Online Class: Mastering Sales Skills 101

In this course, you will understand how to sell with purpose, connecting fully to your customer's desires and wants, while understanding the nuts and bolts of a typical sale.

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  • 19
    Lessons
  • 21
    Exams &
    Assignments
  • 2,244
    Students
    have taken this course
  • 10
    Hours
    average time
  • 1.0
    CEUs
 
 

Course Description

Elevate Your Sales Craft: Mastering the Art of the Deal

Sales aren't just transactions; they are the heartbeat of every flourishing business. From your morning latte purchase to closing a game-changing business deal, sales are the gears that propel our economy forward. Introducing "Mastering Sales Skills: How to be a Successful Salesperson," a meticulously crafted course to transform you into a sales powerhouse. This isn't just another course; it's your ticket to be the invaluable asset every organization craves.

Every business, regardless of size or industry, stands to benefit from refined sales acumen. Our program goes beyond traditional sales methodologies, diving deep into the psychological and strategic underpinnings of successful selling. You'll be equipped not just to sell, but to sell with purpose, aligning impeccably with your client's deepest desires and aspirations.

Embark on a sales odyssey through our 19 comprehensive lessons that touch every facet of the sales universe:

  • Developing a Sales Personality: Uncover the intrinsic qualities of a top-tier salesperson.

  • Why Confidence Makes the Difference: Illuminate how self-belief can radically transform outcomes.

  • Seven Critical Factors for Success in Sales: A deep dive into the pillars that ensure sales excellence.

  • How Small Differences Accelerate Growth: Understand how nuanced changes can drive exponential results.

  • Knowing What You Have: A strategic inventory of your sales assets and tools.

... and 14 other incisive modules that will shape your sales journey.

We'll guide you in analyzing sales opportunities, decoding buying cycles, formulating unbeatable sales strategies, and navigating the complex web of competition. Recognize golden opportunities and stay miles ahead of the curve, dominating even in fiercely competitive markets.

But that's not all. Beyond individual sales prowess, learn to galvanize an entire team, fostering a sales-centric culture that amplifies collective results. Discover the magic of customer-centric selling, ensuring not just a sale but forging bonds of unwavering customer loyalty.

Our course marries rich sales theory with real-world examples. Engaging exercises, thought-provoking quizzes, and an arsenal of additional resources ensure a holistic learning experience. By the time you reach our comprehensive conclusion, you'll be equipped, empowered, and enthused to conquer any sales challenge that comes your way.

Step into the world of sales mastery. Whether you're igniting a personal passion or turbocharging a professional path, "Mastering Sales Skills: How to be a Successful Salesperson" is your guide to greatness. Join us on this transformative journey and watch as every door becomes an opportunity waiting to be unlocked.

Course Motivation

Selling is one of the oldest professions in the world. It involves a means of exchange, whether in products or services. A sale is based on the desire for change or improvement in some aspect.The best salespeople are individuals who understand, connect with, and engage this basic need in people.

The Purpose of a Salesperson

A salesperson is essentially an individual who creates and keeps a customer. A salesperson finds and connects with a prospect or potential customer, presents a product or service that offers a solution to a problem, and then follows up with the customer to complete the sale of this product or service.

Top salespeople tend to think and act quite differently from the average salespeople. Being highly successful in sales requires a positive mindset.

Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle is an economic principle defined by an Italian economist, Pareto. According to the 80/20 rule -- or Pareto Principle -- 20 percent of your effort accounts for 80 percent of your results. This powerful and insightful principle can be applied through every aspect of sales, particularly in sales psychology. Eighty percent of sales success is dependent upon psychology. The way people think affects the way that they walk, talk, feel, and act. When you change your inner world, your outer world changes as well. To have more in your life, you must be more; and when you change your thinking, you change your life.  

Top Salespeople

Top salespeople are ambitious and determined to be the best in their fields. They recognize that the Pareto Principle applies to salespeople themselves, meaning that 20 percent of the salespeople make 80 percent of the sales. Hence, they work diligently to be in that top 20 percent and narrow the gap to reach into the highest sales category for their industries.

Top salespeople recognize the success of previous salespeople and learn from their principles. By doing what other successful people do, they know they also will achieve similar results. They view sales as a way of achieving all their other goals.  

