The Art of Sales with Art Sobczak

One of the best sales questions Art has ever heard was from the old TV show, Ally McBeal. You can use this simple question to get people off of the fence, and either tell you they are not a prospect, or get them to move forward. Both of which are better than a "maybe."

Sometimes prospects ask salespeople extremely technical, or outrageous questions that catch them off-guard, and cause them to respond with a long string of nonsense. We can avoid that, and it involves actually NOT answering the question immediately. You'll hear how to respond, and why.

Do you tend to put things off? How does that work out for you? Procrastination rarely leads to anything positive, especially in sales. Here are a few brief tips to help you take action on things you have been putting off--now!

It should be obvious that inquiries are your best source of new business. Yet sales reps mishandle them every day, and lose opportunities, and cash. Here are examples of how many reps made mistakes when Art wanted to buy now, and what one person did to get the business.

Salespeople waste a lot of time needlessly by easily giving in to something like, "Give me a call back next month." You'll hear what to say to learn if they even are a good prospect, and if so, why waiting is even necessary. You'll save time, and sell more.

Everyone who prospects for new business has heard, "We're satisfied with who we're using now," or some variation of that. There's a lot of nonsense that has been taught about how to respond, such as, "What do you like best about them?" That actually gets them to reinforce their decision to work with their vendor. You'll hear what TO say instead, to get them talking, which then opens up the chance...

On the popular medical drama TV series from a few years ago, the surgeons would always ask one question with their new patients during the initial consultation. This is a question that revealed very important things about them. It's the same type of question we should use with prospects and customers to learn about them, and which will help them buy from us.

Art found an online article suggesting many lies and deceitful tactics that salespeople should use if they want to be successful. He takes each of these, points out how absurd they are for ethical salespeople, and what we should do to really be successful.

Many times salespeople end up dropping their price, and it is a direct result of how they quote their price. There are a number of words and phrases you should avoid when stating your price so that you don't give the impression that you are willing to negotiate it. And, you'll hear precisely how to state your price, and respond if they still ask for a better price, so you still sell at your full p...

Here are three subtle, but powerful persuasion techniques--that likely have been used with you--that you can adapt to be more persuasive and influential with prospects, customers... friends, family... anyone really!

In this episode, Art went into his vault and found some sales tips he first shared in the 80's and 90's... which are as relevant, and even more important today. You'll hear some brief tips on motivation, closing, building relationships. and more.

Remember in the movie, Jerry Macguire, Tom Cruise's impassioned make-up speech to his wife? And then after finishing she says, "You had me at hello." That is similar to what salespeople do every day... talking too much, when the customer already is sold. Often with negative outcomes. You'll hear what to avoid, and what TO say to close the deal, and not "buy it back."

This is a training session on how to easily develop your own interest-creating cold call opening script (without the cold), which also can be used as an effective voice mail, by just filling in the blanks on the free Smart Calling Template. You can download the template at http://SalesByPhone.com  

The wildly-popular show, Seinfeld, used a type of humor that made it easy for us to relate to the crazy situations the characters got themselves into. We can use similar methods in sales. When we can help prospects and customers relate to pains and problems in their mind, then it is easier for them to be open to our suggestions. You'll hear what to say, and what questions to ask in order to do tha...

Using Stu Heinecke's "Contact Marketing" campaigns, he, and his clients have achieved a 100% success rate of getting meetings with their high-level targeted prospects. In his book, "How to Get a Meeting With Anyone," introduced the concept of Contact Marketing, which is reaching out to prospects with unconventional approaches. In his new book, "Get the Meeting," Stu gives lots of examples and case...

The way some salespeople--or people in general, for that matter--communicate, it sounds as if they are speaking a foreign language. Of course, the language anyone understands best is their own. As salespeople, we must work to speak THEIR language, not hope they understand ours. Here are quick tips and ideas to connect with anyone, in their language, in all areas of your life.

Ever have a prospect go silent on you? Tired of sending countless emails and leaving repeated voice mails that essentially say, "I'm trying to get back in touch"? You likely need to be more effective at following up. And part of that is setting up the follow up. In this episode you'll hear exactly what to say to ensure there's a good reason to follow up, and that they will commit to do so.

Sam Richter is recognized as the world's leader in how to use the Internet and the "invisible web" to get intel on prospects, their organizations, and situations. We of course can than use this intel in our outreach and sales process to be more relevant, have a greater chance of standing out from all of the noise we compete with, AND have more intelligent sales conversations. Sam shares some of hi...

A lot of sales training suggests that when a prospect says, "We are happy with who we are using now," you should respond with, "Oh, what do you like best about them?" Actually, you should AVOID that question, since it provides the opposite of what you want. You'll hear why, and lots of examples of what you should say instead to get them thinking about what they want that they aren't getting now.

Fear hinders many in sales to not reach their potential. Much of that fear is absurd. And THAT is one psychologically-proven way to deal with that fear. You'll hear a simple process to view your fear as ridiculous so it doesn't hold you back.

Lots of stats are thrown around every day regarding sales... how many calls or touches it takes, how many times you need to close, how many objections you'll hear before someone will buy... and it's all irrelevant. You'll hear about the only numbers that matter. The phone numbers you call.

Some salespeople use the "Your Baby is Ugly" approach. It directly tells the prospect that they have a problem, or are doing something wrong. And it should be avoided. You'll hear how Art received this approach in an email, why it should be avoided, and how you can actually use a more subtle, nuanced approach to help them reach the conclusion on their own that they have a problem.

One simple way to get people to actual keep their commitments is to attach time frames to them. Otherwise, it's too easy for people to blow things off, which they do more and more today. See actual questions and phrases to use to get people to actually do what they say they will.

Email can be an effective tool in prospecting, when used the right way, not the spammy way.   Today's guest, Jason Bay is an expert in cold email prospecting, and shares his REPLY Method, which you can adapt and implement as well to capture the interest of cold prospects.   In fact, he used this method with Art to get on the podcast.

If a salesperson doesn't believe in what they sell, how could they possibly get someone else excited about it. This episode has some straight talk that might cause some people to reevaluate what they are doing. Which is good.