When it comes to growing revenues, companies find themselves under great pressure to sell faster and better and then keep climbing to greater levels of growth. Many factors are putting pressures on sellers to sell more and do it for less, including dysfunctional selling and buying methods. There are terrific books on developing a new sales framework that bust through bad selling and buying habits. Several that I recommend are, "Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play" by Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig, "You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bicycle in a Seminar" by David Sandler and "The Sandler Rules, 49 Timeless Selling Principles and How to Apply Them" by Dave Mattson.
Although this is not an exhaustive list, it can help lay the ground work for a much more dynamic and compelling experience for both parties. It certainly begins the process of understanding more clearly how to build and grow a value based relationship. The better we are at using these tools, the higher the probability of successful engagement.
1 ~ You Will Fail To Establish Credibility During The Initial Phone Call or Meeting
The primary questions looming in the minds of prospects when they first talk with salespeople are, “What do you know about my company?” and “What do you know about my industry?”
If, in the first few minutes of the conversation you don’t convey through your questions or comments that you understand something about the company, it’s goals or the challenges it faces, the interaction will be short-lived. You’ll be perceived as “just another salesperson.”
Doing research to keep up with what is going on in your industry is mandatory. If you didn’t, how would you know the best way to position your product or service to take advantage of current trends, market demands, economic conditions, etc.? Going one step further to learn about the prospects you plan to contact (or a prospect who may have initially contacted you) is not only a logical extension of that research, but it is necessary so you can keep the focus on the eventual conversation on the prospect rather than on your product or service. There will be plenty of time to talk about the product or service you have to offer once you’ve established that if fulfills a recognized need, but not before.
Researching a prospective client is not difficult. A visit to its website, a Google search, a visit to LinkedIn, and a search through industry association websites and reports can provide valuable information. Imagine starting a conversation with a President or CEO of a company by referring to a recent trade journal article about him or his company. By doing that, you immediately elevate your status from just another sales person to a credible individual.
2 ~ You Won’t Control The Conversation
A common complaint many prospects have about salespeople is that they are too self-centered. That is, they spend too much time talking about themselves, their companies and their products and too little time focusing on the prospect’s needs.
A common complaint many salespeople have about prospects is that, conversationally speaking, they spend too much time wandering around in left field. That is. They talk about everything except the topic the salesperson wants to discuss.
Can they both be correct? It does not really matter. What does matter, however, is that the conversation remains focused on topics that keep the selling process moving forward. And that, first and foremost, is your responsibility.
When you initiate a call to a prospect, have a specific reason for calling (other than introducing yourself or your company). If you don’t have a specific reason that addresses a prospect’s current or potential future need, then don’t call (and refer to #1 above).
By reviewing the agenda (up front contract) at the beginning of the meeting, you establish a yardstick by which you can measure the progress and effectiveness of the meeting as well as a point of reference for keeping discussions on topic.
3 ~ You Won’t Add Value To the Experience
Prospects are often accused of playing their cards close to the vest for fear of revealing some information that the salesperson will exploit. Salespeople do the same thing. They avoid providing too many details about how they do what they do for fear that the prospect will use this information to negotiate a better deal with an incumbent or another vendor or create the desired outcome on their own.
If your prospects don’t learn something new during the time they invest in you, what value did you contribute to the encounter? None! How are you any different than every other salesperson? You’re not!
So, how do you provide value without giving away too much? You can focus on the outcomes your product or service delivers for your prospect. You can describe for them and the means of accomplishing them from a conceptual perspective without giving away the “how to” specifics. By understanding how to restructure the sales process and establishing qualification benchmarks that ensure the salespeople are investing their time with the prospects they have the greatest chance of closing.
Also, you can ask thought provoking questions, especially during initial meetings that get prospects to view their situations from new perspectives – ideally ones favorable to your product or service.
Finally, you can ask questions that help prospects discover unrecognized underlying reasons for their problems or unanticipated roadblocks to accomplishing their goals. Doing so gives you credibility, separates you from the rest of the pack, and more importantly gives the prospect a reason to do business with you.
4 ~ You Will Avoid Asking Important Questions
When you engage with prospects, they are sizing you up, your company, and its products or services. And while they are doing that, they are deciding if you are credible, if your company is reputable and if you can provide a best-fit solution for the outcomes they desire.
You, too, should be doing some “sizing up.” You need to determine if you can indeed deliver best-fit solutions for your prospects’ needs, if there is sufficient urgency and priority for them to make buying decisions in a timely manner, and if they have the resources in place to make the purchases.
The only way you can make those determinations is by asking questions – sometimes pointed questions and potentially uncomfortable questions (perhaps for you and the prospect). But you must ask them nonetheless.
Some of the information you will need to uncover in order to fully qualify (QCP versus QPC) or disqualify an opportunity includes:
- Whether the prospect is working with or talking to other providers
- When multiple providers are involved, how the prospect will ultimately decide which one gets the business
- Who is involved in the decision making process and what their concerns are regarding the issues surrounding the ultimate decision
- Whether or not funding is in place for the purchase…and if not, when it will be in place, exactly
- By when the buying decision will be made
5 ~ You Will Leave Things Open-Ended
It is not uncommon for salespeople to end phone conversations of face-to-face meetings with prospects without establishing clear and specific next steps. Both parties have a general idea, their own idea, or not idea about what happens next, by when it will happen, or who will initiate whatever it is. I refer to this a mutual mystification.
As every scheduled contact with a prospect or a client should begin with a review of a previously established, mutually agreed to agenda (see #2 above), it should also conclude with a mutual agreed to next step…even if the next step is a NO step, I.e., you are closing the file. And if there is a ‘next step’ to keep the selling process moving forward, it’s up to you to identify it, clarify it, and obtain your prospect’s agreement to it.
If your closing rate is suffering or it’s taking you longer than it should to close sales, you may be sabotaging your own efforts. Take a close look at how you interact with your prospects and make sure that each interaction adds value to the relationship, is focused on defining the opportunity and keeps the selling process moving forward.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. How are you effectively developing your prospect pipeline? We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.
No comments:
Post a Comment