A dozen SALES TIPS every
Sales Superstar knows
Part 2
Tim Connor, CSP & Mike Hourigan, CSP
7. They need to work as hard to keep the business as they did to get it in the first place.
Many salespeople make lots of promises or benefit statements while trying to sell a new prospect. Most people like to buy, but resist being pitched. A key concept to keep in mind is that the close of the sale is not the end of the sale, but the beginning of the sales relationship. The purpose of the sales relationship is to discover how you can help a customer or prospect with a need, problem, desire or challenge. Then position your product or service in such a way so the customer discovers the value necessary in order to justify a purchase. Once the sale has been closed and the prospect accepts your promises, commitments or features as ones that will be of benefit, he or she now moves into a sort of limbo mode. They wait patiently to see if you meant all of that sales stuff or were just trying to get another deal. They observe and monitor your behaviors, actions, follow through and communication consistency. They may not do this consciously but nonetheless they are doing it.
After-sales service is the key to keeping sales closed and keeping customers satisfied and buying again. It can often be a subtle test to see if you can really deliver.
Sales super stars know that to ensure repeat business, customer loyalty, positive references and qualified referrals, their after-sales service must be one of their strengths.
8. They manage their time and territory effectively.
Each of us gets 24 hours to do with what we will. Some salespeople wish they had more while others wish time would pass a lot quicker. Some salespeople act like they have an unlimited time bank available to them and that their prospects or clients will see them whenever the salesperson would like. The sales super stars understand the importance of using every available selling minute to its full advantage.
Before you can improve your use of time to sell, you need to get a handle on how you are spending your time and how you are abusing it. Most of us tend to waste the time in the same old ways, day after day, year after year. For one week, carry a stop watch and start it when in the presence of a prospect or customer to sell and then stop it when you leave. After the sales visit, don’t reset the clock but keep a running accumulative total of time spent selling in one week. You can do this with every sales activity: how much time you spend on the telephone prospecting for new business, travel time, doing paperwork, in meetings, doing research or solving client problems.
With this simple exercise you will get a fairly accurate picture of where you need time and territory management improvement. Yon can’t change or fix what you don’t know is wrong. So, before you launch into some sophisticated time management program remember, you cannot manage time; it passes with or without you.
9. The close of the sale begins when the prospect agrees to meet them.
People don’t like to make decisions. The main reason is they don’t want to make a poor or wrong decision. Traditional sales closing methods ask people to make a decision. For example: ‘Do you want it in green or red?’ (Alternative choice); ‘Do you want to use your pen or mine?’ (Action close); or ‘Can we write up an order now?’ (Direct close). Each of these closing techniques, even though they do work, has two fundamental problems: 1. They ask the prospect to make a decision. 2. The average salesperson is uncomfortable using them.
Few salespeople have a 'closing strategy' - a process they follow with each and every real sales opportunity. They tend to ask a few questions, jump into the presentation too soon, try and overcome a couple of the prospect’s sales objections and then prematurely go for the close – usually unsuccessfully. The sales super stars know the outcome long before they get to the end of the process. They do this by ensuring they have a well qualified prospect, they know the prospect’s dominant buying motives, and they have identified all of their potential objections before they are even expressed, they have carefully observed the various buying signals from the prospect and they have given an effective and interactive presentation. They know long before they ask their closing question what the answer will be. How? By being effective at people reading skills, by asking intelligent, effective and appropriate probing or qualifying questions, by being good listeners and by asking a variety of questions throughout the sales process. They don’t try and force a fit. They discover the prospect’s sense of urgency or they help them create it.
They are in the prospect’s presence to sell, not educate. They are there to do business. From their opening remark to their final closing statement their attitude is ‘I am here to sell’. This does not mean they are applying pressure or hard-selling. It means they are serious about helping the prospect solve their problems or take advantage of opportunities.
10. They never give up control of the sales process.
A common mistake poor salespeople make is that they lose control of the sales process at some point. There are many ways they accomplish this and here are just a few for your consideration:
They quote price before they have had a chance to build value.
They don’t ask enough questions early in the sales process. They just ramble on.
They send out literature when asked, without first qualifying the prospect’s agenda or reasons for requesting it.
They send people to their website without first getting some basic qualifying information and having a follow-up strategy after the prospect has perused their site.
They don’t get advance deposits on services or products.
They leave ‘will calls’ when calling a prospect.
Control of the sales process is another one of the key strategies of the sales super stars. They understand that control is not manipulation, but is in the ultimate best interest of the prospect or client. When the salesperson controls the sales process they are never broad-sided with a lost sale they thought was in the bag.
11. They never project their buying prejudices into the sales process.
The objection you will tend to have the most difficulty answering successfully is that objection that is the most consistent with your own value system:
· If you are a price buyer and your prospect objects to price you will tend to accept their objection.
· If you are the type of buyer who tends to think decisions over before making a purchase and your prospect says to you, “We need to think this over.” Again, you will tend to go along with their objection as rational or making perfect sense (because that is the way you buy.)
This simple act of accepting sales objections that resonate with you because you can relate to them is nothing more than projecting your personal attitudes, opinions, or biases into the sales process. When you project your personal beliefs into the sales process you are assuming that everyone who buys, buys the way you like to buy and often for the same reasons. You are also tending to assume that when they don’t buy for a reason that is similar to one of your reasons, then it makes perfect sense to you.
The sales super stars leave personal biases, prejudices and opinions at home.
12. They never lose their passion.
Passion is the great equalizer. It can make up for a lack of experience and knowledge. Of course, you do want to develop your knowledge and experience but until you do, your passion could be interpreted by others as a strong belief in yourself, your mission and your product.
Passion is not an act. It is a way of believing. It is woven into your cellular structure just as much as DNA. Passion - real passion for who you are, what you are selling, who you are becoming and what you believe shouts to the world: “I am here to stay, I am here to make a difference, and I will leave my mark in this world. It may take me my entire life, but I will not give up until my purpose and destiny are realized.”
Are you in love with where you are, where you are going, who you are becoming and what you are selling? Or, are you living like more than 85% of the population with the attitude, “Same Stuff, Different Day?” If you have lost or are losing passion for your career, do whatever is necessary to get it back and become one of the sales super stars.
