Persuasion Techniques Blog

Hi, welcome to my Blog.

If you sell for a living, and I could argue we all need to sell people on our ideas, this Blog will help you keep up with the latest persuasion techniques to help you influence more people, more profoundly and more easily.

Subscribing to this Blog will allow you to easily keep up with the new ideas and techniques I add to the site without having to wade through the tons of emails you get on a daily basis.

To subscribe to my blog (no e-mail necessary), right-click on the small orange RSS button (see bottom buttons to the left) and then paste the URL into your RSS reader. Or click on the My Yahoo! button or My MSN or Add To Google button if you keep a personalized home page there.

Sep 2, 2010, Director

IMportsnce of Sales Competencies in building Relationships Comment: Hi, I'd love to write about sales competencies. In fact I have been considering putting

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Director"

Aug 16, 2010, Overcoming Sales Objections

Remove those obstacles to your sales succes by overcoming sales objections

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Overcoming Sales Objections"

Aug 12, 2010, ask the right questions

If any sales person can ask right questions, (s)he is sure to get more business in his/her kitty. Answer: Yes, agree with that. One caveat, they have

Permalink -- click for full blog post "ask the right questions"

Aug 12, 2010, Avon Sales Rep

I already have an Avon Lady, thanks. or I already have a store I buy my makeup at. Answer: Hi Daryl Ann, a pretty traditional objection. Like many

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Avon Sales Rep"

Aug 12, 2010, General Sales Manager

I KNOW OF NO MAJOR COMPANY THAT HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL WITHOUT A SET OR SYSTEM OF STEPS THAT LEAD TO A SALE. EVEN A TRAIN NEEDS A TRACK TO RUN ON! ONCE YOU

Permalink -- click for full blog post "General Sales Manager "

Jul 14, 2010, Interesting

Very informative and interestin

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Interesting"

Jul 14, 2010, Sales Consultant

I have used it in every sales call of my career since 1988. I am a fan of J Douglas Edwards and Zig and taught myself to sell through old audio tapes

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Sales Consultant"

Jul 14, 2010, I Recommend Ari Galper

I have read a bit of Ari's stuff lately and think we have a lot of ideas in common about selling.

I read an article Ari had written in a magazine today and thought part of it was worth repeating:
"There is one core difference between a trusted advisor and a salesperson - agenda. Most people view salespeople as having only one agenda: to make the sale. However, the trusted advisor only has one true agenda: to help solve the prospect's problem."

In all my years of B2B selling my only aim was to help people. I figured if I did that the sales would come. And I made a lot of sales.

Pity some of the sales managers I worked with did not understand this. They kept wanting me to go out and waste my time selling to non-customers, trying to "flog a dead horse" so to speak.

Go out and have fun helping your customers.

Jul 7, 2010, Sales Management

I would like to have in-depth knowledge about sales techniques and systems and to be able to train my sales team on them. Answer Plenty of ways to find

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Sales Management"

Jul 7, 2010, Effectively research a sales lead

I am in the two way radio industry Some of the company websites do not give the information I require to see a fit Just like some gatekeepers that are

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Effectively research a sales lead"

Jul 7, 2010, Sales language Patterns

This is true.
There is a special class of language patterns called “Linguistic Presuppositions” that when used correctly, can have a powerful and dramatic effect on your ability to persuade unconsciously. And that means you can get other people to do what you want, and think what you want, all the while thinking that it was there idea.

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Sales language Patterns"

Jul 5, 2010, How do you Approach Selling

Last weekend I attended my granddaughter's dance concert, she is 6 years old.

It was interesting to observe the dancers who ranged in age from 4 to about 16.

Some of them showed various degrees of stage fright and barely danced at all.

Some were concentrating really hard to remember the steps but often fell out of step.

Some kept up with all the steps and in time with the other dancers but you could still see they had to think about it really hard.

Then there was that group who you could see were in it for the pure fun and joy of dancing. Maybe they were in step or a bit out of step but they didn't really care. The bounce in their step was evident and the enthusiasm leached though in every move they made and the broad smile on their face.

It occurred to me that most skills could be looked at like this. And selling, my friends is a skill.

How do you approach selling ?

