Sales training can be an overwhelming thing for small business owners but it doesn’t have to be. There are some basic sales training techniques that you can work on right now that don’t have to take a lot of time out of your day to practice.
Hey folks, this is the transcript from our latest YouTube Video, Basic Sales Training Techniques for Small Business Owners. We’re going to dive into this but first, subscribe to our YouTube channel so that you don’t miss any of our new videos!
So after 20 years of sales and business ownership experience, I’ve trained my fair share of business owners and new sales people. Here are some of the most basic – and effective – techniques that I recommend small business owners work on to help them have more effective sales conversations.
First, get to know who your ideal client is.
If you don’t understand your target, you’ll never be able to hit the bullseye. A lot of small business owners, particularly new business owners, try to “target” everyone. As a result, they don’t end up successfully selling to anybody.
Really understanding your ideal client profile will help you focus your efforts on the people who are not only most likely to do business with you, but people who will be your BEST clients.
I had a great interview on The Community Table with Dean Isaacs about getting to know who your ideal client profile is and I HIGHLY recommend checking it out. Dean had some great insights to share and it’ll break this down really well. It’s here on the info card on your screen and it’s linked to in the description.
Second, know what you’re listening for.
Sales all comes down to conversations. And sales opportunities can come from the most random conversations so you have to know the key things to listen for while you’re having a conversation.
You might be talking to your neighbor at a bar-b-que or an acquaintance at a cocktail party and suddenly something perks up your ears – you better be ready to respond.
Third, know how to start a conversation.
If you jump straight from a conversation starter into “let’s set up a meeting to talk about how I can help you”, you’re not a business owner, you’re a sales person. And that’s fine but, outside of most business situations, no one likes that person.
Prepare some gently probing questions in response to each of the things to listen for that you’ve identified. If you can get your conversation partner to tell you more about the issue they just revealed, you should be able to find an opportunity to casually mention your solution as well and see if they perk up.
Fourth, know what sets you apart from your competition.
Get to know everyone else who plays in your space – or as many as you can. If you look at my industry of CRM and marketing automation there are something like 400 different competitors out there. I’m not going to get to know all of them but I’m definitely going to know what sets me apart from the ones that they’ve most likely heard of before.
If you know what sets you apart from your competition, you can bring up those weaknesses as a part of your solution conversation in contrast to your solution.
Pro tip: DO NOT mention your competition when doing this. Do whatever you have to do to get used to this – practice in a mirror, whatever – just make sure you don’t bring up your competition unless they do.
If you bring it up, you’re bashing your competition and that’s not a good look. If they bring it up, you’re just answering a question.
Finally, think through how you’ll respond to objections
There’s a great sales focused website called justsell.com. They’ve got a lot of great sales content that’s worth checking out.
One of my favorites is their assessment of the different types of objections that you’ll come across while you’re having sales conversations. There are eight core objections that you should get to know.
Those are:
- Lack of perceived value in your solution
- Lack of perceived urgency to make a move
- Perception of inferiority to a competitor or in house offering
- Internal political issue
- Lack of funds
- Personal issue with the decision maker
- Something happening with an external party
- Perception that it’s safer to do nothing
You won’t be able to respond to all of these – some of them are simply outside of your control.
But take some time to think about how you would respond to these. Write them down, practice them in the mirror. Make very sure that you can discuss them conversationally – and not argumentatively so that you’re ready when they, or some variation of them, come up in your conversations.
Your Turn
If you follow these five tips as a small business owner, you should start to see a marked improvement in the way that your conversations actually start leading to sales.
Again, make sure to check out the recording of The Community Table episode about your ideal client profile and check out the eight objections from justsell.com.
In the meantime, be sure to check out this video, click that like button so that others can see it as well and make sure to subscribe and ring the bell so that you never miss when we post one of our videos.
We’ll see you next time!