Sales is a Process - NOT an Event

One of the biggest barriers to effective selling is many sales people do not understand that sales is a process made up of several critical parts, any one of which can win or lose you sales, and all of them need to be addressed and continuously improved in order to succeed.

Effective selling is not just about better prospecting, more effective sales presentations and closing sales, although all of these are important in their own right. Effective selling is the ability to combine each of these in such a way that the prospect trusts, believes and respects you and your company, and wants or needs your product or service to help improve the quality of their life or business.

For many years, traditional sales training focused on the "close of the sale" as the most important element. Then the 80's rolled in and the hot topic was prospecting, qualifying and getting to the key decision-makers. Then it was the nineties and consultative selling took centre stage.

So what's hot this decade? Relationship Based Selling. This is about your ability to build positive ongoing relationships with customers to ensure repeat, referral business and reap great references.

Look at how attitude and behaviour impacts the sales process. Let's say a salesman lacks confidence in the quality or price of his product. That will affect his willingness to find new prospects and to discuss price without discounting prematurely. This reduces profit, often leading to price increases and eventual reductions in headcount or going out of business!

How about one more? Let's say our salesman doesn't deal well with the fear of rejection. This will impact his motivation and tenacity to find new prospects, to ask the right questions in order to qualify his prospects, and to close the sale!

To sell successfully, you can't just improve one aspect of the sales process, you need to address all of them, including attitude and behaviour, communication skills, prospecting, the product or service, pricing, quality and customer retention strategies.

Anne Wilkinson is Managing Director of Executive Playground, a business development consultancy. If you are interested in learning more about Relationship Based Selling ask about our top-selling Sales Accelerator training programmes. Call 0845 330 7884. Visit www.executiveplayground.co.uk
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Anne Wilkinson
Director & Business Development Coach
executive playground
Business & People Development
T: 0845 330 7884
M: 07968 134326
E: anne@executiveplayground.co.uk
W: www.executiveplayground.co.uk

Ask about our new Info to Income programme for owner experts of small businesses. Using teleconference and web technology we help you create extra income, reach more prospects and raise your profile. Info to Income launches in April 2007 with 'The MarketMAP", a 6 part interacative training seminar for owners of start-ups and small businesses who want to market their business more effectively. To find out more call 0845 330 7884

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