A DVAN CED

SELLI N G
STRATEGIES
Th e Pr ove n Sy st e m o f Sa l e s I d e a s,
M e t h o d s a n d Te ch n i q ue s Use d b y
To p Sa l e s p eo p l e Ev e r y w h e r e
BRI AN TRACY
 Advanced Selling Strategies - Page 1

MAIN IDEA
The sales profession is one of the most interesting, most dynamic and most rewarding business fields available. And to successfully
build a career in this field, there’s really only one concept to keep in mind -- you don’t have to be a pioneer.
In other words, don’t try and blaze your own trail. Instead, learn from the success of others. Study the sales techniques which have
worked for other people in other settings and with other products and services. Evaluate what worked for them, adapt these principles
to suit your own specific product or service and move ahead.
The principles of success remain the same regardless of what you’re selling. All it takes is the ability to adapt and adopt the techniques
of sales success to your own needs and requirements.

1. The Psychology of Selling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2

80-percent of your success in the field of selling will be determined by what you think about. Therefore,
by learning to think the same way the most successful salespeople do, you can improve your performance
dramatically and immediately.
2. The Development of Personal Sales Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2
In selling, everything counts, but 80-percent of your success will derive from the quality of your personality.
Therefore, build your personality by:
1. Taking full responsibility for your own life.
2. Interpreting everything that happens in a positive light.
3. Making a commitment to excellence in your field.
4. Being persistent.
5. Having integrity -- perfect honesty with yourself and others.
6. Being grateful for everything you have.
7. Setting clear and specific goals.
In addition, you need to understand the mental laws of success and engage in daily mental exercise.
3. Personal Strategic Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3
A personal strategic plan articulates your vision of who you are and where you want to head in the months
and years ahead. The components of a personal strategic plan include:
1. Values statement
2. Personal vision statement
3. Mission statement
4. Situation analysis
5. Market analysis
4. Customer Relationships -- The Heart of the Sale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3
The very essence of sales success is to build and maintain high-quality relationships with customers. The
only way to do that is with trust and credibility.
5. The Profession of Selling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 4
To build a good solid career in sales successfully, follow one simple guideline -- always do more than you
are paid for. If you habitually put more into your career than you take out, you’ll be exceptionally successful.
6. Motivating People To Buy From You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 5
Sales professionals are intensely interested in the reasons people decide to buy from them. They
meticulously analyze why current customers have purchased from them -- since this is the key to
expanding their sales effectiveness.
7. How to Influence the Buying Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 5
Most sales are made or lost within the first 30-seconds of contact. Therefore, sales professionals control
and orchestrate every element of their environment with the singular goal of making people feel
comfortable dealing with them and confident about their expertise.
8. Prospecting -- Filling the Sales Pipeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 6
To build a successful business, you must have an ongoing new business development program
underway. In the sales field, that means prospecting -- finding the requisite number of new people each
week who are capable of buying your product or service.
9. How to Make Powerful Presentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 7
Effective presentations are the centerpiece of the professional sales process. The ability to give influential
and persuasive presentations to prospects can offset average performance levels in every other part of
the overall sales process.
10. Closing the Sale -- The Endgame of Selling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 8
Fortunately, closing a sale is difficult. That creates the opportunity for you to prosper and earn tremendous
wealth. If closing the sale was easy, all they’d need (and pay for) is an order taker -- and anyone on
minimum wage can do that.

1. The Psychology of Selling
Main Idea
80-percent of your success in the field of selling will be
determined by what you think about. Therefore, by learning to
think the same way the most successful salespeople do, you can
improve your performance dramatically and immediately.
Supporting Ideas
Every person has a self-concept -- a mental set of beliefs about
themselves and the world. A self-concept has three main parts:
Self-Concept
Self-Ideal The Self-Image Self-Esteem
person they’d The way people The alignment
like to be if see themselves between
everything went at the present self-image and
right time self-ideal
The key to sales success lies in doing everything you can to build
your self-esteem. The higher your self-esteem, the more
successful you’ll be in a sales role.
To build and enhance your self esteem:
1. Always see yourself as self-employed -- the president of your
own professional sales company which may presently be
subcontracted out to someone else. That means accepting
total responsibility for what you accomplish.
