Virden Thornton Articles

Converting Sales Training Into Sales Success! - Click To Read Article
The goal of all sales training is not just to teach solid selling principles and techniques, but to actually help participants increase the number of sales and improve their multiple sales ratios. Unfortunately, many sales and service industry professionals gain an intellectual awareness of the methods of selling from the sales training they receive, yet fail to improve their bottom line sales results.

Your Extended Shadow And Successful Sales Management - Click To Read Article
What you say and do speaks louder than the words you use to manage the selling process...

When Selling Keep It Simple Stupid - Click To Read Article
To consistently sell more you must keep the selling process simple!

What Level Of Telephone Sales And Customer Service Do You Provide? - Click To Read Article
Using the telephone as an effective sales and customer service tool.

What’s Better Than “Word-of-Mouth”? - Click To Read Article
You will agree there is nothing better than to get a word-of-mouth referral from a satisfied customer or client. These leads usually come to you at no cost and with little or no effort on your part. A referred prospect is easier to please and quicker close. Referral leads generally buy more and will often refer you to another prospect in the future.

We Become What We Think About - Click To Read Article
What are you planting?

Wearing Two Hats Costs A Sales Professional Sales - Click To Read Article
It’s difficult at best to reprimand a staff member for poor sales performance, but almost impossible to do it when the reason for a lack of sales is that the representative was servicing a large account. If wearing two hats (sales and service) is not critical to your organization’s success, why set up an impossible management situation.

Turning Sales Techniques Into Sales Success! - Click To Read Article
There are a number of methods you can use to move beyond an intellectual awareness of new sales techniques and systmes. By applying the ideas outlined in this article, you can begin to see a steady improvement in the number and scope of your sales transactions.

Turn Inquiries Into Solid Sales - Click To Read Article
This article will give you a series of examples to show you how key phrases can turn a common, every day price inquiry into a selling situation, that in turn produces a new customer for your organization.

Top Sales Professionals Ask The Right Questions - Click To Read Article
Asking questions is the sign of a true professional. Taking time to discover your client, customer or prospect’s specific needs requires that you ask the right questions and then you listen to what is said.

The Truth About Sale Success! - Click To Read Article
Top sales professionals and service industry “rainmakers” earn a lot of money. Learn why they consistently produce sales success from research conducted in the United States and Germany.

The Two-Hour Sales Presentation Vs. A Seven-Minute Attention Span - Click To Read Article
The average decision-maker has an attention span of just a little over seven minutes, while the average sales presentation in the United States runs from one and a half to two hours in length. You should easily figure out what’s wrong with this picture?

Three Keys To Attracting And Retaining Customers Or Clients - Click To Read Article
By carefully studying the attributes and techniques used by suc­cessful sales representatives from a cross-section of industries and professions, you can determine what it really takes to sell your products or services.

The You Can Tell If A New Hire Will Succeed In The First Two Months Myth - Click To Read Article
Most companies set arbitrary sales success time periods at about two and no more than three months. Big mistake!

The "Video Role Playing Is Counterproductive" Myth - Click To Read Article
Many sales managers and trainers feel that video role playing sales presentations and prospecting methods is just too stressful for their sales representatives to be an effective training tool. On the other hand, in most sports, video taping of an athletes performance is a standard training procedure. Today, video tapes play a major role in an athlete's conditioning by most coaches and managers.

The "Use Seasoned Sales Professionals As Trainers" Myth - Click To Read Article
In some selling organizations, if formal sales training exists at all, it is often performed by seasoned sales representatives or top performers on the staff. Big mistake!

The Processionary Caterpillar Syndrome Costs You Sales? - Click To Read Article
Why sales and service industry professionals fail to move beyond an intellectual understanding of sound selling principl to achieve consistent sales success.

The “References Checks Are A Waste Of Time” Myth: - Click To Read Article
If you think reference checks for new sales cadidates is a waste of time, you need to think again. Learn how to do it right!

The "Sales Goals Motivate" Myth - Click To Read Article
Many sales professionals, through a lack of experience at setting appropriate sales objectives, set unrealistic goals, which in turn assures their failure long before they even start to execute their plans for achieving them. When they find they are not able to meet the objectives they’ve set, they not only experience the frustration inherent in failing, but many of them also receive criticism and in some cases, punishment from management.

The Multiplying Factor In Sales Success - Click To Read Article
As I have studied the success patterns of top sales professionals from all types of industries and from all parts of the country, I began to make an exciting discovery. I learned that for the 20% of the sales people who sell 80% of the goods and services in the United States, achievement or failure is controlled in large measure by a multiplying factor that any sales professional can reproduce.

