About Sales III
About Sales III
Setting Agendas and gaining agreement.
What's your prospect most afraid of? That you will make him uncomfortable by persisting in an argument he wants to end. It's called "being sold to." It's the old-style sales approach, where you browbeat the customer into saying yes. Solution: Set agendas and agreements at the outset - what you plan to cover, what you will be asking of him, what kind of responses you're looking for.
One salesman I know proposes an up-front agreement something like this. "Towards the end of this conversation, most people will either say yes, no, or I'll think about it. Some people are worried that they'll hurt my feelings, or perhaps they have unanswered questions, so they say 'I'll think about it' or 'I'll have to talk with my wife, my boss, etc.' But no is really a good answer, as is yes. Would you be willing to just say yes or no?"
Here's another. A client of mine called a prospect he didn't know. "I'm not interested" said the client, even before my client had introduced the proposition. He repeated "I'm not interested" several times, while my client suggested, in a friendly and reasonable way, that the prospect might at least like to find out what was at stake before he made the judgment. My client persisted where many of us might have just hung up - and the client ultimately listened, and made a key referral. We later decided that, when your client says "I'm not interested" and stays on the phone, he's still interested! You also might agree that it was a super piece of salesmanship!
Handling Concerns.
When a prospect senses they will need to make a decision about something, what concerns come up for him or her? Here are some.
Making a mistake
The unknown
Becoming embarrassed
Your honesty
Owing money
Failing at something
In each case, your prospect is asking for you to help him to get past the concern. If you can, he may access another concern, or he may go straight on to the close.
The Trap.
Responding with denial - "No, it's not too expensive!" Prospect interprets this response as "You're wrong, I'm right." Not many sales get closed by people who are right! Recommendation: Handle each objection the best you can, make the customer right for having brought up the objection, then show him or her a way around the objection. "We have a payment plan." "I can see where you'd think so, but…". It may take you a number of sales calls to learn all the objections that are likely to come up, and devise ways around them. If you're like me, you'll think of what you should have said after the call is finished! Too bad, but write it down and you'll be prepared next time. It won't take you long to become very effective at handling concerns. Remember, each stupid, unreasonable, argumentative concern is a hidden request for solution and a closing.
Here's a structure for handling concerns.
Hear them out, all the way.
Feed it back, just the way they said it.
Question it.
Respond to it.
Confirm that they understand your answer.
Find out if they've gotten completion on the concern. If no, go back to #1; if yes, go to 7 below.
Change the direction and move on.
Closing the sale.
No matter how desperately your customer wants your product or service, he probably won't take it until you invite him to. And the biggest single reason why sales don't get made is that the salesperson doesn't ask the customer for the business. If you don't ask you don't get. Ah, but if you don't ask, you don't get rejected! Of course, you don't get the business either. Call reluctance and closing reluctance are a whole 'nother conversation, coming later. Let's assume you can manage them - here are some closing processes you can try.
How does this sound to you? Would you like to try this? When do you see this getting started?
Would you like to try this?
When do you see this getting started?
Which would you prefer - A or B?
Pro's and Con's. Ask the prospect to write down a list of each. Help with the positives. Don't help with the negatives.
Point out someone who's in a similar position, and how your product or service is benefiting them.
Address the concerns raised, consider each as a buying signal, and then go back to #1.
Closing traps.
When you've asked the closing question, shut up! Let the customer answer it. Your customer has to make a choice, and most customers will look for ways to avoid choosing. Let there be silence after you ask the customer for the business - honor the fact that your customer is choosing. (If you feel the need to clarify or explain, don't! Consider the possibility that your own anxiety about the sale might prompt you to sabotage the customer's decision process.)
Beware of feeling tense, upset or angry when a sale doesn't take place. Diagnosis: This sale was about the wrong person. It was about you and your concerns - it should have been about the customer. Allow yourself to be disappointed that a customer can't or won't accept your proposal. But it's the customer's responsibility to choose for him/herself. Feeling badly, perceiving a no as rejection, or being angry is an emotional process you shouldn't indulge in. You may want the sale and you may have worked hard to generate it, but it's up to the customer, not you, to create the buying action. If you've done your best for the customer, and they won't accept the outcome you offer, recite our mantra - SW, SW, SW, MO - Some Will, Some Won't, So What, Move On!