2. See yourself as a consultant -- a problem solver -- rather than
a vendor trading money for your product or service.
Approach clients with that attitude.
3. Act like a doctor -- in the client’s best interests. To do so, you
must examine first, then diagnose and finally prescribe what
they need.
4. Think strategically -- set clear goals, develop blueprints and
plans, act decisively and don’t be worried about short-term
setbacks.
5. Be intensely results oriented -- combine empathy and
ambition together in balance as you focus on effective
utilization of your time.
6. Be ambitious -- work towards becoming the best in your field.
When excellence is your standard, you’ll act differently, more
purposefully in fact.
7. Apply Golden Rule Selling -- sell to other people the same
way you’d like to be sold if you were in the same position.
That way, you’ll always act with honesty and integrity in
everything you do.
Key Thoughts
‘‘The quality of your thinking determines the quality of your life.’’
-- Brian Tracy
‘‘You can learn anything you need to learn to achieve any goal
you want by finding out what others have done before you to get
the results you want to get.’’
-- Brian Tracy
‘‘If you believe you can do a thing, or if you believe you cannot,
in either case you are probably right.’’
-- Henry Ford
Advanced Selling Strategies - Page 2
2. The Development of Personal Sales Power
Main Idea
In selling, everything counts, but 80-percent of your success will
derive from the quality of your personality. Therefore, build your
personality by:
1. Taking full responsibility for your own life.
2. Interpreting everything that happens in a positive light.
3. Making a commitment to excellence in your field.
4. Being persistent.
5. Having integrity -- perfect honesty with yourself and others.
6. Being grateful for everything you have.
7. Setting clear and specific goals.
In addition, you need to understand the mental laws of success
and engage in regular, daily mental exercise.
Supporting Ideas
The seven mental laws that apply to sales are:
1. The Law of Cause and Effect -- there is always a direct link
between what’s done and what’s achieved.
2. The Law of Compensation -- remuneration is always linked
to the level of contribution.
3. The Law of Control -- the greater the amount of control you
have over your own life, the happier you’ll be.
4. The Law of Belief -- whatever you believe with emotion
becomes your own personal reality.
5. The Law of Concentration -- anything you mentally dwell on
will expand until it fills your thoughts.
6. The Law of Attraction -- you always attract the people and
circumstances that align with your most dominant thoughts.
7. The Law of Correspondence -- your outer world will always
mirror your inner world in every detail.
To become mentally fit and build a powerful personality, regularly
engage in these exercises on a daily basis:
1. Give yourself a pep talk -- talk to yourself positively and
enthusiastically about your life, your opportunities, your
challenges and your responses.
2. Visualize positive results -- form a strong and vibrant mental
image of all the great things that you’re going to achieve in
the immediate future.
3. Feed your mind positive and inspiring mental food -- take on
board the best ideas regularly and consistently.
4. Associate with positive people -- ideally a group of
successful, performance-oriented reference group.
5. Have regular training and development sessions -- where
you learn from the best people in your field or other fields
through books, tapes, seminars, etc.
6. Protect your health -- eliminate fat from your diet, physically
exercise, drink loads of water and get enough rest.
7. Increase your tempo -- move faster, see more people, get
more done.
Key Thoughts
‘‘Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.’’
-- Denis Waitley

3. Personal Strategic Planning
Main Idea
A personal strategic plan articulates your vision of who you are
and where you want to head in the months and years ahead.
The components of a personal strategic plan match those a
business would put together, and include:
1. Values statement
2. Personal vision statement
3. Mission statement
4. Situation analysis
5. Market analysis
Supporting Ideas
The components of a personal strategic plan are:
1. Values statement
In short, your values are your core beliefs -- the personality
and character traits that lie at the heart of what you consider
important in life. All improvement in life revolves around your
values, so the clearer they can be expressed, the better. Your
values statement should identify five values that are
important to you, in order of priority.
 What do you stand for?
2. Personal vision statement
Vision builds on your values, and expresses what your ideal
life would be like if you took your values to their logical
conclusion. Again, clarity is the key. The clearer the vision
you express, the more your quality of life will be enhanced.
