Anyone know an affordable and fast way to improve on business communication skills and sale skills?
Hello everyone, I have 2 college degrees business admin and healthcare admin. I get a lot of job requesting for me to work for them. I have positive attitude, patience, computer knowledge such as in office programs and some sale techniques in marketing. The problem I dont have confidence, I need to learn basic business communication skills in retail or medical field. Some of the basic skills I like to learn which some I already know are how to greet, sell, be enthuastic, and problem solve with difficult customers. I wasnt taught none of this in high school or colleg until we got a job. Whats a good site, youtube video school, or training recommendation you can provide me to acquire these skills. I know it takes practice and experience but I like to learn these skills as soon as possible because time is everrything in life.
alison.com has a lot of great free classes.
The Challenger Sale is the enterprise sales book that is all the rage right now. Pretty good read and should be at Amazon or local Barnes&Noble.
Marco,
Pick up a copy of Grant Cardone's book Sell or Be Sold. Also, you can view his helpful Young Hustlers video shows on Grant Cardone TV or on YouTube. They are very helpful. They teach people how to succeed, market, and sell either themselves or products and services. Good luck!
Always speak to the customer from their paradigm. Unfortunately I do not believe that there is a magical website or YouTube video that can teach someone customer skills. Be natural confident funny and above all, passionate about helping the guest /customer. Most of what you are seeking can only be improved buy hands-on experience. Good luck
Marco, it seems you do have confidence, or at least know you should. Your education and knowledge is a great asset to meeting the needs of your customers. Approach each encounter not as a sales opportunity, but an opportunity to meet the needs and provide solutions for your client. By altering the perspective, you change your challenge ( insecurity) to solving their challenge. Do this a few times and you'll realize that meeting the needs of others is not only rewarding, but also a tremendous confidence builder. You can even take it a step further by volunteering to help those in need in your community. Sometimes the best lessons in life aren't taught in school, but discovered.
When I was in my first semester of my Master's program, one of my classes was on sales. On the first day of class, we were given 100-toothpicks each that had been dyed the same color with a Jello solution. Each person in class had a one-hundred toothpicks that were a different color from every other person in the class. We each had to go out and sell all one-hundred toothpicks and give a report on our progress the following week. Proceeds from sales of toothpicks went to a non-profit by unanimous class vote. There were rules for the venture: 1-we could not divulge this was for a class, 2-we could not divulge that we were in school, 3-toothpicks had to be sold individually. Almost everyone was able to see all their toothpicks but most people in the class lacked imagination.
There were 12 people in the class. Of the twelve, eight of us brought in a total of $52. The other four people brought in a total of $675! Of those four, one person brought in $500! How did he do it? Each toothpick represented one share of stock in a change the buyer wanted to make in his or her life. Changes could be something like loosing weight, stop smoking, get better grades, etc. So long as the toothpick remained whole, the purchaser could collect on the face-value of the stock once the change was made permanent. Stock would be paid exactly four-weeks from the date of the sale. Each toothpick came with a page of notes on how to make changes permanent in people lives using the toothpick as a representation of the path they were to take. He sold all his toothpicks to the first group he talked to, a span of 30-minutes! Four weeks later, this student went back to the Mall where he sold the toothpicks and waited for people to collect on their stock (Here is where my memory gets a bit fuzzy so I'll tell it as best I remember). Of the 40-something people that bought toothpicks, (some people bought more than one toothpick) about twenty showed up to tell their story, of which, the majority were of successes. Not one single person collected on the stock option! The guy brought back an addition $200+ in donations from that followup day!
That was the day I learned my first lesson about sales: Each person you sell to will have a need different from that of other buyers. Rule #1: DO NOT EVER VIOLATE A CLIENTS TRUST! Find common ground from which to proceed and then develop trust. What if you can't sell the product without violating the clients trust? See rule #1. Every person's concept of value for that product will be different depending on need. How much was each toothpick really worth in intrinsic value? Less than a penny! How much was that same toothpick worth to a person who stopped smoking? Thousands of dollars in cigarettes alone over the next decade, not to mention savings in healthcare costs, which could at least equal that amount again. You don't sell the product...you sell the value of that product to the client you're selling to, and that may be different for every client.
I've never forgotten that lesson and it has served me well over the past couple decades...and not just in sales. It works just as well in negotiating projects with clients. I hope you find this lesson as valuable as I did.