Sales and Marketing Strategies
Closed-ended Questions
How to use a specific type of question to get a
definite answer.
By Brian Tracy
Closed-ended questions allow you to get definite answers and move toward
closing the sale. Closed ended questions start with verbs, such as "Are,"
"Will," "Is," "Have," "Did," and even contractions such as "Aren't," "Didn't,"
and "Won't." This is often called a convergent question. It brings
conversation gradually to a convergence on a single point or decision. It is
answered with a "yes" or a "no." You use this question when you want to begin
narrowing the conversation and getting specific answers that lead you to a
conclusion or a commitment.
You
can use closed ended questions to get more specific answers. "Will you be
making a decision within the next two months?" "Are you considering changing
your suppliers for this product?" "Is this the sort of thing you are looking
for?"
A
closed ended question forces the prospect to take a position. "Do you like what
I've shown you?" "Does this make sense to you, so far?" "Would you like to get
started on this right away?" You use this type of question when you want to get
clear answers and bring the sales conversation to a close.
The
third type of question is a variation on the first two and is called the
"negative answer" question. This is when a "no" means a "yes" to your
proposition. "Are you happy with your existing supplier?" If the customer says
"no" it means that they are interested in considering a new supplier. "Are you
getting the kind of results that you expected?" If the customer says "no", it
means that the customer is open to considering your product or service as an
alternative.
Now,
here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into
action.
First, begin closed-ended questions with verbs. Whenever you want the
customer to be more specific or to take a definite stand on your product or
service.
Second, ask closed-ended questions in a warm, friendly, curious tone of
voice. Always be courteous, caring and concerned.
Never use pressure or manipulation.
Listening Wins Sales
By Brian Tracy
There are books, articles and multi-day courses on listening. There are
audio/video learning programs that include hours of instruction and a variety of
exercises. They are all valuable and helpful, but what they teach can be
distilled down into a key skill. Your mastery of these skills, through
discipline and practice, is all you need to become an excellent listener, with
all that that entails.
The best listening skill is to listen attentively. Lean
forward, face the prospect directly rather than at an angle. Focus your
attention on the prospects face, on his or her mouth and eyes. Listen without
interruption. Listen as though you were hanging on every word the prospect was
saying. Listen as if the prospect were about to give you the winning Lottery
number and you would only hear it once. Listen as if this were a million dollar
prospect who was just on the verge of giving you a major order. Listen as if
there were no one else in the world to whom you would rather listen at this
moment than this prospect, and to what this prospect is saying.
The ability to
pay close, uninterrupted attention to a person when he is speaking is the
primary listening skill. It is the hardest facility to develop and is
simultaneously the most important of all. It requires continuous practice and
discipline. And it's not easy. It is hard to keep your thoughts from wandering,
but the payoff is tremendous.
Now, here are two things you can do immediately to
put these ideas into action. First, imagine that your customer is the most
fascinating person in the world. Hang on every word as if he was about to place
a million dollar order. Second, lean forward when your customer speaks. Nod,
smile, agree and be both active and involved. Listening builds sales
relationships.
The Power of Charisma
By: Brian Tracy
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines charisma as “a personal
magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public
figure.”
Charisma is also that special quality of magnetism that each
person has and that each person uses to a certain degree. You have a special
charisma to the people who look up to you, who respect and admire you¾the
members of your family and your friends and coworkers. Whenever and wherever a
person feels a positive emotion toward another, he imbues that person with
charisma, or attractiveness.
In trying to explain charisma, some people
speak of an “aura.” This aura is a light that is invisible to most people, but
not to everyone, and that radiates out from a person and affects the people
around that person in a positive or negative way. The halo around the heads of
saints and mystics in many religious paintings was the artist’s attempt to
depict the light that people reported seeing around the heads of these men and
women when they were speaking or praying, or in an intense emotional
state.
You also have an aura around you that most people cannot see but
that is there, nevertheless. This aura affects the way people react and respond
to you, either positively or negatively. There is a lot that you can do, and a
lot of good reasons for you to do it, to control this aura and make it work in
your best interests.
If you’re in sales, this aura, reflecting your level
of charisma, can have a major impact on the way your prospects and customers
treat you and deal with you. Top salespeople seem to be far more successful than
the average salespeople in getting along with their customers. they’re always
more welcome, more positively received and more trusted than the others. They
sell more, and they sell more easily. They make a better living, and they build
better lives. Salespeople with charisma get far more pleasure out of their work
and suffer far less from stress and rejection. The charismatic salesperson is
almost invariably a top performer in his field and enjoys all the rewards that
go with superior sales.
If you’re in business, developing greater
charisma can help you tremendously in working with your staff, your suppliers,
your bankers, your customers and everyone else upon whom you depend for your
success. People seem naturally drawn to those who possess charisma. They want to
help them and support them. When you have charisma, people will open doors for
you and bring you opportunities that otherwise would not have been available to
you.