 What would you dare to dream if you could not fail?
3. Mission statement
A personal vision statement is a definition of the kind of
person you want to become in the future. A business mission
statement clarifies how you want customers to remember
your business.
 What will you be remembered for?
4. Situation analysis
This clarifies:
1. Where you are at present.
2. How you got to where you are.
3. Where you want to be in the future.
4. How to get to where you want to be in the future.
 What has to be done differently to get somewhere better?
5. Market analysis
Your market analysis should detail which strategic
opportunities are emerging in the marketplace and how you
plan to exploit them in the near- and long-term. It should also
help focus efforts and identify prospects that are likely to be
responsive to whatever product or service you offer.
 How can you increase your results on resources invested?
Many strategic plans use the GOSPA formula:
G -- Goals -- specific, measurable and time-oriented.
O -- Objectives -- interim targets leading to the goals.
S -- Strategy -- how you will accomplish your objectives
P -- Plans -- daily, weekly and monthly precise targets
A -- Activity -- maximizing your productive time
Key Thoughts
‘‘Personal strategic planning is perhaps the most important
single skill you could ever develop in ensuring that you achieve
the success of which you are capable.’’
-- Brian Tracy
Advanced Selling Strategies - Page 3
4. Customer Relationships -- The Heart of the Sale
Main Idea
The very essence of sales success is to build and maintain
high-quality relationships with customers. The only way to do
that is with trust and credibility.
Supporting Ideas
Selling professionally is quite simple -- it’s the process of
persuading someone the value they will receive from your
product or service is greater than its cost. Your job is to show
this is the best possible use of a person’s money.
The critical factor in sales success is risk. Everything a sales
professional does should be aimed squarely and directly at
reducing the risk from the customer’s perspective.
To reduce risk:
1. Be a great listener -- with sincerity and empathy.
2. Be worthy of being trusted -- which simply means keeping
confidential information confidential.
3. Build a long-term relationship -- so customers understand
you have their best interests at heart and not your own.
4. Become friends with your customers -- by always unerringly
acting in the customer’s best interests.
5. Never criticize anyone -- even your direct competitors.
6. Accep t your customer s fo r who they are, bein g
non-judgmental.
7. Take every possible opportunity to express your approval of
your customer -- give them praise.
8. Show your appreciation through small actions (politeness)
and larger deeds (thank you notes).
9. Find something to genuinely admire about your customer’s
life or their achievements -- and express those feelings.
10. Never argue -- always be agreeable.
11. Focus. Don’t get distracted.
The sale process has changed dramatically since the 1970s.
Prior to that time, the generally used sales model was:
10% -- Establishing a good rapport
20% -- Qualifying the prospect
30% -- Making a sales presentation
40% -- Closing the sale
Today’s prevailing sales model, however, has reversed the way
time is spent. The new sales model is:
40% -- Building trust
30% -- Identifying specific needs
20% -- Presenting solutions to needs
10% -- Confirming and closing
 Advanced Selling Strategies - Page 4

5. The Profession of Selling Sales professionals are constantly trying new approaches and
new ideas in an effort to improve their performance in each of
Main Idea these nine critical areas. By attempting to improve regularly and
continuously, they keep their business program fresh and vital.
To build a good solid career in sales successfully, follow one
simple guideline -- always do more than you are paid for. If you Key Thoughts
habitually put more into your career than you take out, you’ll be ‘‘The best companies are not hundreds of percent better in any
exceptionally successful. area, they are just one percent better in hundreds of areas.’’
Supporting Ideas -- Tom Peters
The professional sales process is: ‘‘Courage is rightly considered the foremost of all virtues, for
Prospect upon it all others depend.’’
Customer
-- Winston Churchill
‘‘Courage is not absence of fear or lack of fear. It is control of
fear, mastery of fear.’’
