When prospects and salespeople begin their selling "dance," there are always two systems at work: the prospect's system and the salesperson's system.
In the prospect's system, the agenda is generally one of trying to gather as much information as he can while giving little, negotiating for the best possible price and terms for the goods and services the salesperson has to offer, playing his cards very close to his chest, and holding out enough hope should he need to "pick your brain" in the future. There isn't a salesperson alive that would not appreciate having the same courtesies extended to him. Unfortunately, most of the time, this is not the case.
The prospect wants to know what you know. The problem is...he doesn't want to pay you for it. He wants to extract all you know about your product or service along with your best price in order to beat up his current supplier.
There is a term for this phenomenon--it is called "unpaid consulting." Understand that the prospect's system is engineered to turn YOU into an "unpaid consultant" - much more FREE CONSULTING than your company website offers.
You must have a system that gets you on an even keel with your prospect's system. Here, in its simplest form, is the seven-step Sandler Selling System™:
You must establish and maintain equal business status with your prospect.
People do business with people they like and are like. Do you know how to get people to like you in less than 90 seconds or less?
You must establish an up-front contract with your prospect.
If your prospect knows up front what your sales call is about, he won't be constantly trying to defend himself and he will pay closer attention to your "stuff".
You must uncover your prospect's "Pain."
People buy emotionally - they only make decisions intellectually. The strongest motivator is "pain", find your prospects pain to remove price objections, and to differentiate yourself from the "Features and Benefits" crowd.
You must get all the money issues out on the table early on.
Can he afford your product or service? Will your prospect pay now or over time?
You must find out what decision-making process your prospect goes through - in detail. After you've given a great presentation is not the time to learn that you are not talking to the decision maker. Perhaps there are partners who haven't been mentioned, or the decision must be made by a committee.
Once you've uncovered the above five steps, (thoroughly), then you can proceed with the final two steps.
You must present a solution that will get rid of your prospect's "Pain." Of course, using this new system, your presentation has little to do with the features and benefits the Marketing Department fell in love with (even if YOU are the marketing department).
And finally, You must "post-sell" your customer to eliminate back outs and buyer's remorse.
Whether you need one call or one year to 'close' a new customer or client, these seven steps work (if executed properly - and proper execution takes time to master). "Prospects" from Squamish to Hope are chomping at the bit, waiting to be called on by the non-traditional salesperson using the system described above. Will you be that salesperson?
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© 2003 Sandler Systems, Inc. The Sandler Sales Institute is a sales & management training/consulting franchise based in Langley, of Sandler Systems Inc.
For a FREE 36-page paperback edition of "Why Salespeople Fail and what you can do about it™", contact Barrie Norman, 604-530-8411 or barrie@sandler.com
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