In your personal relationships, the quality of charisma can make
your life more joyous, happier. People will naturally want to be around you.
Members of your family and your friends will be far happier in your company, and
you will have a greater influence on them, causing them to feel better about
themselves and to do better at the important things in their lives.
There
is a close association between personal charisma and success in life. Probably
85 percent of your success and happiness will come from your relationships and
interactions with others. The more positively others respond to you, the easier
it will be for you to get the things you want.
In essence, when we
discuss charisma, we are talking about the law of attraction. This law has been
stated in many different ways down through the centuries, but it basically says
that you inevitably attract into your life the people and circumstances that
harmonize with your dominant thoughts.
In a sense, you are a living
magnet, and you are constantly radiating thought waves, like a radio station
radiates sound waves, that are picked up by other people. Your thoughts,
intensified by your emotions, as radio waves are intensified by electric
impulses, go out from you and are picked up by anyone who is tuned in to a
similar wavelength. You then attract into your life people, ideas,
opportunities, resources, circumstances and anything else that is consistent
with your dominant frame of mind.
The law of attraction also explains how
you can build up your levels of charisma so that you can have a greater and more
positive impact on the people whose cooperation, support and affection you
desire. The critical thing to remember about charisma is that it is largely
based on perception. It is based on what people think about you. It is not so
much reality as it is what people perceive you to be. For example, one person
can create charisma in another person by speaking in glowing terms about that
person to a third party. If you believe that you are about to meet an
outstanding and important person, that person will tend to have charisma for
you.
One of the most charismatic people in the world today is Mother
Teresa of Calcutta. In a physical sense, she is a quiet, elderly, frail woman in
poor health, and she wears a modest nun’s habit. She might be ignored by a
person passing her on the street, were it not for the tremendous charisma she
has developed and for the fact that her appearance is so well-known to so many
people as a result. If someone told you that he was going to introduce you to a
brilliant, self-made millionaire who was very quiet and unassuming about his
success, you would almost naturally imbue that person with charisma, and in his
presence, you would not act the same as you would if you had been told nothing
at all. Charisma begins largely in the mind of the beholder.
Of course,
lasting charisma depends more upon the person you really are than upon just the
things you do. Nevertheless, you can build the perception of charisma for
yourself by utilizing the 10 great powers of personality that seem to have a
major impact on the way that people think and feel about you.
The first
of these powers is the power of purpose. Men and women with charisma and
personal magnetism almost invariably have a clear vision of who they are, of
where they’re going and of what they’re trying to achieve. Leaders in sales and
management have a vision of what they’re trying to create and why they’re doing
what they’re doing. They’re focused on accomplishing some great purpose. They’re
decisive about every aspect of their lives. They know exactly what they want and
what they have to do to get it. They plan their work and work their
plan.
In more than 3,300 studies of leadership, in every book and article
ever written on leadership, the quality of purpose, or vision, was one of the
few qualities that was consistently used in describing leaders.
You can
increase your charisma and the magnetism of your personality by setting clear
goals for yourself, making plans to achieve them, and working on your plans with
discipline and determination every day. The whole world seems to move aside for
the person who knows exactly where he is going. In fact, the clearer you are
about your purposes and goals, the more likely people will be to attribute other
positive qualities to you. They will see you, or perceive you, as being a better
and more admirable human being. And when you have clear goals, you begin
attracting to yourself the people and opportunities necessary to make those
goals a reality.
The second personality power is self-confidence. Men and
women with charisma have an intense belief in themselves and in what they are
doing. They are usually calm, cool and composed about themselves and their work.
Your level of self-confidence is often demonstrated in your courage, your
willingness to do whatever is necessary to achieve a purpose that you believe
in.
People are naturally attracted to those who exude a sense of
self-confidence, those who have an unshakable belief in their ability to rise
above circumstances to attain their goals.
One of the ways you
demonstrate self-confidence is by assuming that people naturally like you and
accept you and want to do business with you. For example, one of the most
powerful ways to close a sale is simply to assume that the prospect has decided
to purchase the product or service, and then go on to wrap up the details. One
of the best ways to achieve success in your relationships is to assume that
people naturally enjoy your company and want to be around you, and then proceed
on that basis. The very act of behaving in a self-confident manner will generate
personal charisma in the eyes of others.
The third power you can develop
is enthusiasm. The more excited you are about accomplishing something that is
important to you, the more excited others will be about helping you to do it.
The fact is that emotions are contagious. The more passion you have for your
life and your activities, the more charisma you will possess, and the more
cooperation you will gain from others. Every great man or woman has been totally
committed to a noble cause and, as a result, has attracted the support and
encouragement of others, in many cases, thousands or millions of
others.
