Do You Have The Sales Willy Nilly's?
Does making a sales call make your stomach turn
? Do you find yourself all willy nilly? Have you tried, just once - asking that one key question and making the sale? Right now, I am going to show you how to get yourself out of the willy nilly's and ask the question.
First, what do you sell? Are you clear on that? Maybe you sell carpeting, or autos or insurance or money. BUT, that is NOT what you SELL. Get clear on that right now. You do not sell the product!
You sell solutions to customers. You have to KNOW what your customer needs and wants. What is their pain point?
Some industries are highly regulated and have significant limitations on how they can sell. It adds to the learning curve, how to sell within your guidelines and industry regulations, but it is totally possible.
If you are like many sales people, then you know your product. You know it inside out, upside down and sideways. You know every feature. But when you are going through all of this with your potential client what you are forgetting is - what do they want to know, what do they care about. Jeffrey Fox (2000), in his book "How to Become a Rainmaker", shares a story that illustrates just this. A wine dealer wanted to get his line of wines into a fine New York restaurant. The chef and owner only sold expensive French wines and these were inexpensive local wines. What the "Rainmaker" did was to sell the fact that customers were requesting the wines from the waiters AND, that by adding them the owner would benefit by more than $200 per week.
The sales person was actually selling money, not wine. Know what you are selling. Are you selling increased revenue, or safety or future income when you retire?
What do you sell?
Sales people are very smart and know every feature and benefit of their product but if they get stuck in all of the nitty gritty details of the product or service most likely you are losing the sale. How? You have missed your opportunity to find out WHAT the customer wants to know. You have missed your chance to ASK the question. Once you have "thrown up" all of your info, the customer has already turned you off and moved on. You cannot recover. What you have done is over-talked and that has talked you right out of the sale!
Stop yourself right at the very beginning and ask the question. You need information, you need to know what the customer wants, what they need and what is important to them, what do they care about?
There are three great strategies for asking questions and resulting in more sales.
1. Be Probing - It doesn't sound good but it is a very important strategy. If you have been in sales and participated in hours of sales training, then you know this strategy - or do you? Has it become mundane for you? This can be where you skip right into your info jabber, instead of sitting back and slowly asking and listening.
Being an active listener and prober can be your make or break moment. Don't try to come back to this step, start here. It is the hardest thing to do. What we are all most comfortable with is sharing our info, showing we know our stuff. We think that will get them to buy, but no one is buying if they think that you do not understand their needs/wants/cares and if you don't take the time to listen. This is how you get to the bottom line.
2. Hear Each Objection and Restate It - by doing this you are able to increase your understanding and further clarify their wants.
Simple, and yet baffles many. By re-stating objections you can also re-frame them. But, don't be patronizing, or act like you weren't listening. Clarify what their concerns really are.
When objections occur, listen to it and find a place where you can agree. When there is an objection, handle it. Handle it with an agreement, understanding, by restating the objection and showing your understanding with how you agree. When you can agree with the objection and then share your solution, you have made progress.
3. Be the Solution - Solve the customer's problems. You need to offer solutions. DO NOT make excuses. DO NOT talk down your competition. This is about THEM and what YOU have to offer.
You never want to put the competition down. Your customer has probably worked with them and is trying to figure out WHY to switch. You don't gain respect by putting them down. It insults your customer.
You gain your edge by providing the solution, and demonstrating your real world answer to their problem. Don't brush past it, ignore it, or downplay its importance. If the customer has an objection; offer a real solution.
Learn with each sales call. Take notes and figure out what each customer is looking for. Your task is to help your customer by offering solutions. When you listen, and hear their objections and address them through solutions you build trust and customers let down their guard and engage.
Making the sale is about learning what customers want and need, listening, dealing with objections and then ASKING for the sale. This last step is critical because many, many sales people fail here. They just don't ASK, and the sale is lost at the last minute.
by: Donna Price
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