Peter Roden

I help people lose less prospects and turn more into clients. Doesn't really matter what product or service you sell, it all comes down to how well you "communicate" with your prospect.  I help you master "people skills" in order to get through the early stages of the "Sales Cycle" so that you can actually move through to the latter stages of the process where you can utilize your product knowledge to get the sale.

Basically, I show you how to better "Communicate" with your prospects (be it face-to-face or over the telephone) in the early stages of your initial "interaction"

The "super" sales professionals always seem to have an incredible knowledge about the product or service they provide, as well as having a complete understanding of their market and their competitors. Maybe some are that little bit cleverer than their average counterpart. 

However, although knowledge, and the presentation of this knowledge, is vitally important, it is not relevant until later stages of the Sales Cycle. 

First of all, you should never start to tell your prospect about the benefits of your product or service and why it is right for them until they have told you their wants and needs. No matter how convincing you believe your spiel to be, you run the risk of turning them against you - nobody likes a "know-it-all".

Once they dislike you, you are probably dead in the water. It has been proven that most people, when making a significant purchase (and assuming they can buy from alternative suppliers) will not buy from you unless they like you. If there is any form of conflict early on in your initial interaction, you may never get the chance to woo them with your knowledge.

Why?

Because in sales, the biggest obstacle to your "likability" is the fact that there is ALWAYS a level of "Tension" when you start to speak with someone for the first time, especially from the customer's side.

Management of the tension level is therefore THE MOST effective thing a salesperson can do to increase the chances of ever getting to a sale.

It is imperative that you make a good "First Impression" with your prospect - and with appropriate skills you can learn to cross this first hurdle with a broader range of people. This then allows you to use further skills to build "Rapport", which in turn leads to gaining their "Trust". This in turn reduces tension and allows them to open up to you. They then feel able to disclose their true wants and needs, and once armed with this information, you can now use your knowledge and sales skills to show them how your product can HELP them. 

By leaning interpersonal interaction skills, in other words, to communicate better with different types of people, it can give you valuable insight to how they see the world and therefore how they want to be sold to. This can allow you to adapt your interaction with them so that they feel comfortable speaking with you, and therefore more likely to accept your suggestions and advice AT THE APPROPRIATE TIME.

Here's a great tip:

Did you know that a person processes words at the same rate or tempo as they speak? You must therefore always notice if they speak slow or fast and then match your tempo with their's.  If you get all excited and start to impart your knowledge by speaking too fast to a person who is a slow speaker,  they will not take-in everything you are saying - in other words, they will not be able to digest all of your valuable knowledge!

You must not turn them "OFF" before you turn them "ON"!

It's not rocket science. If you learn just a few simple new skills, it can make an incredible difference to your overall results.