Qualities of Top Salespeople

In general, top salespeople have the following qualities. Some of these qualities may be innate, but all of them are always cultivated and expanded upon to achieve their maximum potential.

  • Ambition
  • Courage
  • Honesty
  • Empathy
  • Accountability
  • Professionalism
  • Preparation 

 

Top salespeople also recognize and follow the three essential keys to high performance. 

High Performance Drivers

1. Definition: Define clearly what characteristics and qualities are necessary to develop within yourself.

2. Education: Learn what you need to learn to become the person you want to become.

3. Practice: Practice these new qualities, thoughts, and behaviors again and again until they become part of your personality. 

One of the most important aspects in sales involves building relationships with your customers. A big part of developing positive, mutually beneficial relationships requires the ability to listen.
 

Cultivating Positive Relationships

Happiness is the major focus of most people -- and for most people, happiness is derived significantly from fulfilling relationships. The happiness of an individual is linked to relationships, yet a person is not responsible for the happiness of another. By being happy and positive yourself, you are able to have positive relationships with others.

One of the great aims of life for a person in sales is to build and maintain better relationships with more people. Throughout your life, you will develop more and more relationships, and you must work on increasing and enhancing the value of those relationships. Do not take your relationships for granted.

Your success in life will be largely determined by the number of people you know, and who know and like you.

Study after study shows that the most successful and influential people are those who know and are known by the greatest number of other influential people. As you expand your network of contacts, friends, and relationships, you actually expand the dimensions and quality of your life.

You always like people better when they are genuinely interested in you, when they listen closely to what you have to say.

The Law of Indirect Effort

There is a law of indirect effort that says you always get things better in life indirectly. This is apparent in relationships.

If you want to impress another, be impressed by them. If you want people to like you, like them. If you want to have a friend, be a friend. If you want to be influential, then do the things that make people like and respect you more.

You always listen most to the people you value and care about. You ignore those whom you do not care about or value.

When you are in a social situation and when you meet several people, remember that every single person there considers herself or himself to be the most important person.

In fact, a mistake that people make is they greet four or five in a group of six or seven people in a social setting, and ignore the others. What this does it devalues and insults the ones left out. Hence, being cognizant of all the people around you, and acknowledging them, shows both tact and appreciation -- two qualities the value of which cannot be underestimated. 

Everything Counts

Everything counts. Everything helps or hurts. Everything adds up or takes away. In life, everything counts. 

How Do You Listen?

The way you listen or fail to listen sends a message that affects the way people think about you, feel about you, and trust you and your ideas. In general, people do not trust people who talk too much and do not listen.

On the other hand, most people like and trust people who listen really well when we talk. The most popular and effective people in every area are good listeners. Listening is a key quality of leadership.

In fact, in a recent study, researchers found that the average top sales leader or manager spends 40 percent or more of the time listening.  

Talking Versus Listening

When you are talking, all you can hear is what you know already; but when you are listening, there is a good chance that you will learn and hear something new and different that you do not know. 

How Do You Listen Effectively?

Listening effectively will have a dramatic effect on your life because it immediately shows the people that you interact with that you care about them and are able to think beyond your own opinion and desires. The more you learn and practice, the more popular and influential you will become. Below are several keys to listening effectively: 

Listen Attentively

Listen without interruption. When you are with a prospect or potential customer, shut the door and eliminate outside distractions; act as though that person is the only thing in the room.

Lean forward and face the person directly. Leaning in when another is speaking enhances and impresses the person that you are fully attentive. Nod, smile, and agree; be fully engaged in the listening process.

This is in direct opposition to the person who listens without any motion or sound. Instead, you look at the person, pay attention, nod, smile, and agree. Look at the person's face, eyes, and mouth. Pay attention as though you are really hanging on every word.

Avoid interjecting or interrupting when you listen. The worst kind of listener is constantly interrupting or mouthing what he or she is going to say without any consideration for the person speaking. He or she already has gotten a response ready and fails to pay any attention.

The best listener listens attentively without any effort at all and any interruption. Instead, he or she just listens.

Rapt attention is the highest form of flattery. When you give a person total attention, you flatter people by telling them that what they say is valuable and important. This in turn means implicitly that they are valuable and important, as well.

Attentive listening raises the blood pressure, respiratory rate, self-esteem, and feelings of value of a person listened to.

