Persuasion Skills for Startups

Goals

What you'll learn

How to get the most out of the course

How to use features, benefits and advantages – to your own advantage

How to structure a sales call – with you in control

Three sessions on how to manage objections – turning them into opportunities

Closing techniques – getting to a ‘yes’

Recovering from a lost sale

Powerful questioning techniques

Needs vs wants – and how to sell at a premium price

Selling ‘off the page’ – a proven way to generate high quality sales leads

Focus

Start-ups and entrepreneurs are a mixed bunch. But one thing the winners all have in common Is – the ability to influence others. The ability to sell their ideas, sell their products, sell their service.

And the graveyard of business startups is littered with companies that failed to grasp that most important, essential skill - the art of persuasion.

That's what this course delivers in spades. The ability to get people to say 'YES'.

So – what is unique about this course?

Unlike so many courses, Len Smith is always available should you have any queries. Just email him - he's here to help.
It is a living, growing course - unlike any other course, as students suggest new topics, Len adds them as bonus lessons (he calls them fireside chats). No extra cost, the course just keeps on improving.
It is not designed for salespeople wanting to boost their career. Salesman of the Month!
It’s not ‘evangelical’ and it’s not designed to tell you how wonderful you are – what fantastic sales talents you’ve got hidden away, just waiting to be revealed.

No – it’s for real people. Entrepreneurs. Startups. Businesspeople - starting out - who recognise they have a crying need to learn how to get other people to say YES. And that’s what we mean by sales techniques in this course. Not just selling product – although, that IS important, so we do cover all the essentials about selling your product - but it’s also about getting others to buy into your ideas.

Things like, How To….

Understand people’s motives for buying – some real surprises there!
Make sure you always have a clear objective – never ‘winging it’, hoping that something will come out at the end
Understand different personality types – and how to turn their personality traits to your advantage
Turn needs into wants - and raise the profitability of what you do, what you sell
Turn objections into sales opportunities
Gain control and keep the upper hand in any discussion
Apply the perfect test to see if others are raising smoke screens or holding something back
Overcome ‘price-itis’. Never ever having to sell down on price
Understand ‘buying signals’
How to write a professional, compelling proposal
Discover the best-kept secrets for overcoming road blocks like – “I’ll think about it” “I’ll think it over”
Make it easy for your prospects to buy, for your business partners to say ‘yes’

There are countless courses on sales techniques. Mostly developed by trainers. This course is based on years' of personal-face-to-face experience from an expert who has worked at the coal face.

Len Smith has many years' experience in sales & marketing with companies like IBM and has been associated with a number of start-up successes. Developing business and marketing plans, market research, product branding, VC funding and strategic business development.

He's worked as a non-exec, involved in MBOs, company sales and a stock market flotation. He has also helped clients make the difficult leap from Europe to success in North America and the Asia Pacific Region.

Clients have included IBM, Travelex, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Welcom, Marks & Spencer Financial Services and Manchester Business School.

Now he shares his persuasion techniques with you.

Program

Promotional video - why this course?

Introduction

Features & Benefits - not what you thought

Anatomy of a sales call

Questioning techniques

Handling objections

The psychology of buying

Needs versus Wants

Closing techniques

Fireside chats