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Virtually every business you contact has this question in their mind. To truly maximize your revenues you need give people a reason to buy from you versus a competitor. Here are a few strategies that will help you differentiate yourself from your competition.

First, it’s important to understand that people make their buying decision on two levels - logical and emotional. The logical aspect revolves around the product or service and includes such things as product specifications, warranty, price, colour, size, ease of use, etc. Anything directly associated with the product is a logical need. The second buying motivator and, perhaps the most powerful, is the emotional aspect of the sale. These criteria are the less tangible needs and include feelings of success, relief, pride, joy, fear and concern. For example, a person buying a pair of jeans will have specific logical needs such as waist size, inseam length, colour and style. But, ultimately, the emotional aspect of how they fit and look will influence that person’s buying decision.

To uncover your customers emotional buying requirement learn to ask, “What are you looking for in a…?” followed by “Why is that important to you?” The first question helps you learn the logical need while the second question will help the customer express the emotional reasons behind their purchase. In the hundreds of sales training workshops I’ve conducted, I’ve learned that most salespeople and business owners have a tendency to leap into a product demonstration before they have learned what is important to the customer. Invest the time accurately and thoroughly learning your customer’s need and wants. This will help you to begin differentiating yourself from your competitor.

The next step is to give a presentation that focuses on the customer’s needs. Rather than discuss everything about your product or service, focus first on what the customer identified as being important. This demonstrates that you listened to what they said and will help you separate yourself more effectively.

When presenting your product or service ensure you discuss the benefits as well as the features. The feature is “what it is” and the benefit is “what it means to the customer.” A great way to phrase this is to say, “Our equipment extracts 97% of the water from your carpet (feature) which means your carpets will be dry to the touch within three or four hours (benefit).” This addresses the customer’s emotional buying needs which means there is a greater likelihood they will buy from your versus a competitor.

People also make buying decisions based on their overall experience in your store or place of business. Here are just three influencing factors:

1. Ease of business. Are you easy to do business with or do I, as a customer, have to jump through hoops to return something? Are you well staffed or do you reduce your costs by scheduling a skeleton staff at any given time?

2. Staff accessibility and attitude. Is your team friendly and well trained in customer services procedures? Do they exhibit the mentality that the customer is important and comes first or do they spend their time gossiping and gabbing? Do they eagerly approach the customer or do they wait for customers to come up to them first. I recently bought an aquarium and although the staff was knowledgeable they made me feel like I was intruding on their time.

3. Product selection and availability. Do you have a good supply chain management or order fulfillment process in place. Prior to buying my aquarium I placed my order at one store and at the time of writing this article almost six weeks later I still haven’t been advised that my tank has arrived. And this was a stock order!

Lastly, equip your team with the tools they need to properly do their job. Take advantage of the product training most manufacturers provide, invest in the on-going development of your people, and help them succeed. I’ve worked with companies who invest a great deal in their employees and others who spend a bare minimum. The difference in their overall results is always significant.

Today’s business environment is more challenging and competitive than ever before which means you need to give people a clear reason to do business with you rather than someone else.

Copyright 2003 Kelley Robertson. All rights reserved

Kelley Robertson, President of the Robertson Training Group, works with businesses to help them increase their sales and motivate their employees. For information on his programs, contact him at 905-633-7750 or at Kelley@RobertsonTrainingGroup.com. Receive a FREE copy of “100 Ways to Increase Your Sales” by subscribing to his 59-Second Tip, a free weekly e-zine at http://www.RobertsonTrainingGroup.com. He is also the author of “Stop, Ask & Listen - How to welcome your customers and increase your sales.”

Most people are always striving to better themselves. It’s the “American Way”. For proof, check the sales figures on the number of self-improvement books sold each year. This is not a pitch for you to jump in and start selling these kinds of books, but it is a indication of people’s awareness that in order to better themselves, they have to continue improving their personal selling abilities.

To excel in any selling situation, you must have confidence, and confidence comes, first and foremost, from knowledge. You have to know and understand yourself and your goals. You have to recognize and accept your weaknesses as well as your special talents. This requires a kind of personal honesty that not everyone is capable of exercising.