Managing your pipeline.
At this point, perhaps you are developing your own system of keeping your pipeline full. Your prospects go in your "funnel," you keep a regular measure of the traffic, and you begin to see how this contributes to your personal income. You may wonder whether all the work is worth it - maybe you'll just skip this step. I confess to listening closely to that temptation myself. But, there is no motivation like the sure knowledge that what you are doing will produce results that you want. If you want control of your own motivation, there's nothing like keeping score! You can't win without success, and you can't succeed without failure. If you avoid keeping score, then we know what's going on, don't we!
Call or Closing Resistances.
They exist! They probably exist in you. The first trick is to unmask them. What are the masks? Each of us has our own.
Here are a few:
I'm too busy.
I need a cigarette break, bathroom break, any other break!
I can't find the address, the file, the phone number.
This prospect is too ??? - stupid, poor, dysfunctional, unfocused, annoying.
(Loudly) "Oh, I'm so disorganized!" (Intended to generate pity and sympathy.)
What excuses do you find for yourself?
And the conversation behind the question is the mother lode.
I really don't want to be successful.
Maybe a different job?
I'm Un??? where Un is completed with: worthy, focused, successful, organized, acceptable, and so forth.
When we make excuses for ourselves, we do our best to make them stick and we defend them almost to the death! We will hold as true stuff we know to be untrue - "I'm unsuccessful" is a favorite - just to keep the excuse working. This is a place where a coach can make an enormous difference and help you give up the excuses that stand in the way of the success you really want to be. Hint: 516 944-6454 or craig@craigjennings.com.
Resolve to be a sales master!
Consider what would be possible if you took on becoming a sales master. You're good at it now. And you can get by the way you are. But Mastery is where the money is! As you've read through these newsletters, you've seen that there are two simple issues - take on some processes you already know how to do but don't do, and give up some processes which don't work for you. Would you like to have your business awash with money? You don't have to be the biggest shark in the ocean - but wouldn't it be nice to be the fattest one!
About Sales III - To learn more about this author, visit Craig Jennings's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
This is the third installment of the same topic, picking up where we left off last month. If you're committed to becoming more powerful in the area of sales, you may want to go back to my website, tag "Newsletter Archives" and read the first and second installments - I know I had to!
Setting Agendas and gaining agreement.
What's your prospect most afraid of? That you will make him uncomfortable by persisting in an argument he wants to end. It's called "being sold to." It's the old-style sales approach, where you browbeat the customer into saying yes. Solution: Set agendas and agreements at the outset - what you plan to cover, what you will be asking of him, what kind of responses you're looking for.
One salesman I know proposes an up-front agreement something like this. "Towards the end of this conversation, most people will either say yes, no, or I'll think about it. Some people are worried that they'll hurt my feelings, or perhaps they have unanswered questions, so they say 'I'll think about it' or 'I'll have to talk with my wife, my boss, etc.' But no is really a good answer, as is yes. Would you be willing to just say yes or no?"
Here's another. A client of mine called a prospect he didn't know. "I'm not interested" said the client, even before my client had introduced the proposition. He repeated "I'm not interested" several times, while my client suggested, in a friendly and reasonable way, that the prospect might at least like to find out what was at stake before he made the judgment. My client persisted where many of us might have just hung up - and the client ultimately listened, and made a key referral. We later decided that, when your client says "I'm not interested" and stays on the phone, he's still interested! You also might agree that it was a super piece of salesmanship!
Handling Concerns.
When a prospect senses they will need to make a decision about something, what concerns come up for him or her? Here are some.
Making a mistake
The unknown
Becoming embarrassed
Your honesty
Owing money
Failing at something
In each case, your prospect is asking for you to help him to get past the concern. If you can, he may access another concern, or he may go straight on to the close.
The Trap.
Responding with denial - "No, it's not too expensive!" Prospect interprets this response as "You're wrong, I'm right." Not many sales get closed by people who are right! Recommendation: Handle each objection the best you can, make the customer right for having brought up the objection, then show him or her a way around the objection. "We have a payment plan." "I can see where you'd think so, but…". It may take you a number of sales calls to learn all the objections that are likely to come up, and devise ways around them. If you're like me, you'll think of what you should have said after the call is finished! Too bad, but write it down and you'll be prepared next time. It won't take you long to become very effective at handling concerns. Remember, each stupid, unreasonable, argumentative concern is a hidden request for solution and a closing.
