)

3. What is the “fatal flaw” that can derail the sale even when your positioning, prospecting and pre-call planning efforts have been flawless?

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