Hi, my name is David Firth, and I have spent many years as a salesperson, sales manager, sales trainer, and sales training manager.

Throughout those years, I have had the pleasure to train thousands of men and women, many of whom have moved on to great success in the sales business.

My new book gives you the tips and tricks that I have learnt and used over those years.

I am pleased to be able to now share this knowledge with you.

So congratulations to you as you have made that crucial step in developing yourself. You have chosen to learn how to sell, and in particular let me say thank you for choosing to check out my methods.

In the processes that I use,  you will discover how to make sales of almost anything by both learning, and understanding processes that have been tried and tested, and will never go out of date as long as we have things to sell.

So, what is it all about?

Here I have put together the stage by stage processes that you will learn about should you choose to buy my book 'When Buyers Tell - Sellers Sell', and how to apply them when you are in the role of “THE SALESPERSON”.

The steps of the process are;

Product Understanding.

Finding The Buyers.

Approaching For The First Time.

Finding The Needs, And Getting The Prospect To Want.

Presenting A Solution.

Asking For The Sale.

Dealing With Objections.

Buying Signals Including Body Language.

Seeking Recommendations.

After Sales And Follow Up.

Overview of the Sales Process

The sales process is basically the same, whether you are selling a small throw away item or making a multi million deal. You must get the buyer “emotionally disturbed” enough to want to take action. The way to do this, is as the book title suggests, you must get buyers to tell, as this is when sellers sell.

Product Understanding

Before you can say hello to your first potential client, you need to know all there is to know about your product(s), but equally importantly, about what the product(s) will do for your prospect. Picture a thumb-tack, what is it? It's a 1/2" piece of bar with a spike at one end and a thumb-end sized piece of metal or plastic at the opposite end of the spiked bar. With a description like that we will sell millions!!

What we really need to sell is not what it is, but what it will do for the buyer, and how they could use it, and how many different things it can be used for, how the colours will fit in with their decor, or be used to highlight things, and how many they will get to use in all those different ways etc. etc..

 

Finding the Buyers.

Thumb-tack buyers wanted apply within - well it could work. You could have queues around the block!! OK so you need to find people to talk to, to be able to make a sale to, in sales jargon, finding people to talk to is called prospecting. Where you can find these prospects, and what tools you can use is the content of the “finding the buyers” section.

Approaching For the First Time.

So now you know your product, and you have someone who may need one, you need to make an approach. The approach is the next critical stage of our process. Take a deep breath, twiddle your toes, burst into a smile and off you go.

"What do you want?" says your carefully selected, yet surprisingly grumpy prospect. The one you were sure would need truck loads of thumb-tacks has now spoken to you, and he didn't say "come in as I need loads of thumb-tacks!!"

You are the salesperson, you have your thumb-tack samples and you are the next to speak...WHAT DO YOU SAY? Remember the thing about first impressions - you have only one chance to make a first impression. Whatever you say now will determine the length of your relationship. Will it be ten seconds or a lifetime?

Think how many sellers that you have said no to, on the phone, at your door, in a shop, on the street, or in a business situation. Did they get as long as ten seconds?

Are you prepared to wing it and lose this prospect? - the prospect that you spent so long finding, or are you going to be brave and use the tips and tricks that you know will work?

Finding the Needs, and Getting the Prospect to Want.

Now you are with your prospect, you need to establish a need. This is the bit that so many of the “experienced” sales people that I have met and assessed have no real idea about. They would find out that the client did not have XYZ product, and believe that now is the time to sell them one!

BIG NOTE - BECAUSE THE SALES PERSON SEES A GAP IN THE CLIENTS PORTFOLIO DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE CLIENT EITHER SEES IT OR WANTS TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!!

The salesperson needs to use the skills that will near enough make the prospect say “you know something, I haven’t got one of those and I would really like one. Please can I have one!!!!

You need to turn the prospect into a buyer. They need to be asking you for one of your products. Once you learn how to do this your earnings will rocket, and all those sales interviews that ended with no sale because the client was an idiot, can be relabelled as bad use of, or no use of sales skills.

 

Presenting a Solution.

This is simply the time to prove that your product solves the problem that the clients have just realized and now told you that they have. There are many ways to do this, and although the process never changes, the technology available to make presentations changes daily. The content however needs to put the message across in the language the client understands. Jargon when needed - no jargon when not needed.

Asking For the Sale.

Good sales people know that this is the bit that they have been working up to – bad sales people miss this, and leave the business, blaming everyone else for their failure. It is called the close of the sale. It is the bit where you ask for the business. You cannot sit there and wait for the client to ask for one! There are many ways of asking, and leading the client to the point when they know that they have to make a commitment. In this section we look at all the possibilities.

After Sales and Follow Up.

So, that is it. Walk away. Do not look back. Count your commission or profit...

NOT TRUE

The sales process is also about preparing for the next sale, and that involves a relationship between you and your new client.

 

Dealing With Objections.

How many people carry a comb or hairbrush with them? Why do that? Well it's "just in case". Yes? Well knowing how to deal with objections is just the same. You may not use this process at all, but if you do need it, you have it with you!

Because believe this or not, some people will raise those things which in the sales business are known as objections e.g. I can’t afford one; I am too busy to….. And you will be prepared to handle them when you complete this section.

Buying Signals Including Body Language.

Conversely, they can also verbally and physically display buying signals! E.g. how much is it, can I pay monthly etc ...Spotting these, and responding in the correct manner is vital, and will save you lots of time, and possibly stop you talking yourself out of the sale.

Seeking Recommendations.

Everywhere you go nowadays, including the internet, you are asked what you thought of the service provided. Quite right too, as the only way to get better is to know what you are doing both right and wrong. In the sales process, to know you have done the right thing by your client is the precursor to finding others who could benefit from what you have to offer. You should be over the moon that you have just helped someone, and be delighted to be able to help others. Recommendations make prospecting far simpler.

 

 

It really is a great buzz spotting what is happening in front of you,
and knowing that YOU created this situation! Well done!

 

 

Best Wishes

David