The Art of Sales with Art Sobczak

The reigning Women's British Open golf champion, Sophia Popov, overcame many obstacles to go from the 304th ranked player in the world, to world champion. She tells her many examples of overcoming health and mindset challenges in her journey to achieving a Major championship.

Some people think you need to place 100 calls a day--or some ridiculous number-- to be effective and successful in sales. Not at all, according to Alex Goldfayn, author of the new book, "5 Minute Selling." Alex explains his system for putting in just five minutes per day--following his system consistently-- which is proven to increase your sales.

Being busy, popular, and in-demand is good in business and sales. It can help you get more business, or lose some of what you have. How, when, and to whom you communicate it makes all of the difference, which you'll hear. Along with a couple of personal examples Art just experienced.  

Today's guest, Laura Brandao, shares her journey from the call center to the C-suite, to become one of the most influential women in the mortgage industry. Her sales, mindset, and life advice applies to everyone in all industries.

Words do matter. Especially in sales, and certainly on phone calls. An alternative word or phrase can mean the difference between interest and resistance. Acceptance or rejection. Curiosity or an objection. In this episode you'll hear a number of words and phrases to use in place of others that have been proven to be more effective.

When things don't go according to plan, as has been the case for everyone over the past few months, it's important to not panic, and do the things we can control to ensure success. Especially in sales.   Jeff Bajorek reminds us of the fundamental that work in any environment, and are especially important in a pandemic and economic downturns.

If you want to be successful in sales, you need to be effective with follow-up. Far too many opportunities are lost because sales reps don't follow up effectively, or don't do it all. Jeff Shore is an expert at follow up. He wrote an entire book on it, and in this episode shares what to do so you can turn your follow ups into sales.

As Art has always taught, trying to "overcome" objections with slick rebuttals is dumb, since it is just telling someone they are wrong, which does not end well. Instead, we need to follow a conversational process. You'll hear this process, along with a new "magic" question that Art has added that helps people to open up, doubt their previous stance, and consider your offer in a different, more favorable way.

It's amazing that there still are people believing and teaching nonsense about "getting past the gatekeeper." They must not realize that the assistant--as that powerful person should be called-- works harder to keep out those who try to get "past" them, and works WITH those who respect them, and can justify why they have something of value. In this episode you'll hear some outrageous--and sometimes unethical-- examples of techniques some salespeople use, and what TO do to get the assistant working with us, to help us get through to the boss.

Ten years ago Art did a keynote presentation to an American Association of Inside Sales Professionals group. He called it "People 1.0" and wanted to illustrate the importance of the human connection in sales. To creatively show how, despite the technology available to us, we need to focus even more on the personal touch, he simulated a call back to 1983, to himself. You'll hear that entire "call" here. Enjoy!