STRATEGIC SALES CALLS

Focus more on your tone, your voice i.e., your speech is very important in every sales call. This is the basic platform of every sales call, which will enhance your business growth, contacts and relation among the customers. Why our tone is so important? What are the benefits of this?

It is very simple and easy to practice. For instance, if you are planning to meet a new customer or old customer, you will have to practice your call before meeting the customer.

What is your planning?

It is quite difficult but possible to practice, especially for new customer. First of all you will have to find out the details of the customer you are going to meet. It is better to focus more attention on customer’s end product, (Industrial Selling) his proposed business plan or plant extension, type of application, current problem with customer, existing solution(Company/Product) that customer is using, existing issues if any with current supplier, decision makers name and contact details etc. Further you also need to have your solution for the problem, (based on your collection of information) product that you are planning to suggest, and go along with all necessary tools. Moreover it is important to take an appointment with the right person well in advance and confirmation before one day. But remember that, be simple, be specific and always be authentic. Put the customer under the impression that you are the right person for him. If this is done, your most of the issues will be sorted out and you are a winner.

It’s an easy way of perceiving how your relationships stand? If you work in something other than the provision of a commodity, where prize and delivery are all important, I am sure you will agree that doing business is all about building and maintaining relationships. It’s about developing goodwill, equity or involvement for you, your products and your services, among your customers and other contacts.

Whatever you call it what I mean is that intangible value that you own, that people respect when they think of you, your products or your services. It’s the value of your business in patronage, reputation, etc, over and above its tangible assets.

Yes, goodwill is an intangible, and it can become very valuable. Yet it is hard to measure it in financial terms. You can’t go out and buy goodwill. You have to get it the old fashioned way. You have to earn it.

Here is how I illustrate the concept of goodwill in my plant seminar. You have this friend, and you want to buy him an anniversary present. You are in New Delhi, and you see a display of titan watch. The price is right, and the shop manager will even gift wrap it for you. So you take it home in its New Delhi’s carrier bag and think about the gift. You had like one just like it yourself. You take it out. It’s all wrapped up. It would be a shame… so you put it back in the bag. But you still want one.

Next day you are in Bangalore. There is the titan watch, just the way you want it. Even the price is the same. So you buy one for yourself. ‘No, don’t bother to wrap it, it’s for me.’ You take it home in its Bengaluru carrier bag. Now it’s time to take your gift to your friend. You take the gift wrapped titan watch out of the New Delhi bag and put it in the Bengaluru bag. And off you go. Bangalore has more goodwill than New Delhi.

Where is your goodwill? It’s all over the place. You no doubt have an excellent personal goodwill with your family or best friends or best customers. You have less personal goodwill with a prospect you are making call for the first time.

What do you have to do to build up your goodwill?

·         Build awareness for your preposition. List people or groups who should know about you, like users, customers, media – specialists, influencers, recommenders and case histories.

·         Build a plan to carry your message, e.g.: advertising, public relations. Broachers, videos, direct mail, seminars etc.

·         Reinforce awareness and induce trial; provide experience of your offer, demonstrate what it does. Develop ways for people to get to know your preposition, like samples and selling materials. Use relevant activities and be seen as the authority who delivers quality.

·         Identify your key values and make them known- interactive group participation of key player’s leads to understanding and ownership of your objectives and values. Support your preposition in every action and tell your audiences, show you care.

·         Your delivery must be immaculate. You want to obtain a positive reaction to your proposition; make the experience positive and unforgettable. Make sure the preposition is working and exceed expectations. Provide 24-hour telephone number for problems and offer cast- iron guarantees.

·         Ask for the feedback. ‘Were you happy with this?’ provide hotline telephone number. Provide way to get feedback/comments, so as to make them easy to communicate. User questionnaire/ survey (anonymous).

·         Reinforce the positive reactions; follow up with visit/phone call/thank you note. Gather the responses and put together in a report.

·         Don’t even let a negative reaction occur, but if it does, fix it fast. Fix first, worry about responsibilities later and go back and make sure they are satisfied.

·         Build up a file of positive experiences: make this an important task, assign good people. Give it time, resources and keep it up to date. Make sure all top internal people are kept informed.

·         Keep the experience great: make sure all components/people/staff deliver on the promise; stick to your key values and fix problems fast. Feedback to your people and celebrate.

·         Take the positive experiences and let others know: let people know what’s going on, e.g.: newsletters/briefing sessions/personal contact/telephone call, interviews, and stories.