In addition to knowing yourself, you must continue learning about people. Just as with yourself, you must be caring, forgiving and laudatory with others. In any sales effort, you must accept other people as they are, not as you would like for them to be. One of the most common faults of sales people is impatience when the prospective customer is slow to understand or make a decision. The successful salesperson handles these situations the same as he would if he were asking a girl for a date, or even applying for a new job.

Learning your product, making a clear presentation to qualified prospects, and closing more sales will take a lot less time once you know your own capabilities and failings, and understand and care about the prospects you are calling upon.

Our society is predicated upon selling, and all of us are selling something all the time. We move up or stand still in direct relation to our sales efforts. Everyone is included, whether we’re attempting to be a friend to a co-worker, a neighbor, or selling multi-million dollar real estate projects. Accepting these facts will enable you to understand that there is no such thing as a born salesman. Indeed, in selling, we all begin at the same starting line, and we all have the same finish line as the goal - a successful sale.

Most assuredly, anyone can sell anything to anybody. As a qualification to this statement, let us say that some things are easier to sell than others, and some people work harder at selling than others. But regardless of what you’re selling, or even how you’re attempting to sell it, the odds are in your favor. If you make your presentation to enough people, you’ll find a buyer. The problem with most people seems to be in making contact - getting their sales presentation seen by, read by, or heard by enough people. But this really shouldn’t be a problem, as we’ll explain later. There is a problem of impatience, but this too can be harnessed to work in the salesperson’s favor.

We have established that we’re all sales people in one way or another. So whether we’re attempting to move up from forklift driver to warehouse manager, waitress to hostess, salesman to sales manager or from mail order dealer to president of the largest sales organization in the world, it’s vitally important that we continue learning.

Getting up out of bed in the morning; doing what has to be done in order to sell more units of your product; keeping records, updating your materials; planning the direction of further sales efforts; and all the while increasing your own knowledge—all this very definitely requires a great deal of personal motivation, discipline, and energy. But then the rewards can be beyond your wildest dreams, for make no mistake about it, the selling profession is the highest paid occupation in the world!

Selling is challenging. It demands the utmost of your creativity and innovative thinking. The more success you want, and the more dedicated you are to achieving your goals, the more you’ll sell. Hundreds of people the world over become millionaires each month through selling. Many of them were flat broke and unable to find a “regular” job when they began their selling careers. Yet they’ve done it, and you can do it too!

Remember, it’s the surest way to all the wealth you could ever want. You get paid according to your own efforts, skill, and knowledge of people. If you’re ready to become rich, then think seriously about selling a product or service (preferably something exclusively yours) - something that you “pull out of your brain”; something that you write, manufacture or produce for the benefit of other people. But failing this, the want ads are full of opportunities for ambitious sales people. You can start there, study, learn from experience, and watch for the chance that will allow you to move ahead by leaps and bounds.

Here are some guidelines that will definitely improve your gross sales, and quite naturally, your gross income. I like to call them the Strategic Salesmanship Commandments. Look them over; give some thought to each of them; and adapt those that you can to your own selling efforts.

1. If the product you’re selling is something your prospect can hold in his hands, get it into his hands as quickly as possible. In other words, get the prospect “into the act”. Let him feel it, weigh it, admire it.

2. Don’t stand or sit alongside your prospect. Instead, face him while you’re pointing out the important advantages of your product. This will enable you to watch his facial expressions and determine whether and when you should go for the close. In handling sales literature, hold it by the top of the page, at the proper angle, so that your prospect can read it as you’re highlighting the important points.

Regarding your sales literature, don’t release your hold on it, because you want to control the specific parts you want the prospect to read. In other words, you want the prospect to read or see only the parts of the sales material you’re telling him about at a given time.

3. With prospects who won’t talk with you: When you can get no feedback to yours sales presentation, you must dramatize your presentation to get him involved. Stop and ask questions such as, “Now, don’t you agree that this product can help you or would be of benefit to you?” After you’ve asked a question such as this, stop talking and wait for the prospect to answer. It’s a proven fact that following such a question, the one who talks first will lose, so don’t say anything until after the prospect has given you some kind of answer. Wait him out!

