The only way to move any type of product or service is to provide your sales staff with training for sales techniques that work in your industry. Improving sales techniques is all about using the latest sales strategies on the market.

Many of these sales tips and tactics are packaged together in software, online resources, books and presentations that can be viewed on a video or in person at a meeting or seminar. The right choice for your company will allow you to customize the sales pitches to increase revenue and make your business a success.

There are many ways to get new and successful selling techniques for your business. No matter how the techniques are presented, you will want to make sure the presentation includes the following:

1. The best way to start a sales pitch.

2. How to use personal stories as a selling technique.

3. The right way to close the sale, so you can avoid a last minute back-out.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Choose trade publications that give updates on new sales technique ideas

The right selling technique can bring in a lot of business for any company. But how can you find sales techniques that work for your industry? One way is to stay up to date with the trends in your industry. Trade publications will keep you informed of the latest sales strategies and how they can work for your business.

I recommend: If you want to stay up to date on the latest in sales techniques topics, choose trade publications such as Direct Magazine or Target Marketing to find out new ways to reach customers with sales techniques.

Provide employees with resources to gather their own sales generation techniques

There are many online resources available to help your employees develop the skills they need to close the deal. Many of these online resources are free, and can provide anyone in a sales position with the personal accounts and technical strategies that work best for your particular industry.

I recommend: AchieveGlobal provides a free podcast that offers new ideas in the techniques of selling. EyesOnSales provides hundreds of articles on the way to sell products, how to sell and what the best approaches to selling are.

Find programs that teach comprehensive strategic selling

If you really want to create a staff that focuses on selling the products and services your company offers, provide a comprehensive strategic selling program that will give them the confidence and knowledge to go out and sell to anyone.

I recommend: Sales and marketing classes from an online university could help teach the best sales techniques, and you can compare the top online programs at Online Degrees Today. You can also get tips on training for sales techniques from an experienced seller at the Heavy Hitter Sales Blog.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  The best way to keep your employees improving sales techniques is to provide incentives. This could be as simple as monthly prize drawings or giveaways to the top sellers.

It's been proven that the efforts and costs required to land a new customer far exceed those associated with selling to an existing customer. That's why you should take advantage of every sales transaction to increase the amount of the sale. Two methods used to achieve this are cross-selling and upselling. In cross-selling, you recommend adding related products or services similar to the one the customer is purchasing. In upselling, you ask customers to make more expensive purchases in place of the original intended purchase. In addition to increasing sales figures, these powerful sales techniques can:

1. Introduce customers to new products or services.
2. Turn one-time buyers into long-time customers.
3. Increase the perceived value of a customer's purchase.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Get training in cross-selling and up-selling

Cross-selling and upselling are learned skills. Consider offering a training program to your employees to learn how to suggest products and services to meet your customers' needs and when to make the pitch.

I recommend: You and your sales forces can engage in classroom or online training to earn certification in cross-selling and upselling.

Turn customer service reps into cross-sellers

Remember that every interaction with a customer is an opportunity to cross-sell or upsell, even interactions by your customer service staff. Train your customer service reps to transform routine communications into selling opportunities.

I recommend: Forum.com offers a report on key customer service rep behaviors that entice customers to buy more. CustomerServiceGroup.com offers the "Guide to Cross-Selling and Upselling for Customer Service Professionals" to help transform your customer service team into a sales team.

Recognize employee efforts

Encourage cross-selling and upselling with an employee recognition and reward program. When an employee increases sales using these techniques, offer them some sort of incentive that will also inspire co-workers to increase their efforts.

I recommend: Reward employees for their cross-selling and upselling efforts with an incentive program from LoyaltyWorks.com.

Use technology

Customer relationship management and sales force automation software can help you with your cross-selling and upselling efforts. By analyzing past buying habits, you can pinpoint additional or higher-value products or services that would appeal to existing customers.

I recommend: Sales force automation software, such as NetSuite, includes components to assist with your cross-selling and upselling efforts.

Use customer recommendations and testimonials

It's human nature to want to know what other people are buying, especially when you're considering making a purchase. Amazon.com is a master of using this technique to sell add-on products through the recommendations of other buyers.

I recommend: Get tips on how to collect and use customer testimonials at About.com. Observe how Amazon.com encourages additional purchases through recommendations and on-site activity of other buyers, such as books purchased or titles reviewed.

Cross-sell and upsell on your Web site

Let your Web site do the cross-selling and upselling for you. Whenever a customer views a product, your Web site should highlight related products or a more expensive model of the same item.

