Peri Shawn is an award winning author who specializes in working with leaders who want to get better results. She works on helping people think better so that they can do better. She is known as a profitable conversation expert and I think you will find this conversation will be extremely profitable. Sales is both a science and an art and we explore the art and support it with the science that backs it up. As sales people we know that we have interactions that are better than others both as sales people and as consumers so why not have the positive interactions by design.
Peri tells the story of what triggered her passion for learning and teaching and that it was in fact the learning dichotomy between her two brothers that lead her down the path that she took. As a high school teacher she became fascinated and discontented with the fact that her students were learning at a consistent level and decided to look into how she could help them better. She started exploring the neuroscience behind the learning and started to see immediate results in the classroom. At one of the teaching conferences she spoke at someone from the corporate world approached her and talked about the value of what she was teaching and ultimately convinced her to take her work and passion into the corporate world. She became an action researcher and spent time looking at what actions were actually having the biggest impact.
The short answer was that questions that were the best way to get optimal results. There is ample neuroscience that supports this. Jeffrey Schwartz studied the impact of questions on the brain. Questions actually build new neurological connections in the brain. You can find information about his work and studies on his website at http://www.jeffreymschwartz.com/.
Challenge your thoughts and find those universal truths. Experiment with the truisms and axioms that we hear. We are all moving forward and we all have the resources to ‘get there’ we need to find what works the best for us as individuals. It all starts with our core values. Our values shape the lens in which we see the world and we can improve our selves while we are helping others.
By changing our thinking we can change ours, and our teams behaviors, the alternative is that we try and coach or teach behavior and we simply become behavior cops. We change our thinking by analyzing our past results and reflecting on the thinking behind the behaviors recognizing that if we don’t like the results we need to change the behavior and in order to do that in a sustainable manner we need to change the thinking.
Peri’s definition of Selling is “Helping people with their buying decision”. The sales business is substantially different today then it was even five years ago.
- As sales people we need to understand where our customers are in the buying process.
- Listening is critical to the sales process
- Sales decisions are made on emotion justified by logic
- Can we design the emotional experience of the buying process
- We need to get our customer emotionally engaged
- Stories are a key factor to emotionally connect with your client
- Create stories that relate to your sales process
- Create an experience that your clients will tell as a story to others and they become your best sales people
- We discuss the neuroscience behind this
- We talk about addressing client concerns or objections
The 10 common sales mistakes sales people make
- Not being clear on who is buying
- Forgetting why people buy
- Being self focused
- Telling mistruths
- Being ill prepared
- Taking too much of clients time
- Sharing what is not relevant
- Missing buying cues
- Acting like a traditional sales person
- Treating clients as enemies
Resources
Connect with Peri on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/perishawn
Visit Peri’s professional web site: http://coachingandsalesinstitute.com/
Buy Peri’s book: http://www.amazon.com/Sell-More-With-Sales-Coaching/dp/1118785932
Dr. John Demartini
Neuroscience Research
Uri Hasson publications
Jeffrey Schwartz
