Selling

Most sales are made way before the great salesperson asks for the order. That’s what I mean by qualify hard – close easy. Think back over your most successful sales. When did you know the prospect was going to buy from you? What conversations did you have before you felt the commitment? Did you really have to ask for the order?

Great Salespeople Win When They Qualify Hard – Close Easy
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The Journey To Close

My sales experience has been with products having long sales cycles. So I had to “qualify hard” over many sales meetings. When I asked good questions and listened well, I found the prospect usually convinced themselves my solution was a good deal. I understood their decision making process. I had a good relationship with the decision maker and his team. We had a common understanding of the problem they wanted to solve and the amount the prospect felt was a reasonable to invest. Great salespeople have a process to qualify hard – close easy….

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Business-to-business networking is more than schmoozing. Ever been to one of those business gatherings and found cliques of people chatting among themselves? Did you ever wander into a room full of business people only to be overwhelmed by the large crowd? Or as a great salesperson have you mastered the art of business-to-business networking?

What Is Business-To-Business Networking?

Great salespeople look for the opportunity to meet new prospects in a variety of places. They enjoy introducing themselves to potential customers. Sometimes they exchange ideas and take away new knowledge to make them better salespeople. Business-to-business networking is simply meeting with other like-minded people in a formal or casual setting for the purpose of finding new prospects or ideas. Some networking events are small and informal organized by an interested salesperson. Others are formal and require a group membership or registration fee. Trade groups have market focused networking events. Chambers of commerce networking events are more broadly attended….

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Buyers consider a product as a commodity when there is no differentiation between brands or sellers. So what do they base their buying decision on? Price! Buyers pit sellers against each other to get the lowest price on a commodity product. But there are great salespeople who are very successful selling commodity products.

Develop Your USP For Commodity Products On One Component Of The Buying Experience
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Break The Commodity Product Mentality

We say there are three components to each purchase: quality, service and price. Buyers can’t get all three but they can choose which two are most important. Commodity products vary by quality. Copy paper made from recycled material is different than that made from new pulp, for example. But the same branded item purchased from multiple distributors has the same quality. So to break the commodity mentality about a product great salespeople focus on service and price….

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It happens. Years of a mutually beneficial relationship come to an end because your company screwed up and caused irreparable harm to the customer. But great salespeople know “I’ll never buy from you again” never lasts forever. Like Yoda, the legendary Jedi Master from Star Wars, great salespeople are wise and patient. They watch for opportunities for fixing a broken relationship.

Great Salespeople are Wise And Patient.
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Watch For Opportunity

Time heals all wounds, it has been said. Rose Kennedy had a slightly different take. She said the wounds remain but the pain lessens. Same happens in broken business relationships. Remember, at some point the relationship was mutually beneficial. Great salespeople keep in touch with past customers. They look for opportunities to rebuild the relationship….

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Ever gotten to the end of a sales call and don’t see the next step? Can’t seem to get the information you need to qualify a prospect? When was the last time you lost control of the sales call? Great salespeople know how to ask effective questions and are skilled in active listening. They are skilled at the art of qualifying hard and closing easy.

Active Listening Closes Sales
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Asking and Listening Is An Art

All successful selling is asking good, insightful questions and listening to the response. Then asking more questions and more listening. And again asking and listening until the great salesperson has enough information to make a successful presentation. Crafting and asking good questions is art. But understanding the different types of questions is important to the art of asking:

• • • Open-ended questions
    • Closed-ended questions
    • Reversing questions
    • Clarifying questions

Great salespeople have the skill to use each type of question effectively….

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Have you ever found yourself trying to relate to a decision maker who is anxiously awaiting your direct answer? Or being regaled by tales of adventures when you needed to get qualifying information? Maybe you didn’t realize the prospects communication style was different from yours. All of us enjoy conversations matching our style of communicating. Great salespeople know how to recognize the different fundamental communication styles. And they match their sales presentation to the prospects preferred style.