The fourth personality power that you can develop is expertise,
or competence. The more knowledgeable you are perceived to be in your field, the
more charisma you will have among those who respect and admire that knowledge
because of the impact it can have on their lives. This is also the power of
excellence, of being recognized by others as an outstanding performer in your
field. Men and women who do their jobs extremely well and who are recognized for
the quality of their work are those who naturally attract the help and support
of others. They have charisma.
The fifth power of personality that gives
you charisma in the eyes of others is thorough preparation, detailed
preparation, prior to undertaking any significant task. Whether you are calling
on a prospect, meeting with your boss, giving a public talk or making any other
kind of presentation, when you are well-prepared, it becomes clear to everyone.
The careers of many young people are put onto the fast track as a result of
their coming to an important meeting after having done all their
homework.
Whether it takes you hours or even days, if an upcoming meeting
or interaction is important, take the time to get on top of your subject. Be so
thoroughly prepared that nothing can faze you. Think through and consider every
possibility and every ramification. Often, this effort to be fully prepared will
do more to generate the respect of others than anything else you can
do.
Remember that the power is always on the side of the person who has
done the most preparation and has the best notes. Everything counts. Leave
nothing to chance. When you do something related to your work or career, take
the time to do it right in advance.
The sixth power that gives you
charisma is self-reliance, or self-responsibility. The most successful men and
women in America are intensely self-reliant. They look to themselves for the
answers to their questions and problems. They never complain, and they never
explain. They take complete ownership of projects. They volunteer for duties and
step forward and accept accountability when things go wrong.
An amazing
facet of human nature is that when you behave in a completely self-reliant
manner, others will often be eager to help you achieve your goals. But if you
seem to need the help and support of others, people will avoid you or do
everything possible not to get involved with you.
One of the most
admirable qualities of leaders, which lends a person charisma in the perception
of others, is the capacity to step forward and take charge. The leader accepts
complete responsibility for getting the job done, without making excuses and
blaming anyone. When you become completely self-reliant, you experience a
tremendous sense of control and power that enhances your feeling of well-being
and that generates the charisma that is so important to you in attracting the
help of others.
The seventh personality power is image. There is both
interpersonal image and intrapersonal image. Intrapersonal image, or self-image,
is the way you see yourself and think about yourself in any situation. This
self-image has an inordinate impact on the way you perform and on the way others
see you and think about you. Your self-image plays an important part in your
charisma.
The other type of image is interpersonal. This is the image or
appearance that you convey to others. The way you look on the outside has an
inordinate impact on the way people treat you and respond to you. Successful men
and women are very aware of how they are coming across to others. They take a
good deal of time to think through every aspect of their external appearance to
assure that it is helping them rather than hurting them.
Remember that
everything counts. If an element of your image is not building your charisma and
your respect in the eyes of another person, it is lowering your charisma and
your respect. Nothing is neutral. Everything is taken into the equation.
Everything counts. The three primary factors in personal appearance are clothes,
grooming and accessories. Select your clothes with care. Before you go to an
important meeting, stand in front of the mirror and ask yourself, “Do I look
like one of the best people in my field?” If you don’t feel that you look like
one of the best people in your business, go back to the closet and
change.
Look at the most successful people in your area of endeavor. What
do they wear? How do they dress? How do they wear their hair? What kind of
accessories do they use? Pattern yourself after the winners in your field, the
people who already have personal magnetism and charisma. If you do what they do,
over and over, you will eventually get the same results that they
get.
The eighth form of personal power is character, or integrity. Men
and women who possess the kind of charisma that arouses the enthusiastic support
of others are invariably men and women with high values and principles. They are
extremely realistic and honest with themselves and others. They have very clear
ideals, and they continually aspire to live up to the highest that is in them.
They speak well of people, and they guard their conversation, knowing that
everything that they say is being remembered and recorded. They are aware that
everything they do is contributing to the formation of their perception by
others. Everything about their character is adding to or detracting from their
level of charisma.
When you think of the most important men and women of
any time, you think of men and women who aspired to greatness and who had high
values for themselves and high expectations of others. When you make the
decision to act consistent with the highest principles that you know, you begin
to develop charisma. You begin to become the kind of person others admire and
respect and want to emulate. You begin to attract into your life the help and
support and encouragement of the kind of people you admire. You activate the law
of attraction in the very best way.
The ninth power of personality is
self-discipline, or self-mastery. Men and women of charisma are highly
controlled. They have a tremendous sense of inner calm and outer resolve. They
are well-organized, and they demonstrate willpower and determination in
everything they do.
The very act of being well-organized, of having clear
objectives and of having set clear priorities on your activities before
beginning, gives you a sense of discipline and control. It causes people to
respect and admire you. When you then exert your self-discipline by persisting
in the face of difficulties, your charisma rating goes up. Men and women who
achieve leadership positions, who develop the perception of charisma in others,
are invariably those who possess indomitable willpower and the ability to
persist in a good cause until success is achieved. The more you persist when the
going gets rough, the more self-discipline and resolve you develop, and the more
charisma you tend to have.