When you listen to others intently, they actually feel physically and emotionally good about themselves. When you ignore a person, it is exactly the opposite. Hence, listen closely to the important people in your life.

Listening builds trust, while talking does not.

Build trust by listening attentively to everything your prospect is saying, as though what he or she is saying is the most important thing in the world. 

Pause Before Replying

Allow moments of silence before replying. Every great conversation has three aspects: a period of talking, a period of listening, and a period of silence.

You must allow silence to develop in the conversation. It is only in the pauses that people can absorb and reflect on what is being said by the other person. Do not be uncomfortable with silence, especially in business or sales conversations. Sometimes the silence is the most effective part of the communication.

Pausing avoids the possibility of interrupting, just in case your prospect is organizing thoughts and preparing to come back to you with a response. Pausing enables you to hear better. If someone says something and you respond immediately, you miss some or all of what he or she says. When you pause, the words that the person said to you soaks into a deeper part of the mind and you hear that person and understand better in the silence.

Pausing tells the other person that you are carefully considering his or her words and that what the prospect is saying is valuable and worth considering before you come up with a response. Pausing is one of the most powerful skills and tools that you can use in conversation. 
 

Question for Clarification

Asking questions shows genuine interest in the speaker. It helps the speaker expand upon his or her thoughts and ideas. Be careful to avoid the assumption that you understand completely. Asking questions creates engagement and demonstrates your curiosity, passion, and excitement in the work that your prospect does. It validates your prospect and takes your conversation to another level.

Asking questions also eliminates doubts and confusion. If you are not entirely sure what the person said, or what the person means, you probably did not understand it at all. Pausing and questioning for clarification is a tremendous conversational device. This can make your interaction much stronger and effective.

When you ask a question, you help the person to go into the idea or thought more deeply, which gives the speaker the opportunity to think about more than what he or she just said. Questioning thus offers depth, and also a platform, for deeper conversations. This builds trust, which in turn makes the prospect more comfortable and open to your influence.

A good example of a clarifying question is "How do you mean?" or, "What do you mean?" You can use this question when you are uncertain, but also to deflect concerns or objections such as, "I am not interested," or, "It costs too much." By asking this question, you leave the prospect with no opportunity to refuse. It becomes impossible to not answer, and the person will expand or explain in order to reply or come back with a suggestion.

In addition, you can ask questions such as the five "Ws" and the "H" -- or who, what, when, why, where, and how. For example, a few potential questions are:

  • What are you doing about that now?
  • When will you be taking action?
  • How is that working for you?
  • Who is involved?

Questions like this cannot be left unanswered, so they prompt the prospect into replying. 

The person who asks questions has control. You can take control by asking clear questions. When you listen attentively to the answers, you build trust. 

Paraphrasing

You can feed the responses back, paraphrasing them in your own words. Before you begin to respond in any way, check in with your prospect by paraphrasing. You can say something along these lines: "Let me make sure I understand exactly where you are coming from." This helps to ensure that you and your prospect are on the same page. You can also ask questions such as, "Is that correct?"

After the prospect has confirmed that your paraphrased interpretation is indeed correct, only then can you respond effectively and address the real need.

In many ways, paraphrasing is the acid test of listening, as it proves to the speaker that you were really listening.

A salesperson who fails to truly listen ends up having the opposite effect and thus polarizes the prospect. This is very insulting and makes the person feel as though you are trying to manipulate. On the other hand, paraphrasing puts you in a position to reply and present your case effectively.

Every relationship involves the ability to influence, persuade, or negotiate. These aspects are very similar to a sales presentation.

A sales presentation involves the following four parts:

1. Trust

Forty percent of good selling is building trust. In every relationship, trust is the foundation; build it and then rebuild it at the beginning of every situation.

2. Identifying Needs

Thirty percent of good selling is accurately identifying needs of your prospect, tuning into his or her genuine problems and concerns.

3. Presentation

Twenty percent of selling is presenting your ideas as the best way for the other person to achieve his or her goals.

By building trust, and clearly defining the person's situation, the final 20 percent of actual selling is far easier and more effective.

4. Commitment

The final 10 percent involves checking for understanding, agreement, and commitment. You can ask clarifying commitment questions, such as, "Does it make sense to you so far?" and, "Would you like to go ahead with this?" Asking good questions is important at every stage of the process, especially when you want to influence or persuade the person in some way. 

