How Good is Your Goodwill?

Skip Anderson — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:03:57 -0400

Business is all about profit, and sales training can help create that profit. But sometimes profit opportunities are built in the long-term rather than the short-term (despite shareholders' and others' strong desire for immediacy).

Inspiring Help to Get You Sell Through the Retail Economic Slump

Skip Anderson — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:51:54 -0400

Today a brand new sales eBook is available from the Customer Collective.

Featuring authors Charles Green, Jill Konrath, Dave Stein, and myself and seven other writers, "Selling Through a Slump" offers industry-by-industry advice to help inspire you and your sales team to grow sales even in time of recession.

My contribution is for the retail industry, but you'll also find other articles for those who sell services, insurance, technology, telecommunications, etc.

Customer Engagement: A Key to Sales Success

Skip Anderson — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:06:09 -0500

I absolutely love observing sales interactions between salespeople and their prospects. Indeed, much of my personal learning about selling has occurred because of my passion for this type of observation.

Rarely do I see a salesperson engage prospects to a level of intensity that will propel the sales relationship into a category of a high probability sale. Most interactions between salespeople and their prospects lie at the shallowest depths, where trite language and ineffective sales techniques live.

The better you engage your prospects, the more you will sell.

Hiring New Sales Employees Online

Skip Anderson — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:55:47 -0500

Sales employees may be easier to come by in retail and other B2C industries right now given the state of the economy and the number of unemployed workers. But this doesn't prevent a hiring company from needing to sign on the best candidates they can find for all job openings.

A friend of mine applied for seasonal retail positions at three different department stores a few weeks ago. She made applications online on the same afternoon.

Complex Economic Climates Require Back-to-Basics Selling Skills

Skip Anderson — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:16:18 -0500

With the world becoming frantic about what to do about the current economic crisis (understandably), companies and individuals are searching for every possible means of increasing revenue and cutting costs. Many are in survival mode.

It makes sense to look for opportunities for market diversification, broadening of product offerings and new alliances and partnerships, but while you're exploring those options, don't forget to look at what's right in front of you: improving the selling skills of your salespeople. In my opinion, it's back-to-basics time.

Selling Skills are Never Out of Fashion

Skip Anderson — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:55:21 -0400

Face-to-face selling skills and prospecting skills will never be replaced by online social media.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a fan of social media and online networking with LinkedIn, Digg, Twitter, and all the rest, but these are tools to the salesperson, not a replacement for sales skills. Yet, I see lots of chatter on the internet about traditional selling methods being replaced with social media instruments.

6 Reasons Your Customers Don't Buy From You

Skip Anderson — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:13:16 -0400

Banging your head against the wall is not only painful, it's also not a very good strategy to dealing with prospects who won't buy from you. What will work better is understanding why customers won't buy from you, so the next selling opportunity you have can have a better results.

Here are six reason's your customers don't buy from you, and solutions for dealing with these frustrating people:

1. They don't need or want your product/service.

Solution: Ignore them.

2. They don't like you.

Closing the Deal

Skip Anderson — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:20:54 -0400

Too many salespeople fail to ask for the order.

One sales representative invested ten months working with the prospect closely on their project. And yet, when the time came to consummate the order, she froze. Another sales consultant spent two hours in his retail store finding the perfect solution for her shopper. Yet when the time came to close the sale, he got verbal diarrhea as a byproduct of his anxiety. Scenarios like these are repeated daily by salespeople all over the world.