4. Prospects who are themselves sales people, and prospects who imagine they know a lot about selling sometimes present difficult selling obstacles, especially for the novice. But believe me, these prospects can be the easiest of all to sell. Simply give your sales presentation, and instead of trying for a close, toss out a challenge such as, “I don’t know, Mr. Prospect - after watching your reactions to what I’ve been showing and telling you about my product, I’m very doubtful as to how this product can truthfully be of benefit to you”.

Then wait a few seconds, just looking at him and waiting for him to say something. Then, start packing up your sales materials as if you are about to leave. In almost every instance, your “tough nut” will quickly ask you, Why? These people are generally so filled with their own importance, that they just have to prove you wrong. When they start on this tangent, they will sell themselves. The more skeptical you are relative to their ability to make your product work to their benefit, the more they’ll demand that you sell it to them.

If you find that this prospect will not rise to your challenge, then go ahead with the packing of your sales materials and leave quickly. Some people are so convinced of their own importance that it is a poor use of your valuable time to attempt to convince them.

5. Remember that in selling, time is money! Therefore, you must allocate only so much time to each prospect. The prospect who asks you to call back next week, or wants to ramble on about similar products, prices or previous experiences, is costing you money. Learn to quickly get your prospect interested in, and wanting your product, and then systematically present your sales pitch through to the close, when he signs on the dotted line, and reaches for his checkbook.

After the introductory call on your prospect, you should be selling products and collecting money. Any callbacks should be only for reorders, or to sell him related products from your line. In other words, you can waste an introductory call on a prospect to qualify him, but you’re going to be wasting money if you continue calling on him to sell him the first unit of your product. When faced with a reply such as, “Your product looks pretty good, but I’ll have to give some thought”, you should quickly jump in and ask him what specifically about your product does he feel he needs to give more thought. Let him explain, and that’s when you go back into your sales presentation and make everything crystal clear for him. If he still balks, then you can either tell him that you think he product will really benefit him, or it’s purchase be to his benefit.

You must spend as much time as possible calling on new prospects. Therefore, your first call should be a selling call with follow-up calls by mail or telephone (once every month or so in person) to sign him for re-orders and other items from your product line.

6. Review your sales presentation, your sales materials, and your prospecting efforts. Make sure you have a “door-opener” that arouses interest and “forces” a purchase the first time around. This can be a $2 interest stimulator so that you can show him your full line, or a special marked-down price on an item that everybody wants; but the important thing is to get the prospect on your “buying customer” list, and then follow up via mail or telephone with related, but more profitable products you have to offer.

If you accept our statement that there are no born salesmen, you can readily absorb these “commandments”. Study them, as well as all the material stated here. When you realize your first successes, you will truly know that “salesmen are MADE - not born”.

To get more information, knowledge, and tools for how to sale more products through Internet, follow up your prospects automatically, and pull more profits out of it by Internet marketing and promotion, you can visit http://www.best-internet-businesses.com

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Julia Tang publishes Smart Online Business Tips, a fresh
and informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people
like you! To find out the best online business opportunities,
and to discover hundreds more proven and practical internet
marketing secrets, plus FREE internet marketing products
worth over $200, visit: http://www.best-internet-businesses.com
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As everyone knows when you first get going in any new job, much less a career, you are for better or worse, subject to the influence of your immediate supervisor. Yet, without one who pays attention in guiding your activities properly, you can develop undesirable traits, which if left unchecked turn into career limiting habits. Years ago upon starting my professional sales career I was extremely fortunate to have as my first sales manager a superb teacher, mentor and coach.

We’ll spend some time discussing what made Bill (a pseudonym for the real person), so effective at what he did.

At the outset, let’s be clear about it; Bill was there to make sales, no ifs ands or buts. While being a persuasive and diplomatic leader he also knew how to pull his sales team forward - individual-by-individual. On the surface, you could say so what’s the big deal about that. However, underlying his enormous charismatic presence and management qualities, he also recognized that the future of his success was in many ways outside his control. It was in the hands of his sales force. If he had any control at all it was to ensure his sales team was well trained on their P’s - products, processes, procedures, practices, policies, and prices. Then he saw it his responsibility to improve the sales staff skill set by setting an example in words and actions that they could emulate. He took great personal resolve in showing them how to do it. Then he ensured his sales force followed in skill building for themselves while monitoring each as they became more experienced in their role.