70/30 Rule

Practice the 70/30 rule in every conversation. This means you spend 70 percent of your time listening and 30 percent of your time talking. When the other person talks 70 percent more, you let that person dominate the talking while you dominate the listening. This shows your attentiveness. While it is easy to talk yourself out of the sale, it is difficult to listen yourself out. 

Areas Where Listening Helps

There are many areas where listening skills can be very powerful communication devices, such as interviewing, giving feedback, dealing with complaints, and in selling. In interviewing, you can ask questions to encourage other persons to talk. Avoid selling your idea, whether it is hiring that person, or telling the person your opinion, until you are ready to buy from that person. In a performance review, when a person is not doing the job well, state your area of concern first and then ask questions. Avoid dumping your concerns on the person. Instead, ask for feedback such as "How do you feel about this situation?" and "What do you think is the next step?" By asking good questions, you can avoid jumping in before you get the true facts.

When you are dealing with complaints from customers and bosses, listen completely without defending. Remember that the person who asks questions has control. If a situation comes up, ask questions, such as, "What happened?" and, "How do you mean?" or, "Can you expand?"  Another good, clarifying question is, "What would you like me to do?"

In selling, when you experience any resistance, ask questions and listen intently to the answer.

Listening Styles

There are four important styles to listening that you need to practice in your everyday life to fully learn them, and practice them in all of your relationships.

Listen to understand, listen to help, reflect on your listening by paraphrasing, and actively listen. When you listen attentively, you can become one of the most influential, appreciated, popular, and successful communicators and salespeople in the world.

 

  • Completely Online
  • Self-Paced
  • Printable Lessons
  • Full HD Video  
  • 6 Months to Complete
  • 24/7 Availability
  • Start Anytime
  • PC & Mac Compatible
  • Android & iOS Friendly
  • Accredited CEUs
Universal Class is an IACET Accredited Provider
 

Course Lessons

Average Lesson Rating:
4.5 / 5 Stars (Average Rating)
"Extraordinarily Helpful"
(1,779 votes)

Lesson 1: Developing a Sales Personality

The best salespeople are individuals who understand, connect with, and engage this basic need in people. Additional lesson topics: A Sales Personality 10 Total Points
  • Lesson 1 Video
  • Lesson discussions: Sales Skills; Reasons for Taking this Course
  • Complete Assignment: An Introduction
  • Assessment: Lesson 1 Exam

Lesson 2: Why Confidence Makes the Difference

Confidence is directly related to having a positive mental attitude. 9 Total Points
  • Lesson 2 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 2 Exam

Lesson 3: Seven Critical Factors for Success in Sales

In this lesson, you will learn how buyers buy, touching upon seven critical factors. You will learn more extensively about prospecting and building rapport. 10 Total Points
  • Lesson 3 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 3 Exam

Lesson 4: How Small Differences Accelerate Growth

When you become just a bit better in one part of your selling process, your entire selling process will improve. 9 Total Points
  • Lesson 4 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 4 Exam

Lesson 5: Knowing What You Have

Having enough credibility enables you to overcome an enormous amount of skepticism. 10 Total Points
  • Lesson 5 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 5 Exam

Lesson 6: Visualizing the Sale

Part of developing a positive mindset involves visualizing your successful sales. 8 Total Points
  • Lesson 6 Video
  • Lesson discussions: Visualization
  • Assessment: Lesson 6 Exam

Lesson 7: Helping Others Get What They Want

To help others get what they want, it is helpful to identify what the needs of your prospect are and then present effective solutions. 9 Total Points
  • Lesson 7 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 7 Exam

Lesson 8: Knowing the Nuts and Bolts of a Sale

Every salesperson must know the basic reasons affecting the customer's experience, the product, or service itself, and how to align the product or service as the perfect solution to the customer's need or problem. 10 Total Points
  • Lesson 8 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 8 Exam

Lesson 9: Overcoming Objections

Successful salespeople face twice as many objections as non-successful salespeople. 8 Total Points
  • Lesson 9 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 9 Exam

Lesson 10: Knowing What Questions to Ask

The best salespeople ask questions often. The very best salespeople are the most skillful and artful at asking questions. 10 Total Points
  • Lesson 10 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 10 Exam

