Category

negotiation

Jan 12
1
Historical lady saying no

Have you ever talked yourself out of a sale?

By | customers, entrepreneurs, marketing, negotiation, sales tips, Training | No Comments

Have you ever talked yourself out of a sale

(and what should you have done differently?)

It is important to understand when to talk and when to stop. When we are being sold ‘to’ none of us likes to be with someone who talks constantly; it is irritating and it can make us feel resentful because it is taking up our time. This is especially true if we have already made our mind up to buy.

When you are the one doing the selling, you should also be aware that not every customer needs to know everything about your product or service – all they really need to know is whether it will solve their problem or meet their objective and how. Anything else is just clutter and can put the sale at risk. Read More

Dec 05
0
Sales training - helping customers to say yes

Make it super easy for your customers to say ‘Yes’

By | customers, entrepreneurs, negotiation, sales tips, Training | No Comments

Make it super easy for your customers to say ‘Yes‘

Is it possible that you’ve been making things too complicated for your customers? If so, you might be stopping them from buying. That’s because all of us humans like easy decisions rather than hard ones. So what can you do to ensure that your customers are going to find it easy to buy from you? Let’s look at some really simple things you can do straight away.

 

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

Whatever you are doing – demonstrating, presenting, or just explaining, don’t overwhelm your customer with information. Simplicity is the key here. So instead, do your homework and find out what they are likely to be interested in and then, through effective questioning, get to the core of their issue Read More

May 11
1
wrestlers from Pixabay

Closing Sales should not be like a wrestling match!

By | negotiation, sales tips, sales training | No Comments

Closing sales is not a wrestling match!

     When I started my sales career it was with a well-known Financial Services organisation who shall be nameless. My manager, who I can now see was the cliché of the crooked salesman, was much worse and delighted in teaching his team of young, inexperienced sales people how to close.

 

     I can’t remember all the names now of the closes, but I think it says something that the closing techniques all had quite combative names. For example, there was ‘the double arm lock’, ‘the right angle’ and a particularly unpalatable one that my boss loved where he would fill out an application form and then tip his clipboard towards the potential customer, allowing his pen to roll towards them – the idea being that they would pick up and sign. Yes really!

 

     Young as I was, I could sense that these closes that seemed to relate more to a wrestling match than helping people choose the right sort of life assurance! Moreover, they seemed designed to ‘trick’ people into signing up, which probably explains why the cancellation rate in our team was so high. It also went some way to explaining why I felt so uneasy about working there. I left, miserable at the situation. It was only later, when I had been on some really good sales training that I was able to understand exactly what the problem was.

 

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Apr 04
0
charge more Tadpole Training

Why you should stop discounting and charge more

By | customers, entrepreneurs, marketing, negotiation, sales tips, Training | 4 Comments

Why you should stop discounting and charge more


When you looked at that heading, did you think ‘no chance!’ Or perhaps you shouted at me; ‘what does she know?’ Certainly, if you are anything like most people in business, you might have some genuine reasons to be sceptical, like:

 

1. I need to give discounts to win business
2. I need money and I need it now – so even if it’s not that profitable, by discounting I do get some cash flow
3. I’ll raise my prices when I’m busier
4. I don”t know how to justify charging more
5. It’s just easier to give a discount
6. My customers can’t afford to pay more

Well, if that is you, then you need to know that, unless you are in the bargain basement discount end of the market, discounting has been shown not to work. These are the main reasons why:

 

1. Someone else will always discount a bit more – so before you know where you are, they have undercut you, then you need to undercut them and so on. The result? Even if you do make the sale, you have totally eroded your profit margin.

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Nov 11
0

Why you will sell more if you can negotiate like a child

By | negotiation, sales training | 3 Comments

sell more - negotiate like a child -mother and child in a stand off Children are brilliant negotiators. Ask any parent who has just been persuaded to part with yet more money for another ‘essential’ toy, gadget, gimmick, or snack. We can learn a lot from them in our adult world if we are prepared to listen.

As tiny babies, we learn to manipulate the world to get what we want. We may not have a large range of techniques, but we know to cry for food, affection or comfort until we get it. Then as we grow, our repertoire of negotiation skills grows. Children are weaker physically and economically but, because they don’t care too much what they look like or how they behave, they are fantastic at doing whatever it takes to get what they want.

Any parent will recognise the following list, but even if you are not a parent, remember back to when you were a child. I bet you are familiar with nearly everything here. Why? Because the chances are, you’ve used pretty much all of them yourself! Read More