·         Get the people who buy your preposition to act as your ambassadors. Make your best customers your allies.

·         Maintain the relationship t all times: always anticipate needs and deliver evidence of this vigilance on your part.

·         Never let more than 15 days go by without a personal touch with your key contacts and think of ways to keep in touch.

TO DEVELOP SOME IDEAS ABOUT HOW TO BECOME A MORE EFFECTIVE SALESPERSON

PSYCHO DYNAMICS

You all know how important it is to start out on the right foot when working with a potential customer.

I am sure you have experienced a situation where you have met someone for the first time and you knew right away you did not like him. Other times you seem like old friends.

If you were to analyze all of the cases in which things went badly, you would almost always find fear on your part or on the part of the potential customer or both.

In many cases, these fears are completely unrecognized.

FEARS

It is vital to your success that you recognize that fears exist both in you and your customers.

Once you know this, you can face those fears and then overcome them.

By a better understanding of your own fears, you will be able to better recognize fears in others.

THREE MAIN UNCONSCIOUS FEARS

1. Fear of inadequacy

2. Fear of inferiority

3. Fear of failure

FIVE CONSCIOUS FEARS

1. Fear of criticism

2. Fear of disapproval

3. Fear of ridicule

4. Fear of rejection

5. Fear of being used and exploited

ARE ALL FEARS BAD?

HOW FEARS DO MANIFESTS THEM?

HOW CAN YOU RECOGNIZE FEARS IN YOURSELF?

IN WHAT WAYS DOES FEAR AFFECT WHAT WE DO?

MOTIVATION

As we mentioned before, it is important to understand ourselves before we can understand others.

What motivates us?

PERCEPTION

It is important to note when filling out the attitude rating chart you marked in order of importance those things you felt strongest about at that moment. Tomorrow you might mark it differently.

People are complex and not all people see things the same way. You may see their needs as one thing and they see it as another.

Be careful when making assumptions; things may not be as they seem or as you perceive them.

FOUR AREAS OF HIGH PERFORMANCE

1. Attitudes and beliefs

2. Selling skills

3. Conducting sales calls

4. Advancing sales call

ATTITUDES

What is an attitude?

Your attitude has a lot to say about who you are, what you do and how you do it. Of all the variables in selling, your attitude is the only one you have complete control over.

You become what you think about. Your body will do what your mind tells it to do. If you want to be a winner, then think like a winner.

Are you a volume knob or a loudspeaker? Do you control the attitude of others like a knob or do you react to the attitudes of others like a loud speaker.

Remember attitudes are contagious- ask yourself is yours worth catching.

How do our attitudes affect how we sell?

How do the attitudes of others affect what we do?

BASIC QUESTIONING OF SELLING SKILLS

Gathering information is extremely important in the successful career of a salesperson. Knowing what to ask and when to ask it are very critical.

What can questions do for you?

LISTENING

Prescription before diagnosis is malpractice.

What is listening?

The most effective questions are not worth anything unless the salesperson really listens to the customers.

You learn nothing about the customer’s needs when you are talking.

People listen with approximately 50% efficiency.

After 48 hours, they remember only 25%.

Buyers were asked to rate the one major weakness in sales people:

Sales people don’t listen.

Talk too much.

Old saying: when I am doing the speaking, I only know what I know. The person doing the listening knows what he knows and what the other person knows.

Customers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

THINGS TO SHOW LISTENING

Listen to the thoughts and feels

Vocal

Verbal

Visual

· Don’t interrupt or rush people.

· Monitor the customer to see if they want to say something.

· Listen for what is not said.

· Organize what you hear (write down key points)

· Keep asking for feedback.

· When people are listened to, they feel good.

HIGH INVOLVEMENT QUESTIONS

Ask the customer to:

· Think

· Evaluate/analyze

· Speculate

· Express feelings

Might ask:

· Suppose (how would you)...

· If you could...

· How do you feel about?

CRITERIA FOR HIQ’s

· Brief and clear

· Open-ended 5W’s-H

· Requires thought

· Relevant to the customer’s situation

HIGH INVOLVEMENT QUESTIONS

Open-ended questions invite customers to respond with more than a yes or no answer, but not all open ended questions automatically illicit high quality information.

HIQ’s require the customer to:

1. Think

2. Evaluate/analyze

SAMPLE INVOLVEMENT QUESTIONS

· How do you feel about that?

· Would you mind telling me how it was you came to feel that way?

· In your judgment, what would you say were the most important things we should watch for?

