Author: Zig Ziglar
My Rating: 4/5
Summary: A book of practical tips and advice for improving your sales skills.
My Takeaways
Have a good mental diet.
Be confident in yourself.
Remember that you are self employed, even at the company you work at.
Act as the owner of the company you work at.
Know what you want and work harder than anyone else to get it.
Top salespeople are highly empathetic and think about long term selling over a long period vs average sales people who think about 1 sale.
Sell something you believe in, because the customer will never believe it more than you do.
The best sales people review what they did well in a sales call, not dwell on what they did wrong. This affects you consciously and subconsciously.
Use silence to help close the sale. Don’t be the first to respond.
Move quickly through the close by making it easy to say yes.
The prospect is always right
Let the customer keep talking
Rejection is not personal.
No such thing as failure, just feedback
Write the letter yourself and have the customer approve it, for customer testimonials.
Don’t overpromise what your product can do.
When closing the sale, give the invitation close. Ask your prospect. 1. How do you like this so far? 2. Why don’t you give it a try?
If they so no, then ask. Why not?
Also ask, if we could take care of that, would you give it a try?
What customers eat is a fair price, not the lowest price. Respond by saying “you are getting a good deal”
Follow up with the “just suppose” close.
Make a list of all the objections that you think a prospect would say and cluster them into categories.
I invite you to give it a try is a way to get prospects to buy your product.
Do not bring up price at the beginning of your talk. Always emphasize the value that the prospect will get before discussing price.
Use the sandwich close by discussing the value than price than value that the customer will receive.
Compare the price of your product to something your prospect purchased regularly like a coffee.
Make a list of all the various price objectives.
Write out a series of yes questions that get you from the general to the particular to help close the sale.
Features arouse interest. Benefits arouse buying desire.
Puppy dog close
Ben Franklin close
Tell a story of a happy customer or a story of a customer who had a bad experience buying other products.
Ask for referrals and send thank you notes.
Instead of asking a customer how’s it going? Ask how can I improve the product or service?
Build a referral process onto your prospecting and customer followup
Ask for the order.
Use the 80/20 rule for calling on prospects.
Do the 100 phone call challenge