THE BIG DIFFERENTIATOR

What is not so obvious is that the product line was changing every month with many products being obsoleted with more powerful and value effective products coming into the line simultaneously. The intangible dimension he added was how to sell consultatively, which transcended product features even as the products changed. He knew consultative selling would never go out of favor and he never lost sight of the significance of presenting himself and his sales team as consultative sales people.

Bill taught us whatever the product, system, service or solution, the sales person who understood the prospect (or potential customer) best was the one who actually was in the best position to influence the sales process. And how could the salesperson understand the prospects best? Simply stated, we learned to ask lots of intelligent leading questions.

HOW IT WORKS

When the information was fed back to the client, requesting correction or clarification, positive vibrations came out of the client. Listening, hearing and feeding back data provided was just a few of the methods used to ensure client meaning was transferred by the customer and interpreted correctly by us.

So how does this relate to Bill? You see he had the incredible ability to focus with intensity on what the customer was telling him. He became totally involved in the business dialogue that before meeting end, he could outline a plan to get the prospect from where they were at present to where they wanted to be in the future. He could describe what actions would take place, when they would occur and why each activity made sense for the prospect to engage in and be committed to it. In other words, he sold the benefits of problem solving in a step function fashion that resulted in conclusive and consistent action be taken as he and the customer progressed to a logical conclusion.

Because Bill demonstrated how to take the clients interest first and build a scenario around the solution to the situation, he was able to get inside information about what it would take to make his proposal stand out from his competitors. He took the WIIFY - What’s In It ForYou approach. Clients loved it - they didn’t see him trying to sell anything. They saw him moving from the vendor side of the desk to the customer side - he was a partner in problem resolution. He achieved what he wanted, namely a purchase decision because he did the just the opposite than the competition, who more often than not took the WIIFM -What’s In It For Me approach. Frankly, his relationships with customers grew stronger, confidence in him deepened and the customer trusted his motives because the goals of the prospect became his as well.

IS THIS NEW?

Bill never needed to ask for customer commitment; the customer knew when it was time to move the discussion to concluding the business transaction with a commitment to him, namely an order. The prospect knew this because the plan to get them where they wanted to be had in it one of the remaining steps - commitment to a purchase order. Is this style and approach new when it comes to selling? After I distill down all the selling systems and techniques, I conclude that the one technique Bill used will never go out of style. Consultative selling will always be in vogue - it simply was lost in a whole host of other glamorous acronyms and sales systems to describe the selling process.

Here’s why it is timeless. Should we take a product, service or system approach first, that is to say, the first things out of our mouth are benefits as we perceive them? If we do we run the risk of losing prospect interest because these benefits may be important to us (or a prior customer) but may mean nothing to the current client. Identifying what the prospect sees as the problem and we state the solutions are what assist the value proposition. Representatives who fail to feed back the client situation and then suggest an approach to solve it do not contribute to rapport or relationship building.

If we listen hard enough and with great attention, our prospective client will tell us what we need to know in order to inform them of how what we do solves a problem, fills a need and returns value for our services. Listening, clarifying and asking pertinent questions of your client are a timeless style of capturing the prospects attention and garnering support for the eventual proposal.

An earmark of the 21st century successful salesperson is that they ask more questions than they make declarative statements. They listen more intently, concentrate on the words, nuances in the speech and voice inflection of the prospect and customer. They are not judgmental. Instead, they demonstrate great empathy, endeavoring to appreciate the perspective and point of view of their prospect and customer. And when they do make an observation or comment, many times it is to clarify what they heard, making sure they understand the meaning of the words and requesting the client correct them if they heard the words incorrectly. Presented in this fashion the salesperson removes self-importance, arrogance and a know it all attitude. And the prospect or customer picks up on that immediately.

In today’s world highly effective company representatives for any number of products, systems or services are problem solvers and they sell consultatively. They endeavor to fully understand the clients situation and offer solutions which speak to resolving the customers issues, not their own. When the consultative problem solving approach is consistently used with a client (whether old or new) the client sees the consultative sales person as having the client interest come first. Then trust and confidence get developed in the buyer’s mind. Over time this turns into a solid, mutually beneficial relationship.

