What exactly is a sales process and how is it different from a sales methodology? Which do you need to focus on to get The year has brought in new sense of optimism for channel networks, distribution networks and franchises. Outline for a Sales Training Manual. Written by: Brooks. We usually respond in the same way: What prompted your interest in a sales training manual?
Salespeople are too cynical to be fooled by sales theory. Sales leaders expect proof of the effectiveness of training initiatives. This step is important because you are attempting to qualify this prospect and determine if they have the potential to become a sale. When possible, speak directly to decision makers and those in positions of authority. If you feel confident that your product will help resolve an issue for your potential customer, schedule an office visit. Tell the customer you want to meet their team and get a better understanding of how their business runs.
At this point in the process, you are attempting to qualify the prospective customer as someone who has the potential to purchase. The fourth step is to schedule an appointment and make a face-to-face connection with the potential customer. You should set aside enough time to sit down and speak with the customer to understand their needs and explain how your product can solve their issue s.
Focus on concrete value propositions like savings on operating costs and cutbacks on customer waiting time. Your goal is to convince the client they need your product. Nothing in life worth having comes easy! Factors like budget and contract length can be sticking points, so be prepared to overcome objections and close the sale. Practice your outside sales process as often as possible and refine as you go. In addition to the above steps, a few additional tips include the following:.
The difference is simple and all in the name: Inside sales team members work in an office and focus primarily on inbound calls or cold calls. There are great tools available like Gist. It is clear from everything stated above, that building a successful business is about developing meaningful connection with a targeted group of individuals.
All other strategies are supplemental to this and in effect only support your efforts to connect with the right people.
When you meet the right people, either via social media platforms or face to face networking events, ensure that you have their express permission before you add them to any mailing list or newsletter. You will very quickly alienate people if you follow this reckless strategy. Always try to go the extra mile by glancing at their bio on LinkedIn, Facebook or twitter, before going to any meeting with them.
It is always great to have something to comment to people about when you meet them. Things like, it is great to meet a fellow engineer etc. Even better would be to have an understanding of their interests or hobbies. People love to speak about their interests and will readily connect with you, if you have researched them and know a little about their background. There is one word people love to hear more than any other, their name.
Use people first names as often as realistically possible in any communication with them. This applies whether you are speaking to them in person or if you are communicating with them via email or on any of the social media sites. By using the sweetest sounding word in their vocabulary will build great rapport with everyone you interact with. Get out of the idea that you must always be in broadcast mode. This applies at face to face networking events and on your social media platforms.
No one likes to interact with people that only push content or information one way. Respond to as many people within your social media network as possible.
Strive to be someone, who always adds value to everyone around you, who helps and connects with people daily. Someone with whom people can connect to with confidence, form mutually beneficial relationships with, which will serve both parties, leaving everyone better off after making the connection. Successful networking either face to face or via social media is all about looking for ways to connect with and support other people. Always try to contribute as much as possible to the people in your network and they will return the favour.
These contributions must never be made with a hidden agenda. You must be completely transparent when supporting people in your network; people will know when you are not being authentic. As you build your social equity you will attract the right type of people into your network. The law of reciprocity will most certainly be activated and you will form great long term sustainable relationships with people that matter. Selling is an art form or should I rather say that it is an on-going process of fostering relationships with people, who have a need or challenge, you can solve, by supplying them with the product or service you offer.
Selling is most certainly never about telling, or a single event. It is a process, which develops daily over time, never in a day, by fostering mutually beneficial relationships with people, who you view as partners. The sales professional, who approaches every client or prospect, with a view to forming a mutually beneficial partnership with them, will be constantly looking for ways to add value to their partner.
Anyone who is entering a partnership with someone else is always looking for ways to foster good relationships, to support them and to build trust with them. You will be very quickly found out, if you try to sell something you do not completely support or believe in yourself. As you know your new partners will only buy from people they know, like and trust and they believe, is adding real and meaningful value to them or their business.
When your intentions are not honourable and you try to pretend that you have your clients and prospects best interests at heart, but in fact you are only there to try to close a sale.
You will be found out. We have an inherent ability to read peoples body language, their tone and pitch of voice and the cadence and volume of their speech while they talk. Your client will very quickly see through any facade or false intentions. Just like anything in life, you need to plan every sales call or relationship building process, before the meeting. Yes you can wing it and walk into the meeting unprepared, and in some cases may even get away with a lack of preparation.
Attempting to go into a sales meeting with your client or partner unprepared, is like allowing yourself to be a paper cup blowing around with no direction in a car park. You will just get shunted around in the meeting at the whim of your client or partner. They will be in control and you will be in a weakened position, where you will be forced to tell to try to sell.
Have a clear intention or purpose for every sales call. If you want anything in your world to change in an instant, then simply change the way you look at it and it will immediately change. As soon as you are able to make the shift in your mind, away from viewing yourself as a sales person, who desperately needs to sell your wares, and instead you see yourself as a value adder.
You equip yourself to become a relationship and partnership builder. See the relationship you are developing, as a way of doing something with and for your client or partner. You are ready to start the journey to become a relationship builder and partnership developer. Your intent will always be crystal clear, when you work with any client. They will see right through any facade you may try to create. When you are authentic and you always act with your clients or partners best interests at heart, you will build long term relationships with people who will get to know, like and trust you and obviously buy from you.
Dare to explore the limits of your potential and awaken your full sales potential. It is time to up your game and to set your sales giant free.
Unlock your hidden sales super star and finally make the shift away from old school hard selling, towards new age relationship building and sales influence, as an effective selling strategy.
