David Trapani

Beth is a new sales hire at TaskFlow, an enterprise software firm specializing in custom-designed project management applications. The company targets Fortune 1000 workspaces. She has been making prospecting calls for about two weeks, and her numbers so far are abysmal. So far, she hasn’t scheduled a single appointment.

Answer questions - lose a sale. The two go hand in hand. Salespeople are doing too much talking and can’t figure why they’re losing deals. Take a read and try to hang onto your candy...

Fake Rapport... if you ever want to see your prospects guard go up, show them some fake rapport. Rapport is more than commenting about pictures you see on the wall or complimenting someones attire. It’s about helping your prospect become more honest with you.

Have you ever given a presentation without knowing your prospects budget? How well did that work out? Often we see that formula be a sign of free consulting. Take a read of the following article and see what changes could be made.

That moment when the prospect opened up to you was an opportunity to connect -- and you missed that opportunity, because you started thinking about the next question you wanted to ask, instead of validating what you’d just heard.

Dealing with a prospect who is noticeably disinterested in your presentation is one of those situations that salespeople often mishandle.The most common response offered in this situation -- to turn on the charm, press forward to the bitter end, and hope for the best -- carries a number of disadvantages.

Results are results, and salespeople can often trick themselves into believing they're doing all of the necessary activities to achieve success. To often, they're not. Are you fooling yourself? It's time to stop.

Don't fall into the trap of using old tired closing techniques that simply put a buyer on the defensive. This article will give you some ideas on how to develop a step by step approach with your prospect that helps the prospect close themselves.

What really stands in the way of the weak salesperson is their mindset. They often look for the latest techniques as a substitute to finding more prospects or really solving a prospects needs. Truly, the best salespeople are out there prospecting and looking for more qualified prospects to do business with, and they push themselves. 

There are signs in all sales that we can point to that give us a green, yellow or red light to where we are headed. The key is identify those signals. A good sales process can help you see them and handle them before or as they happen.