I recommend: For tips on upping the volume and value of each sales transaction on your Web site, visit WebOptimiser.com. You can also purchase eCommerce tools for your Web site from EndPoint.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Make sure the items you're attempting to cross-sell are indeed relevant to the one your customer is purchasing. If your suggestions are off-base, you may lose the whole sale.
• •  Target top customers for cross-selling and upselling. Their repeated buying habits are indicators for high sales success.
• •  Consider the timing when cross-selling or upselling. The pitch should seem natural in the sales process.

The only way to get a product or service into the homes and offices of consumers is to use the many techniques of selling. Selling techniques are useful in telephone sales, retail sales and other types of sales that require specific tactics to move a product.

Many sales techniques basics can be taught through seminars, full courses and in books. In order to choose the best learning method for your company, explore how your current sales techniques work and how you can improve upon those.

Because everyone has a different way of learning something new, improving sales techniques should individual approach. There are many ways to build on the selling techniques of your employees, including:

1. Books and other print resources that explain in detail the best sales promotion techniques.

2. Seminars and courses that help employees interact and practice their own techniques.

3. Online resources for a quick refresher of basic sales techniques.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Provide seminars and courses to your employees to improve their selling technique

Salespeople in almost every industry need to learn the art of selling products in order to succeed. Employees are not always equipped with the right skills to sell to consumers, and this is why there are so many seminars and courses specific to teaching techniques of selling to all types of businesses.

I recommend: The Brooks Group offers customized sales training seminars that can teach your employees about every aspect of a sale. The American Management Association provides seminars for an introduction to sales.

Find webinars that teach specific sales generation techniques

Webinars include the best parts of a seminar with the convenience of learning and listening to the information 24/7. You can find many comprehensive webinars that teach sales generation techniques for all types of industries.

I recommend: Winning the Complex Sale is a webinar series that can teach your sales staff how to create great sales presentations. Zero To Quota is another company that offers great webinars that teach new and proven sales techniques.

Hire sales coaches to teach sales strategies

If you need a person to come in and motivate your sales staff, hire a qualified sales coach. A sales coach will be able to inspire your employees and give them the best techniques for closing a sale every time.

I recommend: Hire a coach from The Sales Company and get guaranteed, proven sales technique instruction. You can also find a well-qualified sales coach from TheSalesCoach.com.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Telephone sales techniques will come in handy in any industry. To be sure you have a skilled staff, make sure all employees participate in at least one telephone sales course.

Learning the key terms of sales techniques will help you integrate them into your overall sales strategy. Utilizing different sales techniques in different situations can drastically help your business, although using the wrong one at the wrong time can lead to embarrassment and a lost sale. With some sales techniques research and practice, you'll be well on your way to success. Once you have the techniques down, you can also instruct your sales force on the ins and outs of sales techniques key terms.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Rapport

Rapport is the relationship people have, and is interpreted as a positive term-a certain comfort that is felt. If you can establish a good rapport with a consumer early in the presentation, your odds of making the sale increase.

I recommend: SellingandPersuasionTechniques.com covers how to build a good rapport with a prospect.

Credibility

In order to make any sale, the consumer has to believe you are reliable, competent and trustworthy. These things make up credibility, and if you can establish it with potential customers, they'll be more likely to buy from you.

I recommend: Find out more about establishing credibility at MarketingProfs.

Foot-in-the-door

The concept behind this technique is psychological: Once a potential customer makes a small obligation to buy, he or she is more likely to buy even more.

I recommend: McGraw-Hill shows a classical experiment proving that the foot-in-the-door technique can be effective.

Door-in-the-face

This is the opposite of the foot-in-the-door technique. The salesperson requests something extravagant and large just so the prospect can turn it down. Then the salesperson makes a smaller request, which appears to be so much smaller than the original request that the sale is made.

I recommend: There is a good explanation of the door-in-the-face technique at AlleyDog.com.

Objections

To properly close a sale, you may have to deal with objections, which occur when a client is uncomfortable with some aspect of the deal. If a customer has concerns about the sale, you'll have to deal with those objections before he or she is comfortable enough to complete the deal.

I recommend: Consider the steps to overcoming objections at Wiley Publishing.

Closing

The closing of a sale occurs at the end of a sales presentation, when the prospect is asked to make a purchase. It's also an efficient way to wrap things up if you need to get on to other clients.

I recommend: ChangingMinds.org has an inclusive glossary covering a wide variety of sales techniques for closing.