What’s that you say? You can’t sell?

Oh, you must be right, although you are selling me right now!

A good friend of mine once said to me, “Life is sales.”

What a profound statement! Think about it! Life IS sales. We sell all day, every day.

We just don’t realize or acknowledge the fact that we are selling.

Why is that? I believe it is because we have adopted some misguided beliefs regarding selling.

The interesting thing to keep in mind is that of higher income earners around the world, a large percentage come from the world of sales. Many from direct selling!

When you think about sales, what comes to mind?

Chances are, it’s the pushy, arrogant, over-zealous, quick-to-the-close type that you’ve done business with in the past.

But, is that truly what Sales is about?

I don’t think so.

True sales is about sharing information. It’s about finding out what the other person needs and then meeting that need.

It’s about creating a win-win situation for everyone.

When was the last time you told someone about a great movie, referred a family physician or lavished praise and recommendations on the new restaurant in town?

This is sales in its purest form!

You perceive a product or service that could possibly meet the need of someone else. (A great place to eat or entertaining movie, etc.)

You share the information with someone else, in an effort to meet a need they may have.

Your friend either accepts or rejects the suggestion and you both move on about your business.

If your friend likes the suggestion and acts on it, you feel a sense of

satisfaction.

If your friend does not, you just move on, realizing that there was no interest or need at this time.

Your friend was not rejecting you.

You don’t try to overcome objections, attempting to coerce him/her into “buying” what you are offering.

You are detached from the outcome.

Oh, and either way, you don’t get paid.

Perhaps this is why it’s so easy for you to offer your suggesting.

Now, think about using this same process with a product or service that you offer.

Think of presenting your business idea to a friend, relative or acquaintance in the same way.

Just share the information!

See if there is a need to be met by what you are offering.

Don’t try to sell or overcome objections.

Just listen and offer information.

If your friend acts on that information and buys your product or service, GREAT! You have met a need and delivered value.

Oh, and you get paid! That’s okay!

If your friend does not choose to act on the information, that’s okay, too. You can still go on about your business.

You both win in either case.

You aren’t selling! You are sharing!

And, over time, using this strategy, you will move up into the ranks of the higher income earners around the world!

So, what’s that you say about not being able to sell? Good, can you just try sharing?

About The Author

Jackie Ulmer, a veteran Home Business Owner, has coached thousands of men and women on starting a successful home business. Her free newsletter provides tips, resources and more for home businesses. She can be reached through her web site at http://www.streetsmartwealth.com

Do you have blind faith that, if you can somehow convince a prospect to engage in a sales cycle, you will eventually make a sale? If you do, watch out! This belief can waste your time, effort, and company resources.

Unfortunately, time and resource investments do not inevitably produce sales. How many of the opportunities in your pipeline have been stalled at the same step in the sales cycle for weeks…or months? In how many opportunities have you and your company invested enormous amounts of time, energy and resources (conducting product demonstrations, writing lengthy proposals, providing product evaluations, etc.), only to have the prospect decide they don’t WANT to buy, or prove INCAPABLE of funding the purchase? Even when you make sales, how many turn out to be “nightmare” customers who are always dissatisfied and consume huge amounts of post-sale resources?

All Prospects Are NOT Created Equal

You DO need to help your prospects explore whether their business problems are substantial enough to justify investing time in a sales cycle. However, you also need to figure out whether each prospect is WORTHY of your time and resource investments! If a prospect is not a good fit, gracefully exit from the opportunity. (Why not refer them to a competitor and let the competitor burn some cycles?)

