Phone Ninjas is a sales training company working with dealerships across the country. We spoke with Founder Jerry Thibeau and Vice President Chris Vitale of Ohio to get their take on the focus new salespeople should have when trying to break into this field.
Selling is not merely about generating a conversation with a potential customer; rather, it’s about developing a relationship with the other person as quickly as possible. Sales hinge on your ability to close a deal, and this core strategy relies on the strength of the salesperson to bring about the desired results. It’s important to ensure that any team is set up for real success, which is why there are a number of key sales skills that you need to prioritize.
With customers becoming ever savvier to sales techniques, Jerry Thibeau says that utilizing the best practices is crucial in ensuring that team members are able to stay adept throughout the sales process. Keep everyone in your team proficient with the following key sales skills.
Product Knowledge
Extensive product knowledge is the foundation of any effective sales pitch. This will equip your salesperson with the ability to answer any question thrown at them. One of the unfortunate weaknesses of spirited salespeople is their tendency to talk around products. When they are trotting out their pitches, they need to be ever ready to provide solutions and intelligently answer all queries. While salespeople may have great communication skills, it is often the knowledge of a service or product that bolsters everything.
Strategic Prospecting
Knowledge of a prospect’s needs is vital to developing an effective approach that identifies the ideal customer. Chris Vitale says a great salesperson will be able to not only identify a prospect’s pain points, but they will also heed other clues in a strategic manner that will yield fruitful results in the sales process.
Active Listening
The whole process of selling can run the risk of being a one-sided conversation. Jerry Thibeau relates that many salespeople try to blindside their prospects rather than actually listening to what they have to say. Active listening involves paying attention to the prospect in every single way, giving due care and attention to their problems, pain points, and ideas. When we listen to their problems without interruption before we respond thoughtfully, we are giving the prospect a platform to make sure their needs are heard and understood. This allows our salespeople to follow up and steer the conversation towards a more satisfactory conclusion. Salespeople can, at times, come across as overwhelming and aggressive. Chris Vitale agrees. Actively listening, on the other hand, helps to establish a connection and deeper sense of trust.
Empathy
Empathy allows your salespeople to tune into verbal cues. It’s difficult to gauge someone’s emotions over the telephone, but if we can exercise empathy, we are going to have a deeper understanding of their emotions and feelings. This ties into understanding the customer’s fears and pain points. Using this, we can create emotional connections and build better long-term relationships. It’s important to remember that empathy is not a skill that your salespeople will or will not have. Rather, it is a skill that can be learned. Empathizing is not about mere sympathy- but rather about understanding the underlying emotions behind the pain points. When a salesperson understands what the prospect is thinking or feeling, the salesperson is able to influence the buyer’s decision-making process more positively.
Effective Communication
Of course, effective communication skills are key for your salespeople to persuade customers into buying any service or products, but communication is not just about what you say, but also how you say it. Tone and manner of delivery are just as important. When we have a customer that is listening intently our words, we need to employ two key aspects to improve our communication.
Storytelling
According to Jerry Thibeau, this is a crucial skill as it allows us to engage with authenticity to a potential customer because the story will address the pain points and needs of the person, while continuing to build rapport.
Emotional Intelligence
Also known as Emotional Quotient (EQ), this is the ability to be aware of our emotions and understand other people’s emotions.
Negotiation
The Phone Ninjas program teaches that ultimately, selling is the art of negotiation. After presenting a pitch, you need to guide the customers into a sturdy negotiation process. That salesperson needs to establish clear objectives and identify the potential outcomes and alternative scenarios. Negotiation skills are pivotal to closing a deal. And while the goal is to close the deal, it has to be on terms that are satisfactory to both sides. A skilled negotiator will not simply concede to objections by the client – but rather will provide alternative solutions that are mutually beneficial.
The Four Cornerstones of the Phone Ninjas Approach
In addition to these crucial fundamentals, Jerry Thibeau also shares the Phone Ninjas “Four Cornerstones of our Approach”. These are explained as:
- Knowledge = knowing what to say
- We work individually evolving your agents and giving them the power necessary to handle the phones and today’s opportunities properly.
- This helps with all customer-facing communications.
- Skill = knowing when to say it
- Using their actual customer interactions develops the techniques necessary to handle real world situations more successfully.
- This helps with all customer-facing communications.
- Consistency = forming positive habits that become second nature
- This is done via easy to understand and transparent scoring.
- Confidence = belief in oneself
- This allows agents to develop genuine self-confidence through active coaching to perform at much higher levels
What Phone Ninjas work to develop:
- Knowledge = knowing what to say
- Skill = knowing when to say it
- Technique = knowing how to say it
Selling in the modern age is not about merely talking at a customer, but rather it’s about developing an important relationship that is mutually beneficial to both sides. The skill lies in making a prospect feel like they have come out on top, when in fact, both sides have benefited. The right sales skills will make the process of selling more human.
