Selling PDF - Sales Strategies & Techniques

Selling lauantai 19. lokakuuta 2024 9.40 35. Before the Meeting Transcript Good salespeople don't wing it. Good salespeople prepare as much as they can before they even meet the customer. So what should you prepare before a sales meeting? Well, the first thing is find out about the person. If you...

Selling lauantai 19. lokakuuta 2024 9.40 35. Before the Meeting Transcript Good salespeople don't wing it. Good salespeople prepare as much as they can before they even meet the customer. So what should you prepare before a sales meeting? Well, the first thing is find out about the person. If you can find out who you're going to meet. Have a look on LinkedIn. Ask anybody else in the company if they've met that person. What do they like? What don't they like? That sort of thing is great to know. Also find out as much as you can about the company because if they discover that you haven't prepared about their company, they will conclude quite rightly that you don't really care about them. You're not that interested in them, and that will give them the clue that you're not going to look after them very well if you sell them something. So prepare about the company so you know all about it. And of course that's easy because you've only got to look at the website, really. And then finally, have there been any previous meetings? Has anybody from your company been to see that person? It might not have been you. It might be somebody else. So what have you got on your contact database about previous meetings? It would be awful if you tried to sell them something that they'd already said no to at a previous meeting. And then two other tips arrive early. Whatever you do, never be late for a sales meeting. It's disrespectful. It gives them the impression that you don't really care about them and they're looking for any clue about do you care or don't you? So get there nice and early. Just bring a laptop or use your phone to do emails in reception. It's not a problem if you get there early, but don't cut it. Fine. Don't come running in with one minute to go all sweaty or even late. And the other thing is be smart. It's always difficult to know exactly how smart to be, and it depends on the type of company you're visiting, of course. But if in doubt beyond the smart side, I would say you want to be slightly smarter than them. Whatever their level of smartness, if they're in t shirts, you should probably just go in a shirt like this. And if they're in shirts like this, you probably want to have a shirt and a jacket. Udemy Page 1 And if they're in shirts like this, you probably want to have a shirt and a jacket. And if in doubt, of course, you could even wear a tie. And similarly, the female equivalents of those you want to be really, really smart because then there's nothing to worry them. They will trust everything that you say if you appear smart and professional. So prepare as much as you can about the person. The company and previous meetings arrive early and be smart looking. From 36. Being Liked Transcript Now, the second part of the sales process is when you first meet the person, it's very important that they like you. You have to build rapport with them immediately. Apparently we decide within the first 30s whether we like someone or not. So this first 30s is absolutely key. If you get it wrong, you've wasted the whole rest of the meeting because they've already decided they're not going to buy from you because they don't like you. Liking should be irrelevant, of course, but it isn't because customers don't want to give their money to someone they don't like. And also, if they don't like you, they won't trust you. There's all sorts of problems that flow from there. So being liked is absolutely key. And I want to mention three tips for being liked. And the first one is complimenting people. So compliment something about them or their office or the building or the company, anything that you can find that's good. It might be a book that's on their shelf that you've read as well and that you love. It might be. They've got a bowling trophy or a photograph of them meeting the Queen or something. It might just be the view from their window. It might be that their company has done some fantastic things recently, but it's really important to compliment them because that will make them feel good and they will like you. And by the way, it helps if those compliments can be genuine. If you can find something you genuinely think is good. The second part of liking is to find some common ground with the other person. We like people who are similar to us. So if you discover that they support the same football team or they're driving the same type of car as you or they are from the same part of the country as you, anything that's similar, maybe they've got a dog and you've got a dog, any common ground because if somebody is similar to you, it means that their views are going to be similar and you can probably trust their opinion. So they're going to trust you more if you can show that you have some common ground with them. Udemy Page 2 with them. Now, sometimes there are things you can see in the office. There might be a photo of their dog or their football team or whatever, but if there's nothing, then you have to do it by questioning. You