We can control the words we use but the people we're talking to can hear what we're thinking. - Phone sales is all about the tone of our voice.

In face to face selling 55% of communication is visual, 38% is tone and only 7% is the words we choose. In other words 93% of our communication is non-verbal. That means in order to be as effective and successful as you can be you need to learn more than just your script or talking points for your product.

As I always say you must first be sold on your product or service yourself. That is the beginning of sales success. You belief is something your prospect can feel and hear in your voice.

One of the skills that you should learn is voice inflection: Since 35% of our communication is tone proper voice inflection is absolutely an essential skill for anyone in sales. The way you say something is just as important as what you say.

Over the phone it's a whole different story. There is no visual element so literally 93% of our communication and how it's received is determined by our tone of voice. The words we choose while vitally important are not nearly as important as the tone in which we say them. This is why your attitude is sooooo important!

The way you feel will greatly influence how what you say sounds. Try smiling when you talk and hear for yourself how it changes the way what you're saying sounds. One good technique is to put a mirror up so you can see yourself while you're talking. That way you are more likely to make sure you're smiling. It really does make a difference.

The other thing to do is to practice how you want to say certain things. The syllable or word that you emphasize can change the whole meaning of your sentence. On page 59 of Zig Ziglar's Secrets of Closing the Sale Zig uses a simple eight word sentence to illustrate the point. The sentence he uses is "I did not say he stole the money." Now re-read the sentence putting the emphasis on different parts and you get different meanings. For example "I did not say he stole the money." compared to "I did not say he stole the money." means two different things.

Are you beginning to see the importance of voice inflection and how your attitude can impact your sales? When you're excited your prospect translates that in their mind as belief in your product and if you can help them feel the way you do about your goods or services they are much more likely to buy.

It's always the fundamentals

Picking up on my last post where I was talking about being in a slump I wanted to spend some time talking about the fundamentals of the sales process.

The first step in the sales process is the interview step and it's one that a lot of sales people blow through thinking they know what the prospect needs and they've been there done that.

Even though you think you know what they need that doesn't mean the prospect knows what they need. You need to bring them through the interview process so they can discover and understand their needs as well as uncover needs they didn't even know they had.

A key point to bring up right here is that if you say it they can doubt it but if they say it then it must be true. I learned that a long time ago from Zig Ziglar.

So what does that mean? Well, if you tell them the solution they may or may not believe it's the best solution for their situation. On the other hand if you ask them questions which guide them to the answer that they discover for themselves they're going to be a lot more likely to buy into the answer since they figured it out for themselves.

Something to keep in mind though is that the key for this to work is discipline and intent? What I mean by intent is you must be coming from a place of service where you genuinely have the prospects best interest at heart. When you do they will know it and ultimately come to trust you and your advice.

Don't rush through the sales interview process. The better you are at helping your prospect discover their needs the more sales you will close.

Keeping it fresh

Are you struggling to make sales? Does it seem like the people you thought were a sure thing are failing to pull the trigger for no apparent reason. Or that for some unexplainable reason they are going with you competitor or worse yet they aren't doing anything. Are you overall numbers down? Have blamed the loss of a sale recently you were sure you were going to get on the economy?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions you might be in the middle of a sales slump. Sales tends to have it's ups and downs so for some they just consider it a regular part of the business and they just work through it. For others they start questioning themselves, the products they sell or the company they work for. For the latter this begins a downward spiral that makes the sump worse as well as prolonging it.

So what's a person to do to prevent or correct a slump?

The answer: Go back to the basics.

• Think about how you were when you first started in the sales job you're in right now.
• You didn't know as much so you talked less.
• You were excited about the opportunity so to the buyer you excitement came across as enthusiasm for the product.
• Because you didn't know everything you asked more questions
• You listened better since you hadn't heard the same thing a 1,000 times.

In many ways selling is like acting. No I don't mean you fake it about your products or services your selling. As far as I'm concerned you either truly believe in what you're selling or you need to find something else to sell. Anyway back to the point about acting. When you've been selling something for awhile you can become bored with what you're saying. This is were it gets really dangerous for a sales person. When you're bored you come across as disinterested which will be received many different way all of which are bad.

Think about what it would be like if you went to a play where instead of getting a great performance the actor was bored an you could tell. How would you feel? You'd feel like you wasted your time and you probably wouldn't enjoy the play. Part of the experience of going to a play is for the actor to get you to feel the sorrow or the joy of the moment. Something they can't do if they allowed themselves to come across as being bored.

Just as the actor can't allow themselves to come across as being bored neither can a sales person. You have to maintain your enthusiasm about what you're selling. You need to stick to the basics and ask good questions and listen attentively for the answer. You need to treat each client as an individual and even if you think you know the answer you still need to ask the question. The reality is that even if you do know the answer that doesn't mean the prospect does. The prospect or client needs to feel that you genuinely care about them. (If you don't get a new job.)

Keep it simple and stick to the basics. You owe it to yourself to be the best you can be and that takes hard work. Sales is the most rewarding hard work there is or the worst paying easy job there is. The choice is yours.

May favorite saying that I once hear Zig Ziglar say is: "Your raise becomes effective as soon as you do." Nothing I've ever heard does a better job of summarizing the opportunity a career in sales offers.

