SalesHQ

 Hi everyone, 

I'm new to the site and I've seen a lot about strategies and tips, etc. One thing I wanted to ask y'all about right away was how much do you think you have learned that's made you better at selling and how much of your success do you think just comes from who you are? A lot of my success, I think, just comes from who I am as a person, not any "methods" that can be taught. 

That being said, I remember in my first sales job (cold-calling long distance at what was then MCIWorldCom), my first trainer told me a little trick to rebuff the people who said they were upset because they were "having dinner." She told me to follow that with, "Oh I'm so sorry. But do you mind if I ask what you're having for dinner?" It worked like a charm. I didn't make a sale to all of them but 99% would laugh and the conversation would go on. But that's more of a very specific "trick" than a "method." 

What do you think? Am I just going into trainings wrong?

 Thanks, Rich. I understand what you're saying, but am I just supposed to memorize a bunch of different scripts? Is training really nothing more than that? And while what she taught me was so useful, I don't think I could have pulled it off unless I had the confidence and sense of humor to do it. (And I'm not the best at humor. I have enough to pull off something like that but I've seen people who are REALLY funny use humor all the time and to such great effect...I just can't teach myself to do it that well)

For me, I have learned techniques by watching others and then tried my hand at it. If it felt uncomfortable then I would use a different aproach that I felt comfortable with.

Schizophrenia - sinse I haven't yet met all of me I haven't found the limit, I learn in many ways, it's more like absorbing.

All I know is that to sort a target on the front line in the first call:::

Plastic injection sales - book prospect meeting only for a specic machine -11gigs in my head

Tangetial filtration - convince a CEO that centrifuge is dead and book a meeting - 4.5 gigs in my head

If you drop the traditional learning processes and adopt more visual methods of referencing you can multilpy the volume you can consume and recall on demand. However there are side effects.

I think it is a combination.  Training (whether product related or general sales/leadership) gives you certain tips, methods, info which you need to make your own to make it work for you -- and for the customer you are working with.  As with anything, if you want to excel, you have to practice ... training helps you do that to the point where it becomes natural and instinctive ... so much so that perhaps you no longer even attribute it to the training and just think of it as "you."

MSI-

You always have the best posts and the best insight to the real world

Never stop learning.

 gees now we are dogs! LOL.  and it is getting closer to the dog days of summer., So  Ro are you saying put a swimming pool in front of us and we will perform during those dog days of summer?

Teri I have been thinking  about the scripts and  what you do. I think the scripts are designed to be followed due to the high turnover rate.Training gives you a guideline to follow until you put the training to great use.  Learning new routines,new ways to communicate and become the complete sales professional.

 Msi has hit the nail on the head training combined with practical experience can give you a great process but they must work hand in hand with one another. Training and practical experience must learn from one another in order to grow. Find a technique that works well wit your disposition,personality and let it rip.

I think having highlights of what you want to say written down is good, I do that, but a script that you read each and every time to every customer, that just seems monotonous and boring to me.  BUT I understand they do that at call centers and it has to be done that way.  i just feel being able to say the same information in a way that's comfortable to you and able to change depending on the customer and circumstances is better, for me anyway.

I think the people writing the scripts should be tarred and feathered.  Sometimes they are so proactive that it becomes a turn off.

Pretty much the same ideas and concepts are expressed to each client but not word for word the same phrase said the same way every time.  I think there needs to be flexibility and room for individualism.

"If the script is written conversationally and tree-d properly I defy you to know the difference. This is why you should have and use a script Harriet you will do better planning it out in extreme detail and executing the plan. It has nothing to do with it sounding canned - that is just be script-user laziness."

   I agree 100% to the above. The majority of the scripts people read word for word are not what is described above. Jack you took the time and made the script real and conversational.

 Read some of the scripts that are printed in the articles here they are absurb the majority of the time and must be fitted to the indivduals conversational style. That is what you did with your people. You hired good people who could manipulate the great script into conversation.

  I write down every objection I have ever head in my journal . When I start receiving  the same objection a few times in a row I find a scripted response to insert into my presentation to bypass that objection and make it disappear forever. You cannot beat a great scripted response that engages and gives information.

Harriet I have thousands of products. I do the same with the products. When clients state what they like about the product I write those comments down and include what they liked the best to present to new clients. This informs me the items that are important to clients. You would be surprised  that the features of product are the least  important to the client.

OK- so why try to keep it all in your head? Keep refining a well written harriet script and you will be even more powerful, conversational and understandable.