Close the Funnel, Open the Tunnel to Win More Sales
Close the Funnel, Open the Tunnel to Win More Sales
For many years, delivering good products and services was enough to generate fair to strong customer loyalty even when buyers or purchasing agents changed. The belief was If it was good enough for so and so, it is good enough for me. Finding a new supplier is way too time consuming and I have other responsibilities.
Enter the Internet. Now with the click of the mouse, your loyal customer or potential customer can find another vendor to meet her or his needs. Sales professionals now must switch from the old tradition of selling just my products or services to sharing value intense information. Through this sharing, the sales professional is now engaged in relationship selling.
Relationship selling has many definitions depending upon the sales guru. Yet, I believe the essence of relationship selling is to become the trusted advisor to your clients. In relationship selling, you become The go to person who understands the marketplace and can make positive recommendations for your customers and even potential qualified customers (prospects).
To become that trusted advisor means that you must demonstrate value through your expertise, your knowledge. In other words, your goal is not about making or closing the sale as it is about educating your customer with value that he or she cannot find anywhere else.
Envision, if you would for a moment, a long dark tunnel. You and your qualified potential customer (qualified prospect) are at the opening of this tunnel. The two of you start walking side by side into this dark and even somewhat scary tunnel. Inside, you learn what is frightening your potential customer and provide reassurance that you not only understand, but can help him or her through those terrifying and most challenging issues. As you continue walking, you begin to leave the role of salesperson and embrace the role of trusted advisor. During this process, the two of you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This light is generated by your products and services along with the other information that you have provided in your role as trusted advisor.
There are several differences between the funnel and the tunnel. One difference is of time. Of course because you are actively engaged with your potential qualified customers, you will be investing more time. This investment of time demands that you have done your due diligence in separating the suspects from the qualified prospects or qualified potential customers so that your time investment is recovered in the form of an earned sale.
Another difference between the funnel and the tunnel is the issue of giving something away for free. During this process of education, you may have to give away something of value to receive something of greater value. Depending upon your industry, your target market, what you give away will vary. For example, one of my sales coaching clients is in the food manufacturing industry. She consistently gives away a significant sample of her product that being a soup base stock to qualified potential customers. This give-a-way along with the supporting education from her sales team helps to deliver a significant sales conversion success rate.
A third difference is that in the tunnel you may begin the journey with just one individual. However, because he or she may not be the ultimate decision-maker, but a significant player within the decision making process, you may find yourself walking with another individual. Only you know from your initial meeting or contact if you should begin this journey through the tunnel with someone who is not the ultimate decision-maker.
Relationship selling using an education based marketing approach appears to be a better way to win more sales provided you switch from a funnel marketing strategy to a tunnel one. By changing your paradigm, you may find yourself not only richer in dollars, but even richer in authentic relationships.
Close the Funnel Open the Tunnel to Win More Sales - To learn more about this author, visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website.
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Most sales professionals have been exposed to the funnel concept. A business through its marketing action plan has a marketing funnel in which all the leads are fall into. From this funnel, the goal is to get the leads into the sales funnel (earned sales) and that leads to the financial funnel (paid invoices). The funnel concept is a very good visual and has been quite successful in achieving the goal to increase sales. However, I believe a new visual is needed to support today’s marketplace because the premise of the funnel (given enough leads into your funnel gravity will take over) has a tendency to ignore what is happening in today’s marketplace more than ever before.
For many years, delivering good products and services was enough to generate fair to strong customer loyalty even when buyers or purchasing agents changed. The belief was If it was good enough for so and so, it is good enough for me. Finding a new supplier is way too time consuming and I have other responsibilities.
Enter the Internet. Now with the click of the mouse, your loyal customer or potential customer can find another vendor to meet her or his needs. Sales professionals now must switch from the old tradition of selling just my products or services to sharing value intense information. Through this sharing, the sales professional is now engaged in relationship selling.
Relationship selling has many definitions depending upon the sales guru. Yet, I believe the essence of relationship selling is to become the trusted advisor to your clients. In relationship selling, you become The go to person who understands the marketplace and can make positive recommendations for your customers and even potential qualified customers (prospects).
To become that trusted advisor means that you must demonstrate value through your expertise, your knowledge. In other words, your goal is not about making or closing the sale as it is about educating your customer with value that he or she cannot find anywhere else.
Envision, if you would for a moment, a long dark tunnel. You and your qualified potential customer (qualified prospect) are at the opening of this tunnel. The two of you start walking side by side into this dark and even somewhat scary tunnel. Inside, you learn what is frightening your potential customer and provide reassurance that you not only understand, but can help him or her through those terrifying and most challenging issues. As you continue walking, you begin to leave the role of salesperson and embrace the role of trusted advisor. During this process, the two of you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This light is generated by your products and services along with the other information that you have provided in your role as trusted advisor.
There are several differences between the funnel and the tunnel. One difference is of time. Of course because you are actively engaged with your potential qualified customers, you will be investing more time. This investment of time demands that you have done your due diligence in separating the suspects from the qualified prospects or qualified potential customers so that your time investment is recovered in the form of an earned sale.
Another difference between the funnel and the tunnel is the issue of giving something away for free. During this process of education, you may have to give away something of value to receive something of greater value. Depending upon your industry, your target market, what you give away will vary. For example, one of my sales coaching clients is in the food manufacturing industry. She consistently gives away a significant sample of her product that being a soup base stock to qualified potential customers. This give-a-way along with the supporting education from her sales team helps to deliver a significant sales conversion success rate.
A third difference is that in the tunnel you may begin the journey with just one individual. However, because he or she may not be the ultimate decision-maker, but a significant player within the decision making process, you may find yourself walking with another individual. Only you know from your initial meeting or contact if you should begin this journey through the tunnel with someone who is not the ultimate decision-maker.
Relationship selling using an education based marketing approach appears to be a better way to win more sales provided you switch from a funnel marketing strategy to a tunnel one. By changing your paradigm, you may find yourself not only richer in dollars, but even richer in authentic relationships.
Close the Funnel Open the Tunnel to Win More Sales - To learn more about this author, visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith'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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