On a recent trip to Nelson in New Zealand I decided I wanted to buy a present for my grand daughter. It was a Saturday and from all accounts the busiest shopping day of the week.

The day was sunny and lots of people were out and about in town. I had lunch at the local Turkish restaurant where the Coffee is excellent and the mezza even better.

Opposite I spied the colorful sign of a children’s store by the name of Crackerjacks. It was 2.30pm and I quickly finished my coffee and headed over to Crackerjacks with the purpose of finding a suitable present for the adorable Poppy.

Well, what a surprise, the door was ajar but when I entered a woman looked at me and shouted “We are closed.”

“What” I replied, in this economy how on earth can you be closed at 2.30pm on the busiest day of the week!

All I got was a smile and “Sorry”.

Now looking back at this I am still in shock, and disappointed I was turned away from what was going to become a certain sale. Maybe a toy store only makes simple sales but it is also possible they carry high end costly toys that require a little more thought before a prospective buyer makes a purchase.

Regardless it was obvious that Crackerjacks was prepared to pass up business of any kind and without doubt in a current economy where most retailers are moaning and bleating.

If you own a retail business I strongly urge you to look at your trading hours, make certain you are open as advertised and make sure you have capable staff employed to secure any type of sale, whether a major sale or a simple sale.

Take a look at when the public actually do their shopping and open accordingly.

If you are making major sales, IE: A sale that normally requires more than one interview with a prospect, make certain your staff are well skilled in the process.

If you are in business and making any kind of sales how serious are you?

Even though price selling may be easier and faster, you will be the loser because of under selling and more than likely earning less income.

Many customers like me have a strong reluctance to purchase poor quality, and some who do so will regret and quite often cancel later.

If you are involved in making major sales or in fact any kind of sales you make a grave error with either extreme.

A: Concentrating your sales effort on quick selling only.

OR

B: Overselling or forcing your customer too hard.

You must determine your customer needs, I do not know how many times this week I have given car sales people a brief on what I was looking for. Price was NOT the motivating factor in my case, yet this brief went over most heads. In nearly every case they tried to sell me something I had no interest in.

There are two reasons for selling a better or upmarket product. The obvious one is too increase your earnings or profitability, and the second is to serve your customer better. A customer frequently will make a buying decision on price alone, unaware that a far better product or service, more keeping with his or her needs, would cost comparatively little more.

Most professional sales people know what a sales presentation is but most sales people prepare one and deliver it before finding the facts about their customer.

If you are  in the business of “Making Major Sales” ( a sale that requires more than one interview with the prospect) you need to gather as much information about that customer you can.

In general most people love talking about themselves therefore as a professional sales person SHUT UP and listen.

Try to get the customer to tell you everything they can about their business. When did it start? Where have they come from? Have they multiple branches? Who makes the decisions? Are you speaking with the correct person? What issues have come up over their business history? Where are they going? How many staff do they have? If they have other branches do those branches make their own decisions? If so who are the contacts?

What private interests does your prospect have? Show a GENUINE interest as suggested by Dale Carnegie and make a note of it. Find out their likes and dislikes, who are their competitors? Where are their competitors located?

Most sales people are too interested in TELLING not selling. They are all too keen to tell the customer about how wonderful their product is without doing any ground work first.

If you happen to be selling anything from aircraft, to SMARTPHONES, to IPHONES or to INSURANCE etc make certain you get ALL the information you can about your customers CURRENT situation and make sure you understand it perfectly.

Once you have all this information it is still not the time to mention your product or service. There are more questions requiring answers such as what problems they have, what those problems mean and what needs done to have them resolved.

Tip of the day:

Remember, a great salesperson knows how to ask the right kind of questions and uncover what the customer REALLY wants. If your customer exposes a problem your product or service can solve it is STILL not the time to introduce your product or service.

Why? Because you MUST find out what that problem means and how it effects the business.

Only then are you getting somewhere near where the elite sales people already know where to go.

The course was over fourteen weeks one night per week and by half way through I changed my vocation and knew all I wanted to do was sell and work entirely for myself.

I have never forgotten the lessons learned on that course and this one is the most important.

If you want to get on in life you must get people to like you and here are the six ways:

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.

2. Smile

3. Remember that a person’s name is the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.

5. Talk in terms of the other persons interest.

6. Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.

ALL of this is vitally important if you are making major sales. If you are involved in sales training or sales management you must impress these important aspects onto your sales staff or participants.

How many sales people do you know who really have these skills? It is not rocket science, and all of these skills are worth mastering.

It is in this complex you will find people capable of making major sales. Not only can you buy the latest Porsche or Ferrari at authorized dealers but you will also find RSGB Laser vision.

This company is the brainchild of Krisda and Chalailk Chatikavanij, and they sell the very best home entertainment systems on the planet.

These charming people know how to set their organization well apart from competitors and differentiate themselves in a climate where most companies are struggling and fighting each other on price.

In the twenty something years I have known these people I am constantly surprised by the efforts they make to stay up to date with the latest trends and the endless amount of sales training and presentation skills they provide their staff.

It is a fact very few sales people or companies, have recognized how dramatically their market has changed over the last few years.

Most sales people cannot grasp how value is interpreted by their customers. There are even less sales people who have adapted to the new skills required to make major sales.

Well there is some bad news and some good news here. The bad news is that most salespeople are still operating under the old idea that just handing out information is the way to communicate value to their customers.

Unfortunately for them, this is now the path to just selling on price. The good news is that for those companies, sales forces and individual sellers just like RSGB Laser Vision who make the transition, there is a unique opportunity to capture a greater share of their market and to do so with a lower percentage of customers who make purely price driven buying decisions.

Most sales people and companies talk about offering “value added services,” “value selling” or they claim to be selling “solutions”.

However, do these sellers really understand what their customers would define as value?

How many sellers can accurately identify what kind of “value” their customers are willing to pay a premium to receive?

If value is defined as something that causes a customer to reduce their price concerns, then effective sellers should be able to answer with a list of specifics.

The unfortunate reality is, most will answer with guesses and just point out the advantages of their product or service.

Research carried out by Huthwaite Research has revealed a compelling over use of the words, “concept of value”. Their research has shown the average sales person just does not understand their customer’s real needs.

When a seller employs the correct selling tactics, three outcomes can be achieved:

Price will become less important to the customer.

In situations where the seller genuinely seeks an ongoing relationship (and is successful) with the buyer, the customer will then normally put up a barrier to the seller’s competition.

The seller should uncover areas of opportunity available to them from each customer by asking the appropriate questions and being able to identify them accurately.

This is a major topic for any organization finding itself trapped in today’s marketplace as we constantly see oversupplied with commodities.

In 2008 we can only succeed through real value creation where you can totally differentiate yourself and your product or service from your competitor.

This surely must be uncovered by you with proper questioning of your customer. In future posts I will reveal more on this most important subject.

I am currently in Amman and leave tomorrow for the south. Petra is regarded as one of the new wonders of the world. What has this got to do with making sales?
Well nothing really except if I had not been successful at making major sales and earning high income I would never have been able to visit this sensational country.

Hopefully in the next week or so I can post a photo or two and relate some of the sales experiences I have seen in this part of the world.

Anyway, I hope the new year will bring bigger and better sales to all the professional sales people out there. Just remember when things get tough the tough get going.

I will be posting part two of the interview with Anthony Mosley soon. In the meantime I wish all super sales people the best of luck over the silly season and may you be keeping on top of your contacts, communicating professionally with your customers and above all keeping them informed. Keep “Making Major Sales”

Best Wishes

Steve