How can you determine whether a prospect is worthy of your time and resource investments? Many sales skills training courses teach an acronym, M-A-N, that stands for Money, Authority, and Need. The basic idea is to determine whether:

1. The prospect is willing to commit enough budget dollars (Money) to pay for the product or service
2. The key decision makers and influencers (Authority) have been identified; and
3. The prospect’s pain (Need) is severe enough to justify investing in a solution

Unfortunately, even when you do a good job of M-A-N qualification, you can be “blindsided” by issues that delay sales cycles or destroy opportunities outright. For example:

• Some prospects prove incapable of securing financing. They may have a budget, but they are not “credit worthy”, so they can’t FUND the budget.
• Some decision makers need to have specific information provided in a specific format before they can authorize a buying decision.
• Sometimes you invest considerable time and effort in troubleshooting complex problems and designing solutions, only to be informed that the prospect must take the proposed solution OUT TO BID. This can lead to the opportunity being lost to a low bidder or the profitability of the opportunity being pummeled.

To

avoid these issues, add additional questions to the M-A-N qualification process. The acronym that I have assigned to this revised process is M-A-I-N BP, which stands for Money, Authority, Information, Need, and Buying Process. Here are sample M-A-I-N BP questions:

MONEY

• How will your prospect pay for the product or service?
• Has a budget been established?
• Are they credit worthy?

AUTHORITY

• Who (in the prospect’s organization) needs to approve an acquisition of this nature?

INFORMATION

• What information do the decision makers require before they can make a decision?
• What format does this information need to be in?

NEED

• What are the prospect’s business problems?
• How compelling are they? In other words, can you quantify (associate dollars, percentages, and time frames with) the pain the prospect is feeling?
• Are the quantified business impacts substantial enough to warrant investment by the prospect’s organization (and YOUR company) in identifying and fixing the problem(s)?

BUYING PROCESS

• What is the prospect’s buying (procurement) process?
• What impact might this process have on the profitability of the transaction?
• What competitive advantage will you receive if you invest your time and resources in designing a solution that goes out to bid?

If you decide to add M-A-I-N BP qualification to your sales opportunity qualification process, here are some final thoughts to keep in mind:

• If you don’t know the answers to ALL of the M-A-I-N BP questions, it is highly likely you are wasting your time and resources!
• Opportunity qualification is NOT A ONE-TIME EVENT. As an opportunity advances through the sales cycle, you should frequently ask whether any of the answers to the qualification questions have changed. If an answer changes, it could impact the length of the sales cycle and even destroy the viability of the opportunity. At minimum, an answer change will probably require a change in focus and/or a reprioritization of planned activities.
• Never feel bad about disqualifying an “opportunity”. The amount of opportunity in most sales territories is virtually unlimited. If you carefully qualify and re-qualify each opportunity, and only invest time and resources in qualified opportunities, you will maximize your return on time and resources invested.

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

To listen to your customer is important, and to hear your customer is critical. But, to see what actions they take is the lifeline to your business.

Recently, I was giving an introductory presentation of the Life Enrichment course to a group of Real Estate agents.

The objective was to sell the agents on participating in the Hypmovation Life Enrichment eight -session, six-week course. The course teaches people how to apply the science of self-programming the subconscious mind through self-hypnosis to improve all areas of life.

During the twenty-two minute sales presentation, I asked questions of the agents to find out what was important to them.

The questions were:

• Do you wish that you could have more control over your life?

• What if you could completely remove and eliminate the fear of cold calling on new prospects–would that be important to you?

• How would your life change if you could permanently remove financial stress?

During the questioning and probing period, I was getting all the right vocal, body language, and yes signs from the audience. However, I didn’t

feel like I had fully connected with what would influence or inspire them to take action and enroll in the training.

While carefully watching my audience, the next question I asked got a resounding rise in energy from them. I knew now that I was on the right track.

The question I asked next was—

“Would it be important for you to eliminate the physical pain and everyday stress that keeps you from enjoying life more?”

After finding out what motivated and stimulated them to sit up and take interest, I was left with only two other steps. The first step was to explain the benefits of the program and how it would solve their problems. The second step was to enroll them into the program.

The principle lesson:

Listening is important. Hearing is critical. Watching the actions of your customers is the lifeline to your success in business.