Build Identify Present Confirm & -- Mark Twain
Trust Needs Solutions Close
‘‘Stand back and look at your sales performance, and every detail
For this process to operate smoothly, seven vital functions are of what you do. Resolve this very day to begin improving in each
required on the sales professional’s part: of your critical success areas. Upgrade each of your vital
1. A positive mental attitude. functions. Set benchmarks or standards for yourself and
2. Good health and appearance. measure yourself against those standards every day and every
3. Complete and detailed product knowledge. week. Perhaps the most wonderful part of your career in
4. Ongoing prospecting and development of new business. professional selling is that there is no limit on how good you can
5. Effective presentation skills. get at it except for the limits you impose on yourself.’’
6. The ability to handle objections and gain commitment. -- Brian Tracy
7. Personal planning and time management skills. ‘‘Selling is an honorable profession. Salespeople are the
Incremental improvements in any of these areas can produce forerunners of progress, development and growth throughout
substantially greater overall results. The goal should be to the entire economy. It is salespeople who ultimately generate
continuously improve in each of those areas. the markets for almost all other skills. Every economic indicator
In the professional sales process, there are nine critical factors or report in the newspapers and business magazines deals in
around which success is built. These factors should be evaluated some way with the level of sales in a particular company or
on a regular, ongoing basis -- again with the aim of steadily industry.’’
improving performance in each. -- Brian Tracy
The critical factors and professional level criteria for each are: ‘‘Top salespeople are the spark plugs in the engines of social
and economic progress.’’
-- Brian Tracy
Critical Factor Criteria
‘‘It is your attitude and your activities that determine whether you
1. Prospecting Contacting sufficient high-quality make selling an occupation or a profession.’’
people to meet targets -- Brian Tracy
2. Getting appointments Having enough appointments to ‘‘What makes the future of professional selling so bright is the
fill your time productively fact that you are in the business of developing professional
selling friendships. Some of the best people you will ever meet
3. Qualifying Spending time only with people
will start off as tough prospects that you will eventually convert
who have the ability to buy
into customers. The greatest joy that you will ever receive from
4. Identifying problems Asking perceptive questions, using your profession is the deep inner satisfaction that will come from
active and empathetic listening knowing that through your products and services, you are
making a real difference.’’
5. Making presentations Providing convincing evidence -- Brian Tracy
of product or service benefits
’’In my conversations with hundreds of top salespeople over the
6. Answering objections Anticipating concerns and able years, I have found that they all have one thing in common. They
to provide satisfactory answers all have clear, written goals. They have taken the time to sit down
and create a blueprint for themselves and their future lives. Every
7. Closing Asking for a commitment to action
one of them has been amazed at the incredible power of goal
competently and comfortably
setting and strategic planning. Every one of them has
8. Follow-through Making certain everything that accomplished far more than they ever believed possible in
has been promised is delivered selling.’’
-- Brian Tracy
9. Referrals Having happy and satisfied
customers get their friends involved

6. Motivating People To Buy From You
Main Idea
Sales professionals are intensely interested in the reasons
people decide to buy from them. They meticulously analyze why
current customers have purchased from them -- since this is the
key to expanding their sales effectiveness.
Supporting Ideas
Everyone has primary and secondary reasons for what they do:
1. The primary motivators are the utility requirements -- i.e. you
buy a car because you need transport.
2. The secondary motivators are the specific reasons your
product or service was selected from all available choices. --
i.e. you buy a sports car because it’s fun to drive.
Quite frequently, there will be two reasons for making any
purchase decision:
1. The logical reason that sounds good to other people.
2. The real reason -- which is emotional and often irrational.
Therefore, professional sales business builders become adept
at uncovering the real buying motives so as to focus on building
this side of the business even more intensely.
To probe for this kind of information, sales professionals ask
open ended questions, such as: ‘‘We very much appreciate your
business, particularly since we realize you have so many
choices in today’s market. We’re doing a little market research,
to find out how we can serve you better. We’re interested in the
real reason you liked our product or service enough to buy it.
What would you consider to be the real reason?’’
From there, you can branch off to a number of other questions.
For example, ‘‘Every product has its strengths and weaknesses.
We’re interested in your opinion. From your perspective, what
do you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of the product or
service we offer?’’
Sales professionals are intensely interested in gathering and
analyzing information about why people buy their product or
service. In effect, studying present clients and customers
unlocks the key to serving even more clients and customers in
similar fashion in the future.
