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Don’t Lose The Sale Before You’ve Even Started

Don't Lose The Sale

Selling is all about helping people make better buying decisions. The trouble is too many salespeople fall into the trap of following their own agenda and end up in a repeated pitch cycle. The buyer stalls and the process quickly loses momentum. They move onto the next opportunity and repeat…

I love to see salespeople take stock of each opportunity, learn from it and improve before the next opportunity. That’s why I’m a sales trainer!

Everyone is busy and short on time so we need practical, easy to digest sales development that gets results. Here’s some questions to work through to help you, as a modern day sales person ensure you quickly demonstrate the behaviours your buyers will respond to. As a result there will be action from both parties- not just you! Ask yourself the following and commit to PROVING:

How can you avoid leading with your company’s product, ensuring you pull back from being in presentation mode?

Establish the understanding level:  re-examine the brief. Do they still have the same objectives? Is there an order of priority with the objectives? Has anything changed since the appointment was set? (Irrespective of how long ago or recently the appointment was set.)

Having established the agenda how can you ensure you have buy-in?

How can you remember to exercise more good listening –this way you come across as a professional problem solver- able to identify real issues and understand more?

How do you come across from the buyer’s perspective: are you there to help or to get something from the conversation?

Is the idea you are suggesting of value and positioned uniquely for the buyer, solving a problem and/ or creating an opportunity?

How can you avoid sounding like you are pitching something as opposed to improving the buyer’s situation and working with them as a partner?

Are you clear on your proposal/ offer and is the buyer clear too? If so are you confident to get their commitment and take action? (Close!)

What concerns might they have and how are you going to answer them?

If you have to give a proposal/ quote have you clarified exactly what they need to see, what is most important to them? There should never be ANYTHING included in a proposal that you have not previously discussed.

I appreciate while reading this it’s easy to say that you know all these things. The way to use this information to your advantage is to look at each point and say “OK so I know it but how will I demonstrate it in this conversation?” or, if you don’t already “how will I do it?”

Apply these principles and they will want to do business with you!

Please share your tips/ questions that help you stay focussed on the buyer’s agenda avoiding the dreaded but all too common product pitch.

Get answers to your sales challenges here.

 
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6 Ways to Make Follow -Up Work For You in Sales

Martyn Sloman Speaker Business Show

Professional Persistence

Here are some easy ways to increase the odds of being able to continue the conversations with your clients and Prospects while remaining professionally persistent:

Direct Contact:

Have you got their direct dial number or do you rely on being put through by switchboard? Even better have you got their mobile number- if you are using a CRM system and that field is blank you should see that as an objective to complete. Get in the habit of asking for mobile numbers while you are in the current conversation with your Prospect. Ask in a matter of fact, natural way and you’ll get it.

Make It Easy For Them

Getting their mobile number also creates a further opportunity- texting! Some people are so crazy busy the reason they haven’t responded to you is because they are stacked up with deadlines. Give them a quick text with a simple request and they respond in kind: For example: “Hi Jenny, how did the conversation go with the Operations Director?”

Jenny replies “I’m so sorry I haven’t got back to you- mega busy here, now meeting with Dave on Tuesday- can you call me Wednesday?”

Don’t Blame!

Avoid starting a conversation/ e mail/ text with “We were due to speak last Tuesday…” This just creates a barrier. Instead take that awkwardness away: “I know how busy things get there so let’s schedule a time to pick up our conversation. I’ll call you Thursday at 2pm, or let me know if you’d like to arrange another option…”

Ask Them

Find out what their preferred method of contact is. They may spend time on LinkedIn so send a LinkedIn message. Do it when you see they’ve just posted something or commented. It could even be something as simple as “are you at your desk- can I give you a call?”

Variety

Use a variety of the above spaced out over a period of time, call the direct number, don’t leave a message, a few tries later do leave a message, send a text, play with the days and times you call.

Let Them Tell You

Schedule the next action by asking their opinion: “when will you have the opportunity to review the quote/ proposal?” “When will you have a chance to speak to your colleagues?” “When would be best for us to pick up the conversation?” They will tell you and you can arrange a phone appointment / confirm the next action.

There are always going to be challenges in business which mean the opportunities we are working on don’t take a straightforward direction however we can increase the odds of success by ensuring we are aligned with the Prospect’s objectives. The more compelling reasons they have to consider the solution because you have found a problem you can solve together- the better!

What do you find works for you when following up? What was useful for you in this article? Please comment and share with your connections that you feel would appreciate the content.

Get answers to your Sales Challenges, check out my online E-learning Course

 
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A Great Sales Closing Technique – The Rule Of Three

Closing Technique –The Rule of Three.

Here’s a way to help your Prospect make the decision to commit to your offer/ proposal/ quote. This is assuming what you are suggesting solves a problem for them and you have discussed the issues it creates for them/ their business.

The first thing is as the salesperson you must believe personally it’s the best course of action/ solution! Do this each time with each opportunity.

Next you need to remember we are all human and we have a tendency to put off decisions unless there are consequences which will make us uncomfortable if we don’t act. Our Prospect is more likely to behave this way too.

So as well as exploring the reasons why the Prospect should act we should also investigate the reasons why they might NOT!

Let’s imagine you sell machinery and spares that form part of a manufacturing process. You’re a potential new supplier looking to secure the first order.

The kind of question you can ask might be: “OK so we’ve discussed how my business can help you. What will your options be if you don’t do this?”

Then keep quiet. Let them have time to respond.

The Prospect replies: “Well, we’ve looked at this a couple of times in the past so I guess we could just carry on as we are…”

This is good news because they’ve just told you an inner thought which they might not have shared unless asked.

Agree!

You could respond: “That’s true; it’s what you’ve done so far….”

This isn’t a case of who is right and who is wrong but it would feel that way if we try to re-position our solution too quickly. So we just acknowledge what they’ve just said. It doesn’t seem a typical salesperson thing to do and they will appreciate that. Next you continue:

“…how do you feel about the issues that would cause?”

We buy emotionally so we need to ask how they feel.

Prospect: “I reckon we’ve got to do something about it and what you’re offering seems pretty reasonable…”

You: “Great, let’s get started then…”

OR they say:

“It seems to make sense but it’s more of an initial outlay.”

You: “Yes, this way you’ll be purchasing fewer replacements. And that means there’s less down time as you’re not disrupting production swapping parts out. Plus the time to do routine maintenance is less due to the fact there are less pieces to take out and re- assemble. Let’s get started! ”

Three Reasons

The above response contains three reasons, three bits of value. It’s important to state three reasons because if we are to help the Prospect make the decision to move from status quo it needs to far outweigh the reason to stay as they are. Also we haven’t been faced with a cost objection unless we turn it into one! When they said “It’s more of an initial outlay…” that was just a statement of fact. It IS more of an initial outlay but that’s fine because of the gains they will receive.

When proposing, quoting, asking for business, with each opportunity, if you’ve got 3 reasons that the Prospect has given you in their own words earlier in the conversation you just need to remind them!

So, the process in this example is:

  • “what are your options?”
  • Agree
  • Deliver 3 reasons
  • Action statement (Close.)

Does this seem like we are stating the obvious? Good, because repetition and re-phrasing helps to re-inforce and it might be that the Prospect needs to hear it a few times in different ways to be convinced! Plus it could be that they are considering very similar options yet they choose to place the business with you because you were more convincing.

Be confident when using this approach and it will work! What piece of this blog has been helpful for you?

Would you like to see if I can help you further? Arrange a no obligation chat with me HERE.