Don L. Price: Speaker,Author, Sales/Marketing & Positive Change Solution Provider–Coaching Minds To Succeed http://www.donlprice.com Join Seminarsonline: http://www.donlprice.com/dare2win.html Put a Voice to your message http://tinyurl.com/73n27

In the last article, we looked at three emotions (besides fear and greed) that you can use to connect with your prospects and enrich your marketing campaigns. This time, we’re digging a little deeper into the sales psyche. See if you can “connect” with these feelings:

Nostalgia: Remember how wonderful things were back in the “good old days?” Whether those days were really “good” or not, we have a deep-rooted connection to our past. The smallest things — an aroma, a song — can bring back memories so powerful, it’s as if the moment just happened.

People will spend all kinds of money to stay connected to good memories. Is there some way your product or service can make that connection? Or is there just some way to make that connection, then apply it to your product? Car companies do it by playing classic rock music in their commercials — even though a new Buick has nothing to do with your teenage years.

Passion: I’m not talking about the lustful kind. What is your prospect passionate about? You can create an instant bond by being passionate about it, too. Fly

Fisherman magazine did just that with the classic “Trout Spoken Here” subscription letter. They talked a bit about the “amiable madness” of fly fishing, and only when the connection was made did they begin to overtly sell the subscription. And they sold a ton of them!

Anger: It’s you and me against those dirty, evil, low-lifes that have been ripping us off! They lie to you. They take candy from babies. Want to get back at them? Buy from me instead.

There are all kinds of ways to connect with your prospect. Which one will work best depends on who you’re selling to. Find out who he is, then choose the best way to get close to his heart. His wallet won’t be far behind.

Lisa Packer, author of “How To Dramatically Increase Your Business… Without A Blockbuster Budget” and “7 Ways To Get A Pay Raise From Your Web Site” is an independant Copywriter and Marketing Consultant. Find out how to get these two reports, plus more helpful articles like the one you just read at http://www.dramatic-copy.com/

Dramatic Copy: The Right Words Make A Dramatic Difference.

* Selling the Appointment

* Building Rapport

* Establishing Relationships with Potential Prospects

* Filling the Sales Funnel

* Don’t Take No? for an Answer

* Making Prospects Feel the Pain

* Persuading

* Convincing

* Overcoming Objections

The result of these sales techniques is rejection and frustration. Ready for something different?

Guilty of Holding These Outmoded Beliefs?

* People Who Need Your Product or Service Can Be Convinced to Buy

* You Need to Educate Your Prospects Before They Can Be Sold

* Presentation Skills Are Very Important

* Good Prospects Are Created By Good Salespeople

* Helping Prospects is Most Important

* Sell Benefits Not Features

* Always Ask for the Order

* A Well Written Proposal Can Win the Sale

* Doing the Same Things a Little Better Will Get Great Results

* Your Industry Is Different from All Others

* You Must Be Able to

Take Rejection: In Sales, It’s Inevitable

If you still believe that persuading, cajoling, and razzle-dazzle presentations are necessary components of the sales process, you’re probably wondering why you don’t close more sales. It’s not you, it’s your outmoded belief system.

If you’re ready to learn a more rewarding and effective way of selling, it’s time to read High Probability Selling. Start selling more — and enjoying it more — enroll in a workshop today!

©Jacques Werth, High Probability® Selling – All rights reserved.

Jacques Werth, author of “High Probability Selling,” is an internationally respected Sales Trainer and Sales Consultant. HPS graduates are excelling as Top Producers in over 70 industries. Visit http://www.highprobsell.com to read more articles, preview the book, and learn more about High Probability Selling.

Almost all Internet Marketers have a basic idea of what they want to achieve in their careers. They may want to close more sales and earn a higher income.

The process is quite simple.

They craft a targeted letter with a powerful offer and post it on a web page. However, somehow they do not achieve the success they desire.

Why?

Why is it that intelligent, motivated, hard-working individuals are not achieving the success they deserve? It is because they don’t know to sell white space.

They pay all attention to sales letter vital elements:

1. The Headline.
   
   They create a power headline to get the reader’s immediate attention and create curiosity.

2. The Body.
   
   (presentation of products characteristics)They create interest and desire through answering the question “what’s in it for me?”.

