New Years resolutions are a waste of time. That is, they are a waste if you only do it once per year then forget about them two weeks later. Goal setting and commitment are NOT a waste of time. In Fact, they are a necessary and invaluable part of your growth as a salesperson. BUT, (and it s a big BUT) you have to do it consistently throughout the year. Set goals, review progress, stay committed or renew your commitment. It is not a once a year thing.
Archives for January 2017
How and Why they do it is More Important Than What they Do
January 17, 2017 by
Image courtesy of: sonson
Salespeople love to understand what people do. Then they look for a place to interject how their product or service will help them do it better or faster or in some way that will benefit the prospect more. In other words they ask superficial questions then they pounce with a presentation on the value they can bring. But if you really want to uncover whether the prospect has a compelling reason to buy it is more important to discover how and why they do things than to merely understand what they do. Look at these two examples of a sales call on a company for the purposes of selling access to CRM which exists in the cloud rather than on the servers of the company.
SCENARIO 1 – Salesperson – What are you using now?
Prospect – We use a xyz system which we house on our servers.
Salesperson – Let me show you how we can improve efficiency by giving you access from anywhere and we have reports that give more detail ….
Scenario 2 – Salesperson What are you using now?
Prospect – We use a xyz system which we house on our servers.
Salesperson – Why did you choose that system? ANSWER: It wasn’t too complicated and had a custom report capability
Salesperson – How do you update the system? ANSWER: Our three users do it as changes occur
Salesperson – How often is that? ANSWER: about 4 or 5 times peer day
Salesperson – How do you get reports? ANSWER: The VP’s assistant runs them bi-weekly just before the staff meeting.
Even in these simplistic examples you can see that the why and how questions give you more and richer information and will lead you uncovering whether or not there is a compelling reason to buy or not. At the very least it will change what you focus on when you describe the product.
The Two Group Technique
January 10, 2017 by
A simple direct way to determine if the prospect has a compelling reason to buy is to define two groups and ask them to put themselves into one or the other. This binary choice leaves no doubt whether they have pain or not IF (and only if) you set up the groups correctly. It is a simple technique just define one group that has pain and one group that doesn’t and ask you prospect to put themselves into one or the other. This video illustrates how it might sound when you say it to a prospect.
Don’t Argue With Your Prospect
January 6, 2017 by
This may seem like an obvious point, but
you may be arguing with your prospect and not realize it. This sales tip discusses how your prospect may view your interaction as a debate and explains how that will defeat your purpose. Remember that your main purpose is to find pain, and pain is emotional not logical. Getting stuck in a logical “discussion” may cause the prospect to harden their position. If that happens you may find it hard to move the sales process forward.
