Wisdom from a Sales Expert

This past week on Wednesday we had the opportunity to hear from Coach DiDonato. I feel like I learned so much in just the 50 minutes he was able to share his sales knowledge with us. The first thing that struck me was his energy. I kept thinking to myself “wow I can definitely see why he would be a great salesperson and football coach”. He was so good at keeping the class engaged and eager to learn more. So, without him even meaning too, I think he taught us a thing about sales. That one must engage his customer. Energy is contagious and can be a great way to promote positivity when selling. Nobody wants to buy from a guy in a bad mood. Next, he talked about how you first need to understand the problem. From there you can see what features of your product fit their needs. But an important takeaway is features tell, benefits sell. He explained the importance of demonstrating the benefit to customers to get them invested. Why would they care about the features that don’t benefit them. Most of the wisdom he shared with us came from the sales funnel he demonstrated. This demonstrates a good timeline for a sales conversation. Before the funnel begins there is pre-call analysis. This meant doing your research before going to meet with a customer. Then the first of the four sections was Need Analysis. This section was about asking general open-ended questions. He put emphasis on general questions meaning the customer could answer in multiple ways. The next section was Need Awareness. This was narrowing down to specific probing questions. This step helps in narrowing down to what the customer truly values. Coach DiDonato talked about the aha moment after these first 2 parts. Once the need was specified, it was time to solve and find a solution. The great thing about this process is it allows you to be honest. If you don’t have the product to meet their needs, then just tell them the truth. Which brings us to need solution. Display what you have and how you it will benefit them. Lastly, have the courage to gain agreement and ask for business. Coach DiDonato shared how important it is to ask for business. Overall, I learned so many new sales skills through Coach DiDonato.