3. The Sub-Headlines.
   
   A sub-headline is an one line statement containing a powerful benefit of product. Headlines are very important because they make sales letter better structured and charge up the reader.

4. The Irresistible Offer.
   
   They always offer a strong risk-free guarantee and give a free bonus together with the product.

5. The Invitation to Order.
   
   Always they finish the sales letter with asking for prospects to order

   NOW!

They do not forget that sales research has shown that over 90% of the sales process is based on having a good rapport with the prospect. They build trust and have the best coverage for the client. They write short and use direct statements that cut right to the heart of the matter, making everything as simple and direct as they possibly can.

But sometimes they forget to make letter easy to read.Following the desire to offer a full presentation of the product they often put too much inside, line after line. Nothing kills more sales than a full solid page of type and the result is a boring letter that people will not read it.

The solution is to offer a pleasure to customer’s eye using white space accordingly. The easier it is to read your letter or web page the more money you make.

Don’t torture your potential customer. Make you letter as “aired” as you can and you will make the most money just selling white space.

Valerian Dinca is the owner of the newest online business tutorial. Everything you need when you need it.

Why are some sales pitches more persuasive than others? Arethe salespeople just naturally more convincing, or do theyknow secrets about creating a sales pitch that the rest ofus don’t?

Well, in most cases, convincing salespeople use specialelements within their pitches to help increase theirpersuasiveness. These elements are not heavily guardedsecrets, though they are not commonly discussed in generalconversation either.

Two of the most overlooked and forgotten elements to aneffective sales pitch are:

1. The Visualization Step

2. The Call-to-action

Each element is easy to create and incredibly persuasive ifdone correctly.

VISUALIZATION STEP – PUT THE BUYER IN THE PICTURE

A Visualization Step is a sentence (or two) which helps thepotential customer imagine or visualize what would happen ifthey did, or did not, do what you are trying to persuadethem to do.

People think in pictures, not words. It’s so much easier toexplain something with a picture than it is with a set ofdirections.

Just think about the last time you put together a piece offurniture or constructed a toy for a child’s birthday gift.Which was more helpful to putting the item togethercorrectly: the picture of the item on the box or the printeddirections? Of course, it was the picture.

Let’s look at an example of how you could use avisualization step while selling a new product – SuperPrint.

“Imagine how much better your life would be if you used thenew SuperPrint product to handle all your printing needs -not only could you reduce your printing budget by up to 68%,you could also cut your printing time in half! What wouldyou do with all the extra money in your budget or theadditional time in your day?”

This example helps encourage the potential buyer to envisionher life if she did what you wanted her to do – buy theSuperPrint product. She should start imaging herself doingthe things she just can’t seem to find the time for – likereading, taking a seminar, or working on a new project.

In fact, to help solidify the image in her mind, get answersfrom the potential client on what she would do with theextra time or money gained by not using other slower, moreexpensive printers. Once the customer uses her own words toexplain what would happen with the additional time or money,she is more likely to buy, buy, buy.

=======>>> “If you had an additional two hours a week, whatwould you do?”

=======>>> “If you had an additional $1,000 a month in yourbudget, how would you spend it?”

=======>> How would an additional $1,000 a month help yourcompany?

This approach makes it personal to the potential customerand her unique situation. If she uses the new SuperPrintproduct, she’ll have more money and more time. What couldbe better than that?

Let’s look at another example, one where you have topersuade someone to give something up for nothing. Thistough sales situation is one that non-profit organizationsdeal with all the time.

You work for a charitable organization that works to raiseawareness about the need to donate blood. Your job is toincrease the amount of blood which is donated every month,and therefore, you obviously want more people to bepersuaded to give blood.

You need to create a Visualization Step that will cause

thepotential donors to think about all the wonderful thingsthat would happen if they did give blood, or all of theterrible things that would happen if they did not giveblood.

The visualization could sound something like:

“Think about your mother… brother… daughter… niece….What if they were in an accident and badly needed blood fora life-saving operation, but there wasn’t enough bloodavailable for them to have this operation because too fewpeople donated blood? Donating blood could save the life ofsomeone you care about.”

