Class Takeaways — The Fundamentals of Effective Selling

Hi, I'm Jim Latin, professor of marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. And I'm Barry Ryan, Lecturer at the GSB. We teach a course called the Fundamentals of Effective Selling. Here are five key takeaways from our course.

大家好，我是斯坦福商学院的市场营销教授吉姆·拉丁（Jim Latin）。我是巴里·瑞恩（Barry Ryan）教授的助教，我们一起教授一门名为《有效销售的基本原则》的课程。以下是我们课程的五个关键要点。

Creative sales is about discovery. We need to learn what is important to a customer. We need to learn about the negative consequences of the customer's current situation and understand the customer's thinking about what might constitute an ideal solution. With this information, we can drive a wedge that is create a stark contrast between the customer's current situation and their ideal, and then map our product onto the customer's ideal solution.

创造性销售是关于发现。我们需要了解客户对什么是重要的。我们需要了解客户目前情况的负面后果，并理解客户对理想解决方案的思考。有了这些信息，我们可以构建一个强烈对比客户当前情况和他们理想的方法，并将我们的产品与客户的理想解决方案相结合。

It turns out that many people are reluctant to ask questions, or they just haven't been trained to ask effective questions. Instead of being curious, they make assumptions without exploring the points of view expressed by the customer. Going to be authentically curious is critical for effective selling.

事实证明，许多人不愿意提问问题，或者他们只是没有被训练过如何提出有效的问题。他们没有保持好奇心，而是在没有探索客户所表达的观点的情况下做出假设。保持真正的好奇心对于有效的销售至关重要。

Now you don't get good at sales by reading a book. I have over 35 years of experience as a sales trainer and consultant, and I am firmly convinced that effective selling comes from skills that can be learned, but that must be practiced. While MBA students are accustomed to learning by reading books and analyzing case studies, my approach leans much more heavily on small group exercises and lots of role plays. For example, we have students create a value-based prospecting script that they will use when cold calling prospects. The students learn by presenting to each other and discussing what is effective, but in the end, they come away with ideas of how they would do things differently. Our goal is to help the students develop the confidence they need to apply all selling skills.

现在你不会通过读书来擅长销售。作为一名销售培训师和顾问，我有超过35年的经验，并且坚信有效的销售技巧是可以学习的，但必须通过实践来练习。虽然MBA学生习惯于通过阅读书籍和分析案例研究来学习，但我的方法更侧重于小组练习和大量角色扮演。例如，我们让学生创建一个价值导向的潜在客户脚本，在给潜在客户冷电话时使用。学生通过向彼此展示并讨论哪些方法有效来进行学习，但最终，他们会得到如何以不同方式做事的想法。我们的目标是帮助学生发展他们所需的自信，应用所有的销售技巧。

A lot of sales comes down to getting the answer to these two questions. Is there a real deal here, and can we get a deal done? The process used in sales to get the answers to these two questions is called qualification. We can use questions such as, where does this project fall on your list of key business priorities in order to get some insight into whether the customer is serious about a deal? But when it comes to understanding how to get a deal done, it is absolutely essential to understand the customer's decision-making process. Effective salespeople know that each customer has a unique set of steps they go through in deciding on a course of action. It's like the hurdles in track and field in which a runner has to clear a number of obstacles in order to reach the finish line. It's the job of sales to use curiosity to identify each hurdle and discover what it will take to clear each obstacle successfully and move on to the next stage.

很多销售的关键在于解答以下两个问题：这里有真正的机会吗？我们能否成功达成交易？销售中用于回答这两个问题的过程被称为资格认定。我们可以通过提问，比如这个项目在你的关键业务优先事项清单中处于什么位置，以便获得一些了解客户是否对交易认真的线索。但是，要了解如何达成交易，了解客户的决策过程绝对是至关重要的。有效的销售人员知道每个客户在决定行动方向时都会经历一套独特的步骤。就像田径比赛中的障碍一样，参赛者必须跃过多个障碍才能到达终点。销售的工作是利用好奇心来识别每一个障碍，并发现解决每个障碍和顺利进入下一个阶段所需的方法。

Now students might get nervous about the prospect of closing a deal because they may fear rejection or because they're just unsure how to close a sale. We know closing is just being curious about how to get a deal done. To help them get more comfortable, we put them through a series of role play exercises in which one student, the sales rep, tries to close the deal and another student, the customer, raises objections. Instead of thinking of an objection as an obstacle that needs to be overcome or beaten down, we encourage the students to think of an objection really as a gift. It's an opportunity to understand the customer's thinking and discover what might stand in the way of getting a deal done.

现在学生们可能会对结束一笔交易感到紧张，因为他们可能害怕被拒绝，或者只是不确定如何结束销售。我们知道结束实际上只是对如何完成交易感到好奇。为了帮助他们更加自信，我们让他们参与一系列角色扮演练习，其中一名学生充当销售代表，努力完成交易，另一名学生扮演顾客，提出异议。我们鼓励学生们将异议视为一份礼物，而不是需要克服或击败的障碍。这是了解客户思维和发现可能阻碍达成交易的机会。

Most of our students say that they don't intend to go into a traditional sales role and yet they take our class because they're convinced that the process and the skill set will be useful in all types of selling contexts. For example, aspiring entrepreneurs are essentially selling their ideas to investors. We've heard many success stories from students who have used a curiosity-based approach to fundraising and students looking for an employment opportunity are essentially selling themselves. They can use a curiosity-based process to learn about a company, discover an executive's priorities and really create the ideal job where none existed. Learning and practicing curiosity-based selling can help anyone further their vision and accomplish their goals.

大部分学生都表示不打算从事传统销售工作，然而他们选择参加我们的课程是因为他们相信这个过程和技能将在各种销售环境中都很有用。例如，有抱负的企业家基本上是将自己的创意卖给投资者。我们听到很多学生的成功故事，他们利用基于好奇心的方法进行筹款，而那些寻找就业机会的学生本质上是在推销自己。他们可以使用基于好奇心的流程来了解公司，发现高管的优先事项，并真正创造出一个在原先不存在的理想职位。学习和实践基于好奇心的销售可以帮助任何人进一步实现他们的愿景并实现自己的目标。

Barry and I are so complimentary. You like to fish. Well, you don't, but you're going to like a lot more fishing. I think Barry could get me out fishing. I'd look forward to that. What about motorcycle riding or ATV in?.

巴里和我互补性很强。你喜欢钓鱼。嗯，事实上你并不喜欢，但你将会更加喜欢钓鱼。我觉得巴里可以带我出去钓鱼。我期待着这一点。那摩托车骑行或者骑越野车呢？