How to sell value

by Peggy Carlaw

A mentor once told me that she never buys from someone who doesn’t ask for the sale. It was an off-the-cuff remark, but it turned into a powerful lesson for me. At the time, I was just learning how to make sales calls—and how to overcome the associated nervousness. This casual comment somehow bolstered my confidence; the notion of “asking for the sale” seemed to indicate competence and expertise. It has informed my selling—and buying—ever since.

Asking for the sale represents a pivotal moment in the relationship between buyer and seller. When I facilitate sales training I emphasize that asking for the sale shifts the ownership of the situation to the buyer and empowers her or him with the responsibility to say yes or to give a good reason for saying “no.” In both cases, this results in a valuable experience for the salesperson—either a successful close or insight into what else a buyer might need before making the decision to buy.

To me, asking for the sale is a hallmark of a confident, proactive, and professional salesperson. This direct approach is so much more effective than the hemming and hawing I’ve so often encountered among the salespeople with whom I’ve worked over the years. It’s establishes an open, honest tone of “Hey, you have a need; I have a solution. Let’s do business together.”

As a customer, I constantly use this criterion in my buying decisions. If someone doesn’t ask for the sale, I get to wondering why, and I usually ascribe it to one of three reasons:

• The salesperson lacks confidence in the value of the product.

• The salesperson lacks the requisite knowledge of how and when to ask for the sale.

• The salesperson doesn’t really care whether or not I buy.

In each case, I tend to lose my interest. Is it too discerning to prefer doing business with a confident, knowledgeable and caring salesperson? I don’t think so.

Try this out for yourself … For the next week or two, keep track of every purchase you make and count the number of times the salesperson actually asks you for the sale. With small purchases like your daily latte and groceries this expectation might be overkill, but you can certainly track it for clothes, services, gadgets, gifts, and big-ticket items (not to mention cookies or anything else being sold by a youth group on your doorstep). Make them sell before you buy! This will ensure that you’ve had a chance to understand the value of the product before you buy; it will also help hone the skills of the people doing the selling.

What to do when you’re the one doing the selling? Here are some things to keep in mind to help you remember the importance of asking for the sale:

• If you’ve done a good job explaining the benefits of your product or service, you have every right to ask the prospect if they’d like the opportunity to enjoy those benefits by purchasing what you’re selling.

• People aren’t naïve; they know when someone’s trying to sell them something. It’s both odd and even a little rude when a salesperson makes a pitch and doesn’t follow through by asking for the business. The customer can be left wondering “What’s the point of this? Does this salesperson really think I have nothing better to do with my time than hearing about this product?”

• Asking for the sale is the efficient thing to do. If you truly believe in what you’re selling, you’ll want to successfully meet the needs of as many prospects and customers as possible. Asking for the sale helps you do this by encountering any concerns or objections to overcome in this sale, or by giving the customer the right to say “no” and letting you move on to the next potential customer.

Remember, selling is a process of matching the needs of your customer with the benefits of your product. That process isn’t finished until you ask for the sale.

originally posted on eyesonsales.com

Contact sport

Sales is a contact sport

I am sure we have all heard this before, “In sales, you must contact as many people as possible to be successful.”  This is certainly important, but part of that mantra is contacting the right people, the other part is knowing what you are going to say.  Is the call looking to cold call and sell something or is it the kind that is going to concentrate on deepening a relationship?  Both have their places.

Developing the relationship

If you are developing a relationship, make sure you call or email and mention nothing about sales most of the time.  You will want the impact of you having an idea or desire to sell something not to be the expectation when you call.  Your relationship will not blossom if they cringe at the site of your number on their caller ID.

I’m calling to sell you something

Make sure you have a connection of some sort to the person you are calling.  Try and get a referral.  If you are calling dead cold, you need to make an impact in the first 2 sentences or your call is over.  You will have to assume what the benefit is for the prospect before the call, so some industry knowledge or research will be important.

It’s not just the phone

You cannot win at the contact sport of sales with just the phone and email.  You will need to use your network, both physical network  and your virtual one.  In person meetings work as well, but don’t forget to embrace the preferences of those you are targeting and adjust accordingly.

How much is enough?

You have to develop your own sales ratio, but if you want a place to start, in his book, “Never Eat Alone”, Keith Ferrazzi says you will not be successful in sales unless you talk to 50 people per day.

Are you talking to enough and is the conversation the best quality it can be?

Remember:

Results = Quantity of contacts x quality of the interactions x the right customer.

Sales is a contact sportI am sure we have all heard this before, “In sales, you must contact as many people as possible to be successful.”  This is certainly important, but part of that mantra is contacting the right people, the other part is knowing what you are going to say.  Is the call looking to cold call and sell something or is it the kind that is going to concentrate on deepening a relationship?  Both have their places. Developing the relationship  If you are developing a relationship, make sure you call or email and mention nothing about sales most of the time.  You will want the impact of you having an idea or desire to sell something not to be the expectation when you call.  Your relationship will not blossom if they cringe at the site of your number on their caller ID.I’m calling to sell you something Make sure you have a connection of some sort to the person you are calling.  Try and get a referral.  If you are calling dead cold, you need to make an impact in the first 2 sentences or your call is over.  You will have to assume what the benefit is for the prospect before the call, so some industry knowledge or research will be important.It’s not just the phone You cannot win at the contact sport of sales with just the phone and email.  You will need to use your network, both physical network  and your virtual one.  In person meetings work as well, but don’t forget to embrace the preferences of those you are targeting and adjust accordingly.How much is enough?  You have to develop your own sales ratio, but if you want a place to start, in his book, “Never Eat Alone”, Keith Ferrazzi says you will not be successful in sales unless you talk to 50 people per day.

