The 7 Secrets of Top Sales Performers - That Can Also Be Yours! | Sales

By ChristineSutherland
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After decades of studying elite sales professionals, and teaching and measuring sales skills to a broad cross-section of sales people, I'd like to pass on to you the 7 ways in which the elite performers assure their success. Use this article to identify and master the skills that you'll require as part of your repertoire if you're to truly gain total control of your earning capacity.

INCREDIBLE RAPPORT

Sales people used to be taught matching and mirroring, but in fact that's just a tiny shred of true rapport. The best sales people build amazing rapport very rapidly, even with people who don't particularly like them initially.

Most of the online dating gurus don't even know this material and let's hope they never find out!

From what I've seen of the online dating gurus (and I have studied them!) they seem very intent on using rapport and other strategies in a very manipulative way. And that's incredibly dumb, because manipulation is a rapport breaker! And if you did go into a situation with manipulation in mind and did effectively achieve great rapport, do you know what that would mean? It would mean that the other person was a manipulator also! So avoid manipulation like the plague, and go for deep and genuine connection with people instead.

If you'd like to acquire incredible rapport skills you're going to have to practice, but you'll be surprised how quickly they develop, given the right practice! One exercise that you can do is, believe it or not, practiced by synchronised swimming teams each time they perform.

These teams need to be "in synch" if they are to perform in synchronised precision. They take time before each performance to stand in a circle and really connect with each other, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.

"SPOOKY" MIND READING

Deep rapport is one thing, but the ability to really know what's going on in your client's mind takes it to another level altogether.

Using accelerated learning techniques, you can quite quickly develop a level of skill in knowing what your client is thinking, even before your client becomes aware of the thought!

How would you like to know for sure which option your client wants, what they think of each and every thing you say, when is the exact right moment to wrap up the sale? Would this be useful to you?

To gain this skill, again practice with your fellow sales team or with some good buddies who'll be patient! Have them silently think of questions that have "yes" as an answer and questions that have "no" as an answer. Once you've experienced this with several people, you'll quickly begin to get a sense of these factors even before the person themselves becomes aware of it.

CLIENT TRAITS THAT YOU MUST KNOW IN ORDER TO MAKE SALES!

Although therapists work with several personality traits, most of them don't know THESE! These are the traits that predict how a client will go through the decision making process - the traits that give away the very factors the client needs in order to say yes. Can you see why I say they're essential for you to know? (And they should be essential for therapists too!)

Believe it or not, you have a natural ability to recognise and respond to these traits once you understand what they are. Everyone does. They're incredibly easy to learn!

Take a look at the following trait and you'll see what I mean. This particular trait is called "match/mismatch".

Have you ever met anyone who seemed to disagree with every single thing you've said? If you say "up" they say "down". If you say "black" they say "white". If you try to agree with them, they change their mind. You just can't seem to win with this person, who habitually mismatches or finds difference with everyone else. The technical term for this trait is "polarity responder", but you've probably already given them your own term: "pain in the posterior"!

On the other hand, there's that equally maddening person who's constantly focussing on the things that are similar or in common, rather than on things that are different or even "new". This type of thinking can be quite counter-productive for a student, for example, because instead of recognising new knowledge, they will discount it by saying something like "Oh yes, this is just like X, and I learned that last year!" They completely miss out on the differences, especially the subtle ones, and therefore fail to learn as well as they could.

Case Study

Let's say Fred the sales professional is visiting Macy the general manager and Macy seems "disagreeable". First she explains a problem on the manufacturing line, but when Fred repeats her statement later, she denies there is a problem! Macey is such an extreme mismatcher that she even mismatches her own statements. (Christine's note: as hard as it might be to believe, such extreme mismatchers do exist. They're rare, but they do exist!)

A seemingly difficult situation becomes extremely easy to influence when you realise that the mismatcher is fatally predictable. Fred can simply say "Macey, you might not agree with me that there could be an easier way, but I wonder if you wouldn't find it less costly to ....."

