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7 Unfair Sales Advantages of Top Performers

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Written by Christine Sutherland

Tuesday, 06 May 2008

by ChristineSutherland

I've spent 3 decades studying top sales professionals, and the last 15 years training sales people from a broad cross-section of industries and measuring the results they've achieved. There is a very clear picture of what aspiring professionals need to master if they, also, are to gain control of their income.

IRRESISTIBLE RAPPORT

Matching and mirroring (which you may have been taught) is merely the kindy level of rapport. Top performers have such incredible rapport skills that they're often able to build rapport very rapidly, even with people who initially don't like them.

Most of the online dating gurus don't even know this material and let's hope they never find out!

It probably wouldn't do much good anyway, because they'd use it to try to manipulate, and manipulation is an automatic rapport breaker. To achieve the results you really want, these rapport skills must be used to enhance your relationships so that your level of connection with people is deep and genuine.

How can you gain those deeper rapport skills? Of course you're not going to develop them overnight, but you certainly can develop them very quickly with practice. Have you ever seen the rapport building exercise that the synchronised swimming teams do before each performance?

These teams need to be "in synch" if they are to perform in synchronised precision. They take time before each performance to stand in a circle and really connect with each other, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.

"SPOOKY" MIND READING

An amazing level of rapport is one thing, but mind reading, where you actually know what your client is thinking, is a skill that borders on "spooky" but is certainly achievable.

These days you can use cutting edge accelerated learning techniques to move you toward a state of deep competence as quickly as possible, so that you learn to appreciate what your clients are thinking even before they realise it themselves.

How would you like to know the difference between "yes/no", "like/dislike", and "ready/not ready"? Useful?

You can certainly gain this skill, and again it takes practice! If you're willing to spend time with buddies or business friends who'll silently think of things that for example they "like", and then of things that they "don't like", you'll very quickly notice the set of cues that are the giveaway for each person. The more you practice, the more you can pick this up quickly even with people you've never met before.

THE ONLY CLIENT TRAITS THAT MATTER TO THE SALES PROFESSIONAL

Although therapists work with several personality traits, most of them don't know THESE! These are the traits that predict how a client will go through the decision making process - the traits that give away the very factors the client needs in order to say yes. Can you see why I say they're essential for you to know? (And they should be essential for therapists too!)

It might surprise you, but once you've studied that collection of traits, you'll find you've got a natural affinity with them. In fact if you bring to mind even casual acquaintances, you'll find that you can now identify those traits IMMEDIATELY.

I'm going to give you an example of one of these traits and it's called by several names, one of which is "similarity/difference". You'll soon see why.

Have you ever met anyone who, the minute you said "black", they said "white"? If you said it was a fine day, they've declared that indeed it was a pretty ordinary day, or even "what's fine about it!". That was probably a person who focuses on the differences, or habitually mismatches. Sometimes we refer to this type of person as a "polarity responder", which is a technical term meaning "pain in the butt" :-).

On the other hand, there's that equally maddening person who's constantly focussing on the things that are similar or in common, rather than on things that are different or even "new". This type of thinking can be quite counter-productive for a student, for example, because instead of recognising new knowledge, they will discount it by saying something like "Oh yes, this is just like X, and I learned that last year!" They completely miss out on the differences, especially the subtle ones, and therefore fail to learn as well as they could.

Case Study

Fred the sales consultant is chatting with Macey the business owner and Macey seems "argumentative". First she says that she has a problem with a certain manufacturing process, and then when Fred, carefully using her own terminology, refers to "the manufacturing problem" she denies that there is a problem! This woman is even mismatching her own statements. (Note from Christine: Yes! These people do actually exist! I met a very senior manager at a major utility company not that long ago who was exactly like this.)

Fred, realising that a mismatcher is one of the easiest people to influence (if you can be bothered), merely says, "Macey, I don't know that you'd agree with me that there could be a better way to run that process, but I wonder if you wouldn't find it easier to "

And he can continue: "Macey, this option isn't for everyone and it might not suit you in this case ....". In fact Macey is probably the easiest client anyone could possibly sell to providing you understand her and respond to her the way that she requires. When you understand all the personality traits, you won't make those relating mistakes again because you'll be working in line with your client's "style".