have to ask them questions like what they do in their spare time, or what do they think of the premiership at the moment or whatever. And then you can spot clues and you can find that common ground. So that's the second part of liking. And then finally, body language, we put a lot of store by body language because it's quite hard to fake. So if you say you like someone but you don't really believe it, or if you say you're pleased to see them but you don't really feel like that, then your body language will give you away. So there are some key aspects of body language. For example, do you smile when you first walk in the room? Because if you say hello, pleased to meet you, they know that you're not pleased to meet them. So you have to smile. Even though you may not feel like it. You may be nervous about the meeting. You may have had a terrible journey, nowhere to park. You've still got to smile when you go in there. Just tell yourself the meeting is going to be great and then you're more likely to smile as you walk in. Make sure you make really good eye contact. Make sure that the handshake is really good, not too limp, not too much of a bone crusher, just a nice handshake. It's all about that first 30s Lots of positive body language in the first 30s otherwise you've wasted the rest of the meeting. So those are the three ways to be liked. Compliment them, find common ground and make sure your body language is really friendly. From 37. Ask Questions and Listen Transcript Now, if I could have one rule of selling rule number one, it would be to be a great listener. And that usually means asking questions and then listening. Although sometimes they just talk, you don't even have to ask questions. But questioning and listening is absolutely key for a number of reasons. Firstly, you find things out, of course, and there was an experiment done where they said to the salespeople, We don't care whether you sell anything, we just want you to find as much out as you Udemy Page 3 out as you can about your customer and we're going to judge you by that. And of course, what happened was that they sold loads because they found out all these things that the customers wanted, but also the customer enjoyed feeling important, being asked all these questions, and they were more likely to buy things if they felt good about the meeting. So questioning leads to finding things out. But it also means, as well as learning that they feel important, it also means that you don't step on a mine. So imagine if I came in and said I do a negotiating course and it's two days long. They might go, Oh, we only wanted half a day and I've stepped on a mine. But if I said, How long is your ideal negotiating course? And they say, Half a day I can say, Oh, well, I can do that for you. It's much safer to ask questions than to go in with statements. It also makes them feel important because you're paying attention and you're asking them and you're talking about their favorite subject, which is them. And finally, there's the benefit that you control the conversation. So you're able to steer the conversation. You can say, tell me a bit more about that, or you can say, okay, great. I understand that. Now can I just go back to this? So you're controlling where the conversation goes if you're a questioner and the best type of questions are probing questions so you don't want to go for yes or no closed type questions. Do you want to buy this? What you would do is you would say, tell me about your current supplier. And if they say, well, they're a bit unreliable, you'd say, Really? Tell me more about that. And that probing question is where you find out the best information. So it's important to get good at probing questions, which are things like and then what happened and how did you feel and what did you do about it? Or just tell me more about that. So questioning is absolutely vital. We're building up the relationship, but we're also looking for needs. We're looking for what it is they want. You know, what's making you think of changing supplier and why are you not happy with your existing one? We're finding out what they value because the next phase is where we show them that we can satisfy those needs. From 38. Features and Benefits Transcript Now we come to stage four, which is basically where you can finally tell them how great you are or Udemy Page 4 you are or how great your product or your company is. But we don't put it like that. We put it as if we are going to show them how we can help them with their needs. And the best way to do this is not to talk about features. Companies are always really keen to say, you know, this has got four gigahertz or it's got a special vibration absorber or something, because we love the features in our new product and we know all about the features, but the customer doesn't really care about the features, so don't talk about features. What we want to talk about is the benefit to the customer. That's the thing that they want. And we found out what those benefits are that they want. In the previous questioning stage, they've said, I'm looking for this or I'm looking for that. So we know those benefits are what they want. So if we say this is a feature and you need it, they're thinking, well, that might not be true. But if they're saying this is a benefit