13 Tips for Building Relationships and Making Sales
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LISTEN <--> SILENT: Do you listen to understand, or to reply? Sales people are notorious for have the answer ready - before they have heard the question. Listening is a skill.
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Stop the Pitch and Start the Conversation: As a salesperson you must have a prepared sales pitch - but that pitch isn\'t your starting point, you start by asking your prospect what they need.
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Solve Their Problem: Your job is to solve the customer\'s problem, not sell him things they don\'t need. Sales 101 is that in order to be successful in sales you have to listen to your customer in order to qualify them properly, and understand and meet their needs.
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Follow Up: Respond promptly, and don\'t over commit. If you say you will send a proposal tomorrow, do it. If you promise a phone call by the end of the week, make it.
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Make Referrals: As part of your selling process, you should know a lot about your customer\'s business. Don\'t just ask for referrals - give them!
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Stay Front of Mind: You may not have a product to sell or a contract to renew, but send them a note with an article or information they might find interesting, or share it with them on social media.
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Follow on Social Media: Stay current with what your clients are doing and how their business is changing. Follow them on social media. Set up a Google Alerts.
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Manage Rejection: Not every sales pitch is successful. Don\'t burn bridges - a prospect\'s needs, or their employer, might change and you don\'t want to miss out on opportunities. Thank them for their time, and ask for feedback.
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Be Honest: Never lie to a customer or prospect. If something goes wrong, be honest. Remember... it\'s hard to remember a lot of lies.
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Earn Their Trust: Don\'t expect trust to be automatically awarded. Sadly, too many people have been taken advantage of in business. Earn their trust by being honest and demonstrating integrity.
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Pay Attention: Especially on the phone, its easy to loose your concentration and let your mind wander... Note everyone can multi-task: in fact, most people can\'t.
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Control Your Body Language: How you sit and stand sends a message, the message you want to send is that you care about their problem, and want to help them solve it.
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Find Common Ground: Build rapport with shared or similar experiences: family, sports, hobbies, education.
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Be the kind of person people want to do business with! My best-selling book The Sales Assassin: Master Your Black Belt in Sales http://ow.ly/9bEg30h2ku5 is full of sales strategies and proven, results-driven techniques that provide consistent high-performance selling.
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