Sales Skills and Transparency?

CAN SALES SKILLS AND TRANSPARENCY WORK TOGETHER? ~

Sales skills are sometimes considered as underhanded or somewhat shifty. I’ve actually heard them referred to as some kind of “hoodwinking” technique that blinds the prospect from the truth to force the sale.

There are sales trainers that promote honesty and transparency over sales skills. They insist that all you need to do is present the facts and let the prospects make their own mind up at some point in the future. They continue to say that the sales skills of yesterday have no place in today’s sales environment.

magic selling

Honesty and transparency are vital, I agree; as too are sales skills.

Let’s take a closer look at sales skills. They are used for four main reasons:

> Clarification of the prospects thoughts as to where they’re “AT” during the sales process

>Discovering prospects objections and clarifying they have been answered successfully

>Ensuring the prospects fully understand the features and benefits (both good and bad) of their product or service

>Making relevant recommendations based on the gathering of information from the prospect

Done correctly sales skills are transparent, non-threatening and of huge benefit to both the prospect and the sales professional.

Building sales skills

A sale should consist of two wins:

The first win is for the prospect as they should walk away with the correct product at the right price.

The second win is for the sales professional as their career demands they make the sale and provide themselves an income.

Let’s take a look at two examples:

Example A is a sales person that uses honesty and transparency without sales skills.

Example B is a sales person that uses honesty and transparency that includes sales skills.

Example A

Sales Person: Would you like to buy this light bulb? It’s 60 watt with a pearl interior and will last for about 3 years and it’s environmentally friendly as it only uses 30% of the electricity of a regular bulb. It costs 10 dollars.

Customer: No thanks. (customer walks out)

Result: NO SALE

Example B

Sales Person: Would you like to buy this light bulb? It’s 60 watt with a pearl interior and will last for about 3 years and it’s environmentally friendly as it only uses 30% of the electricity of a regular bulb. It costs 10 dollars.

Customer: No thanks.

Sales Person: OK, may I ask the reason why? (sales skill)

Customer: It’s not powerful enough. I need a 100 watt bulb.

Sales Person: Would you be happy if I could provide you with the same type of bulb but 100 watt for only 20 cents more? (sales skill)

Customer: Yes.

Result: Win Win

Skills, honesty and transparency must all be used, all of the time, together!

Improve your Sales Skills and learn more about Transparency!

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