We’re at T-5 ½ to the launch of our new product line (in theory, anyway) and we’re all scrambling around here like chickens with our heads cut off. Yes, that includes yours truly. While sitting down and pulling together some of the written content that’s going to be featured on the site I had the chance to do a piece on teaching sales skills to your employees, and yes, I had so much fun doing it I just had to swing over here and share.
No matter what business you’re in, at some point you need to be able to sell your products and services. More importantly, your
Sure, you could work with trained birds...but why would you want to?
employees do too. It’s in the bag if you’re working with a team of trained sales professionals with years of experience under their belt that could sell ice to an Eskimo while standing on their heads and yodeling along with the Cat in the Hat, but most of us aren’t that lucky. If you work with ordinary people instead of sales superheroes, your crew could probably use a little help touching up their sales skills.
The question is, where do you start?
1) Upselling. Simplest, easiest selling trick in the book, but one that’s often overlooked. If they’re buying shoes, ask them if they’re interesting in a matching purse. If they ordered pancakes, see if they want some bacon on the side. If you’re power washing the house anyway, they might be interested in having their gutters cleaned. When our contractors come in to order business cards, we ask if they need quote forms while they’re there. (This is also a great philosophy to kick into gear when you’re looking for ideas for marketing specials for your business.)
2) Talk to strangers. We stifle our need to talk to anyone and everyone from birth on, and the instinct to clam up around people we don’t know is one that can take some practice to get past. I know I personally didn’t manage to kick that inclination until I started waiting tables my senior year of high school and had to work with perfect strangers day in and day out. You can’t sell anything if you can’t talk to any of the people you’re trying to sell things to.
3) Get excited! Does your group love what you’re selling, or are they just parrots reading from a script? The difference between a bad sales team, a good sales team and a great sales team doesn’t have anything to do with their sales skills. It all depends on their ability to get excited about their product-and, in turn, get you excited about it too. Before you go to any training seminar, sit through any video series or practice with any consultants, get your team pumped up!