that I want, that must be true to the customer. But how do we know that the benefit really is true? If somebody says this car will go better around corners, I'm thinking, well, why should I believe you? But if you say it's got this feature, which means you will get this benefit, then I'm thinking, Oh, okay, I can see that it's got a special spring thing, which means it'll go better around the corner then I believe it. So although I want the benefits as the customer, somebody has to show me the feature which gives me the benefit. So what we do is we link them. So we say it has this feature, which means you'll get this benefit. And if you use the phrase, which means you're definitely doing it right, it's the benefit with the proof. But you should only tell them about the benefits that they have asked for. So you don't want to go through every feature and the benefit from that and this feature and benefit and because half the things they don't want. But from the previous questioning, we've found out which benefits they particularly want. Maybe the person doesn't care about going fast around corners, but if they've said that's one of the things they want and that's why they're getting rid of their current car because it's not very good on the corners, You can then say, Well, we've got this feature here which gives you just that benefit that you're looking for. So we want to give them the benefits that they've asked for and the features that support that benefit. And the best way to do this is to prepare a table of all of your features and all the benefits that they give and have that in your head ready for when you see the customer and you might find a particular Udemy Page 5 might find a particular benefit has two features that contribute. Suppose they want customer support. You may say, Well, we've got a 24 hour service and you'll have a dedicated person, and both of those things will mean that you'll get great support. But that table, whether it's 2 to 1 or 1 to 2 or whatever, that table is in your head. So as soon as the customer says they want a particular benefit, you can pull out the features in your mind and you can show them just what they want to see. So features and benefits. From 39. Favourite Close Transcript So if it's all gone well and you've shown them the features that give them the benefits, they should be making noises like, Well, that sounds good. Oh yeah, that is good. And those are buying signals which mean it's time for you to go for your clothes. And the important thing about the clothes is that you should have a favorite clothes that you always use, and it should be something easy, not too pushy. So something easy for you to say and something that doesn't make the customer feel cornered. Something like. So should we do the paperwork then? Or when would you like it? Or do you want the blue one or the green one? Or shall I pencil it in? By the way, that's the one I use for training courses. I say, should we pencil in a date? You're thinking of doing it in early May, aren't you? So should we pencil in a date? I sometimes say I haven't got very many days left, so shall we pencil one in? So that's the clothes I use. But whatever you want to use, you need to know and always use the same one. So it's comfortable and easy. And if you've got a favourite one, it means you don't have to think or worry about it. In the meeting with the customer. You don't want to be thinking, Oh, I've got to ask for this order. How do I do it? How do I do it? So have a favourite one that you just pull out easily. And that also means that you don't have an excuse not to close. Because what you must never do is say, Well anyway, there it is. Give us a call. If you ever decide you want it, you have to say, So what do you think? And that's what you do with your favourite clothes. From Udemy Page 6 40. Objections: Peel the Onion Transcript Now, what if you show them how you can help them? You go for the close and say, Should we do this? And an objection comes up. What do you do? And the first thing you should always do is peel the onion. So this is where you say, apart from that, is there anything else that worries you or is there any other reason why you wouldn't buy it? And what we're doing is we're trying to find the real objection because often the first objection is not the real one. So, for example, with price, if they say, well, it's a bit expensive, it's not usually priced, there's usually something else that's worrying them. So if you say apart from the price, what do you think the chances are? They'll say, Well, yeah, no, there is something else and then we can find out the real objection and we can deal with it. Now, if they give a second thing, then it means that the first objection wasn't the real one and you could ignore the first objection. So if they say, Well, apart from the price, I'm worried about the fact that you're a long way away and I might not get proper support if I have a problem, you now know you don't have to go back to price later. That's gone. You just have to say, Well, it's interesting that you say that because we actually have an office in your town as well. There's only two people in there, but they can come and see you with five minutes notice. So that's going to be fine. And you've answered their objection. You don't have to go