You must first learn all of the rules, like you would before you played a sport – you must learn the ins and outs.

Now let me take you through the seven stages of the classical sales presentation…

Stage 1 – Getting accepted

This is when you meet someone for the first time; it may even be that very first meeting. This is where you are selling yourself, building rapport and hopefully getting the person to like you and trust you.

Stage 2 – Opening hot button statement – an OHBS

You say something that gets the other person thinking: “I want to hear what you have to say.” This is one of the smaller parts, it can even be just a few sentences.

Stage 3 – Finding out all the information to make a sale

This is a major part of selling. This is when you ask questions, when you find out everything you need to know, when you get all the information you need to gather together in order to make a sale.

Stage 4 – Check

You have to ask questions here. You might say to your client or prospect – “Is there anything else we haven’t yet discussed?” or “is there anything you haven’t yet told me?” You have the courtesy to check and to ask if there’s anything else that should now be added. When you have been going through stage 3 of the process, you will no doubt be making some notes so it is not left to memory.

Stage 5 – Where the marriage takes place

This is again another major part of the whole process – the first time you should be actually selling, apart from a little bit at stage one where you are selling yourself.

The selling now takes place. This is where you discuss the results of your product and of course, where you can disclose and release the features, where you talk about every aspect of the business – marrying up to what the client has said they wanted. At this stage, do not over sell. Don’t talk about things that aren’t important and that may be of interest to you but not of importance to your client. Stick to what they want to hear or what they need.

Stage 6 – Check again

This is where you say to your client:
“Is this okay?”
“How do you feel about this?”
“Is this what you are hoping for?”
“Is everything okay?”

Make sure you check with your client again and ensure that they are happy.

Stage 7 – Close the sale!

Throughout these seven stages, you will have noticed that I haven’t talked about money. Where is money normally discussed? Money is normally talked about at stage 6 or stage 7, right at the end.

This should not be the case. Sales people do it all the time and I’ve had it done to me, somebody is trying to sell me double glazing or home improvements and all I keep thinking while they are talking is: “how much?” because they wont talk about it until the very end. It is so unprofessional.

So, what does a good sales person do? When should money be mentioned?

Stage 3 is where money should be talked about initially. Maybe not the final price but this is what I call – price conditioning. This is where you test to see how much you can sell it for. We have to find out what the expectation is of our customer or client so do price condition and don’t be afraid to talk about money.

Remember your role as a professional sales person is to try and marry your product or service to your customer’s requirements and needs. That means you want to be able to get the price that is right for them as well as for you. You, of course, want to win the sale and they also need a solution to their requirement so, be a professional.

Good luck & great success!

Richard Denny is one of the world’s most inspirational business speakers and business growth specialists. He is one of the foremost authorities on sales, management training and personal development. Richard is an international best seller and has written 5 hugely successful books which have sold two million copies worldwide and been translated into over 28 languages. Richard Denny has produced a new video series on successful selling called ‘Skill Sharpeners’. The series is suitable for the new entrant into the profession and is absolutely right for the professional who now has the responsibility of acquiring new clients.

Read more:
Psychology of the Sales Process

We take the word ‘no’ to be rejection, and in so many cases it is not. The understanding of this word will really help so many of us to overcome that natural fear of selling.

When a customer says ‘no’, it is only ever a ‘no, not today’. We live in such a dramatically changing lifestyle that circumstances and situations change very rapidly.

Lets imagine a world where nobody could say no, the word simply did not exist. What would you be doing more of? How many more calls would you be making? How many more people would you approach? I illustrate that because within this word – ‘no’, there is a massive business opportunity.

I once tried to sell to a company for two whole years, every couple of months or so; we would go back and try to sell. Finally after two years of trying, they gave us a small order, then a slightly larger one and lastly, the biggest order we had ever received.

‘No, not today’ is an expression that I want you to embrace completely in your professional sales career. Understand what a ‘no’ means – it is not a straight ‘no’, it is a ‘not right now’ or ‘no, not today’. I’m not saying you have to put pressure on your customers or be pushy. I’m not saying you have to continually ask and make it difficult for the relationship to grow. But understanding what a ‘no’ is will make you an absolute fortune.

Let’s use telesales as an example. Within a telesales team, you get a huge amount of rejections and as a result you see the core rate of phone calls made drop over time. The sales staff would take longer lunch breaks or more frequent toilet breaks – any excuse to not pick up the phone. When I worked in a telesales environment, every so often I would have some fun with the team. I’d ask them to see how many ‘no’s’ they could get in that day, as many as possible. I’d state that the person to get the most will win two bottles of wine, the second – one bottle and the third, a box of chocolates. You would instantly see the core rate rocket and as it did, so did the ‘yes’s’. Of course, people would still be saying ‘no’ but the example I’m pointing out is – if you want more ‘yes’s’, you have to get some ‘no, not today’s’.

As you begin to understand the opportunity of a ‘no’, it becomes so exciting. My experience in sales, over many years, has shown me and demonstrated over and over again, the importance of getting a ‘no’.

I was never despondent of a ‘no, not today’, we would simply add them to the list and would re-contact that prospective customer, maybe within 3 months, maybe within 6 months but we would stay in contact.

In every business I have been involved with, our biggest source of revenue comes from our existing client base. The second biggest – the list of ‘no, not today’s’ and the third comes from a completely new list of people who we have never been in contact with before.

So…in summary…don’t undervalue the ‘no, not today’s’. Keep a list and stay in contact regularly. In the process of understanding the word ‘no’ – it completely removes this ridiculous fear of selling and helps us to be so much more professional.

You cannot win them all. It is highly unlikely that we will ever produce a selling technique that will help the seller to close every sale.

If I wanted to compete with your business – I would simply ask for your ‘no, not today’ list. I will guarantee I will make an extremely successful business and take market share from that list. Value your ‘no, not today’ list, it is priceless.

Good luck & great success!

Richard Denny is one of the world’s most inspirational business speakers and business growth specialists. He is one of the foremost authorities on sales, management training and personal development. Richard is an international best seller and has written 5 hugely successful books which have sold two million copies worldwide and been translated into over 28 languages. He has been dubbed the Millionaire Maker by the Daily mail and Birmingham Post.

Read more:
How to Overcome the Fear of Selling