CLONE THAT MAN!

Bill was my career prototype. In fact, later after moving into a sales management role, I cloned many of his admirable and effective methods and techniques. Not only was he a teacher, he was a coach, mentor and above all straight shooter. How could any sales team member reject the tutelage of a seasoned professional salesperson and manager who had the interest of the sales person and the customer at heart?

I owe much to Bill, as his cordial, problem solving style commanded his clients and his sales teams respect. The bonus? He was not only respected, he was liked.

Don McNamara is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) and is President of Heritage Associates, Inc. http://www.heritage-associates.net

Heritage Associates is a full service sales management consulting, training and coaching company. Don also speaks and writes on the art and science of superior sales management and top sales performance. He is the author of “Visionary Sales Leadership.”

With over 30 years sales experience from the field level to executive sales management, in his career he has been an individual contributor, corporate sales training manager, regional manager, national sales manager and vice president of sales. Don is a member of the Institute of Management Consultants, where he serves as Professional Development Chair for the southern California chapter, and the National Speakers Association.

For a free e-newsletter contact Don McNamara at djmcn@heritage-associates.net or by phone (949) 230-4363.

How you prioritize your sales territory management activities depends upon whether you are managing a territory that has existing customers, or whether you are building your customer base from scratch.

If you manage a territory that has existing customers, your first priority should be to introduce yourself to every single one of your customers. This should be a pleasant, low-key introduction along the lines of, “I just wanted to introduce myself and see if there is anything I can do to help you.” Then, as you are chatting with your customers, you can ask, “Would you mind sharing with me how you think my company’s relationship with you has been going so far? What have we been doing well? Where could we improve?”

Collecting this kind of feedback is a great way to start relationships with customers. It also helps you draw any festering problems out into the open. If you can address the problems quickly, it can really jump-start your relationships with the affected customers.

This same approach can also be effective for customers that have been reducing their purchases from your company over time, or customers that have stopped ordering completely. It is never much fun to listen to people complain. But, if you can isolate and solve the problems that are causing the dissatisfaction, you can produce a rapid and substantial boost in sales.

If you find customers that are really happy with the service your company has provided, drill down (with more questions) to determine just what has made them so happy. Their answers will provide you with a template for successfully managing their (and other) accounts. Also, ask these happy customers for referrals…regardless of whether you have contributed in any way to their happiness! Happy, satisfied customers are usually delighted to share their positive experience with others.

Once you have met all of your existing customers, the next step is to identify target prospects in your territory. Start by checking with your manager. If they have been managing your sales team for any period of time, they should be able to suggest some good target prospects.

Once you have compiled a list of target prospects, determine which ones you will pursue first. Which target prospects have the greatest potential to purchase the largest amounts of products and services? Which ones are likely to be “quick closes”? If you have both types of target prospects on your list, pursue several of each type at the same time. In the words of a well-respected executive that I used to work with, “Elephant hunting is great…but those rabbits sure taste good in between the elephants!”

When you are ready to begin pursuing your target prospects, start by asking your existing customers whether they know anyone that works in the target organizations. If they do, ask for referrals. Once you have exhausted available referrals, proceed with the other activities in your prospecting plan - but tailor these activities to attract the attention of your target prospects.

Conclusion

Effective sales territory management begins with touching base with every single one of your existing customers. Ask questions to gauge their satisfaction with their relationship with your company. If they identify any problems, work aggressively to solve these problems as your first priority.

If a customer expresses happiness and satisfaction, ask questions to determine what your company has been doing right. Use this information to create a template for managing all of your accounts. Also be sure to ask for referrals, both in general and to specific target accounts. Exhaust these referrals before you begin the other (less productive) activities in your prospecting plan.

Prioritize your activities as described in this article, and you will maximize sales growth in your territory!

Copyright 2005 — Alan Rigg

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don’t Perform and What to Do About It. His company, 80/20 Sales Performance, helps business owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales by implementing The Right Formula for building top-performing sales teams. For more information and more FREE sales and sales management tips, visit http://www.8020salesperformance.com.