Hello Reader,
Last week I shared 3 sales skills which I use on first meetings with buyers.
To win new business consistently you must develop sales skills. If I had no experience in sales or selling but had to start to learn, here are the 5 skills that I would look to learn straight away.
Active Listening
Being able to remove other distractions and TRULY listen to what someone else is saying is a critical sales skill. Many people think sales is all about presenting and talking but it’s the opposite which is true.
Amazing salespeople can focus on the person they are communicating with and make them feel special. They make the other person feel valued and hear the real meaning behind words. They listen with an open mind and without wanting to get their point across or reply back with what they have done.
Active listeners want to understand the other person and listen without the intent to reply but to learn. If you can master the art of being present and truly listening to someone, it’s a core building block of being able to sell.
Asking Open Questions
Having the skill to be able to ask open-ended questions is the second skill I would look to develop. Removing the ‘Do you’s’ and ‘Are you’s’ from your conversations with other people and replacing these with ‘What are you’s’ and ‘How are you’s’ will allow you to really find out what people are thinking and feeling.
When we ask closed questions, the chances of us getting closed answers are high which can then stunt conversations and make us and the other person feel awkward. When we change those questions to open statements (like What, How, Where, Who, When) then we start to dip into the deeper thoughts that are going through the other persons mind, and it’s these parts of the conversation that are vital if we want to sell.
Knowing that someone has a problem is one thing. Knowing how much of an impact that problem is causing and the impacts if they don’t then resolve that issue are powerful insights. Asking these questions won’t guarantee sales but in almost all cases, it will give you more knowledge. Ultimately, knowledge is what leads to winning business.
Self Control
Learning to control what you do and say is critical in sales. Curbing those fears we all have when we are talking to someone we don’t know or being able to stay quiet when we have just shared our pricing is vital. All of our brains are wired with the 3 F’s (Fight, Freeze, Flight), and knowing which one to use at the right time is vital if we want to sell consistently.
Being able to control our breathing and emotions and handle making calls or being able to stay calm and react when someone says they are not interested is such a key sales skill. Being able to fight that thought process when you are asked for a discount and respond in the right way can not only build your own skills but this characteristic helps build mental resilience and makes us stronger to deal with other things in life.
Great salespeople are passionate and driven but they are also able to stay calm and keep in control of themselves and situations. This is what separates them from the amateurs.
Reading Body Language
Albert Mehrabian showed in his study that the success of a communication is only 7% down to the words with the other 93% driven by the tone of the message and the way in which it is delivered. Mastering your own skills of communicating are key as is the ability to spot discomfort or excitement in others you are talking with.
Being able to spot someone feeling disinterested or looking unsure and qualify this there and then is a sales skill that many don’t master. And yet those who do, save themselves time and also are able to build better connections with others because they ‘are tuned in’ to the other person.
Being able to identify body gestures such as head tilting and open palms will also allow you to ask the right questions at the right time to achieve the results you want. Great salespeople have brilliant self-awareness and know what others are REALLY thinking even if they don’t share those thoughts in words.
Time Blocking
The final skill to develop is the ability to block out time and have the discipline to stick to it. Being able to focus 1 to 2 hours a day on tasks that are important but not urgent is a sales superpower.
We all have huge demands on our time and there is always something to distract us. Those who are great at sales though set aside time to focus on important sales activity (such as prospecting) on a daily basis and then build the disciplines to do this consistently.
Whatever the sales focus you have with your time block (it could be for practicing or learning a new skill), if you put the time in your diary and commit to it, then over time you will see results. Spending 1 hour a day on sales activity will mount and help build your skills and more importantly your confidence to sell successfully.
These are the 5 skills I would develop if I was new to sales or had no experience of doing it before. If you can learn to master these, then consistent sales success awaits you.
This is a new series called “Ask me a question, get an answer”. Here is the first one from a guy called Matt.
Until next Saturday, stay focused on becoming a fly on the wall on the brain of your buyer.
James