In addition, people who have not brought from you can also
provide a wealth of information. If they can be contacted and their
input factored in as well, a clear view of the motivating and
demotivating factors in the overall purchase process will come
into focus.
Sales professionals work from the perspective that everyone
they come into contact with is a potential client or customer -- if
they can just figure out the way to address their primary buying
need.
Key Thoughts
‘‘If you can develop your creativity sufficiently to discover the real
reason why someone would buy your product or service, there
is nothing that can stop you from moving into the top ranks of
sales professionals in your field.’’
-- Brian Tracy
‘‘People buy the consequences they expect from owning and
using your product or service. In the customer’s mind, your
product or service is a means to an end. It is only the ends sought
after that has the power to elicit a buying decision.’’
-- Brian Tracy
Advanced Selling Strategies - Page 5
7. How to Influence the Buying Decision
Main Idea
Most sales are made or lost within the first 30-seconds of contact.
Therefore, sales professionals control and orchestrate every
element of their environment with the singular goal of making
people feel comfortable dealing with them and confident about
their expertise.
Supporting Ideas
The key elements of the selling environment are:
1. The way you dress.
95-percent of the first impression you make will be dictated
by your clothing. You simply cannot dress casually -- you
have to dress to look the part of a top flight sales professional.
Ideally, when people look at you, they should know
immediately they are dealing with a top performer. You
should dress the same way their other professional advisors
-- bankers, lawyers, accountants, etc. -- dress in their daily
business activities.
2. The accessories you use.
Every single element in your wardrobe should send a signal
of quality and soundness. This even extends to very small
and seemingly insignificant items like ties, watches, rings,
pens for men and earrings, necklaces, brooches, belts and
scarfs for women. Even the color of your shoes and the socks
or stockings worn can influence the impression of excellence
you want to send.
3. Your grooming.
Hair length and styling sends a particularly strong signal for
both men and women. Hair should be well styled, well
maintained and very conservative. For men, beards and
mustaches distract and should be avoided. For women, the
emphasis should be on the face -- not an elaborate hairstyle.
And for both, you need to be fresh smelling if your prospect
is to be influenced to buy from you.
4. Your posture.
By standing and sitting straight, you send the signal the
matter under discussion is important and not to be treated
casually. Every element of your posture should project
enthusiasm and professionalism rather than casualness.
Your body language should mirror that of your customer, so
as to enhance the rapport between you and them.
5. Your office.
The furnishings, decor and even wall colorings of your office
should be thoughtfully decided. You want people to realize
you are successful and businesslike. How your office is
furnished speaks volumes on your behalf.
6. Your vocabulary.
Many salespeople are surprised to learn there exists a direct
correlation between the quality and variety of your everyday
vocabulary and the amount of money you ultimately earn. In
short, to make more, increase your vocabulary and enhance
it with a knowledge of better grammar and diction. The results
will surprise.
Key Thoughts
‘‘All top salespeople consciously and deliberately orchestrate
every single element of their environments. This attention to
detail is the mark of a true professional.’’
-- Brian Tracy

8. Prospecting -- Filling the Sales Pipeline
Main Idea
To build a successful business, you must have an ongoing new
business development program underway. In the sales field, that
means prospecting -- finding the requisite number of new people
each week who are capable of buying your product or service.
Supporting Ideas
Before worrying about prospecting, take a few minutes to
develop a list of the attributes of an excellent prospect. They will
most likely be people who:
1. Have a pressing need for your product or service.
2. That can appreciate the cost-benefit relationship involved.
3. Have a history of positive experience with your industry.
4. Are able to buy enough of your product to make it worthwhile.
5. Can act as a future site of reference for you.
6. Are able and willing to pay for what they buy promptly.
7. Are reasonably close to your office or business.
Therefore, the best use of your prospecting time should be
focused on identifying and contacting people who are excellent
rather than average prospects. The more time you can spend
with better prospects, the greater your results will be.
Your existing customer base should provide numerous clues
about the type of prospect most likely to be responsive to your
product or service offering. Your goal should be to find more of
the same. Therefore, study your customer base closely. Find out
what they have in common -- and then start thinking about how
you can more effectively contact more people in similar
situations or circumstances.
