Sales Training Seminars and Tips:

Evading the Conditioned Response in Sales Seminars

Wouldn't it be nice to never have to persuade your prospect to buy? Instead, your prospects would line-up trying to convince you to sell your product to them. Selling may never be that simple, but might you be working way too hard to make the sale.

By acting in a manner opposite of what the prospect has come to expect, the sales consultant can reap huge benefits. Prospects have come to expect certain behaviors from sales consultants; they are trained in a general way, on sales and selling. Enthusiastic sales presentations are one of those behaviors, along with justifications, explanations, and defenses of products.

If you are feeling down yourself, and someone (anyone) comes up to you in wild enthusiasm, what is your reaction? If you just found out you lost an account, you thought was in the bag, and your office assistant sweeps into your office full of cheerfulness - how do you feel? How do you feel toward them?

It is best to mirror your prospect's mood.

It is said, that in the consultative sales process, prospects will swing between two mood levels. Sometimes they can be very positive -- ready and eager to listen. Sometimes they can be very negative -- they don't perceive a need for you, your company or your service. When you first meet them, they can be in either of these positions.

Most sales consultants will try to push their prospect in the direction s/he wants the prospect to go. Not only is this the typical sales behavior, it is exactly the behavior the prospect expects and is mentally prepared for - this behavior creates a competitive environment between the sales consultant and the prospect. What happens when a sales consultant tries to push a prospect in one direction or the other -- nothing, generally? The prospect either does not move at all, or goes below the mood level where they started - they push back.

How can you use this tendency of prospects pushing back to your advantage? Try this --rather than push the prospect in the direction you want them to go, push them in the opposite direction. The prospect's tendency will be to push away from you, resulting in them moving in the direction you intended. Like a pendulum, if you pull it one direction and let it go, it swings in the opposite direction.

By asking questions and making statements opposite of what the prospect expects, you can get the prospect moving in the direction you want them to go, and it can be faster, easier and a lot more fun. Your sales process would have you move in unusual patterns to avoid the conditioned responses from prospects.

It will require you to withhold excitement, and to stop talking about your product and company at the first chance you get, and not offer solutions to what you think are your prospect's problems.

Instead, allow your prospect to get excited, ask you about how your product or service will help him and, most importantly, let your prospect tell you the solution he is looking for.

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Evading the Conditioned Response in Sales Seminars