Your Selling Success Depends on Doing This One Simple Thing
Over the course of your sales career, you will be hearing many different ideas to help you sell. While some of these ideas will be cumbersome and complicated, I recommend that you choose the ones that take you back to basics. Doing this will ensure you’re on the right path to sales success.
Your sales process should include asking for referrals.
Do you think your selling would be much easier if your customers believed all the wonderful things you could say about your products and service? Of course it would. Customers who trust you and believe in you will be more likely to buy from you.
So where is the disconnect? Too many salespeople are the ones doing the talking about how wonderful they are. The sales basic is that when other people say good things about you, they are more believable than if you say the same things. From an influence standpoint, your prospects and customers understand that you have something to gain by selling something; your customers have nothing to gain when they say the exact same thing. That’s why they are more believable.
Too many salespeople work very hard to make the sale. They work even harder to deliver customer satisfaction and delight. That’s the end of their sales process. That’s a big mistake. Sales professionals should get back to sales basics and leverage their good work and use it to sell.
Modify your sales process to include one more step. Be sure you are asking for referrals to other customers when you realize that you have a pleased customer. However, understand that not all customers will immediately offer recommendations; the good news is that you have just created a shorter sales cycle if they do. That referral comes to you with built-in trust from the customer making the referral.
Be flexible about the length of your presentations.
How many sales calls go exactly as you planned them? I’m guessing that you have encountered something unpredicted in many of them—and that’s all right. Meetings often get changed today because of time pressures that many customers face. Salespeople have to be flexible to meet this challenge.
Be sure to always indicate how much time you’ll need for your sales calls when you make appointments. This way your customers can block out the time you need on their calendars. However, be prepared just in case your clients' calendar changes. How can you do this? You prepare different versions of your presentation.
You should already know how long your basic presentation takes during a first sales call, a second meeting, and at later sales calls. Prepare your opening question and additional questions you will ask to uncover customer needs, problems, and wants. For example, if you need 30 minutes to conduct an effective first meeting, take that same 30-minute presentation and turn it into a 15-minute meeting, a 10-minute meeting, a 5-minute meeting and if need be, a 1-minute meeting.
Would you be able to make those time adjustments at your next meeting? Most salespeople would not be able to. If you’re unable to make a time adjustment at a sales meeting, the only alternative would be to come back another time—and you’ve just lengthened your sales cycle.
Flexible salespeople are prepared when a customer starts the sales meeting with, “My boss just told me that I have to meet with him in 15 minutes.” When you’re prepared, you can reply, “Thanks for letting me know. I need 15 minutes of your time and we can accomplish our objective.”
I do recommend that you reschedule a meeting if your customer will be distracted and unable to devote the attention you need. An emergency situation might qualify as a reason to reschedule. Spending limited time with customers who are unable to truly listen ends up being wasted selling time. Your customers might even appreciate that you are waiting for a time that’s better for them.
Getting back to sales basics means you are building a strong selling foundation. Successful selling doesn’t get any simpler than that.
