Our Articles on Communication
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Why Your Sale Spins Out of Control from the Start
It could be that a percentage of your sales, pre-or post-covid19, have been lost because of a lack of control on the part of the salesperson. In fact, it can occur—and often does—that the sale can spin out of control, right from the start of any sales cycle.
How and why does this happen?
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Positive Control Means a Win-Win - OLD
(members only content)Continuing our series on control, we come to another reason that control is of such vital importance: you won’t reach the win-win of a closed sale without it.
- Sales training—today and pretty much since the beginning of time—focuses almost exclusively on closing. Yet this constant focus has not resulted in higher closing ratios. They have remained the same over time: 80 percent of sales are made by 20 percent of salespeople.
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The Power of Probing Questions - OLD
(members only content)Every day, salespeople deal with resistance because the sales process is an emotional one. I would like to help mitigate and make less of that resistance and possibly even make the whole sales process enjoyable! Here are a few actions you can adopt, make your own and work into your sales selling habits to help you turn your prospect's resistance into a desire to purchase.
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How Important is Control? - OLD
Control has negative meanings for some people. They resist control because bad control has been used on them, either in their childhood, in their jobs, or otherwise. Believe it or not, there is such a thing as good control. This could be the subject of a whole book, let alone a single newsletter article—so, for now, let’s stick to control as it applies to sales. As you’ll see, real sales success cannot be accomplished without control.
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Creating Urgency to Speed up the Sale
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When You Can't Get Direct Access To The Final Decision Maker
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Defining Real Sales Control - OLD
(members only content)If there’s one factor that sales organizations cry out to have—and that salespeople themselves crave—it is control. That is control over the deal. Control over the prospect. Most of all, control over bringing the deal to a close. What is real sales control?
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The Secret Top Producers Use (That You Can Copy Today)
(members only content)In every company, there’s that salesperson—the one everyone secretly watches out of the corner of their eye.
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The Secret Ingredient Behind Every Closed Sale
(members only content)“Control.”
For some people, that word lands with the same warmth as a dentist’s drill. You can almost see them flinch. And honestly, it makes sense. Many of us have experienced bad control, an overbearing boss, a micromanaging parent, or that Little League coach who treated third grade baseball like the World Series.
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The Difference Between Closers and Panickers
(members only content)When Panic Turns Salespeople Into Maniacs
We’ve all lived this nightmare.
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We’ve Never Been More Connected—and Communicated Less
(members only content)A little over three hundred years ago, “fast communication” meant two people standing in the same place… or someone spending three days handwriting a letter with the kind of pen that required actual feathers.
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The Top Producer Monday Morning Routine
(members only content)Monday Morning Sales Power Hour
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You Can't Close What You Don't Control
(members only content)You Can’t Close What You Don’t Control
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The Power of Probing Questions
(members only content)Turning Resistance into Productive Sales Conversations
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Closing Isn’t the Problem… Opening Is
(members only content)LAW OF SELLING: If the Sale Is Not Opened, It Cannot Close
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Sales Productivity by the Numbers (Not by Hope)
(members only content)Using Statistical Analysis to Manage Your Sales Productivity
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The First 5 Minutes: Questions That Control the Sale
(members only content)The First 5 Minutes: Questions That Control the Sale
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The 80/20 Rule, is it Sales Fact or Fiction?
(members only content)The 80/20 Rule in Sales: Fact, Fiction… or a Management Problem?
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Ten Tips to Improve the Performance of Your Sales Team
(members only content)This is the first in a series of practical, field tested tips designed to give sales leaders tools they can use every day to steadily improve performance and revenue.
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The Question Every Salesperson Wishes They Asked Sooner
(members only content)Why the First Minutes of Your Presentation Matter More Than You Think
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Outthinking the Competition: A Simple Strategy That Works
(members only content)Competence and Competition: Don’t Overthink It
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The One Skill That Instantly Separates Closers from Everyone Else
(members only content)Why Control Is the Oxygen of a Successful Sales Organization
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The Missing Skill Behind Every Easy Close
(members only content)As we continue our series on control, we arrive at one of the most overlooked truths in sales:
you’ll never reach a true win-win close without control. -
Are You A Guide to Your Prospect…or a Bully?
If you are going to successfully sell, you need to guide your prospect through every stage of the sales process. That is where control comes in.
But this can be misinterpreted as attempting to push the prospect through the sales process. This is also known as “high-pressure sales,” and is an activity that makes people hate salespeople.
This kind of “selling” could also be accurately described as bullying -
Doing Your Homework Puts You in Control
In sales, control means a salesperson positively guiding a prospect right through the sales process, from beginning to end, completing every step.
When this is not done—if steps are skipped or not fully completed—the sale is often lost. If it is done, however, you end up with the perfect definition of a sale, which is “an exchange in which both parties win.”
A crucial key to control in a sale is homework. -
Why Does Your Prospect Pretend to be Just Looking?
Control is utilized in sales to positively guide a prospect through the sales process.
When done right, it is not only the salesperson that wins through closing the sale and earning a commission. It is also the prospect, for purchasing a product or service that will specifically and truly benefit them.
The first stage of sales resistance is that age-old excuse for not talking to a salesperson: “I’m just looking.”
First, the truth of the matter is that your prospect is far too busy to be “just-looking -
Anxiety Kills Positive Control
It is easy when a salesperson has a prospect in front of them who is somewhat qualified, for a salesperson to become anxious to push for the close.
When this happens, the salesperson often stops listening to the prospect, who may very well be giving them the reasons they want to buy, which can be used to bring them gracefully through the sales process.
Instead, the salesperson skips ahead to the Education step of the sales process, spilling out all the reasons the salesperson thinks the prospect should buy. -
The Power of Probing Questions - OLD
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Increasing Sales – How Soft Selling May Be Ruining Your Career
Why is it that so many salespeople fail to make the grade in their personal sales careers and in the companies they work for? It’s because most suffer from a disease called soft selling. -
Being in Control of the Sales Process
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Our Webcasts on Communication
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Webcast: Rule of Eight
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The Power of Probing Questions
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Our Videos on Communication
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What is Positive Control?
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The Columbo Close
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How to Increase Sales Productivity with Proper Organization
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How to Gain Prospect's Agreement
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How to Stay Focused and Be Productive
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How to Get More Accomplished
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How to Obtain More Sales Production
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Following a Company Mandated Step-by-Step Sales Process
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How to Maintain an Open Line of Communication
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The Price Objection
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