“I am Sam. Sam I am. Do you like green eggs and ham? Would you like them here or there? Would you like them in a box, would you like them with a fox?”
I think most people have read this Dr. Seuss tale either as kids or to their children. What is interesting is the relevance this story has to selling. First of all, Sam is selling a product and although his prospect is not initially interested, Sam doesn’t let that deter him from asking. Secondly, Sam consistently offers the prospect a choice when trying to close the sale. Thirdly, he refuses to give up. No matter how many times his prospect says ‘no’ Sam keeps offering alternatives. In fact, he offers fourteen options before he finally closes the sale.
Now, I am not suggesting that you pester your customers or prospects but I do believe most people give up too early in the sales process. We hear a few “no’s” and decide to turn our attention elsewhere. It is your responsibility as a sales professional to ask the customer to make a decision - you cannot expect a customer to do the work for you. If you have been effective in learning about their specific needs and current situation and presented the appropriate solution to your prospect then you have earned the right to ask them for their money. Here are a few ideas that will help you reach this point:
Avoid launching into a lengthy discussion of what you can do for your client until you thoroughly understand what business challenges they face and the problems, concerns or issues they need resolved. Use open questioning to gather this information and avoid making assumptions or jumping to conclusions too quickly. Instead, listen carefully to what they say and clarify anything that is not clear. Ask them to elaborate by using prompters such as “uh-huh,” “tell me more,” and “what else?” Read the rest of this entry »
September 8th, 2007 in
Sales | tags:
Persistence |
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A conversation:
The Salesperson: “I don’t cold call—I want to build relationships.”
Wendy: “Huh?”
Recently I’ve had a number of conversations with sales professionals and entrepreneurs who tell me they do not cold call because they want to build relationships with prospects.
I’m confused.
Who says the two are mutually exclusive?
Every relationship whether business or personal begins somewhere. Everyone whom you currently know, your significant other, your colleagues at work, your friends, or your neighbors were unknown to you at one time. Then, somehow, you met and over time formed a relationship. It takes time.
In sales there are many ways to contact and reach out to new prospects. There’s direct mail, networking, referrals, trade shows, the internet, public speaking and writing articles. And yes, there is calling prospects on the telephone. These are all ways to introduce yourself, your company and your product or service to potential customers.
The telephone introduction is incredibly direct, easy, efficient and inexpensive. First you target your market and then you introduce yourself to the decision-maker. That’s one of the reasons I prefer the term “introductory calling” to “cold calling.” The call is an introduction. It is not a sale or a relationship.
However you initially meet a prospect, after that introduction, you still must take all of the necessary steps to build a relationship. With every prospect that you encounter, however you first encounter them, at some point you will have to pick up the telephone and call them. If at that point you do not represent yourself effectively and articulately, you will not move to the next step. This means that even if you are calling a prospect who did not originate with a phone call, you will need to do all of the same preparation that you would do if that prospect were a total stranger and you were calling for the first time! You would still have to determine how you want to represent yourself, what points you want to make and what is the goal of your conversation.
Every sale has a cycle with four steps. The cycle could be longer or shorter depending on the product or service, the market and/or your skill level, but you must go through every step of your sales cycle. Most sales cycles go something like this: The first step is always the introduction. This could be a phone call, it could be a letter or an e-mail, but somehow the prospect must become aware of you. Usually the next step is a meeting (or sometimes a series of meetings) or an extended conversation (or a series of conversations.) You personally introduce yourself and whatever you are selling to your prospect and you learn more about the prospect company. From there, if all goes well, you move to the proposal step. This proposal can be verbal and as simple as explaining your services and fees or it could be a more complex written proposal. The last step of this particular cycle is the close, when your prospect accepts your proposal. This process could happen in a day—or it could take a year, but however long it takes you will never skip any of the steps.
The mistake most people make is in not understanding the steps of the sales cycle and that you must pass through each step to get to the next. The introductory call does not lead directly to the close. What that introductory call does is easily and quickly get you directly in front of your prospect to begin your sales cycle. You will still have to put in all of the work to show your prospect how you can help. And you will still have to put in all of the work to build a relationship with that prospect.
Many people do a lot of time-consuming, expensive things to first meet prospects so that they can later follow up with a phone call. My suggestion: Simply call. It saves time and it saves money.
