Today’s competitive internal and external business environments require that technical professionals be able to “sell.” Within your organization you need to be able to sell ideas and capabilities. Externally, you need to be able to participate effectively in the selling of products and/or services to existing and potential customers.

But you don't have to be a fast-talking sales person who cares only about commission checks, expense accounts and the bottom line to do business inside and outside your company. That kind of pushy, win-at-all-costs selling approach can turn people off. In this course you discover how to use the natural analytical, logical and rational skills you've developed in your professional life to create a solution-oriented sales approach that gets you results with both your customers and colleagues!

This course shows you that personal communication and sales skills are as rational as technical skills, and that you can learn and apply them just as systematically as you mastered your technical skills. These skills will help you interact with confidence and give you credibility with your peers and customers. You will acquire a step-by-step approach to business development and sales that is easily within your comfort zone; learn to communicate effectively using better questioning and listening techniques; explore ways to build rapport quickly; negotiate win/win outcomes and get management buy-in; and you examine the human side of selling, from understanding personality styles to using reverse psychology and reading body language.

Format

The material is presented in a manner to facilitate the process of learning, from the initial phase of understanding (knowing) a concept, to the advanced phase of applying (owning) it. Much interaction is encouraged, with participants having an opportunity to discuss and practice specific techniques as well as strategize their own business situations. The training is customized for each client by incorporating specific industry examples to assist with the application process. Role playing of actual situations is included.

Course Length

This course is available as a 2 or 3 day course. The 2-day version is focused more on an understanding of the material. The 3-day version includes more role playing and strategizing exercises and is designed to facilitate application of the material.

Materials

All participants receive a 250+ page workbook which includes detailed course notes, summary of key material, handouts, surveys, exercises, forms and reference material.
Delivery

Training is delivered in a classroom setting. Typical class size is 25-35 with seating in U-shape.

This course is designed for technical professionals who want to increase their business sales and communication skills and achieve excellence in performance. Job titles include:

• Technical Professional
• Engineering Manager
• Business Development Manager
• Engineering Scientist (Application, Design, Software, etc)
• Sales Engineer
• Customer Service Representative
• Customer Service Engineer
• Project Manager
• Group Leader

“This training offers a fantastic toolbox of improved communication techniques for anyone at our company who deals with internal or external business situations. I can apply what I learned immediately to situations I’m facing.”—Engineering Manager

Tools, Techniques & Strategies…

• A nine-step sales process that works in a technical environment
• How to recognize and control 'selling' opportunities inside and outside your organization
• Communication strategies to determine the actual needs of your customer or colleague
• Three crucial elements to build rapport and get to the real issues quickly
• How to persuade and sell using logic, skill and truth, not manipulation and falsehood
• How to question and listen more effectively
• Four key actions to get colleagues and customers to make and keep commitments
• How to avoid doing free consulting in hopes of securing business
• How to avoid assumptions and confusion
• How to sell a solution, as opposed to touting your features and benefits
• Eleven key questions that get you to the heart of an issue in almost any situation
• How to separate a "real opportunity" from a "resource drain"
• How to get people to feel urgency and take action

  Critical Concepts…

• Differentiate yourself from your competition
• Get your entire organization speaking the same language
• Positively affect the decision-making process
• Separate a "real opportunity" from a "resource drain"
• Get people to feel urgency and take action
• Deal with the pitfalls of traditional selling
• Replace communication awkwardness and frustration with confidence and control
• Promote your ideas, concepts and projects to management
• Win resources for your technical group, project or process
• Sell complicated technical products and processes to skeptical prospects
• How to negotiate win/win outcomes

Mastering the Buying and Selling Process

• Influences that affect the selling process in your technical environment regardless of whether you're selling ideas, concepts, resources or products
• How to avoid the pitfalls of traditional selling
• Understand how and when to use your technical knowledge, expertise and information
• Implement the nine critical steps of consultative selling
• Overcome the stigma of "sales"
• How to differentiate yourself from your competition inside and outside your organization--(friendly rival or sales prospect)
  

  How to Capitalize on the Dynamics of Human Relations

• Understand the psychology behind what you communicate and how it affects your sales outcome
• Understand why "convincing" won't work and what to do instead
• Strategies for using the power of reverse psychology
• Understand the critical elements of decision making
• Analyze behavioral styles to determine effective communication methods
• Ways to keep your clients, colleagues and prospects feeling good
  

  How to Get Real Commitment and Buy-in

• Keep your selling process moving: get the decisions you need when you need them
• How to control the selling process for better results
• Employ verbal contracts: key actions for gaining commitments
• How to eliminate ambiguous outcomes and avoid time-consuming problems down the road
• How to avoid doing free consulting (while hoping for business)
  

  How to Build Rapport With People

• The key to establishing quick and effective rapport
• How to establish credibility and trust
• How to handle "small talk"
• How to remove internal or external prospects' "roadblocks"
• The three key elements of rapport
  

  Qualify and Clarify Problems, Priorities, Authority and Investment to Seek a Better Solution for Your Customer

• How to identify a “real” opportunity from a "resource drain"
• How to “sell” on value, not price
• Apply eleven key questions to get to the real issues
• How to arouse the emotions that lead to a decision: hooks you can use to get action
• Eight rules of engagement for getting the information you need to “sell”
• How to uncover and manage potential deal-killers
• Know when to “walk away”
  

  How to Favorably Present Your Ideas and Products

• Create an effective presentation: rules and steps you should know
• Identify and use your audiences' information processing styles
• Deliver your ideas powerfully: twelve tips for success
• How to use props, visual aids and technology for positive effect
  

  Communication Strategies and Tactics to Use in Persuasion

• How to gather critical information that will help you sell, not give information that will help your prospect resist
• Avoid "mind reading"--your assumptions can kill the sale
• How to listen more and talk less
• How to deal with questions and objections designed to derail the sale
• Summarize your conversations and avoid confusion
• A powerful technique to clarify work requests
• Eliminate wasted effort to save time and focus on what counts
• How to discover and utilize the hidden meanings in conversations
• How to gain the confidence of a difficult person
  

  Application

• How to apply this to your world
• Internally: get buy in from management or colleagues; promote your ideas; compete for resources; influence decisions
• Externally: get add-on business from existing clients; get referrals to new projects/different opportunities from existing clients; look for new opportunities