“If they don’t donate blood, perhaps someone close to themmay die. If they do donate blood, someone close to them maybe saved.”

Let’s use selling a house as a third example.

As the potential buyer wanders through the house, you canuse the Visualization Step to get him to begin imaging whatlife would be like if he were to live in the house.

The potential buyer tells you he’s a consultant and authorand that he’s looking for a house where he can set up a homeoffice.

As you go through the house with the potential buyer, askhim, “Where would you put your office in this house?”

As he answers, he will start imagining where his office willbe, where he will put his desk, and where he will set up hisfiling cabinets.

Once he answers you, ask him why he chose that particularroom for his office.

This will make him think about his office in greater detail,imagining working in the office, looking out the window, andwriting his next best seller.

How can you use a Visualization Step to help persuade yournext audience?

CALL-TO-ACTION – TELL THE BUYER WHAT TO DO

In addition to a Visualization Step, you also need a Call-to-action in your persuasive speech. This is the easiest,yet most forgotten part of a persuasion speech.

A Call-to-action is simply telling the potential buyerexactly what you expect him to do once you finish yourpitch. It should be a simple, unambiguous statement whichcauses the buyer to act.

For example, referring back to the sales pitch on blooddonation, a Call-to-action could sound something like:

“Go to your nearest blood bank and donate blood today.”

Referring to the SuperPrint product speech, the Call-to-action could be:

“Call the phone number today to order your SuperPrintproduct and start saving money and time!”

Referring to the house sale:

“Let’s put in an offer now.”

Each of these elements are effective by themselves but workmuch more effectively when used together. So manysalespeople use only one of these two elements and missopportunities to sell their product or service simplybecause the didn’t get the potential client to imaginethemselves using the item or didn’t ask for the sale.

Get your potential buyer to visualize what their life wouldbe like if they did (or did not) do what you want them todo, then hit them with the Call-to-action. If you use themeffectively and together, your close ratio should increaseas well as your commission check!

Kirstin Carey is a consultant, award winning speaker, and author of “PowHERful Communications for Women Who Want to be Heard.” As a woman business owner, Kirstin fully understands what is necessary for women to be successful entrepreneurs. To find out how you too can love your business everyday and live the entrepreneurial life you want, visit http://www.powherful.com

You’ll find that the extremely important skill of tactical communicating will be that much easier if you if know who it is you’re talking to. Luckily, there’s a simple, yet powerful formula that Myers & Briggs developed, to pinpoint different personalities, and what I’m referring to is the DISC, or D.I.S.C. personality profile.

In its simplest form, the DISC model breaks all of us into 4 different personality types. The word DISC is an Acronym for these different types of people. The 4 Personalities are easily remembered using letters. But remembering how they act and react in real life is easiest by using birds!

The “D” from D.I.S.C. is the Driver. These people are direct, forceful, and results oriented people. These types of people may not be very good at customer service or repetitive tasks. If they were a bird, they would be an eagle.

An Eagle is top of the food chain. They fly alone, and they make quick decisions. As an aggressive animal, the link back to people in business is that these people are most often the ones with the big office – the President or Manager!

You’ve probably run across this personality type with people who want short answers, no fluff. And they let you know that you better get to the point, they have little time to waste. With a “D” you have to make your point quickly and show plenty of benefit to them.

“I” is the Influencer in D.I.S.C. They want to be everybody’s friend. They are everybody’s friend. They tend to be optimistic, energetic and outgoing. They work well as salespeople, but generally not quite as good at collecting your receivables. Sound like anyone you know? An “I” personality is usually referred to as a Rooster or a Peacock! Bright flashy colors, screaming “Look at me,

look at me! As a general rule these people want to be included and recognized. (An excellent point to keep in mind when selling to one) You’ll spot them easily by the trophies, photos, awards and “#1 Dad” coffee mugs in their office! “S” is Steadiness. These people are patient and relaxed. They are content to hang back in the crowd and look for direction from others. An excellent choice as an administrator or receptionist. I’ve seen them as Owners and Presidents, quite often in the Medical and Technical Fields. It’s a great character trait, but not one that needs to stand out in the crowd. If you have a lot of Office Managers on your accounts list, this is a personality type that will encounter a lot.