© 2004 Wendy Weiss
Wendy Weiss, The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success, is a sales trainer, author and sales coach. She is the author of Cold Calling for Women and the recently released Cold Calling College. Get her free e-zine at http://www.wendyweiss.com.
These 4 marketing myths can cause you to lose sales if you base your marketing decisions on them. But the related marketing tips I included with each myth will boost your sales if you act on them instead.
Myth 1: People Always Buy Where They Get the Cheapest Price
If this was true, only businesses that charge cheap prices would exist. Some people buy where they get the cheapest price. But most people are more interested in getting value for their money than in getting a bargain.
Tip: Look for some low-cost ways you can enhance the perceived value of your product or service. Then test raising your price. Don’t be surprised if both your sales and your profit margin go up.
Myth 2: Offering Your Customers Many Options Will Boost Your Sales
Presenting your customers with options usually reduces your sales. Here’s why…
When confronted with several options, most customers have difficulty making a clear decision. They often react by procrastinating - and never making a decision. When this happens, you lose a sale you already had.
Tip: Try to limit your customer’s decision making to either “Yes. I’ll buy.” or “No. I won’t buy”. Don’t risk losing them by including “which one” decisions. Read the rest of this entry »
A lot of effort is put into getting new clients. We all know our client base will change. Previous clients can move to a new area, sell their business, close down, or change their priorities. So finding new business is always important - but so is keeping your previous clients. Here are nine ways to keep previous clients coming back for more!
1) Provide exceptional service. Sounds obvious, but is very hard to do consistently. If clients believe they can’t do better elsewhere, they won’t succumb to the temptation of trying another provider.
2) Maintain your database. This can be as simple or complex as you like. Just make sure it meets the needs of your business. You must have suitable contact details, and preferably some measure of sales value. For example, I use email extensively with my clients, so having current email addresses is paramount. But I have clients who must use regular postal mail to communicate with their clients, as their clients do not widely use email. So postal address details are critical in their situation.
3) Use direct mail. This is your pipeline to future sales. Create regular opportunities to communicate directly with your previous clients, especially if your service has a long sales cycle. Keep in touch between purchase decisions. Read the rest of this entry »
Trade Show attendees beg - do not sell me, persuade me.
They plea - Do not force me to buy something I will be sorry about later. Be Gentle with Your Influence.
Here are NINE KEY WORDS to get the ball rolling….
We all have something in our past we believe someone “sold” us. It might have been a lemon yellow car, a skimpy skirt or a purple tie. We bought it because - despite our gut feeling - we thought we were doing the right thing. We wanted to please the salesman - and we believed that person knew more than we did. Until we got home.
One of the two major complaints from trade show attendees is the heavy sales pitch of the booth staff. You know that pushy salesman stereotype.. (FYI - the second complaint is staff that doesn’t know its stuff - i.e. is not knowledgeable about the company products and services..)
Trade shows have the disadvantage of compressed time. You might have 30 seconds or 30 minutes but it is not a regular sales call. Do not talk faster. Just listen closely to the attendees and try to persuade people that your firm can solve their problems.
Here are NINE conversation key words - and examples - to consider when speaking with people at trade shows. Read the rest of this entry »
When Dr. Frankenstein exclaimed “it’s alive… it’s alive,” he thought he had brought wonderful new life to the world. What he really did was create a monster. He took a bit from here and another piece from there and sewed it altogether. Then he was distressed to see how things turned out. Many marketers create their own monsters in the form of sales letters. They throw everything into them and then are distressed at the response.
Sales letters work best when you have something to sell. You make an offer. Too many sales letters from smaller businesses are of the “Hi my name is…” school. When it comes right down to it, I’m busy; I don’t care if you just started this wonderful venture because you love to serve people. What can you do for me right now? Why should I take time reading any of your letter? Make me an offer I can’t refuse. Quickly convince me that I need what you have to offer.
When creating a better monster–er sales letter–start off where Frankenstein made his biggest mistake. He used the wrong head.
The right head (or headline) can make or break your sales letter. Focus it tightly on your target market. Address a big problem your target faces (assuming you have the solution for it) or play on their desires. If you can do this with a clever play on words, by all means go for it, but if wordplay isn’t your forte, keep it simple and straightforward. There’s no perfect length for a headline, but don’t waste words. Keep it to one sentence. The point is, make them care.
