Sales Techniques Key Terms

Boost your bottom line with a working knowledge of sales techniques terminology
By Andrea Townsley Learning the key terms of sales techniques will help you integrate them into your overall sales strategy. Utilizing different sales techniques in different situations can drastically help your business, although using the wrong one at the wrong time can lead to embarrassment and a lost sale. With some sales techniques research and practice, you'll be well on your way to success. Once you have the techniques down, you can also instruct your sales force on the ins and outs of sales techniques key terms.
 

Rapport

Rapport is the relationship people have, and is interpreted as a positive term-a certain comfort that is felt. If you can establish a good rapport with a consumer early in the presentation, your odds of making the sale increase.
Try: SellingandPersuasionTechniques.com covers how to build a good rapport with a prospect.

Credibility

In order to make any sale, the consumer has to believe you are reliable, competent and trustworthy. These things make up credibility, and if you can establish it with potential customers, they'll be more likely to buy from you.
Try: Find out more about establishing credibility at MarketingProfs.

Foot-in-the-door

The concept behind this technique is psychological: Once a potential customer makes a small obligation to buy, he or she is more likely to buy even more.
Try: McGraw-Hill shows a classical experiment proving that the foot-in-the-door technique can be effective.

Door-in-the-face

This is the opposite of the foot-in-the-door technique. The salesperson requests something extravagant and large just so the prospect can turn it down. Then the salesperson makes a smaller request, which appears to be so much smaller than the original request that the sale is made.
Try: There is a good explanation of the door-in-the-face technique at AlleyDog.com.

Objections

To properly close a sale, you may have to deal with objections, which occur when a client is uncomfortable with some aspect of the deal. If a customer has concerns about the sale, you'll have to deal with those objections before he or she is comfortable enough to complete the deal.
Try: Consider the steps to overcoming objections at Wiley Publishing.

Closing

The closing of a sale occurs at the end of a sales presentation, when the prospect is asked to make a purchase. It's also an efficient way to wrap things up if you need to get on to other clients.
Try: ChangingMinds.org has an inclusive glossary covering a wide variety of sales techniques for closing.