Do you know which skill sales people have the most trouble with? Without question, it is asking for the sale. At Shore Consulting we have a goal to help sales people reverse that. Our goal is to make asking for the sale a natural, easy and collaborative process. That is why we created the Closing 2.0 Academy.

When you think of the typical sales person closing someone, what’s the immediate image that pops into your head? For Ryan Taft, it’s Alec Baldwin and his “coffee is for closers” speech. Or as Ryan calls it, Closing 1.0. But what if closing was something you did for your customer? Wouldn’t that be more effective? Of course, and we call it Closing 2.0.

Whenever you find yourself dealing with poor sales performance, you can self-diagnose your issue by looking at the formula for confidence: BELIEF + MASTERY = CONFIDENCE. Ryan Taft sees belief issues in these four categories on a fairly consistent basis.

Anyone else besides Ryan Taft believe that the sales process has changed pretty dramatically over the past decade? Silly question, right? We all know that customers research, decide and buy differently today than at any other time in history. But what about this: Have salespeople adapted accordingly? Or are we still using the same old sales tactics we learned years ago?

We all experience “off” sales days. You know the type of day I am talking about. It’s the day where no matter what techniques you attempt, they all seem to fall flat. As the day progresses, it just seems to get worse. Whatever the reason, here are five things every sales pro should do to kick-off their day for maximum impact.

Have you ever missed out on a sale because you believed there was no sale to make? Ryan Taft has, and it lost him the sale. Now he’s using his experience to teach us how leverage our beliefs so we don’t miss out too.

It was Ryan Taft’s first day in new home sales. There was a sales meeting that day to motivate and educate them on how to sell better. He thought, “Perfect! I love learning.” And while his sales leader taught him some valuable lessons, they weren’t the lessons he was going for.

Of course you want to impress your customer. That goes without saying. The challenge is you may have learned techniques from past sales trainings that could be keeping you from impressing them and actually causing customers to want to run from you! Watch this video from Ryan Taft to find out more.

What do you do when a customer can’t see the big picture? Ryan Taft suggests you literally show it to them! Help your customer visualize the end result, and make a more confident purchase decision.

Which perspective is your customer more likely to take: yours or theirs? Ryan Taft thinks that’s kind of a “no duh” question. Obviously they are more likely to adopt their own perspective. It is their perspective after all. So, if that’s true, then it makes total sense to consider their perspective when handling their objections.