Once you’ve grabbed them with your headline. Don’t let them escape. It may seem odd, but the last words of your letter–the PS–are often read right after the headline. A PS is the best way to end your letter. It sticks out from the body and grabs attention. Don’t waste your PS. Say something that will encourage your reader to go back to the beginning and start to read.
The first paragraph is crucial, so get to the point. Give them the guts of your offer and what makes your offer so good. How much money is it going to save/earn them. How will their lives be dramatically improved. Whatever makes your offer worthwhile must be there.
By this point you either have their interest or you don’t. If you do, the remainder of the letter must answer the basic questions and address the common doubts your reader may have. After all, you’ve worked hard get them this far, it would be a shame to lose them on a technicality.
Fill the body of your letter with benefits, not features. Give it the “so what” test. If a benefit doesn’t answer the question “so what?” for your target audience, it’s a feature not a benefit. Dig deeper and discover what your offer really delivers to your target.
Speak to your target in their language. Write informally. Ask rhetorical questions. Create as conversational a letter as you can. However, take care when using humour. It can backfire, because we don’t all have the same sense of it. Unless you know for sure, keep humour to a minimum.
Busy, busy, busy. I know it, you know it. Everyone is busy. They probably won’t read everything in your letter, but guide them to the good bits. Embolden the bits they’ll care about. It’ll encourage them to keep reading. (But don’t embolden your company or product name. Your names may be interesting to you, but they’re not what’s interesting to your target.)
Now that you’ve told them how great your offer is, get someone else to tell them too. It sounds so much better coming from someone else. In the body of your letter, sprinkle a testimonial or two. Write them yourself, and then ask one of your best clients if they would be comfortable having it quoted under their name. Focus on the results your clients have achieved. Testimonials are best if they are believable and don’t gush.
Once you’ve covered all the possible doubts and questions in the body, it’s time to put your best foot forward again. Repeat your offer. And, if you can, offer a guarantee of satisfaction. Make trying your services a risk-free endeavour. Unfortunately, this is difficult for some service-based companies because often their services aren’t directly quantifiable.
Just to make your life more difficult, with business-to-business marketing, keep your letter to one page. If your letter is more than one page, re-write it.
Before you set your letter loose upon the world, try a test on a limited number of prospects. Fine-tune it according to your responses. Then continue to track your responses to further fine-tune both the letter, and your target market.
A sales letter won’t do it all. Keep up your other marketing efforts, and don’t forget to quickly follow up on all leads generated by your sales letter.
Put together with care and skill, a good sales letter will prepare your audience for your sales approach. A great sales letter will have them out looking for you.
Keith Thirgood, Creative Director
Capstone Communications Group
Helping businesses get more business through innovative marketing
http://www.capstonecomm.com/
Markham, Ontario, Canada
905-472-2330
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When a customer walks into your office, you want to make sure they feel welcome, you want to treat your customer as though they are a piece of gold, and not as a statistic.
Have you ever been standing in a line, and when it comes to your turn to be waited on, the sales associate yells out “next?”
Just thinking about that scenario makes me cringe. It is hardly a way to build a relationship with your customer.
I have been working in sales for more than fifteen years, and I have literally had customers tell me that the most important thing to them is to be appreciated and not treated as a statistic.
Keep this in mind the next time you wait on a customer, instead of yelling “next,” you can politely say, “may I help you Ms. Jones.”
We all have our daily, weekly, and monthly goals that we must meet. And with this pressure applied to our daily work day, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that it is the customer who is the most important thing when it comes to our company’s existence. They are the backbone. Without customers, we cease to exist.
Here are a few tips to ensure that your customer is appreciated by you and your company, and not viewed as just another number in line. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever wondered why some people use long sales letter?
Here is the answer: These people newer bothered to find out what the potential customer wants.
If you know exactly what your potential customer wants, you can be short and to the point.
So, Mr. Marketing Genius comes along and wants to sell something. Instead of finding out what the target audience wants, that “genius” just tries to offer everything.
Then some people actually buy what was offered and the “genius” thinks he has found the solution: Long sales Copy. Read the rest of this entry »
I know, don’t groan. You have to do them if you want to get properties and make money. Believe me, I used to hate cold calling. For those of you that have read our book, “Who Makes It Happen: Back On The Road To Success With Creative Real Estate”, remember it used to take me an hour to get on the phone and then after 30 minutes I was ready to hang up.
