The need for ongoing learning is why the corporate sales training industry is so large.
If you want to know what kinds of things people learn when they go through these programs, let's take a look at five actionable lessons right now: Understand Your Customers' Goals Taking the time to gain insight into your customers' goals can enable you to be significantly more effective at your job.
By knowing what lifestyle and other goals someone has, you can create a sales proposition that directly appeals to them.
Personalize Your Business Card Seasoned sales professionals know to never go anywhere without a handful of business cards.
When you're planning to print your next batch, you may intentionally want to leave a piece of information off.
Whether it's your cell number or an email address, the reason this strategy can work so well is it gives you a chance to write that information down in front of someone before handing your card to them.
Completing that action is a proven way to add a very personal touch and start a new relationship off on the right foot.
Birthdays Matter Remembering details like someone's birthday is an example of what separates a good salesperson from a great one.
Since this is something that can now be managed by a computer program, there's really no excuse for not remembering.
Just keep in mind that although there are some situations where it may make sense to offer a special deal for a customer's birthday, as a general rule of thumb, simply wishing them a great day will do more to build a beneficial ongoing relationship.
The same holds true for anniversaries.
Use Umbrella Questions In case you haven't previously heard this term, it refers to a question that works in any selling situation and enables you to extract additional information from the prospect you're speaking to.
Tell me more and please explain further are both examples of umbrella questions.
By getting in the routine of using them, you'll find that you are able to keep prospects talking and ultimately get a lot of useful information from them as a result.
Create a Prospecting Timeline The more you understand exactly how long it usually takes to close a sale, the better you'll be at optimizing your working habits.
Not only can this help you create a very efficient schedule, but it's also an effective way to find bottlenecks in your process that you can then fix.