The main sources of prospects for new business are:
1. Newspapers -- particularly local newspapers. You can
contact the people that advertise, the people who are
described and the business that are expanding.
2. The Yellow Pages -- for companies which are in similar
categories as your present customers.
3. Business publications -- for companies and people that are
in changing circumstances.
4. Trade magazines -- for specific industries which have proven
to be open to the product features you offer.
5. Dun & Bradstreet -- and other credit rating agencies who rank
industries and companies.
6. Chambers of commerce -- who provide regular networking
and speaking opportunities.
7. Referrals from existing customers -- piggybacking on their
credibility and friendship.
8. Cold calling -- ideal for starting a new career or for refreshing
a jaded career.
9. Telephone prospecting -- to set up future face-to-face
meetings.
10. Public speaking -- finding a cluster of people who are able to
buy and seeking opportunities to talk to them.
Prospecting varies quite markedly according to whether you sell
a large ticket or small ticket item. For small products and
services, activity and exposure are critical factors. Conversely,
for large items, planning and strategy come to the fore, and every
interaction needs to be carefully and meticulously scripted in
advance.
Advanced Selling Strategies - Page 6
Many salespeople are afraid of prospecting. In fact, the fear of
prospecting is more likely to be the reason sales professionals
fail to realize their true potential than any other reason. To
overcome fear:
1. Be prepared to answer the most common questions:
1. Why should I listen to you?
2. What is it?
3. How much does it cost?
2. Acknowledge that rejection is never personal and cannot be
avoided -- it’s an integral part of the sales process.
3. Keep track of your ratios. Before too long, you’ll become
keenly aware each rejection takes you one step closer to
your next success. Therefore, the more you are rejected, the
closer you’re getting to your next success.
4. Understand that the more your offer is rejected, the more
you’re learning about how to succeed in the future.
5. Provide yourself with a tangible reward whenever you meet
your prospecting targets. Build your own positive feelings
about the entire process, rather than treating it with fear and
misgiving.
6. Get involved in a public speaking forum like Toastmasters.
Good public speaking skills have a positive spin-off effect on
prospecting.
7. Always make certain you’re running on time. Having a few
minutes to collect your thoughts significantly enhances your
ability to prospect effectively.
8. Visualize yourself succeeding, and performing flawlessly
when talking to prospective customers.
9. Get the feeling of excitement and pleasure that comes from
pulling off something difficult on a regular basis.
Key Thoughts
‘‘The starting point of successful selling is successful
prospecting. If you can’t find someone to talk to who can and will
buy your product or service, and pay for it within a reasonable
period of time, you never get a chance to show your personality
or to use your other talents and abilities.’’
-- Brian Tracy
‘‘You can be excellent at every part of the professional sales
process, but unless you can find someone to talk to, your skills
won’t help you.’’
-- Brian Tracy
‘‘Your ability to find new customers determines your level of
success, your ranking among your peers, your position in your
industry and your standard of living. You owe it to yourself
therefore to become absolutely excellent at prospecting.’’
-- Brian Tracy
‘‘You can observe a lot just by looking.’’
-- Yogi Berra
‘‘We don’t mind if people make mistakes at IBM. There’s nothing
wrong with that. But to make the same mistake over and over
again without finding out why is unforgivable.’’
-- Thomas Watson Jr.
‘‘You are in the business of new business development.’’
-- Brian Tracy

9. How to Make Powerful Presentations
Main Idea
Effective presentations are the centerpiece of the professional
sales process. The ability to give influential and persuasive
presentations to prospects can offset average performance
levels in every other part of the overall sales process.
Supporting Ideas
A professional sales presentation:
1. Is structured around three basic parts:
1. Establish rapport -- to gain attention.
2. Identify the problem -- as it relates to them.
3. Present the solution -- which is cost-effective and specific.
2. Uses open-ended questions as an integral part of the
presentation. The most effective questions:
1. Identify and articulate specific needs.
2. Demand attention by highlighting problems you can solve.
3. Illustrate how your product or service provides solutions.
4. Can be used to gain a commitment to action.
3. Centers around four unspoken thoughts every prospect has
in the back of their mind throughout:
1. ‘‘Why should I listen to you?’’