As you build relationships with your new partners you will be equipped to use their positive emotions to show them how your product or service will add real and lasting value to their business.
Building relationships and long term mutually partnerships with your clients, is the best way to, get your prospects and clients to know, like and trust you. It also changes the relationship dynamic, when you deal with them, on this level. They are no longer in the power position, with you merely taking instruction from them.
You become an asset to their business, an additional tool, which will serve them and their business. When you work from this modality, they know that you have their best interests at heart and will only offer them the best value for their business. This all sounds great, but how do you start to build this relationship, how do you begin the journey to build a mutually beneficial relationship with them?
As you know when you meet with a prospective client for the first time, the tension levels are fairly high. This is most certainly not the time to sit with your feet braced firmly against the desk, regurgitating the benefits or features of your product or service.
This is the stage for small talk and an opportunity for you to start to build rapport with them and to begin the process of developing a good business relationship, which shows your commitment to support them. We all love to speak about is ourselves. When I approach any new decision maker, I encourage them to speak about themselves, by using the past, present and future as a focal point for the conversation.
How did you get started? The decision maker is obviously very proud of what they have achieved and how well they have done in the company.
The secret to start building any relationship is to listen twice as much as you speak. Simply sit back and listen intently, showing real enthusiasm and authentic interest. People will very quickly see through you if you are merely feigning interest and pretending to care. You can glean a massive amount of valuable information from the decision maker during their chat about their success journey.
The next question I ask is about the present situation. The decision maker is not only having a chance to speak about their own favourite subject, but they are supplying you with valuable information, which you can use to find innovative ways to show the decision maker how your product or service can serve them and their business.
I cannot stress enough, how important it is to ensure that you show real interest in what the decision maker has to say. The next way to lead the conversation is towards the future. This is probably the most important part of the conversation. They may say things like we are looking to modernise our production facilities, grow our sales, reduce costs or improve product quality. Listen intently and just make mental notes of all the possible opportunities for your products or services to help support the decision maker, achieve these outcomes.
This information will serve you going forward and help you to build and cement the mutually beneficial relationship, which you are attempting to build with them. After the meeting, record your thoughts and any valuable information, which may help you later, to develop the relationship. I have an electronic sales recording system, where I carefully record this information immediately after the meeting.
I then use this information to research the client and explore actual company results or outstanding achievements, related to their tenure at the company. I record this in my electronic sales recording system, for use at the next meeting with the decision maker. Remember the emotions expressed by the decision maker, while they were talking about the past, present and future. Those emotions will help guide you towards an innovative way of showing the decision maker how your product or service will serve them and their business.
As you know logic makes people think, but it is emotion which makes people act. Always focus on the decision makers emotions when developing your sales strategy. After the meeting explore all opportunities you have identified in the meeting where your product or service can support them, by either eliminating some pain or helping them to better achieve any desired outcome. This process requires you to be a little creative and to innovate.
It is crucial to stop thinking like a traditional sales person. Look for innovative ways of supporting them and helping them in the long term. Focus on building a mutually beneficial long term relationship. Forget about trying to make a quick short term sale and focus on how you can utilise your product or service to help them in a meaningful way. Always look for ways to serve your clients and to add real value to them and their business.
The decision maker is going to use their emotions to buy and will only buy from someone they know like and trust and who will add real value to them and their business. Keep this as the focal point, during all interactions with your clients.
The greatest challenge facing anyone, who needs to purchase anything, is the risk that the product or service they will buy, will not meet their needs. If that is the single biggest obstacle stopping anyone buying from you, then simply eliminate the risk and you will significantly increase your new client acquisition and multiply your revenue. I am in the consulting and professional speaking business. It is often difficult for the leader of a large corporate to invest a significant amount of money into my fee and risk, not being satisfied or worse, being disappointed.
The best way to secure the business is thus to remove the risk to the client completely. I am sure that you are in a similar position, where there is often a great divide between you and your prospective buyers.
You know that your product or service is absolutely perfect and will meet or exceed your prospects expectations. You are completely certain that once your client gets to experience what you have to offer, they too will see the fantastic benefits it offers. The challenge for the customer though, is that for you to open the door and show them how great your product or service is, they will need to take a risk and as you know, people are risk averse.
So most people will not take the risk and offer you the opportunity to share your great product or service with them. As you are in the business of building mutually beneficial relationships with your clients, both you and your client lose, if they do not have the opportunity to see what your product or service can do for their business.
The secret to open the door and to start to build the partnerships and relationships you want with your prospects is to eliminate the risk completely. Instead of expecting them to work with you, with blind faith, where they take all the risk, eliminate the risk completely.
In other words show them how much you believe in your product or service, put your money where your mouth is and offer to supply it free of charge, if it does not meet their expectations and needs. You therefore know that what you have to sell is fantastic, so have the courage of your convictions and show it by removing any risk to your client. Originally published Jun 21, PM, updated June 22 Subscribe to Our Blog Stay up to date with the latest marketing, sales, and service tips and news.
Thank You! You have been subscribed. Start free or get a demo. Sales 8 min read. Salesperson Training With average rep tenure sitting at 1.
Featured Resource. Conduct call reviews. Provide a sales process overview. Train reps on how your company handles prospecting. Walk through your buyer personas. Provide a competitive analysis. Have strong reps provide demo training. Hold technical training. Practice negotiating and common object handling. Offer onboarding training when applicable. Encourage necessary certifications. Create vertical-, role- or territory-specific trainings. Topics: Sales Training.
Don't forget to share this post! Expand Offer. Download for Later.
0コメント