And he can continue: "Macey, this option isn't for everyone and it might not suit you in this case ....". In fact Macey is probably the easiest client anyone could possibly sell to providing you understand her and respond to her the way that she requires. When you understand all the personality traits, you won't make those relating mistakes again because you'll be working in line with your client's "style".

MILLION DOLLAR QUESTIONS

Clients love these 3 little questions and elite sales performers are experts at asking them, and working with the answers.

Why are these simple little questions so valuable? Because they highlight not only the core values that the client is using to decide whether your product or service meets their needs, but even the very words the client needs to hear in order to decide to buy!

These questions are pure gold. They make purchase utterly compelling, and at the same time build a great relationship that fosters streams of referrals!

PRECISION CONTROL OF YOUR EARNINGS

Can you simply decide how much commissions you'll earn in any given month and have 100% confidence in hitting or exceeding that?

Top sales performers can do that month after month because of one reason: they know and use the statistics that matter. They absolutely know and control the mathematical equation that results in a known sales level.

So far as I'm aware, Frank Bettger was the first professional sales person to formulate and use this mathematical equation to literally choose his income. Even though selling activities have changed, and the skills I've discussed certainly increase effectiveness over older methods, the mathematical equation still holds.

You can calculate your own equation by making a list of all your direct and indirect selling activities along with the time it takes to perform "one unit" of each activity. That's what's leading to your current sales level. So you have your equation. However most people can improve that dramatically by eliminating or reducing activities that aren't paying their way, and implementing others that are more effective. In all my years of sales training, I haven't yet met a single sales person on commission who couldn't at least double their income within 90 days of implementation of this method.

For this equation to work for you, you have to be prepared to plan, document, track and analyse each activity or it just won't happen because you'll still be flying blind. However if you do this, then I absolutely know you're going to be successful beyond your dreams.

MAKING FEAR OR DOUBT VANISH!

Have you ever known what you had to do, and certainly been capable of doing it very well, and yet you procrastinated or self-sabotaged so it still didn't get done? This is what fear or niggling doubt can do, so obviously it needs to go!

So what can you do if you know there's no logical reason for you to NOT make those calls, or NOT take up that speaking invitation, but you still perspire madly every time you imagine yourself doing it?

Over the last several years there have been incredible advances in behavioural psychology and we know now how to turn off fears and doubts like a tap, only permanently. But of course it takes such a long time for these things to reach the public arena and even today very few people know of it.

One of the most powerful of all these techniques is "NeuroStim". It's capable of eliminating depression, chronic pain, fear and anxiety in just days, and sometimes even overnight.

YOUR PAYOFF FOR NETWORKING STRATEGICALLY!

In the old days we always recommended that our clients and students join a business networking organisation in order to build relationships that would benefit them personally and professionally. We toiled conscientiously and for years to teach a philosophy and methodology that we knew worked.

But you know what? We don't see any evidence of networking organisations even UNDERSTANDING the principles of effective networking, let alone teaching them to their members.

So these days, to be successful, you need to form your own self-generated networking group in such a way that it MUST provide not only great referrals, but mentoring, advocacy, joint ventures, and the sharing of expertise and resources. All in business hours!

The advantages of turning your back on the networking organisations and building your own private network are gigantic. You'll save time, money and effort, and you no longer have to tolerate boring or rude networking practices. You'll no longer rob yourself, family or friends of time that should be spent with them. You'll have REAL friends in business who enrich your life personally and professionally.

COULD YOU DO IT TOO?

If you can only do these things, even though there's so much more you can do in terms of skill building, you will certainly join the top echelon of professional sales people in the world today! And you'll deserve it!

About the Author

The complementary ebook " Speed Business Networking - The Manual" describes the detailed principles and methodologies that result in effective networking. It's available to individuals and networking organisations who want to network more humanely and more productively.

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