· What do you feel would be the most important help to you right now?

· I’d be very interested in your opinion about that.

· What kind of experience have you had with that?

· Would you give me the benefit of your experience on a question I have?

· If you had a magic button to push what would you want, etc etc?

· How would you compare X with Y?

· What are the most important difficulties you face in achieving X?

· What does the problem with X cost you in lost opportunities?

· If you could recognize this operation, how would you do it?

· How would you feel about the trend towards X?

· How does top management feel about the problems you have described?

· What time schedule has been projected to solve the situation?

· What additional problems do you foresee in the future?

WRITING HIGH INVOLVEMENT QUESTIONS

Write three involvement questions that you might use with your target account. Remember to concentrate on the customer’s needs.

CONDUCTING THE SALES CALL

Why is it important to open a sales call well?

EXPLORING CONSEQUENCES

In your questioning, you might uncover gaps for which you have no solution. Therefore, it’s important to continue listening and questioning until you uncover a gap that you after further exploration with the customer, maybe able to help close.

Once you have discovered a gap to explore, ask HIQ’s to determine the consequences of the gap on the customer’s organization.

Such questions might include:

· What will go wrong in the organization if this problem is not addressed? For example, “How will cost over-runs on this project affect next year’s budget?”

· What will not be achieved? For example “how will these quality problems affect your reputation in the market?”

· How is the gap presently affecting other segments of the organization? For example “what are the implications of these service problems for other departments?”

· How does this gap individual customer? For example, “How is this quality problem affecting your manufacturing operations?”

CONSEQUENCES (convinced stage)

Creating a sense of urgency

How do you know what consequences to ask about?

1. Cost

2. Quality

3. Productivity

4. Reliability

CONSEQUENCE AREAS

Many consequence areas can be explored when analyzing needs with customers. It helps to plan questions about consequence areas before beginning a sales call. This planning will allow you to follow customer leads with the assurance that you have questions ready.

EXPLORING PAYOFFS

By discussing the consequences of the gap, in effect you widen it. Having considered all the consequences related to the gap, the customer realizes that taking action is more important because the gap appears to be larger. The reason for exploring consequences is simple: small gaps generate little interest in taking action. Once you widen the gap, you increase the customer’s sense that it is urgent to take action.

Once you have determined the consequences of the gap, the next step is exploring the payoffs of taking action to close the gap.

You should ask the customer questions about payoffs that result in him or her identifying the benefits of taking action. Questions that might help in identifying payoffs include:

· What it would be like in your organization if these problems were solved?

· How would the organization benefit if you could eliminate these problems?

· One benefit of solving the problem would be “X”. What other benefits do you see?

· How will you know when this problem is solved?

· What could you do differently if this problem did not exist?

EXPLORING OPTIONS (involve)

Once you have determined a need and explored the consequences and payoffs, your next step is to develop a solution. Customers will be considering options to solve the problem.

Exploring options for solving a problem lets you be an adviser rather than a peddler.

Customers would rather buy a product than be sold a product and helping customers to explore options allows them to be involved in selecting a solution that, meets their needs. The more involved customers are in selecting options, the more willing to buy they will be.

· Ask the customer what has been tried before.

· What have you tried before that hasn’t worked?

· How have you to address this issue in the past?

· List the options and expand (discuss these options with the customer.)

CUSTOMER HAS MANY OPTIONS

· Buy from your competition.

· Buy from you.

· Do nothing.

Two simple steps:

· Analyze the options you can provide

· Discuss options with the customer:

1. Draw out the customer’s perception of which option is best.

2. Do not confuse the customer with too many choices.

What are the customer objections you are facing every day?

Recommended L-A-C guidelines

1. Listen to the objection.

2. Agree with the customer’s concern.

3. Ask an objection to objective question.

4. Listen to his response.

5. Ask more questions to clarify.

6. Apologize for not giving enough information. Assure him with proof, testimonials.

7. Ask for agreement.

8. Listen.

9. Close or commit. As a closing question.

Selling techniques?

What kind of skills did you notice?

· Listen.

· Ask.

· Assure.

· Acknowledge.

· Apologize.

· Close.

· Commit.

· Objection to objective.

COMMIT

Why is asking for the order so tough?

Closing should be

· Natural

· Confident

· Simple and direct

· Non manipulative

Closing a sale is the natural and logical outcome of an effective presentation.

The key to closing a sale effectively is to be as direct and non manipulative as possible.

Use a direct close - ask for the order.

Be concise.

Close with confidence.

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