If an “S” was a bird, it would be a Dove.

“C” is the Compliance person. They like “the rules”. As a matter of fact, they need them to function well. They tend to be very detail oriented and accurate. Obviously, these people are a great choice where details are important. So if you sell to Engineers, Lawyers, Doctors, Architects, Law Enforcement, you may encounter C’s.

A “C” personality is like an Owl; wise, watchful and analytical. Of course, these are all general terms, and most people aren’t confined to just one category. I, myself have traits that make me both an “I” as well as a “D”, but the DISC model does help you to understand the people that you deal with each day, and help you to communicate with them in a way that makes it easier for both of you.

Dominic Rubino is a sales trainer and business coach whose personal goal is to make every salesperson a sales superhero. You can visit his website at http://www.ultimatesalesmeetings.com

What do you do when you have a big sales week, month or quarter?

What do the other salespeople you work with do with their money?

Do you “reward” yourself? Do you “invest” in your future?

As salespeople we are notoriously known for the amount of toys we buy with our commissions. Killer stereo systems. Picture Cell Phones. Titanium Palm Pilots. Luxurious new clothes. Expensive lunches. Partying with our friends.

We say “I deserve this.”

I know that’s what I used to say.

Sales is hard. It gets all of our emotions riled up. Excitement. Fear. Anger. Juice. The thrill of the kill.

Your emotions are intense and very real.

So you want to reward yourself.

Rewarding yourself, is your way of feeling good after all you put yourself through to make the sales you did.

It’s a natural reaction to going through times of feeling fear, frustration, and stress.

Before we close another big sale we often feel fear.

Fear that you won’t close again.

Fear that you’ve lost your edge.

Fear that you will get fired and lose your job.

And then when you do make the sale, WHAM! Excitement! Elation! Relief!

It’s time to play!

This rollercoaster can be a lot of fun. But it also can be costly to your future.

Sales offers a real opportunity for men and women everywhere to make large sums of money and get out of the rat race.

The more you say “I deserve this” and “reward” yourself with toys and indulgences, the longer you be working for someone else in sales.

If you want to eventually get out of the rat race, you’ve got to have a reward system that will help you do it.

Consumption rewards just bandage you up and make you feel good for a little while.

Then you’re back at the sales game again, looking for more sales and the cycle starts over again: fear, frustration, stress, win, excitement, reward.

I know. I’ve been through this many times myself.

I can remember one of my first big sales wins. I took my sales partner and our wives out for a luxurious dinner at a restaurant that

I was very impressed with. It felt great that night to dine well and drink champagne.

But the next day I was worrying about the next deal, with a few hundred dollars less in my bank account.

I repeated this pattern of pain – win – reward for many years before I realized what I was doing to myself.

Then I changed my focus.

I focused on the future, and set some bigger goals for myself.

I changed my reward system. I now measure my rewards in terms of how much closer I am getting to complete financial independence.

Consumption is nice, and my family and I do live well.

But I am much happier focusing on the day that making money will be optional and not a necessity of my daily existence. It’s important to budget your commissions intelligently.

When you get a big commission check, take a substantial portion of it and save it. Build up your financial stockpile.

Set better goals for yourself. Goals such as “I want to make $200K this year” aren’t enough. You need to be more specific. You need to set goals for what you will do with this money (hint: complete financial independence is one of mine).

What you’ll find when you build your financial stockpile is that the fear, frustration and stress you experience decreases.

And by setting bigger and better goals, you’ll find it easier to build your financial stockpile because you’ll have highly motivating goals to keep you on course.

After all, did you really get into sales to just so you could buy the latest and greatest cell phone every year?

© 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.