back to the price. So what we're doing with peeling the onion, we're not arguing. If they say it's expensive, we don't say, no, it isn't. We just say, okay, well, apart from that, if we could solve that for you, would you buy it? So we're not arguing. We're just trying to find the real objection, which we can then handle. From 41. Objections: Feel, Felt, Found Transcript So if they have an objection, the first thing is to use peeling the onion to find out whether it's the real objection or not. And if it isn't, we can find out what their real objection is. We then need to see if we can overcome that objection. Udemy Page 7 We then need to see if we can overcome that objection. Now, it may be a genuine objection that can't be overcome, but quite often people have worries that are actually not really a problem and we can use feel felt found to overcome those objections. I love, feel, felt, found. So let me tell you about this great way to get around almost any objection. It's a polite way to tell someone that they're wrong. So if somebody said, Oh, I wouldn't want to go on holiday to India, for example, which is my favorite country, I love going there. I wouldn't say, Well, you're obviously wrong and stupid. I would say, why not? Now suppose they say, well, the flight is so long, it's ten hours on a plane. I could say, Well, I know how you feel. I felt the same way when I was first going to go there. But what I found was that actually it was great. You could watch three films, have a meal, fall asleep and you're there. So I'm using feel, felt, found. I know how you feel. I felt the same way. But what I found was and you can use this for anything, if they say I'll have to eat curry every day, I can say, Well, I know how you feel because I felt the same way. I was a bit worried about eating curry every day, but what I found was that the food was fantastic. It was almost the best bit of the trip. So I know how you feel. I felt the same way, but what I found was and you can use either first or third party. So first party is I know how you feel, but you can also use third party, which is, yes, customers often feel the same way as you, but what they always find is that it's worth paying the extra. So that's the third party. And you can even say, and here's the number of somebody, if you want to call him. I was talking to him only last week and he was saying he was so glad he'd paid the extra. So here's his number. So third party with an actual reference can be really powerful. So you can use feel felt found for price if you have to of. Yes, I know what you mean. I thought it was expensive, but actually when I looked at it I saw the value of it. Other people often worry about the price, but what they always find if they buy it, is that it saves them a lot more than they are expecting. So you can use it for price. But I think it's worth having your own answer for price. So what I do if I have a price objection, I peel the onion first to make sure it really is price and quite often it isn't. But if it is price, I tell them about the price per person. Because imagine if you're going to pay £1,000 for a training course. It sounds a lot, but if you've got 20 people, that's only £50 a head, which is nothing. So imagine you're going to train people for £50 a head, but they might well sell a sofa Udemy Page 8 So imagine you're going to train people for £50 a head, but they might well sell a sofa for £2,000. Why would you not spend 50 training them? Or I compare it with the cost of their salary. So I say, Well, you're paying somebody, let's say 30,000. It's probably costing you 50 or 60,000 to employ that person. Why would you not just spend £50 training them? It's like putting oil in a Ferrari. So that's what I do with price. That's my way of handling price objections. But the main thing is you need to have a way to handle the price objection, because it is the commonest objection that you're here, even though it's often not a genuine one. So feel, felt, found and have a method to handle, particularly the price. Objection. From 42. Keeping in Touch Transcript Step eight of the sales process is often neglected. And it's a real shame because it's a good one, which is to follow up and then keep in touch with the customer. So sales people often think, Well, I've been to see the customer. They either bought it or they didn't, and that's it. But actually following up and keeping in touch is a really good way to make more sales in the future. So if you made the sale, keep in touch. If you didn't make the sale, then what's the next action going to be? Maybe they need to talk to their boss. Maybe they're not ready yet, but keep it with you. So say to them, Well, when will you be ready to think about it? August. Okay. Shall I call you then? So you've got permission to call them? Never. I'll leave it with you then. Or call me when you're ready. Now, imagine if you don't call them. Imagine if you've been to see somebody and they don't want to buy it at the moment and you say, okay, well, I'll be in touch. And you never call them, they'll think that you don't care that you didn't really want to sell to them, you didn't really want to help them. You didn't care about them as a person. Maybe you didn't even like them. But what if you're pretty sure it's going to be a no? You're thinking