Sharpening Your Sales Skills
by J.Conners

Making a living in sales can be very rewarding, however, it can also be tough at times. That is why it is very important to stay on top of your game at all times.

Making a sale doesn’t happen by accident or by luck, the sale is made because the person doing the selling has done a good job of explaining and representing their products.

Here are a few activities that will help you and your co-workers keep your sales skills sharp at all times.

Role Playing

I know this sounds corny, but it really does work, and it puts everyone in the office in a good mood, because of all the laughs you will receive.

Make up a few fake, but realistic sales scenarios for you and a fellow co-worker to act out. Take turns playing the customer and the sales person. Repeat the scenario several times until you become comfortable with it. If at all possible, find a third person to observe and critique your mach sales sessions. If this is not possible, than critique each other.

Current Events

During each of your sales presentations with a potential customer, there should be some sort of small talk, or what you would call a relax period, where you relax your customer by discussing something other than your business and the product you are about to sell.

The weather is the most obvious thing to talk about, but it is a very boring subject and comes across fake, because everybody brings up the weather when they don’t have anything else to talk about.

Every day, in the morning, decide on a current event that you will bring up when making small talk with your potential customers; Such as a major news event or a major sporting event that is happening.

This way you will be prepared and won’t run into any snags in your conversation.

Shaking hands

Get into the habit of shaking hands. Every time you meet a potential customer, shake their hand. Most of us are comfortable with shaking hands, but for those of you who are not, here is a tip to help you reach a comfort level.

Each day that you walk into your office, shake the hands of your co-workers that are closest to you. Seriously, every morning, go in, look them in the eye, greet them by name, and shake their hand. They may look at you as though you are nuts at first, but explain to them that it is simply an exercise. Trust me they will get a kick out of it, and will respond with enthusiasm.

Remember, people don’t want to be treated as statistics, they wanted to be treated as people, so treat them that way. Shake their hand, look them in the eye, talk about things other than business, and use their name as often as possible.

By keeping your sales skills sharp, you will ultimately be keeping your sales up. Good luck!