MILLION DOLLAR QUESTIONS

The top performing sales people are experts at asking 3 simple little questions and using the answers effectively.

Why are these simple little questions so valuable? Because they highlight not only the core values that the client is using to decide whether your product or service meets their needs, but even the very words the client needs to hear in order to decide to buy!

There are 2 reasons why these questions can be regarded as "gold". They increase your chances of selling by at least double, and they simultaneously build an incredibly deep level of understanding between you and your client, meaning that it's also more likely that you'll receive terrific referrals from this client far into the future.

FINGERTIP CONTROL OF YOUR INCOME

Can you simply decide how much commissions you'll earn in any given month and have 100% confidence in hitting or exceeding that?

Top sales performers can do that month after month because of one reason: they know and use the statistics that matter. They absolutely know and control the mathematical equation that results in a known sales level.

So far as I'm aware, Frank Bettger was the first professional sales person to formulate and use this mathematical equation to literally choose his income. Even though selling activities have changed, and the skills I've discussed certainly increase effectiveness over older methods, the mathematical equation still holds.

To determine your own equation you need to make a list of all the sales activities that you perform (together with the time it takes to perform one "unit"), both direct and indirect, and calculate (or make a guestimate) of the sales result of each. Now you have a list of activities and time on one side, and a sales result on the other. If you wanted, for instance, to double your income, what would you have to do? What activities are paying their way and which aren't? What else would be a better use of your time and effort?

Are you prepared to plan, document, track and analyse each sales activity? Are you prepared to be that accountable to yourself? Congratulations, you're almost there!

TAKE OUT YOUR MAGIC WAND AND MAKE THAT FEAR OR DOUBT DISAPPEAR!

It's all very well to know what to do, and to have the skills to do it, but what if you still can't, and what if you keep procrastinating or sabotaging yourself because of some niggling discomfort?

So what if that's holding you back right now, and every time you think about doing a certain task that's essential for your sales success, you actually feel sick in the stomach? (Or if there's just enough of an unconscious "niggle" that you sabotage yourself anyway?)

For several years we've had available an incredible technique to eliminate these types of fears and doubts literally overnight (including stuttering, by the way) but very few people have known about it.

One of these techniques is called "NeuroStim" and it's been proven in clinical trials to be so powerful that it can completely eliminate depression or chronic pain in a matter of days without drugs. Similar techniques have been used in trials of over 50,000 to eliminate various types of fear or anxiety.

NETWORK LIKE THIS AND YOU'LL ENJOY A HUGE PAYOFF!

Up until a few years ago we would always recommend that our students and clients join a business networking organisation and we ourselves worked tirelessly to educate members and their organisations to network more ethically and effectively.

But you know what? We don't see any evidence of networking organisations even UNDERSTANDING the principles of effective networking, let alone teaching them to their members.

Nowadays we advise our clients and students to avoid these organisations whenever possible. They are half-baked examples of what networking should be about and our people are far better off forming their own business networks among trusted business friends. If they do this the right way, they'll enjoy unprecedented success, including superior peer-mentoring, joint venture agreements, referrals, advocacy, and sharing of expertise and resources. And they can do it all in business hours.

The advantages of turning your back on the networking organisations and building your own private network are gigantic. You'll save time, money and effort, and you no longer have to tolerate boring or rude networking practices. You'll no longer rob yourself, family or friends of time that should be spent with them. You'll have REAL friends in business who enrich your life personally and professionally.

COULD YOU DO IT TOO?

Even though there is always more to learn, especially in terms of communication skills, if you can only do the 7 things I've discussed here, you will absolutely achieve your dreams, and you will have earned them!

About the Author:

The free ebook " Speed Business Networking - The Manual" describes the detailed philosophies and methodologies that result in effective networking. It's available to people and networking organisations who want to network more humanely and more productively.

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