I’ve learned over time to not think of telephoning as cold calling, but how I can help a seller or buyer. I realize if I make so many calls, I will get so many responses, and I don’t take a no personally. It’s their loss. Let them continue to pay to run their ads and six months from now when I call out of a paper or web list and they are still there, maybe then they will listen. There are too many people I can help. I refuse to worry about the ones that won’t listen.
So, the first step is to get in the frame of mind that you are offering help. Next, let the seller do the talking. You listen. How do I do that, you say? Well, when I call on a home and someone answers (as opposed to leaving my message), I ask is the home still available? Great, my name is Susan, who am I speaking with? George, tell me about your home? This gets the seller talking. I just guide him/her with how many square feet, garage, etc. For those that have purchased our manual, this form is in the Seller section. You want to get as much information as possible. What they don’t tell you ask. The last question I ask is, George, it sounds like a beautiful home, why are you selling? Then let him/her talk. This question tells you how motivated he/she is. Is he/she moving into a new home, relocating or just putting out feelers. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the decades that I’ve been involved in sales, I’ve worked with tens of thousands of salespeople. Certain negative tendencies — mistakes that salespeople make — keep surfacing. Here are my top five. See to what degree you (or your sales force) may be guilty of them.
Mistake Number One: Over concern with strategy instead of tactics
Gather a group of salespeople together around a coffee maker and listen to the conversation. After the obligatory complaints about all types of things, the conversation inevitably drifts to questions of strategy. How do I accomplish this in that account? How do I get this account to this?
In my seminars, I often hold a “clinic” where salespeople write down any sales-related question and submit it to the group for discussion. These questions are almost always related to strategic issues. In one form or another, they ask the same question: How do I achieve this effect in this account?
While this thoughtfulness is encouraging, it reveals an erroneous mindset. The belief behind these questions is this: “If I can only determine the right sequence of actions of my part, I’ll be able to sell this account, or achieve this goal.”
This, unfortunately, is rarely the case. These sales people, based on this erroneous belief, are looking for a solution in the wrong place. Almost always, the answer to the question is not a more clever strategy, but better execution of the basic tactics.
It is like the foot ball team whose players don’t tackle well, miss their blocks, throw erratic passes, and fumble frequently. The solution is not a more clever game plan. The solution is better execution of the basic tactics. Learn to do the basics effectively, and the strategy will generally take care of itself.
The real problem with this over concern for strategy is that it seduces the salesperson’s energy, substituting the pursuit of a better strategy for the real solution - better execution of the basics.
When I’m asked these “strategy” questions, I find myself asking the salesperson to verify the fundamentals. Have you identified the key decision makers and influencers in the account? Have you created trusting personal relationships with each of them? Have you understood the customer’s situation at a deep level? Have your presented your solution in a way that gives them reason to do business with you? Have you effectively matched your proposal to the intricacies of the customer’s needs?
This line of inquiry almost always reveals a flaw in tactical execution. It’s not the strategy that the problem, it’s the tactics. Focus on doing the basics first, and the need for a clever strategy diminishes.
Mistake Number Two: Lack of thoughtfulness
The typical field salesperson has, as a necessary and integral part of his/her personality, an inclination toward action. We like to be busy: driving here and there, talking on our cell phones, putting deals together, solving customer’s problems — all in a continuous flurry of activity. Boy, can we get stuff done!
And this high energy inclination to action is a powerful personality strength, energizing the salesperson who wants to achieve success.
But, like every powerful personality trait, this one has a dark backside. Our inclination to act often overwhelms our wiser approach to think before we act.
In our hunger for action, we neglect to take a few moments to think about that action. Is this the most effective place to go? Have I thoroughly prepared for this sales call? Do I know what I want to achieve in this call? Is this the person I should be seeing, or is there someone else who is more appropriate? Is it really wise to drive 30 miles to see this account, and then back tract 45 miles to see another?
Customers these days are demanding salespeople who are thoroughly prepared, who have well thought-out agendas, and who have done their research before the sales call. All of this works to the detriment of the “ready-shoot-aim” type of salesperson.