The "Never Play Favorites" Myth - Click To Read Article
Many year's ago, while training at a branch of Dean Whitter (now Morgan Stanley), I learned an important management truth. The branch manager at this office was mandated by corporate to spend a minimum of 60 percent of his time working with and supporting the stock brokers who had been given offices (based on their top performance) surrounding the "bull pen," where the vast majority of the brokers had cubicles. Those staff members in the cubicles were allocated 40 percent of the manager's time.

The Critical factor In Consistent Sales Success! - Click To Read Article
A “belief in oneself” is and explanation for a sales professional\'s behavior, performance and overall success levels

The Biggest Mistake In Selling! - Click To Read Article
Many sales and service industry professionals accept the stall, “I’ve got to think about it.” at face value, believing that a buyer truly has an interest in what they are selling. Are they mistaken?

The Added Value - Is YOU! - Click To Read Article
The words “Quality Service” are deceptive at best. There are at the least two levels of quality service--high quality and low quality. Only you can make the difference in which adjective is used to describe the service levels in your organization.

The "Finding Common Ground" Sales Technique, Is A Myth! - Click To Read Article
Studies conducted by Dr. Al Mahribian at UCLA into effective communi-cation, strongly indicate that often the decision to purchase a product or service is made in the first two minutes of a sales transaction. Two min-utes is usually not enough time to discover something you might have in common with a prospective customer or client and then build on it to create a trusting relationship.

The "Canned Sales Pitch" Myth - Click To Read Article
A Selling Myth That Can Cost A Sales Professional Sales!

The “Hire Someone With Product Knowledge” Myth - Click To Read Article
It doesn’t matter if a candidate for your sales position knows anything about your industry or your products or services. Product knowledge is overrated in the hiring process and selling skills seem to be underrated by many sales managers today.

The Employment Tests Myth - Click To Read Article
The belief that employment tests can compensate for poor interviewing skills is a myth. Giving employment test too much weight in the hiring of sales staff members can be a big mistake.

The 8020 Rule Fallacy In Sales - Click To Read Article
The 80/20 rule in sales organizations dies hard. You’ll need to work diligently and hard to eliminate it and then even harder to keep it from resurfacing.

The Glass Ceiling Effect In Selling - Click To Read Article
The "Glass Ceiling" that many women face today in business could give women an edge as sales professionals.

The 'Being Efficient' Myth In Sales - Click To Read Article
You need to take time to soften a decision-maker with appointment confirmation notes and telephone calls. Also, a series of direct mail softening letters, faxes, e-mails and endorsement letters need to be sent before and after a sales presentation to reinforce the benefits that you have demonstrated.

The "100% Commissions Motivate" Myth - Click To Read Article
There's a good reason why over 97 percent of progressive companies and service industry firms that I've consulted, use a form of a "hungry base plus commission" compensation plan for their sales professionals, rather than employing a straight commission pay structure. The reason is simple, straight commission pay plans demotivate many more sales professionals than they motivate. Straight commissions reward a specific type of sales professional--the top three to five percent of the sales professionals in the top 20 percent bracket.

The "Cold Call Presentations" Myth - Click To Read Article
Sales professionals, new to selling or business development, might view the opportunity to make a presentation on the spot as a positive event, especially when they learn how hard it is to set a steady stream of appointments to make their presentation. But this perceived opportunity is far from the best time to make a sales presentation, because they rarely can command a decision-maker's full attention.

Stay With It! - Click To Read Article
When working with sales professionals to help them move from order-taking, operational mindsets into successful proactive sales approaches, sales trainers find that these people go through stages that loosely resemble the four phases of learning.

Selling Is 90% "Understanding People" - Click To Read Article
It is the ability of a sales representative to understand and work with people, rather than technical skills or product knowledge that produces consistent sales success.

Program Your Biocomputer For Sales Success - Click To Read Article
Selling isn\'t something you do to people, it\'s something you do for them. If you feel as though you\'re being pushy or twisting arms when you are interacting with prospective customers or clients, you might be doing just that.

Opportunity - Click To Read Article
Joe Gerrard, for years one of the top insurance agents in the country, once said, \"If I can get an appointment, I have a sale.\" What can sales and service industry professionals learn from Joe\'s statement?

