How To Boost Your Sales IQ
One of the defining factors that can dramatically increase your closing rate when speaking to your potential clients, is your sales IQ.
So – what does having a good sales IQ mean?
And what can you do to boost your sales IQ?
Read on to learn more about what it is, and what you can do to close more sales, consistently.
What Does Good Sales IQ Mean?
Sales IQ is short for sales intelligence quotient.
Put simply; this means to have the ability to use a range of skills that assist with reasoning, logic, and problem solving to help your potential clients during the sales process.
Many Sales Professionals make the mistake of thinking that their role is to present their offer; with the hope that something sticks, and then their potential client will want to buy.
This is an outdated sales methodology and is the opposite of having a strong sales IQ.
Prematurely Presenting Instead Of Prescribing
This old method of sales; where the salesperson presents up front, is something we call ‘premature presentation’.
Premature presentation is the approach of using a sales pitch; or presenting your offer before you have removed all assumptions from the sales process.
If we haven’t heard exactly what your potential client’s situation is, their pain points, and what ideal outcome they’d like to get to – everything else is an assumption.
And to sell on assumptions, is poor practice and a lack of sales IQ.
Instead, we recommend using a more structured approach that helps both your potential clients meet their needs, and also you to move towards and close the sale.
The way to do this, is by using a sales process – or sales system that will help you prescribe your product or service, rather than pitch and hope that they are interested.
Think of it as positioning yourself as a trusted advisor.
Related article: How To Position Yourself As A Trusted Advisor
How To Boost Your Sales IQ
The best way to boost your sales IQ, is by following a proven step by step sales process.
The benefits of using a sales process include:
- It gives you a roadmap to close sales more consistently
- Certainty; both for you and your potential client
- It allows you to control the sales conversation
Although there are various types of sales process designs; a simple yet powerful process is outlined below.
Rapport
It’s crucial to learn how to effectively build rapport of you wish to boost your sales IQ, because people buy from people they like and trust.
Building rapport will allow you to ask more open ended, and deep diving questions during your sales conversations.
Qualifying
Having a good sales IQ means to know when you’re talking to decision makers, or people just collecting information.
Qualifying is a crucial step to the sales process, and one often missed by Business Owners and Sales Professionals.
A simple yet effective framework you can use to qualify your potential clients, is something called BANT.
This stands for:
- Budget
- Authority
- Need
- Time frame
Further reading: Qualifying Sales Leads – A Step By Step Guide
Using An Intent Statement
One of the most powerful tools you can use in your sales process, is something we called setting up an intent statement with your potential clients.
Having a high sales IQ means to let your potential clients know what they can expect from you – and then letting them know what you would like to expect from them.
An intent statement helps you achieve this.
We highly recommend that you read the linked article directly below for more details.
Further reading: How To Use The Intent Statement For Sales Success
Ask Deep Diving Questions
The secret to really boosting your sales IQ, is to help people sell themselves – rather than you having to do all the selling.
The way in which you do this, is by asking questions that help your potential clients see the pain with their current situation, and the need for change – which hopefully would be with your product or service.
The types of questions we recommend you learn are:
Prescribing
As we’ve already touched on; you should always prescribe your offer or service instead of just prematurely presenting it.
Having a high sales IQ in a presentation context, means to demonstrate exactly how your product will solve each of their specific pain points, and get them to the outcome they desire.
By doing so; your product now has meaning.
People buy what it will mean when they own a product or service – they don’t buy the product or service itself.
Conclusion
To conclude; to boost your sales IQ, you need to use and follow a sales process that builds rapport, allows you to ask deep diving questions, learn about their pain and desires, and then prescribe your offer or product that will get them to their desired state.
Ultimately – the best way to do this, is by following a process that helps people sell themselves on the need for a solution, rather than you having to convince them that they need to change.
Want To Learn How To Exactly Boost Your Sales IQ?
If you’re interested in learning exactly how to put this all together, then you should learn about our online sales training course – The 5% Sales Blueprint.
Our flagship, self-paced program will teach you exactly how to help people sell themselves, close more sales consistently, and position you as a trusted advisor.
To learn how, click on the link directly below for more details.