The tenth power that you can develop, which
underlies all of the other powers that lead to charisma, is result-orientation.
In the final analysis, people ascribe charisma to those men and women who they
feel can most enable them to achieve important goals or objectives.
We
develop great perceptions of those men and women we can count on to help us
achieve what is important to us. Men and women who make great sales, or who
establish admirable sales records, develop charisma in the minds and hearts of
their coworkers and superiors. They are spoken about in the most positive way.
Men and women who are responsible for companies or departments that achieve high
levels of profitability also develop charisma. They develop what is called the
“halo effect.” They are perceived by others to be extraordinary men and women
who are capable of great things. Their shortcomings are often overlooked, while
their strong points are overemphasized. They become charismatic.
Charisma
actually comes from working on yourself. It comes from liking and accepting
yourself unconditionally as you do and say the specific things that develop
within you a powerful, charismatic personality.
When you set clear goals
and become determined and purposeful, backing those goals with unshakable
self-confidence, you develop charisma. When you are enthusiastic and excited
about what you are doing, when you are totally committed to achieving something
worthwhile, you radiate charisma. When you take the time to study and become an
expert at what you do, and then prepare thoroughly for any opportunity to use
your knowledge, skill or experience, the perception that others have of you goes
straight up. When you take complete responsibility and accept ownership, without
making excuses or blaming others, you experience a sense of control that leads
to the personal power that is the foundation of charisma. When you look like a
winner in every respect, when you have the kind of external image that others
admire, you build your charisma. When you develop your character by setting high
standards and then disciplining yourself to live consistent with the highest
principles you know, you become the kind of person who is admired and respected
everywhere. You become the kind of person who radiates charisma to
others.
Finally, when you concentrate your energies on achieving the
results that you have been hired to accomplish, the results that others expect
of you, you develop the reputation for performance and achievement that
inevitably leads to the perception of charisma.
You can develop the kind
of charisma that opens doors for you by going to work on yourself, consistently
and persistently, and becoming the kind of person everyone can admire and look
up to. That’s what charisma is all about.
Selling To Today’s
Customers
By: Brian Tracy
What is selling? In its simplest terms, selling is the process of helping
a person to conclude that your product or service is of greater value to him
than the price you are asking for. Our market society is based on the principles
of freedom and mutual benefit. Each party to a transaction only enters into it
when he feels that he will be better off as a result of the transaction than he
would be without it.
In a free market, the customer always has three options
with any purchase decision. First, the customer can buy your product or service.
Second, the customer can buy the product or service from someone else. Third,
the customer can decide to buy nothing at all. For the customer to buy your
particular product or service, he or she must be convinced that it is not only
the best choice available, but he must also be persuaded that there is no better
way for him to spend the equivalent amount of money. Your job as a salesperson
is to convince the customer that all these conditions exist and then to elicit a
commitment from him to take action on your offer.
The field of professional
selling has changed dramatically since World War II. In a way, selling
methodologies are merely responses to customer requirements. At one time,
customers were relatively unsophisticated and poorly informed about their
choices. Salespeople catered to this customer with carefully planned and
memorized sales presentations, loads of enthusiasm, and a bag full of techniques
designed to crush resistance and get the order at virtually any cost.
But the
customer of the 1950s had matured into the customer of the 21st century.
Customers are now more intelligent and knowledgeable than ever before. They are
experienced buyers and they have interacted with hundreds of salespeople. They
are extremely sophisticated and aware of the incredible variety of products and
services that are available to them, as well as their relative strengths and
weaknesses of those products. Many of them are smarter and better educated than
most salespeople and they are far more careful about making a buying decision of
any kind. In addition, they are overwhelmed with work and under-supplied with
time.
Because of the rapidly increasing pace of change, down-sizing,
restructuring and the competitive pressures surrounding them, customers today
are harried and hassled. They are swamped with responsibilities, impatient,
suspicious, critical, demanding, and spoiled. To sell to today's customer
requires a higher caliber of sales professional than has ever before been
required. And it is only going to become tougher and more complicated in the
months and years ahead.
Now, here are two things you can do immediately to put
these ideas into action. First, think continually about how you can convince
your customer that your product or service is the very best available. Why does
he buy or refuse to buy? Second, upgrade your knowledge and skills every day so
you can sell more effectively. Remember, your customers only get better when you
get better.
About Brian Tracy...Brian Tracy is the most listened to audio author on
personal and business success in the world today. His fast-moving talks and
seminars on leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness and business strategy
are loaded with powerful, proven ideas and strategies that people can
immediately apply to get better results in every area. Brian Tracy Home Page
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