Author Archives:

Some salespeople are lucky enough to be selling unique products that have few or even no competitors. However, most salespeople find themselves in crowded marketplaces with a dozen or more companies competing for a finite pool of customers. If that describes your situation, you need a way to stand out and offer something that your […]

Exemplary Testimonial Request Customer testimonials are a powerful tool for salespeople. Not only do they get the prospect’s attention, they also help reassure her that she’s making a wise choice by buying from you. And it creates the bandwagon effect, giving the impression that “everyone else” is buying your product. Such testimonials can be integrated […]

Selling successfully requires that you make your prospects comfortable with you. Fear is one of the biggest impediments to any sale, so if you can relax the prospect you’re much more likely to convince him to make the big choice and buy from you. So it follows that choosing the right words during your sales […]

The stereotypical salesperson is someone who talks all the time and never listens to his customers. That kind of salesperson in real life is not a successful one, because listening to prospects is the only way to uncover their needs. And a prospect’s needs are the key to matching them up with the right product. […]

The term ‘consultative selling’ comes from the book Consultative Selling by Mack Hanan, first published in the 1970s. It describes a sales approach in which you act as an expert consultant for your prospects. Consultative sellers ask questions to determine a prospect’s needs and then use that information to select the best product or service […]

Salespeople come from all different walks of life and can have many different personality traits. So naturally they have developed many different ways to sell. Most salespeople don’t adopt a “pure” form of the basic five approaches; you probably have a way of selling that combines attributes from two or more approaches. The best way […]

Having a long-term goal and a plan to get there is extremely important, not to mention exciting. It’s great to know that your desire to be CSO of a major corporation can be reached in ten years or less if you just stick to your plan. But those far-off goals can also be pretty daunting, […]

Best Unique Selling Propositions A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a statement that describes how your product or company is different (and hopefully better) than the competition. The best USPs take a unique quality and explain how that quality will benefit your customers, all in a few memorable words. Many companies past and present use […]

The sales manager is the person responsible for leading and coaching a team of salespeople. Her duties in a small company often include assigning sales territories, setting quotas, mentoring the members of her sales team, arranging for sales training, building or helping her team to build a sales plan, and sometimes hiring and firing. In […]

The basic rule for cold calling is that the more calls you make, the more sales you’ll get from the whole process. But if you use that as your only guideline, you’ll end up making vast numbers of cold calls just to meet your basic goals. Instead of quantity, try focusing on quality and you’ll […]