Great Salespeople Use The Communication Style Of The Prospect
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Four Fundamental Communication Styles

Think about a chart with a horizontal axis measuring how responsive a person is. The scale from left to right varies from being quiet, reserved and task oriented to those who are outgoing, gregarious and people oriented. The vertical axis measures from top to bottom how assertive one is. At the top of the scale are those who dominate a conversation while at the bottom of the scale are those who are more amiable. The two scales laid out form four quadrants:

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“Nobody wants to answer the phone!” “I can’t get anyone to talk to me!” “All I get is voicemail and no one calls back!” Any of these sound familiar. The challenge of setting good appointments for sales meetings is not new. Getting the opportunity to meet with prospects has been the professional sales person’s dilemma forever. But great salespeople have an effective system for setting appointments.

Every Sale Begins With Setting An Appointment
Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Who Do You Want To Meet With?

When you have developed a list of prospects who benefit from what you are selling, then you can begin setting appointments for sales meetings. Great salespeople know the characteristics of prospects making them good candidates for a sales pursuit. Referrals from your good customers are the highest priority. Then others who are like your best customers are the second tier. Your boss may have a target list for you or marketing will have prospects having contacted your company.

What’s The Reason To Meet With You?

Great salespeople know the value of the product or service they sell. And they can effectively communicate that to prospects. We all know “everybody is busy!” So why would a prospect want to set aside time from their busy day to meet with you? What do you bring to the sales meeting that will help them meet one of their goals? Great salespeople know how to sell the value of setting appointments from the prospects point of view.

Make A Game Of Setting Appointments

Ok, selling is serious business but adding a little sport helps great salespeople keep their schedule full. For prospects you don’t know the telephone is the best way to get their attention and get on their calendar. By speaking with them you can begin building rapport and gathering qualifying information. Great salespeople are persistent. Here are tips to make the challenge of setting appointments for sales meetings by phone a bit more fun.

• Call everyday until you reach the prospect
• Call at different times of day until they answer
• If the prospect doesn’t know you, don’t leave a voicemail
• Use the companies general number to ask the receptionist to put you through
• Call another person you may know at the company and ask to be transferred to your prospect

Great salespeople rise to the challenge of getting the prospect on the phone.

Some Sales People Are Creative

I’ve heard many legends of how great salespeople broke through a barrier to meet with a prospect. If you have the creativity and courage to try an unusual move, go for it. Here are a few stories I’ve heard: A sales rep brings a pig along with him to get attention. The receptionist says to the prospect: “you gotta come out here and see this guy with a pig.” Another great salesperson brought in a birthday cake with flaming candles. When told it wasn’t the prospect’s birthday, he had a clever retort to get an audience with the prospect. A sales rep brings in a box with holes in it and a sign on top: live bird inside. She leaves it with the receptionist to be delivered to the prospect. When opened the prospect doesn’t find a bird but a note: “just like you missed the bird, if you don’t meet with me you will miss a great opportunity.” Most great salespeople get appointments without using creative tricks. But if nothing else works and the potential payoff is worth it, give it a shot.

You Have To Earn The Appointment

Once the prospect answers the phone (or comes out to see the pig!) you need to be ready to convince the prospect to meet with you. Great salespeople script the conversation for setting appointments. Not that they read the script like a bored telemarketer. The script is an outline of the points they want to cover, questions that stimulate curiosity and the value proposition benefitting the prospect. Great salespeople know the reason for the call is to set a time to meet. They do not attempt to sell the product or service when setting appointments. Once a day and time is set, great salespeople, confirm the sales meeting time, thank the prospect and hang up.

What You Can Do Right Now

• Set aside time everyday to set appointments
• Ask for referrals; they are the easiest meetings to schedule
• Be persistent in attempting to reach prospects
• Prepare an appointment setting script to present value in meeting with you

To learn more sales secrets see Chapter Fifteen, Setting Appointments, in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford & Lois Carter Crawford