On the other hand, those who discipline themselves to a regular routine of dedicated time devoted to planning and preparing will find themselves far more effective then their action-oriented colleagues.
Mistake Number Three: Contentment with the superficial
There are some customers who have been called on for years, and yet the salesperson doesn’t know any more about them today then he/she did after the second sales call. These are accounts where the salesperson cannot identify one of the account’s customers, explain whether or not they are profitable, or identify one of their strategic goals.
Most salespeople have a wonderful opportunity to learn about their customers in deeper and more detailed ways, and often squander it by having the same conversations with the same customers over and over. They never dig deeper. They mistake familiarity with knowledge.
What a shame. I am convinced that the ultimate sales skill — the one portion of the sales process that more than anything else determines our success as a salesperson — is the ability to know the customer deeper and in a more detailed way than our competitors do.
It’s our knowledge of the customer that allows us to position ourselves as competent, trustworthy consultants. It’s our knowledge of the customer that provides us the information we need to structure programs and proposals that distinguish us from everyone else. It’s our knowledge of the customer that allows us to proactively serve that customer, to meet their needs even before they have articulated them.
In an economic environment where the distinctions between companies and products are blurring in the eyes of the customer, the successful companies and individuals will be those who outsell the rest. And outselling the rest depends on understanding the customer better than anyone else.
Mistake Number Four: Poor questioning
This is a variation of the mistake above. I am absolutely astonished at the lack of thoughtfulness that I often see on the part of salespeople. Most use questions like sledgehammers, splintering the relationship and bruising the sensibility of their customers by thoughtless questions.
Others don’t use them at all, practically ignoring the most important part of a sales call. They labor under the misconception that the more they talk, the better job of selling they do, when the truth lies in exactly the opposite approach.
And others are content to play about the surface of the issue. “How much of this do you use?” “What do you not like about your current supplier?” Their questions are superficial at best, redundant and irritating at worst.
The result? These salespeople never really uncover the deeper more intense issues that motivate their customers. Instead, they continually react to the common complaint of customers who have been given no reason to think otherwise: “Your price is too high.”
Fewer sales, constant complaints about pricing, frustrated salespeople, impatient managers, and unimpressed customers - all of these as a result of the inability to use the salesperson’s most powerful tool with skill and sensitivity.
Mistake Number Five: No investment in themselves.
Here’s an amazing observation. No more than 5% of active, full time professional salespeople ever invest in their own growth. That means that only one of 20 salespeople have ever spent $20.00 of their own money on a book on sales, or subscribed to a sales magazine, taken a sales course, or attended a sales seminar of their own choosing and on their own nickel.
Don’t believe me? Take a poll. Ask your salespeople or your colleagues how many of them have invested more than $20.00 in a book, magazine, tape, etc. in the last 12 months. Ask those who venture a positive answer to substantiate it by naming their investment. Don’t be surprised if the answers get vague. You’ll quickly find out how many sales people in your organization have invested in themselves.
Sales is the only profession I know of where the overwhelming majority of practitioners are content with their personal status quo.
Why is that? A number of reasons…
Some mistakenly think that their jobs are so unique that they cannot possibly learn anything from anyone else. Still others think they know it all. They have, therefore, no interest in taking time from some seemingly valuable thing they are doing to attend a seminar or read a book.
Some don’t care. Their focus is hanging onto their jobs, not necessarily getting better at them. But I think the major reason is that the overwhelming majority of salespeople do not view themselves as professionals and, therefore, do not have professional expectations for themselves. They worked their way up from the customer service desk or they landed in sales by chance, and they view their work as a job to be done, not a profession to grow within.
They are content to let their companies arrange for their training or development. And between you and me, they would prefer that their companies really didn’t do anything that would require them to actually change what they do.
These are the five most common negative tendencies that I see. It may be that you and your colleagues are immune to these dampers on success. Good for you. But if you are not immune, and if you spot some of your own tendencies in this list, then you are not reaching your potential for success. You have tremendous potential for success — for contentment, confidence and competence - that is being hindered by these negative behaviors. Rid yourself of these negative tendencies, and you’ll begin to reach your potential.
Copyright 2002 by Dave Kahle
If you would like assistance structuring a sales system or sales development program to suit the specific needs of your company, you can reach Dave Kahle at 800-331-1287 or via email at dave@davekahle.com.