Shamus Brown is a Professional Sales Coach and former high-tech sales pro who began his career selling for IBM. Shamus has written more than 50 articles on selling and is the creator of the popular Persuasive Selling Skills CD Audio Program. You can read more of Shamus Brown’s sales tips at http://Sales-Tips.industrialEGO.com/ and you can learn more about his persuasive sales skills training at http://www.Persuasive-Sales-Skills.com/

You must be able to coordinate your sales talk to service whatever step in the selling process the customer has arrived at in their mind.

Remember, the five fundamental states of mind that comprises the selling process are curiosity, interest, conviction, desire, and decision and action.

While you are giving your sales presentation pay strict attention to how your prospect responds to your sales talk. Of course, if the prospect is already at the second or third stage of the selling process, you should move on to the next stage.

Always try to find out what the prospect wants most out of your goods. Some people will be interested in every aspect of your proposition. Some will choose one, or two things that are of the greatest value to them.

Say a salesperson is selling a popcorn machine and they have told the customer all the benefits of owning one.

Salesman:

“Mrs. Jones, this popper cleans up in a breeze. All parts except the stand can be immersed in water and dishwasher safe, so it will be easy to keep clean. This machine will leave few kernels unpopped. In fact, each tasty morsel will be plump and wholesome. Our little popper does the job of some of the more expensive brands on the market and at a third of the price. And it will not only produce the best tasting popcorn, it will save you time, energy and money.”

Mrs. Jones:

“Did you say the popper comes apart and each piece can be immersed in water?”

Salesman:

“Yes Mrs. Jones, everything but the stand. All of the parts to the popper come apart for easy clean up. They can be washed in your kitchen sink, or dishwasher. This will do away with greasy build up since it only takes a little soap and water to clean it and no elbow grease.”

Mrs. Jones:

“How much is it?”

Salesman:

“It regularly sells for $19.95, but we’ve reduced the price for our grand opening. Your price today is just $15.95.”

Mrs. Jones:

“I’ll take two of them. One for my mother and one for myself.”

Salesman:

“You’ve made an excellent choice Mrs. Jones.”

The salesman picks up two popcorn machines and goes to the cash register to type up the order. He stopped selling because he closed the sale.

In the above example Mrs. Jones was most interested in the easy clean up. The money she would save was secondary, or of little concern, if any. She was mainly interested in how easy the popcorn popper was

to clean because that saved her time and energy.

How do you test to see if a prospect is ready to buy?

You must give the prospect a chance to show how he feels about your proposition. Some customers will make it known to you that they are ready to buy, still another customer may be ready to make a purchase, but hides this from you. The best way to find out if this type of prospect is ready to buy is to give a closing appeal.

Ask a question, such as, “How many of these can you use Mr. Smith?” or, “We can fill your order immediately.” or, “What sizes will you be needing?” This tests the prospect’s interest and gives them a chance to buy.

Don’t make the mistake of asking the prospect how they feel about your proposition, or “Don’t you think you should buy this widget?” The answer will probably be no.

If after all this, you discover the prospect is not ready to buy, no harm is done. But you have implanted the suggestion of buying on their mind. How this plays itself out depends on what you say next. The prospect’s interest in buying could grow, or fall flat. Start the selling process again from the beginning. Because until the prospect is ready to buy, you are not through selling.

There is a danger in moving on to something else and not closing the sale at the right moment. The customer may get out of the buying mood and began having second thoughts about making a purchase. They may loose interest in what you say next because you didn’t reel them in when they were ready. They may decide they can get along without the item, or they may remember they have a bill to pay.

When the customer is ready to buy give them the opportunity, or when you’re ready to close, they’ll be ready to quit.

Copyright © 2005 Gloria Whitehorn-All rights reserved

About the Author:

Gloria is an article writer, business owner, author of two books, salesperson and seasoned mail order pro. Visit her site for information on a great part-time, full-time-anytime business. She knows what she’s talking about.

http://www.dovemang.com

*Attn: Ezine Editors/Site owners*

You have permission to reprint this article in your ezine or on your website as long as you print the complete article and leave all the links and resource box in place. You cannot modify the content in any way.