It does not matter what job function you are in, you have to sell. If you don’t deal with people, you don’t need to sell. Most of us deal with people so selling is important. If you can’t sell, you can’t get things done, no one will listen to you, no one will help you. In small companies, they all know they need to sell, but in larger ones, they leave the effort to the sales team. Big mistake! Everyone who interacts with customers or prospects should and must sell. Especially in tough times, everybody needs to come together and sell.
I was in a hotel in Penang for training. I left the computer running and the internet on while I go for dinner. When I came back, the Internet got disconnected and I couldn’t get in. So I called the lobby and I was directed to their tech support. The tech guy called and was coaching me on what to do to get the configuration going. I told him, why is your internet speed so slow? He said something ‘remarkable’, he sold me on a great idea, here it is…
He said, well, the management is cutting costs and they are mainly a group of penny-pinching dudes who don’t understand the importance of upgrades. That’s why the internet is slow. Oh wow. What a fantastic selling pitch yes? As I said, everyone sells. In this case, the tech guy sold me on the idea that I wasn’t going to get fast internet speed for a long time in this hotel. Question for you, what are your nonsales people selling to your customers? Better find out and train what they should sell…
Some things to consider when training your non-sales people to sell. Make sure they understand everyone sells, doesn’t matter if they are the delivery boy or vice president of operations. Next, 3 things are important to train them on. 1: introducing your company, products, and services. In classic sales, they call it the elevator pitch, it’s basically a short presentation on what makes you special. In Sales Ninja, we call it Positioning.
Everyone in your company needs to have a standardized introduction, very important especially if you talking to someone outside your industry or if you are a small company. Everyone knows Nokia but not many know Nanotech Solutions for example. And just because you have been around for the last 10 years doesn’t mean everyone knows you. For a start, train them on this.
Next, train them to look for opportunities to sell. Selling is helping. So when they hear there is a gap or problem or situation that the associates are having, they need to jump in and sell. The more advanced sellers create needs or opportunities, but for non-salespeople, at the very fundamental, they need to have their radar on for selling opening. Say your company sells advertisement to survive, what is the opening here for non-sales people? If they hear some company’s revenue is shrinking, bang! If they hear some company is launching a new product, bang! If they hear some company is changing their strategy, bang! There are so many opportunities to jump in. So train your team to look for them.
Three, train them to tackle objections. Sales term we call it Tackling/handling/preventing/managing objections. In nonsales terminology – simply correct the audience’s feedback or concerns. Say you are the admin executive for an automobile company that sells China brand cars. One day you are having tea with some friends and one joker decided to bang on Chinese-made cars are a joke. That one may drive the car and the tires may suddenly fall off. While it’s a joke, it can also hurt your company. Even though you are the admin exec, you need to jump in and ‘correct the facts’ because people misrepresent the facts and you need to sell them the ‘right facts’.
So there you go, 3 immediate things you can do to ensure Everyone Sells. Train them on how to introduce your company, products, and services. Train on how to look for opportunities to sell. And train them to correct the facts.
Unconventionally,
HANZO NG
Sales Ninja Grandmaster
© 2009 Sales Ninja Training. All Rights Reserved.
Hanzo Ng is Sales Ninja Grandmaster, lingo for Chief Trainer of Sales Ninja Training, Asia’s #1 Unconventional Sales Training. Sales Ninja Training specializes in helping small-medium, listed and global companies transform their salespeople into the ultimate sales professional known as Sales Ninja. For more information on our sales, motivation, and leadership training, visit our website.
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