Are you talking to enough and is the conversation the best quality it can be?Remember:

Results = Quantity of contacts x quality of the interactions x the right customer.

Great sellers know their closing ratio and build relationships.

Sales tip of the week - The guy next door

So you just stepped out of an appointment with either a client, or a prospective client and there is another business or 2 in the building, or strip center.  You could leave or you could maximize your time by seeing “the guy next door”.  How do randomly walk into a business you only know exists because it is next door or near one you just left?  Simple.  Walk in and say something to the effect of “I was just over at X and noticed your business, what type of business do you do?”  Now if it says “Joe’s plumbing” then don’t ask what they do, but ask what they specialize in, business or residential.  This very simple technique works to get you in the door and passed the “why are you here” section.  You can then start with some of the easy follow up questions such as “are you the owner” or “how long have you been here/ in business?”  Now you are in to door.   At this point it is up to you based on the way the conversation is going and how well you are connecting with the person in front of you.  Sometimes this will turn in to a great bit of small talk as you find something in common, could turn into an opportunity right away, or might just be someone you can say you stopped in on and there was not an opportunity at that time.

The ‘guy next door” might be your next account.  Try this out after you next appointment.

Sales tip of the day - Normal

Normal -

look at that word, normal.  sounds innocent enough.  looking it up in the dictionary you will see descriptions of "not different", "usual", "approximately average".
When you look at your sales numbers are they "normal".  Normal for who?  When people are asked to describe you, do you want one of the descriptions to be "normal"?  When you look at the rankings of people who do what you do at your company are you satisfied with being dead center of the list?

I didnt think so.

To paraphrase Forrest Gump, Normal is as Normal does.  SO what are the "normal" people doing?  Can you do it better or should you be doing something different, "not normal"

I dont know about you but, "normal" is not a compliment to me.  Average? no way.

Are you normal?

Selling tip of the day - inertia

Today is all about inertia.  You remember your HS physics right?  Inertia is somethings desire to stay where it is unless acted upon.  You need to overcome inertia today.  Its Monday and you might settle into the old routine you're used to, but how has that worked for you?  if you're doing well, then, by all means, keep it up.  if you are looking to make a change, then the week starts now and so does the change.

Great selling starts with becoming a great seller.

Great Sellers tip of the day - joint call

I highly recommend setting up a day/week where you both go on a sales call with a successful sales person and then have them go on one with you.  The experience, no matter how much experience you have, is a positive one for both of you.  Besides gaining a little morale boost from the trust you will share for the sales calls, you will also probably pick up something you can use.  It might be something to do, or might be something not to do, but either way you will learn.  In addition to learning you can hopefully help the other person learn something too.  Do a post sale cool down with the other person after each call.  I suggest the person who setup the appointment do a self assessment first and then have the tag-along respond.

What doesnt kill you only makes you a stronger sales person and that makes for great selling.

Great Sellers tip of the day - Thank you

When was the last time you sent your good clients a handwritten thank you note?  I said, "good" for a reason because you have probably done something for your great clients, but what about your bread and butter clients?

why handwritten?  everything from the envelope to the letter inside needs to be handwritten for one reason - it will get read.  Thats right, why a pour good, well thought out message just ot have it trashed.  how do i know it will end up in the garbage?  It will end up there because you do the same thing.  remember that birthday card you got form your insurance company?  you know the one with a nice message, and maybe signed?  did it mean anything to you?  nope?  me either.  However i recently sent a handful of the handwritten thank you notes out to a few clients i see frequently to see if they would notice.  100% of them said something to me in the next 2 weeks about it.

so what did my note say?

each was different, but something to the effect of:

Dear _____ (i used their 1st names)
I just wanted to write to you just to say thank you.  Its not often that i take the time just to say thank you to my best clients.  So, Thank you for the trust you put in me and the relationship we share.

again, thank you

Ryan

You will notice that i did not put anything in about sending me referrals or that i had some new product to sell them.  My message was very clear, that I appreciated their business.

Do your good, or even your great clients know that you appreciate them?

Great selling starts with great sellers who do the things no one else is doing

Great Sellers tip of the week - Elephant Hunting, or know your 3

Know your 3. What I mean is know the 3 big businesses you want to land, the elephants. These will be high impact-to-your-sales-goal type businesses. Of these three you may only get 1 or even none, but if you don’t have targets you don’t know how to aim. So pick 3 businesses you really want to get into and know why you want them. Set a plan on how you will try and contact the owner. The objective in the beginning is to get an appointment with a decision maker. Who do you know that might know the right person? Have you checked reference USA or Linked-in to see if you have any useful information there? Do any of your current clients or networking contacts have a contact to help you? Would anyone mind writing you a business letter of reference to help you establish why they should do business with you? Track your plan and adjust it as necessary. You can land that big client; you just have to make sure it’s not by chance.

You cannot spend all your time elephant hunting, but the 3 you pick should be worth it to you.  They can be year long or longer projects.  Just getting to the right person is time consuming enough.  I know I am making this seem like a huge process but its not.  Just identify the target and do a little research.  Be prepared for a long journey, but also be just as prepared if someone asks you a closing lead-in question.  Is does have to take long, but it probably will.

Great Sellers can sell to top clients, medium clients, and entry level clients.