of ringing up to say, Have you thought about it now? What do you think? Udemy Page 9 What do you think? You're pretty sure you're going to get a no. Should you still call them? Well, imagine if you follow up and it's a yes that was worth doing. But imagine if you follow up and it is a no. At least you've got it closed. It's off your list. And also, if it is a no, you can ask them why. And if they have an objection, you can find out why you didn't get the sale and that will be useful for next time. Imagine if you were selling a house and they said, Well, in the end the kitchen was a bit dark and not very attractive. That's useful for you to know because you can make sure that you put some extra lights in the kitchen and make it really clean and nice looking for the next person who you show the house to. So a no is still useful and maybe you can handle the objection. Maybe you can say, Well, would you like to have another look at the kitchen? Or did you know that included in the price is we're going to refurbish the kitchen. So find out what the objection is. You might be able to handle it and get the sale. You might be able to turn a no into a yes. And of course, the final reason why you'd want to keep in touch is to ask for a referral. Because if they have bought from you, you can still say, How's it going? Isn't it great? Is there anybody else who you think would benefit from this? Is there anybody you'd recommend that I talk to? And in fact, even if you didn't get the sale and they were really apologetic saying, I love it, but I can't afford it, you could say, Well, do you know anybody else who you think would love this? And sometimes they'll help you just because they feel bad that they're not buying from you. So keep in touch. Always get back to the person even if you think it's going to be a no and ask for those referrals. From 43. Statistics Transcript The final part of the sales process. And this is almost more sales management, although if you're a solo sales person, you need to do this as well. And this is to monitor your pipeline, keep some statistics on what's going on. So firstly, you want to make sure your pipeline is full at all points. So do you have plenty of people to phone? Do you have plenty of appointments booked? Do you have plenty of proposals out there? Because if you've got plenty of proposals, if you've got nobody to phone, then that's Udemy Page 10 Because if you've got plenty of proposals, if you've got nobody to phone, then that's going to be a problem in the future. So do you have plenty throughout your pipeline? And next, is your activity rate balanced? So are you doing plenty of phone calls and plenty of visits and plenty of proposal writing? Because quite often people like proposals or they like visits, but they don't like the phone calls. So you've got to make sure that every week you do enough of each of those and they need to be to both new and existing customers in balance. So some people neglect their existing customers, whereas other people they love going to see their existing customers because they're kind of friends, but they just don't go and look for new customers enough. So the right mixture and you decide what that mixture is maybe one third, two thirds or something like that of new and existing customers got to be in balance. The next thing you would monitor in a scientific way is the conversion rate at each stage. So how many calls do you have to make to get a visit and how many visits do you have to make to get to send them a proposal? And how many proposals do you have to put in to get a sale? And you can monitor that and you can see whether it's getting better or worse. And if you're a group of salespeople, you can see whether one person is doing better than the others. And if they are, then why can the rest of you copy what they're doing? So you want to be really scientific about those conversion rates. And of course, conversion rates also tell you how much activity you have to do, because if you know that to get a sale, you have to put in two proposals. And to get a proposal, you have to do, let's say, two visits. So that means you have to do four visits. And if you have to do ten phone calls to get a visit and then, you know, you have to do 40 phone calls and that might be every week you do two visits, two proposals and 40 phone calls. But it's the conversion rate that tells you how much activity you have to do. The final thing to measure is your reasons for not getting the sale. You need to find it out and you need to track it. Keep a note, keep statistics on why you aren't getting sales. It's almost never the price. But what is the real reason? Is it quality? Was the proposal not written well enough? Was there some objection they had? You've got to find out what that reason is and track that and then you can get that fixed. So salespeople are not just good with building relationships and handling objections and all of that. They're scientific about the numbers as well. Make sure that you're monitoring your pipeline and then you know that the process is working. Udemy Page 11 working. From Udemy Page 12 Attachments lauantai 19. lokakuuta 2024 9.40 2.4+Featur es+and+B... Udemy Page 13 Udemy Page 14 2.5+Choosi ng+Your+... Udemy Page 15 Udemy Page 16 2.7+Feel+F elt+Found Udemy Page 17 Udemy Page 18