Competence Knowledge Center

Our Articles on Communication

1. The Neurotic Sales Process is Silently Killing Your Bottom Line

   We’ve all been there. The end of the sales period—month, quarter, or even year—is breathing down your neck. You have nowhere near enough deals on the board to meet your quota. Panic has arrived, and it’s time to get desperate. This is the point at which a salesperson becomes neurotic.

2. Competence Means Completing Sales and Marketing Processes

   A central part of competence is the completion of each of your marketing and sales processes. When any step of either of these processes is not completed, the next step, to some degree, is wasted effort in trying to make up for that last step which is incomplete.

3. The Prospect Must Trust You Before They Ever Meet You

   One fact that I think is missed by some marketing and salespeople today is that prospects don’t go online to be sold—they go there simply to find information. Because plentiful information is available online, many prospects have made at least a partial purchasing decision before they ever talk to a salesperson.

4. The Competitive Analysis: Why Should the Prospect Buy from You?

   Part of a company’s competence is understanding what makes its product or service unique. In other words, why should a prospect buy from you as opposed to the competition? That question would be addressed through a competitive analysis.

5. The Power of Demonstration
   (members only content)

   If there’s one thing guaranteed to amp up a sales presentation, it’s a good demo. In a typical selling situation, you and the prospect do a lot of listening. That’s fine as far as it goes, but we have five senses; hearing is only one of them. Give the prospect something to touch, look at, feel the weight of, and your product is instantly more real. I might or might not believe your product is better than the other guy’s, but when I can hold it in my hand or try it out for myself, I know it.

6. Company Competence Begins with Internal Trust

   It has been said by philosophers through the ages that if you don’t trust yourself, others will not trust you, either. The same could be said for a company—if there is internal distrust within the company, that company is going to have problems obtaining trust from prospects and customers.

7. The Power of Demonstration

   If there’s one thing guaranteed to amp up a sales presentation, it’s a good demo. In a typical selling situation, you and the prospect do a lot of listening. That’s fine as far as it goes, but we have five senses; hearing is only one of them. Give the prospect something to touch, look at, feel the weight of, and your product is instantly more real.

8. Coming Out of the Confusion: Stick to Your Sales Process

   While much of what we discuss in our materials deal with the sales process, the time to focus on it has never been more important.
   
   “Go for the close!”
   
   Because many companies are having to struggle back up from the edge of financial peril, the urge to “go for the close” is going to be extraordinarily strong. Leap to the end of that sale. Get the money in. As rapidly as can be done.
   
   Of course, it is important to close sales, and of course, it is vital to bring in income.

9. Coming Out of the Confusion

   This month, in our newsletter and blogs, we are dealing with a subject that is very much front of mind for any business right now: coming out of the confusion that this quarantine has created. It is certainly a confusion to be roaring along as a business, then suddenly hit a brick wall, and be totally shut down. It is now a further confusion to start back up again.

   Working from Home

   For many of us, the current situation is that we must operate our businesses, if we can, from home. If you have never done this before, it can certainly be disconcerting.

10. Coming Out of the Confusion: Why Should Your Customer Trust You?

    This lockdown and quarantine have certainly been a confusion, and I think I speak for everyone when I say we’ll all need help coming out of it, and finding our way into a somewhat normal business landscape once again.

    With this month’s blogs and newsletter, we’re certainly giving you some great approaches. With this particular blog, let’s look at a factor that could mean a great deal when reaching back out to your prospects and customers: why should your customers trust you?

11. Coming Out of the Confusion: Facts Versus Opinions

    This quarantine and lockdown certainly have been a confusion, especially for businesses and their clients.

    A major reason it has been such a confusion is the proliferation of conflicting information. Information asserted as factual turns out to be false, while vital facts go virtually ignored by major media in the interest of pushing bad news for ratings. Mix in opposing political views, and you have a real mess. Who is right? Who is wrong? Who or what do you believe?

12. Coming Out of the Confusion: Past, Present and Future

    With this 2 - 3-month (depending on where you are located) quarantine and lockdown, we can certainly say it has been a confusion.
    
    When the lockdown happened, each of your deals was in one stage of your sales process or another. The first thing you should do is analyze each of these deals and verify at which stage each of them was. Once you have done that, you have done your past analysis.
     

13. Sales CPR- A Case for Competence

    This story is one we hear over and over in our SALES CPR Clinics. Salespeople hate objections or shall we say resist them.

    When you talk with someone and they are in strong disagreement with you, can you feel it? Even if they do not express disagreement, you can feel that something is wrong. Prospects resist salespeople by expressing objections, which act like disagreements. Salespeople resist this and also disagree with the objections. This creates quite a mess in the sales process.

14. Are you Making the Case for your Product or Service?
    (members only content)

    It’s not enough to simply present your product or service and “hope” that you can talk, persuade, convince, or cajole your customer into buying. That’s a tough sell, similar to an attorney trying to convince a jury to convict or acquit his client without presenting evidence.

    You must come prepared to make the case. Remember, if it’s written it must be true!

15. The Single Defining Trait of the Exceptional Salesperson

    The highest producing salespeople have a myriad of talents that the less inclined lack

16. Inside Reality vs. Outside Perception
    (members only content)

Our Webcasts on Communication

1. Become an Expert in Your Industry
   (members only content)

Our Videos on Communication

1. Having Doubts Because of Your Education
   (members only content)

2. Using Statistical Analysis to Manage Your Sales Productivity
   (members only content)

3. 8 Steps to Make your Day in Sales a Success
   (members only content)

4. How to Handle Unexpected Questions
   (members only content)

5. Understanding and Utilizing your Marketing Materials
   (members only content)

6. Improving Your Sales Skills
   (members only content)

7. Ensure Your Prospect Gets What He Was Promised
   (members only content)

8. Effectively Managing Your Sales Productivity
   (members only content)

9. Using Terminology in Your Presentation
   (members only content)

10. How to Get More Leads
    (members only content)

11. Continuous Improvement
    (members only content)

12. The Buying Cycle
    (members only content)

13. Making the Case for Your Product or Service
    (members only content)