How confident do you feel in asking for referrals? If you’re like most salespeople, the answer will range from ‘not very’ to ‘about as confident as a snowman in summer’.

How, then, do you build that confidence so it becomes a natural way to gain more business from your current customer base?

Continue on to learn exactly how to position a request for a referral, that is bound to lead to an enthusiastic agreement to sing your praises to all other potential customers.  

The majority of buyers already read three to five pieces of content before talking to a rep. And as time goes on, buyers are only going to consume more content.

But not all content is created equal. It's becoming more common to find prospects who've been misinformed or misled by subpar sources -- making your role as a trusted advisor even more relevant.

To be successful in 2020, you’ll need to be skilled at “de-educating” in the prospect -- in other words, figuring out where their knowledge is faulty and setting the record straight.

At the heart of every sale is a thorough fact-find. You’ll want to unearth the needs, the wants, and the desires of your prospect so you can present your products and solutions in a way that will be of benefit to them. And the only way that you can do this is to ask quality sales questions so you can really find out what their current situation is, what their requirements are, and what they are looking to achieve.

Remember, your prospects want a good listening to, not a good talking to! They don’t want to just sit there listening to your monologue of why your products and services are the best. A prospect wants to know that you understand their situation in detail.

Chances are, your competitors are asking questions, but they're only skin deep. Instead, you need to drill down to the root causes of the issues your prospects face at a much deeper level and demonstrate your expertise on the subject.

Here's a comprehensive list of 100 sales qualifying questions you can ask buyers to get intimately familiar with their situation and formulate potential solutions.

After a long day at the office, Netflix is usually more appealing than cracking open a sales book or streaming a sales training video on YouTube.

Fortunately, there’s a simpler way to learn new sales techniques without having to set aside extra time in your day -- through podcasts.

The next time you’re walking the dog, commuting, exercising, cleaning, or doing any other task that doesn’t require mental energy, pop in your earbuds, press “Play,” and learn from sales leaders and experts.

Here are 13 sales podcasts to get you started.

The pen is mightier than the sword. Which is good, because you probably don't want to threaten prospects into buying at sword-point.

As the primary "weapons" to convert prospects into customers, words are incredibly important to salespeople. How sales reps deliver their messages and converse with contacts can have a dramatic effect on the outcome of a conversation. Using the wrong phrase might cast a negative shadow on the proposal, while tweaking just a few words in the pitch might induce a client to buy immediately. The underlying message is certainly critical, but the words used to deliver it are equally so.
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That's why all salespeople should become word nerds. Here's a list of 13 words that can help you close more deals and earn your prospects' trust in the process.

When I first got into sales, I struggled with my cold outreach. Learn the one piece of sales prospecting advice that changed my career.

Sales Directors and Sales Managers rarely get to their positions simply through loyalty or length of time served.

They’ve most likely been in the sales world themselves and been an excellent sales person.

But this doesn’t mean they will necessarily make it as a manager or director of business.

Indeed, there are many people who direct or manage sales, and they are simply in the wrong position.

The Peter Principle, originated by Laurence J. Peter, a Canadian educator, states that employees rise through the ranks via promotion until they reach a level of incompetence.

This doesn’t mean that every person who becomes a sales director will not be competent at the role, but it does mean they have to realise the role involves several different tasks and responsibilities that they hadn’t mastered before taking on the position.

I’ve noticed there are some habits displayed by Sales Directors that can have a negative effect on results and the morale of the team.

These aren’t carried out on purpose; in fact, most of the ones listed here are innocent in nature, mainly because they fail to see the enduring results of these habits.

Take a look and see if you recognise some of them:

The key to winning is being great EVERY time. Consistency plays great and pays great.
How consistently great are you?

It’s one of the most common questions salespeople ask: “How do I overcome a tough objection?” The answer may come as a surprise -- you don’t. When a prospect or customer throws a tough objection your way, your job isn’t to “overcome” it. Why not? Because traditional turnarounds are completely ineffective.

Here’s what a traditional “turnaround” sounds like: “Bill, I have to tell you, other people said the same thing about our delivery times, until they saw how we could blah blah blah … ” Typical salespeople will try to defend and justify their position, and that kind of comeback is combative and adversarial. And the prospect rarely believes you or changes their mind.

No matter what industry you’re in, you’ve likely received some form of, “Why should I do business with you?”

When most salespeople hear this question, they go into tap-dance mode and immediately list all the reasons why they’re great: “Our company is the best, our service is outstanding, we’ve been around for 100 years, and we have the best quality.”

Of course, your prospect expects you to say this, because your competitors are using this same response.

Think about it -- everyone claims to have the best quality and service, even if it isn’t true. Read on to learn how you can switch up your approach, dominate the competition, and capture your prospects’ attention when they ask, “Why should I do business with you?”

In terms of sales techniques, there is a lot of “conventional wisdom” out there that, in reality, doesn’t help you make the sale. Here are five of the best sales techniques that really work, as well as five classic go-to selling techniques that may, in fact, be hurting your sales efforts.