Sales People can learn with a laugh

The best sales people can ask questions to uncover the needs and wants of their potential customers and then expound the features and benefits of their products or services to meet those needs and wants.

Here are two training methods that will give your team a bit of a laugh but they are very effective at training them to ask searching open questions.

The Shoe-Box

Put an object (like a stapler) into a shoe box and take it in to a sales meeting. Place it on the table and the team must ask you questions until they figure out what is in the box.

They will start by asking closed questions Eg. Can you eat it? No. But they will soon figure out they get much more information by asking open questions: Describe the shape of the object.

When they master simple stuff like a stapler and an apple try some toughies (like a hinge off a door).

The Trading Post

Cut an advertisement from the classified for sale section of the paper. Select a member of the team to do a role play telephone call to you. Show the ad to all the others. The role play person must ask questions to try to figure out what you are selling. Run this like a phone call

Most often the ego of a sales person will lead to a reluctance  to join in these games but very rapidly a person who has played them can run rings around one who hasn’t – then who’s laughing? – especially if they sell for commission.

Get it right when presenting

Most of us have to sell our products and services as business owners. It is another one of those areas we take on because of owning a business but few of us have had formal training in sales.

So let’s take a quick lesson from the professionals – Real Estate Sales.

Many of the Real Estate offices I work with have weekly sales training and much of it focuses around role plays.

It is tough presenting to your peers and if you can do it well you will be much better in the field.

Here are some of the components of creating this training

• Elect a part of your sales process to work with – eg a conversation with a client to close the sale
• Clearly note the objective – eg to get the client to commit to the purchase – or set a date to come in to the office etc
• Create the agenda – what are you going to cover in this conversation – use bullet points only.
• Work out how the “Close” happens – what do you ask for and when

You can put a conversational style around the bullet points which includes rapport building interaction and topical conversation – it doesn’t really matter what you talk about as long as you cover the bullet points.

Remember questions are your weapon. You can prolong a conversation by asking questions. You can uncover objections by using questions (and then describe how your product or service meets that objection).

If you want to sell more – or close more of the opportunities you get then set up a role play in front of your staff and tweak your skills.

Get the person you are role playing with to adopt three types of stance – the pushover, the normal, and the dragon. This forces you to be able to handle each type of prospect you may meet.

It can be fun but improving your skills in this area has an enormous payoff.