Jun 28, 2010, Sales Coaching for Sales Manager

Coaching Answer Hi Susan, you are right to be interested in sales coaching. First thing though is that I see you are a sales manager. Your people will

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Sales Coaching for Sales Manager"

Jun 28, 2010, Planning for Sales

planning Answer Hi, you haven't really given me enough detail to make comments. So let me just say this. Spend more time planning. Whether it's working

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Planning for Sales"

Jun 24, 2010, Sales and Commitment

I was reading a post today and read the following:

"I recently reviewed the results of a Sales Force Evaluation with an owner of a company who's sales had dropped 35% over the last 2 years. Of his 25 salespeople, 80% of them had seen their sales revenues drop as the economy dropped. Interestingly, 80% of them lacked commitment--they were status quo, unwilling to do the extra work to beat the odds. However, the 5 salespeople who'd been surprising successful in growing revenues and taking market share during a market decline all had 4 Crucial Elements: Desire, Commitment, Responsibility and Outlook.

Whats the Lesson ?

Jun 24, 2010, Director of Sales

Provide an environment to promote continual positive motivation for the salespeople. Answer Hi, remember I am a salesman not a manager but here's my few

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Director of Sales"

Jun 24, 2010, Selling my Art at Fairs and Shows

Your site is great... I sell my own art at craft fairs and various shows, some of my work is displayed in shops/gallery windows. I also have a website.

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Selling my Art at Fairs and Shows"

Jun 23, 2010, The Magic Sales Formula

Just read this, "a magic formula: as trust in you and confidence in the value of what you're offering rises, fear of buying disappears.

Jun 23, 2010, Writing Things Down

I was reading a sales post today about listening well and one of the things suggested was to take notes about what your prospect/customer is saying.

I was reminded of a meeting with the Technical Director of my biggest customer some years ago.

He said, "I don't know why you write down this stuff during our meetings ? You've got a memory like an elephant, you quote me on stuff I told you three years ago."

My response, " Maybe I remember what you say BECAUSE I write it down ?"

Jun 19, 2010, Sales Process

sales process Answer Hi Ibrahim, brief questions, hope you elaborate more during your sales meetings ? Sales Process: 1) Be prepared = know your: product,

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Sales Process"

Jun 19, 2010, Objection handling

I would like to be able to handle objections better, so that i can turn more objections into sales Answer Wouldn't we all. First thing is to make sure

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Objection handling"

Jun 18, 2010, Prospecting

Prospect for new car buyers with out the internet. Answer Hi Henry, I've never been a car sales person so please take what I say with a grain of salt.

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Prospecting"

Jun 18, 2010, Sales Excuses

How to answer to excuses and make see the benefits of my approach? Answer Hi Ana, interesting terminology. How do you know they are excuses ? Without

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Sales Excuses"

Jun 18, 2010, Best Sales Closing Skills

i'd like to know what the best closing skills would be in sales Answer OK, closing is the aim but really only the icing on the cake. That is to say it

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Best Sales Closing Skills"

Jun 18, 2010, Thinking of Dealing with Objections

I heard a salesman talking the other night. He said he thought of his ability to handle sales objections as his parachute. He hoped he never had to use it but if he did have to use a parachute he wanted the best and wanted it to be well maintained.

I like the metaphor.

Jun 17, 2010, Quickly Closing Sales

closing sells quickly Answer Hi Kenneth, closing quickly can only happen if you build a relationship first, that is to say build credibility / trust

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Quickly Closing Sales"

Jun 17, 2010, Selling, value vs price

How to best coach my staff on how to overcome customer focus on price when we focus on value... Answer Hi, I cannot suggest much better than: 1) The

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Selling, value vs price"

Jun 17, 2010, Using Language

Why is Using Language so important? Answer When I played football I was on the verge of being a professional player. At times I outplayed rivals who ended

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Using Language"

Jun 7, 2010, Improve Selling Skills

I want to improve my selling skill please help me.............. Answer Hi Ravinder, like any other skill you can learn you need to start with the basics.

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Improve Selling Skills"

May 26, 2010, Selling Club Memberships

I would like to know how to recruit members in large numbers into our social club without making cold-calls. Answer Hi Debra, what benefits would I gain

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Selling Club Memberships"

May 26, 2010, keeping positive

keep positive when faced with a constant stream of rejections when cold calling Answer Hi Christine, in terms of keeping positive in the face of rejection

Permalink -- click for full blog post "keeping positive"

May 18, 2010, Selling to More People

being able to effectively recognize the variety of buyers, my varying mood states and what strategies, methods of communication and techniques I can utilize

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Selling to More People"

May 12, 2010, A Sales Revelation

Yesterday, I had a revelation.