Lesson 11: Successful Closing Techniques: Part 1

How can your prospect use or benefit from the process or service that you offer? Being able to prove that benefit is the critical success factor in getting the order. 9 Total Points
  • Lesson 11 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 11 Exam

Lesson 12: Successful Closing Techniques: Part 2

Closing techniques are varied and dependent upon the prospect and situation. 10 Total Points
  • Lesson 12 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 12 Exam

Lesson 13: Build Your Team for More Sales

There is a large cost associated with maintaining a sales force, and since sales directly link to profitability, many companies strive to maximize sales force effectiveness. Additional lesson topics: How Building A Sales Team Works 5 Total Points
  • Lesson 13 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 13 Exam

Lesson 14: Recruiting for Talent

Sales are essential to running a business, and having the right sales team makes all the difference. 9 Total Points
  • Lesson 14 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 14 Exam

Lesson 15: Designing a Winning Sales Culture

Designing a winning sales culture begins with cultivating positive customer relationships. 10 Total Points
  • Lesson 15 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 15 Exam

Lesson 16: Adapting, Allocating, and Retaining Sales Success

Achieving sales success is very satisfying. Yet maintaining this success requires adaptation, purposeful allocation of resources, and the ability to set and achieve goals. 9 Total Points
  • Lesson 16 Video
  • Lesson discussions: Sales Goals
  • Assessment: Lesson 16 Exam

Lesson 17: Customer Experience

Social media is dynamic and changing, allowing both salespeople and customers to interact in new and novel ways. 8 Total Points
  • Lesson 17 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 17 Exam

Lesson 18: Tools of the Trade

In this lesson, you will learn some of the tools that you can use as a salesperson. 9 Total Points
  • Lesson 18 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 18 Exam

Lesson 19: Conclusion

This course also has introduced the major business principles covering the sales profession that span all disciplines and fields of interest. 84 Total Points
  • Lesson 19 Video
  • Lesson discussions: What is your opinion of this course?; Program Evaluation Follow-up Survey (End of Course); Course Comments
  • Assessment: Lesson 19 Exam
  • Assessment: The Final Exam
246
Total Course Points
 

Learning Outcomes

By successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
  • Summarize developing a sales personality.
  • Describe why confidence makes the difference.
  • Describe seven critical factors for success in sales.
  • Describe how small differences accelerate growth.
  • Summarize knowing what you have as far as the necessary skills to be a successful salesperson.
  • Describe visualizing the sale.
  • Summarize helping others get what they want.
  • Describe knowing the nuts and bolts of a sale.
  • Describe techniques for overcoming objections.
  • Summarize knowing what questions to ask.
  • Define successful closing techniques.
  • Summarize successful closing techniques.
  • Identify ways to build your team for more sales.
  • Describe techniques for recruiting for talent.
  • Recognize how to design a winning sales culture.
  • Identify ways for adapting, allocating, and retaining sales success.
  • Summarize the customer experience.
  • Demonstrate mastery of lesson content at levels of 70% or higher.
 

Additional Course Information

Online CEU Certificate
  • Document Your Lifelong Learning Achievements
  • Earn an Official Certificate Documenting Course Hours and CEUs
  • Verify Your Certificate with a Unique Serial Number Online
  • View and Share Your Certificate Online or Download/Print as PDF
  • Display Your Certificate on Your Resume and Promote Your Achievements Using Social Media
Document Your CEUs on Your Resume
 
Course Title: Mastering Sales Skills 101
Course Number: 7550561
Lessons Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars (1,779 votes)
Languages: English - United States, Canada and other English speaking countries
Availability: This course is online and available in all 50 states including: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas.
Last Updated: January 2024
Course Type: Self-Paced, Online Class
CEU Value: 1.0 IACET CEUs (Continuing Education Units)
CE Accreditation: Universal Class, Inc. has been accredited as an Authorized Provider by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET).
Grading Policy: Earn a final grade of 70% or higher to receive an online/downloadable CEU Certification documenting CEUs earned.
Assessment Method: Lesson assignments and review exams
Instructor: John Chouinard
Syllabus: View Syllabus
Course Fee: $120.00 U.S. dollars

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Student Testimonials

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