Over the past few weeks we have discussed The Business Bullseye – 6 Parts of Your Company and Marketing – The Art of Attraction. Over the next few weeks we are going to dig deeper into the additional pieces of The Business Bullseye to discuss their purpose, opportunities that you may or may not be familiar with and processes & systems that can be implemented. This week we are going to talk about sales and how to create value and win.
Once the business generates interest, for example from an advertisement, a presentation or a trade show, there must be a simple conversion process that takes the prospect step by step through the sales cycle. The goal here is getting the prospect to a yes; and the best salesmen take their prospects on a journey, through several key phases:
- Know, Like & Trust
- Asking Questions to Identify Their Problem
- Proposing a Solution to their Problem
- Offering a Clear and Concise Call to Action
Let’s start with a quick definition – a sale is an exchange of value where each party gets more value than they give. Your customer sees more value in your offering than the cost and you, of course, want to trade your offering for their money. This is a positive experience and should be approached as such. Figure out the best way to create value, communicate this to your prospects effectively and you will WIN. “Stalking” a prospect like prey, trying to “get them”, is the absolute wrong approach to sales and is part of the reason that society has a negative view of salesmen; don’t be part of this problem. Keep in mind, people love to buy, but hate to be sold, simply help them see why they should buy from you. Now let’s look at each of the steps in the sales cycle to see what you can do to reinforce your value.
Know, Like & Trust
Know, like & trust is the foundation of all relationships and is the cornerstone of the prospect journey. We all prefer to do business with people that we know, like and trust, it is human nature. In simplest terms, you can generate Know & Like by building rapport and making a connection. Developing trust is deeper and requires 3 C’s – credibility, competence and confidence, to get your prospect to believe in you. Regardless of the speed of your transaction, developing the prospect relationship is critical to increasing engagement and creating a win.
Asking Questions to Identify Their Problem
A key part of developing know, like & trust with a prospect is communication and the best way to connect with and help the prospect is to learn more about them and their situation. Start by asking questions, people love to talk about themselves, just give them the chance, and make sure you listen, they will tell you what their pains are, what they need and exactly how you can show them value. If you struggle engaging with prospects and learning from them, you can use techniques like FORM (Family, Occupation, Recreation, Motivation) or POGO (Person, Organization, Goals, Obstacles) as a guide for your questions. Remember, this should be a conversation, not an interrogation, the more comfortable and relaxed, the better. To improve this skill and learn more about empathetic listening, I highly recommend reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, and pay special attention to Habit 5 – Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood.
Proposing a Solution to their Problem
Now that you have identified their problem, it is time to present your solution, with a persuasive, value-based proposal with win-win in mind. If you did the first two steps right, here you are simply re-phrasing their identified problem and showing how your solution meets their needs and brings them value. When approaching your proposal with win-win in mind, your solution is beneficial and satisfying for both parties and they feel good about the choice and committed to the next steps. For more on win-win and other paradigms of human interaction (Win/Lose, Lose/Win, Lose/Lose, Win, Win/Win or No Deal), I highly recommend reading Habit 4 – Think Win-Win from Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Offering a Clear and Concise Call to Action
This is the logical next step, once you present your solution and get buy-in from your prospect. You flow right into your call to action, make sure it is clear and concise – sign on the dotted line, schedule your appointment, complete your credit application, etc., this is not where you want confusion, keep it simple. And once they are a customer, make sure they know how you will proceed going forward and it is on you to continue to build the relationship, because the depth and value of your customer relationships will determine the number of your repeat buyers and referrals.
Every business has to develop their own sales process given their available resources, but if you include these components and master these methods, you will increase your closings and generate more business.
Remember, if you understand your prospect’s situation and their perceived problem and can get them to trust you at 100% before presenting your solution and stating your call to action, you will complete the transaction more often than if they only trust you 60-70%.
Next week we will take a look at Operations.
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