Carol Xu's List: Sales Skills

• You must aim to become a people expert.
• the best professional salespeople actually like people! Remember, people buy from people -- they always will.
• When beginning a sales relationship, it is important to remember a few key aspects to representing yourself well.
• First, be interesting.
• Never be arrogant -- never talk up or down to your potential clients.
• Along the same lines, develop your empathy levels.
• control your ego levels.
• You Must Ask Questions
• A good salesperson knows what questions to ask, and when.
• always remembering the traditional rules of questioning: What? Where? When? Which? Why? Who? And how?
• Continually test your understanding of the situation by asking questions and verifying that everybody's on the right track.
• Successful sales professionals talk for 20 percent of the time and listen for 80 percent of the time.
• It's crucial for new salespeople to develop their active-listening skills.
• Features are common, but benefits are personal and specific.
• Discover your prospect's "prime desires,"
• and personalize the benefits to him or her.
• Emotion drives 84 per cent of all buying decisions, not logic.
• ego, security, pride of ownership, greed, health, prestige, status, ambition, and fear of loss.
• buyers buy solutions and results; they do not buy products or services.

• Know the specific aspects of your product or service that will create your client's desired result.

    
• Look outside the square, and identify the uniqueness of your product, your service, your company -- and yourself.
• Selling merely on price means we do not need sales people!
• When we present our proposals, rather than mailing, faxing or e-mailing, we increase the likelihood of a sale by a factor of 10 if we do so in-person.
• Being professional is not one thing, it is three: It is what you do, what you say, and how you present yourself.

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