The Curator offers this insightful article by Bill Kistner. It’s interesting. Enjoy.
“No, that can’t be true I’m a professional,” you are thinking. So, let me help you get a handle on this by asking you a couple of questions.
> Is any part of your daily work or personal-life involved in getting others?
to understand or accept your concepts?
> How often do you find yourself trying to influence, persuade, encourage or
change others?
I believe the odds are high that you answered “yes” to one of the two questions. Your “yes” answer, clearly says you are in the business of selling.
It is easy to understand why you dislike selling or the idea of it because from childhood most of us were conditioned to dislike it. We heard tales about: door-to-door peddlers, used car and aluminum siding salesmen. Their images produced feelings of gloom, trickery and that selling is degrading.
However, let’s change that negative picture by showing you why life’s a sale. To begin lets count the sales you made as a child. Gathering courage, you persuaded your parents to increase your curfew or stay overnight at a friend’s house. You sold Mom and Dad on getting a better bike. When older you made your best sale getting your parent’s approval to drive the family car.
Childhood sales successes groomed you for adulthood when you convinced a manager to hire you and the car dealer to drop the price on the car you wanted. Now you sell your friends, family, co-workers, and clients on 1001 things.
I rest my case for you can see that no matter who we are or what we do we are all salespeople. The question then is how can you become more effective. Because becoming a better salesperson increases your skills to help people fulfill their needs.
To help prospects and clients what tools will increase your effectiveness as a salesperson. Here are three easy to use tools that will strengthen your selling skills.
1. Sell yourself
This is about building rapport. Rapport is establishing open communication and a harmonious connection with a person. This paves the way to finding common interests and collaborating.
Yes, your credentials, expertise, abilities are the key to helping clients. However, they are not the most powerful ability you have to sell.
The most powerful capability you can sell is yourself, your essence, integrity, and character. Why, because people like and buy optimism. People like optimist because they are positive, confident promote success and pleasurable company. Optimism is a critical characteristic in sales success. Interestingly, the only thing keeping most of us from being optimistic is our attitude.
Therefore, sell yourself first it will greatly expand the value of your credentials.
2. Develop Trust
Nothing happens between people without trust, because trust is the foundation for all interpersonal relations. Trust, is the binder between people when they feel no threat to each other and understand the benefits of being connected.
To help you build trust here is a proven formula to follow.
One (1) over (RF) risk & fear = T (Trust). The one (1) is for the critical elements: Believability, Integrity and Intimacy. The more of these three elements you substitute for the one (1) over the RF – (Risk and Fear) you drive down risk and fear and increase trust.
Trust creates confidence and reliability, which opens the door to building, long-lasting relationships.
3. Ask Questions
Questions are the backbone, rhythm of all conversations. We ask questions in selling because they help us discover customer needs, gain information and build rapport.
The writer Rudyard Kipling gave us six questions that can assist us in asking questions. Those questions are: who, what, when, where, why and how.
Kipling’s questions fit the question formula called, “10 – 10 – 10”. The first ten questions are those you need to ask the prospect. The second ten questions are ones you brainstorm regarding what client’s want and needs answered. The third element provides answers to the questions you brainstormed that the prospect/customer needs, wants answered.
There is no magic in the number ten because in most industries there is the 24 to 36 questions prospects/ customers always ask. The 10-10-10-formula increases your confidence when you meet with clients/prospects.
Now you are aware of two valuable things. First, you are a salesperson and it’s not terrible or awful. Second, you now have three proven tools that can increase your effectiveness as a salesperson.
Think of all the famous people in history and consider how different things would be if Columbus had not sold the king and queen of Spain on his idea. Reflect on all the products Thomas Edison invented and sold. In short, you are in good company as a salesperson.
Bill Kistner & Company LLC
Helping You Discover & Satisfy Customer Needs
740-549-1980 — Cell: 614-795-1916 — E-mail: billkistner@mac.com
3225 Arctic Ave. Suite: 101 — Lewis Center, OH 43035
*****
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