My B2B selling days were from 1980 through till 2003. During that time I had learned that to sell a product you needed a specific benefit that was of importance to your prospect. In fact, I learned that quite quickly, perhaps within the first few years of selling.

I realized that what I was doing was very similar to the SPIN Selling model where you only sell Benefits (as distinct from Features and Advantages) and they classify a Benefit as something that fulfills an Explicit Need of the prospect.

This got me into conflict with sales managers at times because they were old school and kept saying these prospects should be using this product because it gave them all the Benefits = Advantages. They didn't get the whole thing about Explicit Needs.

It also dawned on me that I was using this method BEFORE SPIN Selling was published. Then, that shouldn't be a surprise either because SPIN was modeled by observing successful big ticket sellers. I was working with and trained by some experienced sales people who had been selling big ticket items for many years.

May 12, 2010, Getting the Decision Maker

How do I get the decision maker to sit down with me so I can show him how beneficial my product is? Answer Getting to the decision maker depends on having

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Getting the Decision Maker"

May 11, 2010, Build Rapport

Build a rapport. Answer Hi, yes building rapport is a valuable thing to do. Some tend to underplay how important that is. In SPIN Selling they say that

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Build Rapport"

May 11, 2010, Other Quotes

i want to get other quotes Answer Hi, if your attitude is one of wanting to help the customer you should want them to have other quotes to confirm that

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Other Quotes"

May 6, 2010, Really listening the customer

In my opinion my challenge is to listen the customer so that I catch also the small words, clues, etc that are even more important than the clear stated

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Really listening the customer"

May 6, 2010, All About Sales

Everything about sales. Answer Hi Mr D, if you want to know EVERYTHING about sales it will take more than a lifetime. Learning the basics that will

Permalink -- click for full blog post "All About Sales"

May 6, 2010, High Probability Selling

I have just read it. It is radically different from other approaches.

Permalink -- click for full blog post "High Probability Selling"

May 5, 2010, personal selling

personal skills persuasion confidence Answer Hi Osama, you can have confidence today. Learn your products well (their benefits) and use a concept called

Permalink -- click for full blog post "personal selling"

May 5, 2010, Sales rep

Close the deal Answer Hi Marc, yes, we all want to close the deal. Trouble is that is confusing the ends with the means. Closing techniques does not

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Sales rep"

May 3, 2010, Selling a More Expensive Product

How to sell against your competitor with much cheaper prices they are offering. Answer Hi Michele, since your competitor's offering is much cheaper

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Selling a More Expensive Product"

May 3, 2010, After Market Sales

How to better differentiate my product from competitors Answer Hi, since you say better differentiate my mind read is that you already do some of this.

Permalink -- click for full blog post "After Market Sales"

Apr 30, 2010, Self confidence

I would like to know is it possible to be an outsider and to become an excellent seller afterwards in practicing sales techniques, even i i is not in your

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Self confidence"

Apr 30, 2010, My Opinion

Spin is manipulative and bad. Answer I wish you had given some details as to why you think it's bad and manipulative. I can't see that, maybe I'm missing

Permalink -- click for full blog post "My Opinion"

Apr 29, 2010, Questions to ask to get specific answers for sales

How do you approach potential customers to answer your questions so they can work out that they need your product. Answer Hi John, interesting way you

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Questions to ask to get specific answers for sales"

Apr 29, 2010, Reduce Cost of sale.......

I am an enterprise software sales executive. Typically, we develop detailed POC's and SOW's for all our complex sales, which adds a large capital cost

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Reduce Cost of sale......."

Apr 28, 2010, Developing Professional Selling Skills

Professional Selling Skills Development mma.khan@jkcement.com Answer Hi MMAKHAN, your answer is in the question really. You use the word skill. Skill

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Developing Professional Selling Skills"

Apr 28, 2010, Secret to Selling

There is one general secret in sales techniques that is always working? Answer Hi MMM, if there is one secret to selling I'd have to say it is attitude.

Permalink -- click for full blog post "Secret to Selling"