Is Using Past Success In Hiring A Mistake? - Click To Read Article
What is vital for you to learn in selecting a candidate for an open sales position, is how well a candidate will perform in a job like the one you are trying to fill. Often a employment interview will never even touch on the candidate’s competence for the new position.

Is Your Message Getting Through? - Click To Read Article
Industry terminology and jargon kills sales!

In Sales, Words Just Don't Compute - Click To Read Article
Dr. Al Mehrabian’s research at UCLA, who reported that only 7% of a person’s communications effectiveness comes from words.

Impressions: Vital To Sales Success - Click To Read Article
A sales letter is the most powerful selling tool you can use to make a positive impression, with the exception of an in-person sales call.

Impress People With Your Message! - Click To Read Article
To overcome the discomfort that naturally occurs when you feel unsure about certain features or benefits, often you will instinctively upgrade your language, believing that doing so will help you sound more professional and more knowledgeable. Actually, however, this practice can hurt you rather than help you in the sales communication process

How To Dramatically Improve Sales Closing Ratios - Click To Read Article
Using trial-closing questions, you\'ll watch your closing ratios and profitability dramatically improve.

How Pareto's Principle Impacts Your Sales Success - Click To Read Article
Hiring Top Sales Producers Is Almost Impossible Because Of Pareto\'s Principle. Find Out What You Can Do About It!

Hiring--A Vital Key In Sales Management Success - Click To Read Article
When hiring a sales professional, checking an employment candidate\'s references properly, can make managing your sales staff members much easier.

Hire A Six, To Consistently Produce Sales Success - Click To Read Article
How To Hire A Top Sales Producer

Effective Two-Way Communications...The Source of Ethical Control and Persuasion - Click To Read Article
Top sales professionals have discovered that a “two-way exchange," not a “one-way sales pitch,” is the most effective method of persuading or enticing another human being to take action.

Documenting A Bad Experience Can Cost You Sales - Click To Read Article
The “Documenting Bad Experiences For Future Reference Could Be A costly Mistake!

Closing Sales Is Not A Problem, It's A Process - Click To Read Article
Today, most successful sales professionals know that if you use a consultative sales process, one with a series of selling steps like those listed below, the close (asking for the business) will literally take care of itself.

"Cold Calling Is Dead! "Is A Lie - Click To Read Article
One of the biggest lies on the Internet are the ads that proclaim that cold calling is dead just to sell training or books. Don\'t believe it!

"Canned Sales Presentations" Just Dont Work Today - Click To Read Article
“A picture is worth a thousand words,” right? Well it depends!

Cliche-Ladened Presentations - Click To Read Article
Buzz words can sometimes aid a presentation, but often they tend to confuse a prospect, customer, client or co-worker. Anytime you make your listener (or reader) work hard mentally to understand your message, you run the risk that the person simply won’t put forth the effort.

Breaking Through The Comfort Zone Barrier - Click To Read Article
Your comfort zone barriers—the fear of looking foolish, the fear of criticism, the fear of being successful and the fear of failure—are quite simply attitudes.

Being Politically Correct Can Cost You Sales - Click To Read Article
Sales trainers, coaches and managers teach that you must be “politically correct,” polite or professional, when you ask for information. Being politically correct may just cost you the sale.

Baditude! - Click To Read Article
Selling staff attitudes are often a reflection of what they see in their managers.

At-ti-tude, n - Click To Read Article
At-ti-tude, n. a mental position; the feeling one has for oneself. Your attitudes are mindsets—or points of view based on what you believe to be true about life, other people and yourself. Attitudes impact your ability to succeed at sales.

An "Ideal Selling Situation" - Click To Read Article
Tradeshows are one of the most cost-effective tools in a marketing arsenal.

A "Closing Sript" Is A Sales Myth - Click To Read Article
Sales closing scripts just don\'t work in the real world. Just another sales myth that many sales and service industry professionals believe and use.

A Sales Success Strategy - Click To Read Article
If your prospects cannot vividly see personal benefits from taking action, there will never be the sense of urgency needed to follow your suggestions.

Active Listening Produces Sales Success - Click To Read Article
Active listening is a process that builds trust in your prospects, customers or clients and helps them to become more focused and candid in their response to your questions.

A Woman's Edge In Sales - Click To Read Article
A woman has a decided advantage as sales representative over her male counterpart.

A Favorable Juncture of Circumstances - Click To Read Article
Opportunity is a noun, a favorable juncture of circumstances. When given a sales opportunity to meet with a prospective client, use this opportunity to build trust and rapport, and in so doing, you will find you can then make the right recommendations of your products and services.


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