7 Skills Of Elite Sales Professionals - Yours For The Taking

Many years of studying the elite performers in professional selling, and developing and providing sales training programs and measuring the results, has given us an edge that we'd like to pass on right here. Here are the special knowledge and skills that any professional sales person needs if he or she is to gain control of income levels and truly move into the "elite" of sales and business success!

IRRESISTIBLE RAPPORT

Sales people used to be taught matching and mirroring, but in fact that's just a tiny shred of true rapport. The best sales people build amazing rapport very rapidly, even with people who don't particularly like them initially.

Most of the online dating gurus don't even know this material and let's hope they never find out!

Just remember that manipulation is dumb, and use these skills to enhance relationships of all types, and you'll be on the road to higher sales simply because people start connecting with you so much better.

If you'd like to acquire incredible rapport skills you're going to have to practice, but you'll be surprised how quickly they develop, given the right practice! One exercise that you can do is, believe it or not, practiced by synchronised swimming teams each time they perform.

Notice how they not only match their breathing, but they use eye contact to match their internal states? Sounds a bit "woo-woo", I know, but it does work!

CAN YOU BE A REAL MIND READER?

Deep rapport is one thing, but the ability to really know what's going on in your client's mind takes it to another level altogether.

Using accelerated learning techniques, you can quite quickly develop a level of skill in knowing what your client is thinking, even before your client becomes aware of the thought!

How would you like to know for sure which option your client wants, what they think of each and every thing you say, when is the exact right moment to wrap up the sale? Would this be useful to you?

To gain mind reading skills to this degree of usefulness you'll need to practice with a group of friends or business associates. Have each person think of, for example, things that they like very much, and things that they dislike very much, and see if you can tell the difference. Do this with as many people as you can, and you'll soon be able to pick up much more subtle cues, even with people who are complete strangers to you.

THE ONLY CLIENT TRAITS THAT MATTER TO THE SALES PROFESSIONAL

Although psychologists would clearly disagree in terms of personality traits that impact on mental health, unless you're a therapist the ONLY personality traits that are of concern to you are those that impact on motivation and decision making.

Believe it or not, you have a natural ability to recognise and respond to these traits once you understand what they are. Everyone does. They're incredibly easy to learn!

Take a look at the following trait and you'll see what I mean. This particular trait is called "match/mismatch".

I'm sure you know at least one person who habitually disagrees with anyone and anything. It's not that they're being negative, because if you say something is lousy they'll assert that it's perfectly OK! This is a mismatcher, or "polarity responder" and it's just the way they are. They are always sorting information for "difference".

On the other hand, there's that equally maddening person who's constantly focussing on the things that are similar or in common, rather than on things that are different or even "new". This type of thinking can be quite counter-productive for a student, for example, because instead of recognising new knowledge, they will discount it by saying something like "Oh yes, this is just like X, and I learned that last year!" They completely miss out on the differences, especially the subtle ones, and therefore fail to learn as well as they could.

Real Life Example

Let's say Fred the sales professional is visiting Macy the general manager and Macy seems "disagreeable". First she explains a problem on the manufacturing line, but when Fred repeats her statement later, she denies there is a problem! Macey is such an extreme mismatcher that she even mismatches her own statements. (Christine's note: as hard as it might be to believe, such extreme mismatchers do exist. They're rare, but they do exist!)

This might seem like an impossible situation, but because the mismatcher is so predictable, it turns out they're the easiest to influence. In this situation Fred could say "Macey, I'm not sure if you feel the same or if there's not an easier way to run that process, but I wonder if you wouldn't find it more effective to ...."

Later he says, "Macey, this new method isn't for everyone and it may not suit you " Macey is the easiest client of all, if you recognise her meta-program and respond to it appropriately! When you understand these personality traits, there's no way you'll make the mistakes that in the past have clashed with your client's "style".

THE AMAZING MILLION DOLLAR QUESTIONS

The top performing sales people are experts at asking 3 simple little questions and using the answers effectively.

Why are these simple little questions so valuable? Because they highlight not only the core values that the client is using to decide whether your product or service meets their needs, but even the very words the client needs to hear in order to decide to buy!

There are 2 reasons why these questions can be regarded as "gold". They increase your chances of selling by at least double, and they simultaneously build an incredibly deep level of understanding between you and your client, meaning that it's also more likely that you'll receive terrific referrals from this client far into the future.

PRECISION CONTROL OF YOUR EARNINGS

Can you simply decide how much commissions you'll earn in any given month and have 100% confidence in hitting or exceeding that?

Top sales performers can do that month after month because of one reason: they know and use the statistics that matter. They absolutely know and control the mathematical equation that results in a known sales level.

Possibly the first person to practise "scientific selling" was Frank Bettger (he wrote "How I Multiplied My Income and Happiness in Selling"). Selling activities may have changed slightly these days, but the science still holds.

To determine your own equation you need to make a list of all the sales activities that you perform (together with the time it takes to perform one "unit"), both direct and indirect, and calculate (or make a guestimate) of the sales result of each. Now you have a list of activities and time on one side, and a sales result on the other. If you wanted, for instance, to double your income, what would you have to do? What activities are paying their way and which aren't? What else would be a better use of your time and effort?

For this equation to work for you, you have to be prepared to plan, document, track and analyse each activity or it just won't happen because you'll still be flying blind. However if you do this, then I absolutely know you're going to be successful beyond your dreams.

ABRACADABRA! FEAR OR DOUBT GONE!

It's all very well to know what to do, and to have the skills to do it, but what if you still can't, and what if you keep procrastinating or sabotaging yourself because of some niggling discomfort?

What if you know you should feel confident about making those calls or speaking in front of that group, but you still feel sick in the stomach every time you think about it?

For several years we've had available an incredible technique to eliminate these types of fears and doubts literally overnight (including stuttering, by the way) but very few people have known about it.

One of the most powerful of all these techniques is "NeuroStim". It's capable of eliminating depression, chronic pain, fear and anxiety in just days, and sometimes even overnight.

STATEGIC NETWORKING *PAYOFF*!

In the old days we always recommended that our clients and students join a business networking organisation in order to build relationships that would benefit them personally and professionally. We toiled conscientiously and for years to teach a philosophy and methodology that we knew worked.

Sadly, we don't see any evidence at all that the organisations understand the principles of effective business networking.

Nowadays we advise our clients and students to avoid these organisations whenever possible. They are half-baked examples of what networking should be about and our people are far better off forming their own business networks among trusted business friends. If they do this the right way, they'll enjoy unprecedented success, including superior peer-mentoring, joint venture agreements, referrals, advocacy, and sharing of expertise and resources. And they can do it all in business hours.

With this strategy you'll save time, money and effort on networking organisations that turn networking into a predatory game. You'll stop wasting time trying to build relationships with people with whom you have nothing in common apart from business. You won't have to put up with (or use) those silly elevator pitches, or tolerate a mass of complete strangers stuffing their business cards at you or treating you like some captive audience to sell to. Most importantly, you won't be robbing yourself and your family and friends of precious family and social time. If you'll only network like this, it will REALLY pay off, personally and professionally.

COULD YOU DO IT TOO?

If you can only do these things, even though there's so much more you can do in terms of skill building, you will certainly join the top echelon of professional sales people in the world today! And you'll deserve it!

Article Source: http://www.search4allinfo.com

The free manual " Speed Business Networking - The Manual" describes the detailed principles and methodologies that deliver effective networking. It's available to individuals and networking organisations who want to network more humanely and more productively.

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