2. ‘‘What is it?’’
3. ‘‘What’s in it for me?’’
4. ‘‘So what?’’
5. ‘‘How do I get it?’’
4. Takes into account the personality type of the prospect and
uses the preferred buying strategy that is most applicable.
The four personality types and their buying strategies are:
1. The Relator -- sensitive to the effect a purchase decision
will have on others. These people need time to make a
decision and reassurance others will approve.
2. The Socializer -- who is achievement oriented with all the
trappings of power and influence. These people need
acknowledgment and specifics about how your product will
help them achieve greater success.
3. The Analyzer -- who is concerned with doing the right thing.
With these people, you must be specific, highly detailed,
thorough and prepared to work methodically and steadily
through a checklist.
4. The Director -- who focuses impatiently on bottom line
results. To sell to this type of person, focus exclusively on
the ways your product helps him do his job better and perform
at a higher level. And do it quickly before they lose interest.
5. Uses testimonials effectively to create credibility and trust in
what you can deliver. Testimonials come in three flavors:
1. Letters from satisfied customers.
2. Lists of current clients.
3. Photos of people using your product or service.
6. Frequently invites the prospect to express:
1. What they’re thinking.
2. How they feel.
3. Their opinions.
7. Is an accurate reflection of the salesperson’s own
personality. When personality is injected into a sales
presentation, people stop focusing on the product or service
and instead begin responding to the personality elements.
8. Has a pace and flow which matches the preferences of the
purchaser.
Advanced Selling Strategies - Page 7
9. Generally deals with price last -- so as to provide the
information by which value can be determined before price
is discussed.
10. Aligns with the buying process all customers or clients must
go through. The buying process has three stages:
Stage 1 -- When the prospect realizes the need exists.
Stage 2 -- When the prospect evaluates solution options.
Stage 3 -- When a definitive decision is made.
11. Satisfies the law of four -- which states for every decision,
there will usually be one major item and three minor items to
be resolved. Nobody ever makes a decision to buy until all
four items have been considered.
12. Uses hot buttons -- emotional triggers about various specific
elements of your product or service solution -- to increase
enthusiasm for the purchase decision.
13. Demonstrates your ability to use specialist knowledge on
behalf of your client or customer by illustrating:
1. That you have thorough product knowledge.
2. That you have an in-depth appreciation of their needs.
3. That you have prepared carefully to serve them.
4. That your timing is appropriate.
5. That your personality matches your product or service.
6. That you have practiced and rehearsed beforehand.
7. That you practice whatever you preach.
14. Is built around the ideal of:
1. Showing a feature in action.
2. Telling what that means in terms of benefits.
3. Asking questions about the significance of that feature.
15. Moves from general concepts to specifics steadily and
logically.
16. Maintains momentum towards a sales decision by use of the
TDPPR formula. All future steps should always specify:
T -- a time the next meeting will take place.
D -- a specific date.
P -- the place for the next meeting.
P -- the people who will be involved.
R -- the reason or rationale for the next meeting.
Key Thoughts
‘‘Most sales in America start off this way: the positive, prepared
salesperson meets the negative and uninterested prospect. But
the professional salesperson is prepared for this. He is ready to
take the prospect, one step at a time, through the process from
skepticism about the product to complete conviction that this is
exactly what he needs. Establishing a friendly relationship,
asking questions to uncover real needs and then giving a
thoroughly planned professional sales presentation is the key to
turning the prospect around from a doubter to a customer. This
is the business you are in. You talk to people who have no
interest in what you are selling. They have no concept at all of
how they coul d be bette r off by accepting your
recommendations. Your job is to convert them from a suspicious
person into a committed customer. Your job is to use your
personality and persuasive skills to build high-quality customer
relationships that result in immediate sales and the continue with
sales and referrals into the future. That is what you are paid for
and there is no limit to how good you can become if you work at
it.’’
-- Brian Tracy

10. Closing the Sale -- The Endgame of Selling
Main Idea
Fortunately, closing a sale is difficult. That creates the
opportunity for you to prosper and earn tremendous wealth. If
closing the sale was easy, all they’d need (and pay for) is an
order taker -- and anyone on minimum wage can do that.
