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The Philosophy of Salesmanship

November 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Know Yourself and Your Habits

Consider for a moment, that you had never met you. What would be the most prominent aspect of your salesmanship? Would it be your spiritual approach to sales? Perhaps your strong sales plan? Or even maybe the attitude you have about your fellow man and the courteousness that you afford to him?

Learning what drives you and making that the best part of you is great, so long as you remember to improve the other parts of yourself as well. We as salespeople should strive to improve our salesmanship in every aspect of ourlives. Contemplating this requires a great deal of thought and time. You must be able to determine your weaknesses as well as your strengths to be able to master your own salesmanship. When you are able to master yourself, then you will be able to move forward and begin to understand your prospect.

The Philosophy of Salesmanship is essentially the study of people, words, and things. The aspect of people can be best understood by understanding ourselves. Words and their uses can be taught in a school, but not mastered truly until used in a meaningful manner. Things can be categorized and objectified. Data can be collected about them, and this information you return to the people, your prospects, through the use of words, to accomplish the goal of creating a sale. Master these three things, and you will be able to sell anything.

Wisdom Is Important

To be able to gain wisdom, you must first gain experience, and be able to grab a hold of the appropriate details. Having wisdom allows you to be discriminating in your salesmanship abilities, and also gains knowledge of your prospect. It is one thing to have knowledge, but it is entirely another concept to be wise. A wise sale person will be able to determine the right time to make a sales call based upon local area factors. He or she uses knowledge from previous journeys into a district, and know that perhaps a general population of the people have a certain pattern.

Apply the Philosophy

The Philosophy of Selling instructs you to take care of your mental facilities―to learn to grow the idea of living, loving, and sharing, and to develop all your good assets, as well as improve your weaknesses. When looking at a prospect’s profile, and determining the best course of action, remember to take into account all factors that you are aware of and to be conscious of the greater whole. Try to apply the philosophy of selling to each and every sales pitch.

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Secrets of Effective Sales Presentations – Part II

November 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As stated in my last article, lives are much like a television series. Each part having its own presentations. Presentations are given when we convince our children that smoking is bad for them, or we are looking for a raise, even when we are applying for a new job!

We talked in the last article about “IPRESENT” as being a way of making our presentations successful. We event over “I” to “E” for a refresher:

I-involving the audience

P-Preparing the audience for your presentations

R-Research!

E-Explaining to them “Y”
The art of being a Salesmen shouldn’t be taken lightly. We all know that is a natural part of life but getting a person to act on what you have is quite another story entirely. Here is the last part of the equation please take it to heart and learn how to become an effective presenter.

S- Stands for State- No I don’t mean the beautiful state of Georgia. I am talking about your state of mind and management. Your overall mental state effects the way your presentation is given. If you are depressed of course it wont work. However if you are cheerful and happy it will be conveyed in your presentation. Using the senses to help set the mood of your presentation always helps. For instance you might want a little music to get the listeners going…or sight- by dressing the part and smiling often. Working all areas of the senses will get the listeners where you are or want to be. Yes you can “Act As If” or act the why you want to be.

E- Elimination- Eliminating the unknowns will help although don’t expect it to be completely free of unknowns. The nerves may be going. No worries everyone has fears of public speaking. Even the most sophisticated public speaker today gets the jitters before an event. Rehearsing can lessen the stomach turning feeling, however remember some degree of nervousness will be present.

N- In this one we use the second letter of the word- “KNOW” This is knowing your audience. You must complete three things in the presentation. They are:

1. Meet their needs
2. Reduce tension
3. Avoid mistakes

Well we all know about the third one. I mean who wants to purposely make mistakes in a presentation. However understanding that rehearsing and working out your presentation will simply prepare you for less mistakes.

T- Tailor Your Presentation Throughout- This is important because when you focus and break down your presentation you will get responses from the audience, and a positive outcome. Getting the audience involved is one of the best ways to avoid boredom. Trust me it happens. Being flexible and responding to your audience will show them you are paying attention to them as well.

In the end the presentation is up to you. Remembering to have audience involvement, cheery disposition, and proper spacing within the presentation will give you a more positive experience. Remembering that life is a series of presentations and taking it to the next level will give you the results you want.

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Secrets of Effective Sales Presentations

November 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

How Sales Affects our Lives:

The world of sales has grown greatly over the years. Understanding that sales touches our lives every day in some way is important. As an effective sales maker you are making presentations constantly, everyday. You find yourself pitching to the board, a client, even a new employee who just becomes part of the company.  Great presentations are critical to great sales.

Life is a series of sales presentations. Knowing how to boost your people skills to get a better presentation is next on our agenda. Here are some helpful tips to become more people oriented:

IPRESENT:

I – Involving your audience:

Allowing your audience to help create your solutions is a grand idea. People naturally strive to achieve and in this sense allowing them to help in solutions will make them feel they have achieved something.

Try and ask a lot of questions that can create participation this will help get to those quiet people. Sometimes this can destroy a project but it will give you a more attentive audience.

P – Preparing your Audience:

Making sure your audience is prepared for what is ahead is also important. Giving them things to do before and during the presentation will prepare them for what is to come.

Try these Tactics:

  • Give homework:  While this sounds funny in an adult setting it is important to ensure they are ready for the presentation at hand. Giving them a few tasks such as reading to be completed before the presentation you will know they are on the same page.
  • Contacts before the meeting:  if you have contacted them by email or text for instance you might want to give them a survey to gather information on different people’s position on the topics for the meeting. This will get you prepared as well as them.

R – Research your bullets and key points:

Make sure you are prepared. Keeping notes and stats on hand before the presentation is very important. Learning all you can on your key presentation. It is not easy to give a presentation and making sure you have all the facts before hand can make or break your presentation. Make sure you have stories and jokes, or ice breakers prepared as well a full audience can be difficult to entertain.

E – Explaining why:

Presenting a good argument is important in a presentation but one of the most important things to remember to cover is “Why”. When convincing your audience that your idea, product, service, etc…Is worthy you must explain to them why it is worthy. Making sure they can envision “why” during your presentation is important too. Sometimes telling them why won’t be enough.

S – State (Mental) Management- The mental state that you have during the presentation will affect the way the audience sees your presentation.

Learning how to control the way you think will help the way it comes out to the audience.

E- Eliminating the Unknown- Learning how to control your fear of audiences and public speaking is important.

Many people have a fear of talking in large crowds. The key is to know you have it and make sure you address the issues by controlling your anxiety and nerves. This will give you a negative response from the audience and lower your voice during the presentation. Prepare yourself by checking and rechecking your notes until you feel comfortable and role play with friends and colleagues or others who will listen.

N- Know your Audience- When presenting you must do three things:

Meet their needs- which you will need to find out before the presentation- research or surveys are a good way to get an idea of this. Reduce tension- Telling a good joke or having ice breakers and knowing your presentation are a few ways to achieve this. The Third is Avoid Mistakes- Making sure you know your material and have done thorough extensive research of the material is important.

T- Tailor the presentation- Making sure your audience doesn’t grow bored or get too distracted is important.

Looking through your presentation and including the audience throughout will keep them occupied asking them questions and having participation will strengthen your presentation.

Remembering that life is a presentation will give you a better view of the planned presentations in your life. Learning to connect to people and spotting their styles quickly will keep your audience lively and interested in what you are talking about. It’s your life…take charge!

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