Tag Archives: free online sales skills training

Sales closing tip: Why it pays to complete the order blank BEFORE you meet with the prospect

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Sales closing tip: It’s a good investment of time and effort to complete the order form BEFORE you go into the meeting with the prospect.

Granted, it takes a little time, and you may waste some order blanks, but the benefits make it worth the while.

For one thing, you don’t have to stop the sales momentum in the call to collect basic data on things such as address, billing address and the like.

Even more importantly, by completing the order form before you go into the call, you project to the Prospect your confidence that the sale will, naturally, happen. Expectations are infectious, and a large part of selling is projecting positive expectations.

How do you get the information you need to complete the order blank that early, before the sale is set?

You probably already got most of that as you set up the call on this prospect: company name, individual’s name and title, and so forth.

For the rest? Ask the secretary or other gate-keeper while you’re on-site waiting for the meeting. If they ask why you’re asking, simply say, “I need it for my records. Paperwork! You know how it is, I’m sure.”

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The content in this and  other posts on this site has been adapted from my books, which you will find in the sidebar, along with how to order as both ebooks and pbooks. Hope you find them helpful.

Active listening: Communicating well in the sales call, in person and on the phone

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The most successful sales people  have developed listening skills–not just a passive listening, but active listening skills as well

 We’ll be examining the how-to of active listening in much more detail later in this site, but here are some starting points to give you a quick sense of what active listening means in sales.

Active listening is a topic in itself, but means, among other things, not just sitting there, but becoming actively and visibly involved with the speaker.

Depending on the situation, that might mean giving clear feedback that you are understanding correctly, nodding, taking notes on items that are particularly relevant — as all of these are signals to the speaker that this is what you’re really looking for.

Thus “active listening” may not be just listening: it could be saying encouraging words—like “I understand,” or “Interesting,” or “Mmm, I see,” or whatever helps to the speaker realized that he or she is on-course to what you need to know.

Active listening may also mean asking follow-up questions as needed.

Yet active listening also means knowing when to be silent, and when to let the speaker “roam free.”

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The content in this and  other posts on this site has been adapted from my books, which you will find in the sidebar, along with how to order as both ebooks and pbooks. Hope you find them helpful.

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