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The 9 Cs of Selling

Written by: Jim Muehlhausen

Article Overview: Selling is a tricky game wrought with traps. Even the most experienced salesperson can find themselves falling into them. The 9 C's of Selling is designed to provide a quick framework to better selling. Avoiding the 9 C's can dramatically increase your income and effectiveness.

The 9 Cs of Selling

Selling is a tricky game wrought with traps. The nine C’s of selling is designed to point you in the right direction and steer you away from the traps. The nine C’s are:

1. Clarify

• Prospect use all kinds of terms that need to be better defined. If a prospect says, “Looks, interesting.” What does that mean? What does “we will be making a buying decision soon” mean? Does their definition of “soon” equal the same as yours? You know what your definition of “buying decision” means. Most likely, the buyer’s version of “buying decision” is different.

• Pretend you are stupid and don’t know what anything means. This will put you and the buyer on the same page. You need to find yourself saying, “What does good deal mean?”

2. Challenge

• No wimps allowed in sales. Challenge your prospect. Properly challenging a prospect can be tricky. Many salespeople wimp out because they cannot find an appropriate way to challenge the prospect without seeming pushy. The easiest way to challenge without being pushy is to challenge the prospects indecisiveness, not their decision to buy from you.

• If you challenge the prospect to buy from you, you will look biased and will be disregarded. Solutions based selling and consultative selling are based upon this. That is, you should be helping the prospect make the best business decision. However, these techniques stop short. They fail to convert the buyer too often. Challenge the prospect to make a yes/no decision each step of the way. This may not be a yes/no to purchase; it is simply a yes/no to take the logical next step. You must

have a clear picture of what the next step should be. Don’t let the prospect off the hook without a yes/no to this next step.

3. Counter-intuitive

• Good selling using a counter-intuitive or reverse psychology approach. You are seriously underestimating your prospect if you think that straightforward sales moves from 1950 will persuade them. Instead, come in the back door to help move your prospect off dead-center. Here are some examples of how:
Objection Typical response Better response
Don’t really need it Sure you do. (salesperson then lists all the reasons he feels the prospect needs it) That makes sense. What make you say that?
Need additional features Something that sounds like "let me tell you why it is fine the way it is" Like…..?
Price too high Our competition is even more expensive. Or, our competition has bad quality Isn’t the price always too high? What makes you say that?
Not the right time to buy When should I follow up with you Of course it is. I have not given you enough information yet.


4. Confident

• A good salesperson is confident and displays it to the prospect. No one wants to buy anything from a mealy-mouthed salesperson. Even if you don’t feel confident, remember Mary Kay Ash’s saying, “Fake it ‘til you make it.”





5. Contract the variables

• The prospect’s “game” is to keep things ambiguous. This keeps them in control. Your job is to get things black and white. This will put you in control. No sale is ever consummated with something in ambiguity. To assist you in getting things black and white, strip away variables. For instance, consider the following scenario. Bob is the buyer for ABC Electronics. You are trying to sell Bob a maintenance contract

for ABC’s copiers. Bob says, “Your contract looks good. We need to talk to some of the copier users to gather their input. I think this makes sense if we decide not to purchase new units. Send me your proposal so I can review the terms.”

• First, Bob’s statement is incredible ambiguous. If you think you are getting anywhere with Bob, you are wrong! Let’s analyze all the variables:
o What does “looks good” mean. Which parts look good?
o Some users. How many? Who?
o Gather input? Is there something we can help with? Is there something we did not say?
o What does “makes sense” mean? Does the budget exist? What is the time frame to make a decision? Who are the other decision makers? Is Bob just another decision-maker or an influencer?

• Strip away the variables by asking Bob, “If the decision were totally up to you, what would you recommend?” Alternatively, you can ask Bob, “Let’s assume you do not buy new copiers (take it away), does our proposal make sense?”


6. Crystal ball

• You cannot read the prospect’s mind. This is similar to not knowing the definition of words, but stop guessing what the prospect is thinking, saying, meaning, or doing. You DON’T know! You are guessing. Guessing will lose you the sale.

• If you find yourself saying any of the following, you are using the crystal ball:
o I am sure they will buy
o They love our product (if the prospect has not said these words exactly)
o They seemed very interested
o She likes our price
o They were impressed with our quality
o I feel good about this one
o Bob is the only decision-maker

7. Courage

• You must have guts to ask the tough questions. You must have the guts to hang in there even when the call gets uncomfortable. You have to be courageous. Your prospects will respect you more and you will close more sales.


8. Conscious

• You need to be conscious of what is really going on in the sales call. Far too many salespeople are so concerned with their presentation that they miss all the signals the prospects gives off. Get in tune with your intuition. If you sense something going on with the prospect, you are probably right. Pay attention to the intuition. Challenge the prospect on it. For instance:
o If the prospect’s body language is stand-offish, say, “Have I made you uncomfortable?”
o If the prospect looks or feels rushed, say, “It looks like we are running out of time.”
o If the prospect says, “Looks good” but you don’t think they mean it, say, “Come on, it is way too early in the process to feel that way. Tell me what you don’t like.”

9. Commitment Test

• One of the primary differences between successful salespeople and unsuccessful salespeople is their ability to get a yes or no answer. If you let the prospect off the hook by being ambiguous, you will not have a buyer. The best way to “test” your clients maybe’s is to issue a commitment test. This is a simple move. You set up a very small hurdle for the client and see if they will jump over. The point is that they should jump over if they are on the path to buy. If they are not on the path to buy, they will fail the commitment test and you can re-begin your selling. Samples of little commitment tests are:
o Set an actual appointment time rather than agree to follow up later
o Ask for a small deposit or payment
o Ask for a P.O.
o Ask to speak to other decision-makers
o Ask for data files or other information needed to move the sale forward
o Ask what the logical next step is

For additional information on peer sales skill training, visit www.salesteamusa.com You can learn more about Jim Muehlhausen at www.ceofocus.com/groupleader.htm

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