More calls, More presentations, More Closes, More Sales

The Words We Use

The words you use have the power to create or the power to destroy. When you're making a presentation to a prospect you want to stir their emotions so they will buy. Obviously this is assuming that what you have to offer is the right solution for them. The way you say what you have to offer will either help or hurt your chances of success.

A long time ago I was introduced to the power of word choice and as a consultant have had tremendous success with simply re-scripting a clients presentation. What I do is remove the weak or negative words and replace them with positive or power words.

You might be saying to yourself that it can't be that simple but in many ways it is. Obviously you need to have the right product for the prospect and you have to believe in the product plus they have to be able to afford it but in the end your ability to close the sale with have a lot to do with how you present the solution.

So what does this look like?

A great place to start with is how you discuss price. Many sales people use terms like price and cost which immediately set off the alarms in the prospects head to become defensive. Using words like investment or value have a completely different connotation and provoke different feelings. You tend to feel good about making investments and you are more likely to think highly of something valued at $$$$.

If you sell on payments don't call them payments call them monthly investments or for the down payment call it the initial investment.

In Zig Ziglar's book “Secrets of Closing the Sale” he spends some time talking about the importance of using the proper words in your presentation. He talks about how some words sell and other words un-sell. He goes on to mention a study conducted by Yale University that corroborates the idea and adds some additional selling words to the list.

In my own sales career, and as a consultant, I have experienced the truth and value of this easy to implement money making discovery and I guarantee you can enjoy the same results.

As you look over the list below you might notice that the last sentence was packed with words that sell. OK, maybe I over did it a little but I think you get the idea.

Words That “Sell”

Prospect’s name	Easy	Save	Right	Proud
Trust	Understand	Guarantee	New	Results
Profit	Value	Proven	Money	Love
Truth	Deserve	Fun	Health	Safety
Discovery	Comfort	Happy	Vital

Words That “Un-sell”

Deal	Sign	Lose	Bad	Decision
Liable	Cost	Try	Hurt	Sell
Hard	Fail	Pay	Worry	Buy
Sold	Difficult	Liability	Contract	Loss
Death	Price	Obligation	Failure

Here are five more “selling” words that came from a Yale University study:

You Security Advantage Positive Benefits

By the way the most important word you can use in your sales presentation is your prospect’s name. Nothing sounds better to your prospect than their name.

If you want to take your sales to the next level you owe it to yourself to replace all the negative or weak words in your presentation with positive or power words. By the way don't limit this to just your presentation make it a part of your everyday vocabulary. You are the only one limiting your chances for success so let's remove the obstacles, roadblocks and excuses so you can be, do and have all that you are dreaming of.

Get started today.

One Day at a Time

Ever have a sales month start slowly? Do you struggle with the idea of starting from scratch every month? Many sales people have a hard time with the idea the each month they're starting all over. For some it's a daunting task to start our each month back at zero. And many sales people struggle with having a month or a pay period start slowly which adds anxiety to hitting their quota for the period.

A conversation I had with one of the sales people working for me reminded me of the challenge. He was asking how he could overcome the slow start he has each month. My answer was simple "Take it one day at a time". I know it sounds like a simple answer but let me explain. When you have a big sales month or period the natural tendency is to relax a little bit once it's over. You want to celebrate and pat yourself on the back. There's nothing wrong with that you need to celebrate your victories.

The problem with relaxing after you hit your goal or have a big month is that when you relax you tend to stop doing all the things you were doing to be successful at the end of the previous month. Some sales people start to take short cuts fooling themselves into thinking they are good enough to get away with it. Usually this results in fewer sales at the start of the month or pay period and then as you get farther into the pay period they knuckle down and get back to doing what works and low and behold they pull it off again. Another month or pay period where they hit the goal even though they started slowly.

Some salespeople have done it like this for so long they have convinced themselves that people don't buy early in the month so it's normal. The fact is when you are doing your job properly people buy any day of the month and it has nothing to do with whether or not is the beginning or the end of the month. The sales person is the one that influences the cycle based on inconsistent work habits.

If you want to end the up and down sales cycle and be more consistent you have to work consistently and the best way to do that is to stop focusing on the pay period or the month and start focusing on each individual day. By taking things one day at a time and resolving to do you best each day you will find that the month or pay period takes care of itself.

Of course that's not to say ignore the closing of your pay period, month or qualification period. You can use these deadlines to create urgency and get business to close in a more timely manner than it would otherwise.

The key is to do your best each and every day and you will find that before long your sales are more consistent and for that matter much higher since the slow start will go away.

Just be patient and know that what you are doing will work because for many sales people it takes a few months to actually see the change in their sales since they have to fill the pipeline with additional prospects.

You might be skeptical if you've been in sales for a while and have always had a slow start each month or period but I can tell you from personal experience the key is in your work habits. I too used to have slow starts until I was shown how I worked differently at the beginning of the month compared to the end of the month. I decided to take it one day at a time and within 3 months my sales at the first of the month equaled my sales at the end of the month. For me that was a 15% increase in sales.

Would you like to give yourself a raise? Then work just as hard or even harder at the beginning of the pay period as you do at the end and treat every day as if it was the last day of the pay period.