subject: How To Develop Persuasive Sales Skills [print this page] It is common for sales people to believe that you need to have persuasive sales skills in order to be successful. And while you do need to be able to persuade prospect's to move forward, there is also a common misconception that you have to somehow manipulate the prospect in order to truly be persuasive. The reality is that you do not have to be manipulative at all to be effective at truly building interest and getting prospects to move forward.
Effectively Qualify the Prospect
Some sales people can find themselves getting frustrated when they are trying to persuade a sales prospect and there is no movement forward. When this happens, the sales person might think that they are not being persuasive enough. That may be the case, but the reality is that in the majority of these cases, it is more of result that they sales person has not qualified the prospect and is trying to persuade a sales prospect that will never move forward.
When we are able to qualify a prospect, we separate the suspects from the prospects. When someone is not a good fit for what we have to offer, or does not have the decision making authority or ability, regardless of our persuasive sales techniques, they will have very low probability of moving forward.
On the flip side of that, when we spend time and attention on qualifying the prospect by asking key questions to make sure we talking to prospects that fit well, they will have a higher probability of moving forward through the sales cycle. As result, by improving our ability to qualify, we will improve our ability to persuade prospects to move forward.
Communicate Value
One way to improve your persuasive sales skills is to make sure you are effectively communicating the value that you have to offer.
It can be common for us sales people to get stuck communicating at the product and service level of our offering. This is understandable as this is where we are most comfortable and have the most knowledge. We can talk all day about the great things that our stuff can do.
But the reality is that what really the prospect really cares about is what your product can do for them or help them to achieve. This is essentially the value that you have to offer and communicating this can help you to with your persuasive sales skills.
Communicate How You Differ
The prospect may be comparing you with other options. Even if they do not tell you this, you need to always assume this and defuse it. And sometimes the other option you might be competing with is the option to do nothing.
In order to persuade the prospect to move forward with you, focus on communicating how you differ from your competition. How are you better? How is the competition weaker? What is the impact of doing nothing?
Focus on the Return on Investment
At the end of the day, it is all about the return the prospect will receive when they purchase and invest in your products. In order to improve your ability to get prospects to move forward, always focus on the ROI that the prospect will receive and the ROI that you have been shown to deliver in the past.
