Turning Sales Techniques Into Sales Success!

The goal of all sales training is not just to teach solid selling principles and techniques, but to actually help participants increase the number of new accounts (products and/or services) they sell and improve their multiple sales ratios. Unfortunately, many sales and service industry professionals gain an intellectual awareness of the methods of selling from the sales training they receive, yet fail to improve their bottom line sales results by systematically using the concepts in their daily transactions. See my article, The Processionary Caterpillar Syndrome Costs You Sales?

There are a number of methods you can use to move beyond an intellectual awareness of sound sales techniques. By applying some of these ideas, you can begin to see a steady improvement in the number and scope of your sales transactions. These concepts can help any sales professional drill-for-skill the vital selling principles needed to become a sales leader. Really all it takes to be successful in sales is just a little practice and perseverance.

Give Yourself Permission To Succeed

To become a sales leader in any kind of business only requires that you give yourself permission to succeed. In sales, as in every endeavor in life, it is your attitude not your attributes that count. There is no reason you can not be extremely successful at selling your company's products and services, if you make up your mind to do the job.

William James, a Harvard Professor and the man many view as the father of American Psychology, wrote in 1895:

"The greatest discovery of my generation is, that a human being can alter his circumstances in life by altering his attitude of mind."

James also gave people a formula for achieving an altered attitude of mind. He simply told them to "act as if" they were already successful and this act alone could make them successful. If you act as if you have changed or act like a different person, according to James, you must change or become a different person. If a sales professional acts as if she can sell, her sales ratios and product account closings can do nothing but improve.

By releasing your "inner brakes" and seeing yourself using the sales and customer service techniques you have learned, you can become extremely successful in your efforts to sell your company's products and services. If you want to consistently produce multiple sales transactions, just let yourself go and you will start to see the success you are seeking. You have the right to be successful. The only thing that can stop your improvement and ultimate success is yourself. Tell yourself that it is all right to produce outstanding sales results; and then, begin envisioning the success you expect to achieve.

Use Affirmations To Produce Success

To help you consistently execute the sales techniques you have learned, use affirmations to change the way you think and perform. Affirmations can also help release your internal breaking system.

We gravitate to our dominant thought patterns. By using affirmations ("I can," "I am," etc.), you can create dominant thoughts about specific sales methods that will help you to move away from your fears (the fear of failure or of looking foolish) toward successful sales transactions. Write down a series of positive affirmations about the sales process or a specific technique. Then read them over until you create the dominant thought patterns that produce success.

As we teach in all of our Sales Success workshops and discuss in detail in our published training material, it is vital to your sales success that you regularly affirm your selling skills and visualize successful transactions using the techniques you have learned. To succeed you must see yourself as one of your company's top sales producers by regularly performing mental dress rehearsals for the position.

Repeat The Technique Until It Is Yours

As you are taught new sales techniques you need to practice them on the job as well as in your mind, until you can use them in each transaction without even thinking about their use. We call this level of sales proficiency "unconscious competence."

Many sales professionals, try a new sales approach only once or twice before rejecting it out of hand or deciding that it will not work for them. True professionals; however, diligently practice a new sales concept until they can execute it without even thinking about it. This approach (going beyond an intellectual knowledge of a sales method) sets top producers apart and can be seen in their extraordinary closing and multiple sales success. It is also quite noticeable in their pay checks as well!

Role-playing at each new sales technique with a co-worker is a powerful way to gain the ability to consistently use these concepts on the job. Remember; however, that practice does not make perfect. Only "perfect practice" makes perfect. So as you practice with other employees, try to be as accurate as you can in the execution of a given sales concept.

Set aside some time each working day to drill in the sales concepts you have been taught. Take them one at a time and master each one. It might surprise you how much more you will enjoy coming to work when you become truly proficient in building sales and long term customer relationships for your company.

Saturate Your Mind

Saturate your mind with sales and motivational materials. As you do this, you will move from an intellectual understanding of the sales techniques to a daily working knowledge of the methods you need to succeed, and you will have more than just an occasional thought about what you are trying to accomplish. What is needed to help you change your behavior is a constant positive saturation of your mind by reading over the materials you have been given or the notes you have taken on the subject.

In his tapes, The Psychology of Selling, Brian Tracy tells his listeners that one of the best methods to increase sales success is to read then reread one of the best books on sales for 30 minutes each day. He feels this type of saturation will have a tremendous impact on the sales activity of an individual. Research from Stanford University indicates that you can learn more from reading the same book six times than you can from reading 40 books on the same subject.