Supporting Ideas
It’s in handling objections and closing the sale that the sales
professional really earns their reward. Closing is difficult as:
1. The prospect is afraid of making a wrong decision.
2. The salesperson is afraid of being rejected.
3. Customers are busy and frequently preoccupied.
4. Inertia has to be overcome before action is taken.
Objections serve a key role in the sales process:
1. They’re good because they indicate interest.
2. They show where prospects are unclear about benefits.
3. They indicate that people are seriously considering the offer.
The best ways to handle objections:
1. Differentiate between a condition -- a genuine reason for not
buying that cannot be answered -- and an objection -- which
can be answered with additional information.
2. The best way to handle an objection is to answer it before it
comes up. Develop good, solid answers to the six most
common objections that come up in your presentation.
Anticipate and you leave little room for doubt to creep in at
later stages.
3. Treat objections simply as requests for more detail.
Compliment the prospect for raising that matter, restate it
back to them to make certain you have grasped their true
meaning and intelligently and thoughtfully discuss the matter
in greater detail.
4. Never take an objection personally. Some people have a
lifetime of conditioning against salespeople. Show you’re
acting in their best interests to offset that.
Ideally, you want to get the prospect to specify one condition on
which closing the sale will hinge. Once they do that, you then
effectively have a closing condition -- the hurdle you must cross
to complete the sale.
Frequently, price will be the main objection. To show that your
product is fairly priced in a competitive market:
1. Find an appropriate way to demonstrate the value which will
be delivered by your product or service. The greater the
dramatization of this demonstration, the better.
2. Ask by how much your price is too much. Then focus on
showing why that differential is worth paying to get greater
benefits.
3. Tell a success story about a person in a similar situation, and
what they found.
4. Remind the prospect that ultimately, you always get what you
pay for in life. Ask them if ever, in their experience, they
purchased something cheap that turned out to be above
expectations.
5. Show them the specific and concrete ways the value derived
will more than offset the purchase costs itself.
Advanced Selling Strategies - Page 8
The key errors to avoid when closing a sale are:
1. Arguing with the prospect.
2. Expressing your own personal opinions.
3. Knocking your competition.
4. Overselling -- promising benefits that will not be realized.
5. Making promises you’re unable to ultimately deliver on.
The key closing techniques are:
1. The invitational close -- simply and clearly inviting the
prospect to take advantage of the benefits your product or
service offers.
2. The plan of action close -- where the next steps are specified
and the focus changes from the yes/no decision to enjoyment
of the product benefits.
3. The preference close -- where instead of asking for a yes/no
decision, you keep on presenting the choices with regards to
payment and delivery until everything is finalized.
4. The alternative close -- where the customer is asked to make
a decision they only need to make if they go ahead with the
purchase transaction. By making the small decision, they’ve
also agreed to the larger decision as well.
5. The authorization close -- asking them to sign off on the order
by giving their authorization on the order form.
6. The order sheet close -- where you ask questions and start
writing the answers on the order sheet.
7. The ‘‘think-it-over’’ close -- where you ask him what it would
take to satisfy him to be able to go ahead and make a
decision today. Once that condition has been expressed, you
then have something tangible to deal with rather than
vagueness and an arbitrary ending.
Key Thoughts
‘‘The world belongs to the askers. Because of their fears of failure
and rejection, most people are reluctant to ask for the things that
they want and need. They suggest, imply and hint but they are
reluctant to ask and be told no. Much of your success and
happiness in life will be determined by your ability and your
willingness to ask for the things you want.’’
-- Brian Tracy
‘‘Once you have decided what you want, act as if it were
impossible to fail, and it shall be!’’
-- Dorothea Brandle
‘‘There are no limitations upon what you can accomplish in the
profession of selling except the limitations you place on yourself
by your own doubts and fears. When you practice acting boldly
and behaving as if it were impossible to fail, you will soon make
the quality of courage a fundamental part of your character
where it will serve you all the days of your life. Your success in
selling will then be guaranteed.’’
-- Brian Tracy
‘‘There has never been a time or place in all of history where an
excellent salesperson could live a finer life than he or she can
right now, right here, in our economic system.’’
-- Brian Tracy