Here's a structure for handling concerns.
Hear them out, all the way.
Feed it back, just the way they said it.
Question it.
Respond to it.
Confirm that they understand your answer.
Find out if they've gotten completion on the concern. If no, go back to #1; if yes, go to 7 below.
Change the direction and move on.
Closing the sale.
No matter how desperately your customer wants your product or service, he probably won't take it until you invite him to. And the biggest single reason why sales don't get made is that the salesperson doesn't ask the customer for the business. If you don't ask you don't get. Ah, but if you don't ask, you don't get rejected! Of course, you don't get the business either. Call reluctance and closing reluctance are a whole 'nother conversation, coming later. Let's assume you can manage them - here are some closing processes you can try.
How does this sound to you? Would you like to try this? When do you see this getting started?
Would you like to try this?
When do you see this getting started?
Which would you prefer - A or B?
Pro's and Con's. Ask the prospect to write down a list of each. Help with the positives. Don't help with the negatives.
Point out someone who's in a similar position, and how your product or service is benefiting them.
Address the concerns raised, consider each as a buying signal, and then go back to #1.
Closing traps.
When you've asked the closing question, shut up! Let the customer answer it. Your customer has to make a choice, and most customers will look for ways to avoid choosing. Let there be silence after you ask the customer for the business - honor the fact that your customer is choosing. (If you feel the need to clarify or explain, don't! Consider the possibility that your own anxiety about the sale might prompt you to sabotage the customer's decision process.)
Beware of feeling tense, upset or angry when a sale doesn't take place. Diagnosis: This sale was about the wrong person. It was about you and your concerns - it should have been about the customer. Allow yourself to be disappointed that a customer can't or won't accept your proposal. But it's the customer's responsibility to choose for him/herself. Feeling badly, perceiving a no as rejection, or being angry is an emotional process you shouldn't indulge in. You may want the sale and you may have worked hard to generate it, but it's up to the customer, not you, to create the buying action. If you've done your best for the customer, and they won't accept the outcome you offer, recite our mantra - SW, SW, SW, MO - Some Will, Some Won't, So What, Move On!
Managing your pipeline.
At this point, perhaps you are developing your own system of keeping your pipeline full. Your prospects go in your "funnel," you keep a regular measure of the traffic, and you begin to see how this contributes to your personal income. You may wonder whether all the work is worth it - maybe you'll just skip this step. I confess to listening closely to that temptation myself. But, there is no motivation like the sure knowledge that what you are doing will produce results that you want. If you want control of your own motivation, there's nothing like keeping score! You can't win without success, and you can't succeed without failure. If you avoid keeping score, then we know what's going on, don't we!
Call or Closing Resistances.
They exist! They probably exist in you. The first trick is to unmask them. What are the masks? Each of us has our own.
Here are a few:
I'm too busy.
I need a cigarette break, bathroom break, any other break!
I can't find the address, the file, the phone number.
This prospect is too ??? - stupid, poor, dysfunctional, unfocused, annoying.
(Loudly) "Oh, I'm so disorganized!" (Intended to generate pity and sympathy.)
What excuses do you find for yourself?
And the conversation behind the question is the mother lode.
I really don't want to be successful.
Maybe a different job?
I'm Un??? where Un is completed with: worthy, focused, successful, organized, acceptable, and so forth.
When we make excuses for ourselves, we do our best to make them stick and we defend them almost to the death! We will hold as true stuff we know to be untrue - "I'm unsuccessful" is a favorite - just to keep the excuse working. This is a place where a coach can make an enormous difference and help you give up the excuses that stand in the way of the success you really want to be. Hint: 516 944-6454 or craig@craigjennings.com.
Resolve to be a sales master!
Consider what would be possible if you took on becoming a sales master. You're good at it now. And you can get by the way you are. But Mastery is where the money is! As you've read through these newsletters, you've seen that there are two simple issues - take on some processes you already know how to do but don't do, and give up some processes which don't work for you. Would you like to have your business awash with money? You don't have to be the biggest shark in the ocean - but wouldn't it be nice to be the fattest one!
About Sales III - To learn more about this author, visit Craig Jennings's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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