Work Smarter Not Harder

Outstanding sales results come to those sales professionals who correctly follow and apply sound sales principles. They won't do the work for you but they will lighten your load and give you an edge. All it takes to be successful at selling your company's products is to want to improve the way you perform, see yourself using new selling techniques, give yourself permission to use the concepts and regularly practice them until they become second nature.

VIRDEN THORNTON is the founder and President of The $elling Edge®, Inc. a firm specializing in sales, customer relations, and management training and development. Clients have included Sears Optical, Eastman Kodak, IBM, Deloitte & Touché, Bank One, Jefferson Pilot, and Wal-Mart to name a few. Virden is the author of Prospecting: The Key To Sales Success and the best selling Building & Closing the Sale, Fifty-Minute series books and Close That Sale, a video/audio tape series published by the Thompson Learning, Crisp Learning division. He has also authored a Self-Directed Learning series of sales, coaching & team development, telemarketing, and personal productivity training guides. Check them out at: http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/Book1.htm.

Vi rden teaches for the Center For Professional Development, Texas Tech University at Lubbock, Texas and in the School Of Entrepreneurship, J. Willard And Alice S. Marriott School Of Management at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. You can contact Virden at: Virden@TheSellingEdge.com. or learn more about him at: http://TheSellingEdge.com

---

How To Become A Sales Superstar And Have Fun Winning More Business - Start Here!

One of the interesting things about being a coach and... Read More

Sell Without Feeling Like A Used Car Salesman

Many business owners and professionals are appalled at the thought... Read More

Effective Account Management

Congratulations! You successfully sold one or more of your company's... Read More

Assumptions ? The Hidden Sales Killer

Assumptions can kill a sale. In my sales training workshops,... Read More

Boost Your Sales With These Proven Responses

When five years ago I was faced with having to... Read More

Increase Your Influence, Increase Your Sales

Selling is everyone's lifeblood whether they realize it or not.... Read More

Dont Close Your Eyes Or Let Deaf Ears Fall Upon You

To listen to your customer is important, and to hear... Read More

The Top 7 Sales Blunders

We all make mistakes when selling our product or service.... Read More

Woo the Buyers Limbic Mind or All Your Sales Efforts are Wasted

If you've driven yourself crazy trying to figure out why... Read More

11 Secrets to Leadership in Sales

In his classic book, "Think and Grow Rich", Napoleon Hill... Read More

8 Sales Lead Generation Methods

I've been getting lots of email from my readers lately.... Read More

Why ALL Sales Decisions Are Based On Emotion - Heres The Proof!

Have you ever gone into a newsagent, picked up a... Read More

Cross-selling for Increased Sales, Profits, and Customer Satisfaction

Cross-selling - the art of selling for non-salespeopleCross-selling is the... Read More

Successful Selling in 21 Steps

1. Dependability was chosen as the most important.2. Integrity was... Read More

Get Leverage & Increase Your Sales Results Immediately!

Have you ever started something and not completed it? Or... Read More

Reaching Goals in Direct Sales

From surveys and experience, we've noticed many setting excellent goals... Read More

Sharpening Your Sales Skills

Making a living in sales can be very rewarding, however,... Read More

Being Politically Correct When Selling Can Cost You Sales

In our culture it is basically un-American for a prospective... Read More

5 Powerful Tips To Persuasion!

Having excellent persuasion skills is one of the most important... Read More

Quit Talking and Listen! Give Clients and Prospects Your Undivided Attention

I have found that the best sales people are the... Read More

Do You Have to Be Aggressive to Make Sales?

A few weeks ago I was onsite at a company... Read More

Are You a Sales Professional?

Many sellers like to describe themselves as professionals, but what... Read More

Make Your Referrals Count

Just because we receive a referral, it doesn't mean that... Read More

As They Approcah the Finish Line... The Winner Is?

Recently, right before I was about to deliver a motivational... Read More

More Sales with Less Selling

Have you ever passed by a bakery display case without... Read More

Sales Marketing: 10 Sales Marketing Tricks To Explode Your Profits

Sales marketing online is an art that you must keep... Read More

How To Master the Art of Super Salesmanship

Mastering the "art of selling" is simply knowing how to... Read More

How To Improve Your Sales Skills

One of the biggest problems for many business owners is... Read More

Training for Trade Shows - 5 FAQs

Trade shows are so obvious. You go. You hand out... Read More

Achieving Sales Goals Requires Drive & Motivation

How did you do this past year on your sales... Read More

Your Business Approach Can Make or Break a Business Deal

Every sales presentation should start with the approach, or introduction.... Read More

The Makings of a Salesman

Salesmanship is the force that moves business. Without it all... Read More

Success Secrets Of A Famous Vacuum Salesperson

I have to admit, I have an 'addiction'.Sometimes this addiction... Read More