Achieving
my sales budget was effortless when things were good, and this led me
to think that I could sell. However, when times got tough, I discovered
to my surprise that just because I made sales, it didnt mean that I
could sell. I loved being in sales and wouldnt consider any other
occupation, but quite simply, my family wouldnt eat if I didnt earn. And
to earn, I had to make my budget. It was time to learn how to sell
consistently despite the market, despite the economy.
As a Sales Manager, and later as an Executive Coach for Sales
Managers, I have seen this scenario over and over again. Every time the
economy falters, so do large numbers of sales people. So, what can we do
when the economy is in downturn? Here are five tips to keep sales
people on track to make budget.
Ultimately, your sales presentations needs to answer three questions,
- Why this product?
- Why your company?
- Why now?
You have to learn to create the desire for your product or service so the client wants
it. Once they want it, you dont have to sell it to them, you just have
to finalise the details. But this takes skill, knowledge and a
willingness to learn how to do it better.
1) Learn how to ask the right questions
The right questions are powerful tools in selling. Untrained people
start selling too soon in the process. They dive in and start selling
before they know enough about the client and the clients problems.
Before you can sell, you need to know enough information so you know
what to sell and how to sell it. You could talk about the wrong benefits
and not get much interest. Use the right benefit and you get a sale. It
only takes one strong benefit to make a sale. But it must be the right
benefit for that specific client.
“Mr Client, before I tell you about my product, can I ask you a few
questions about your business? I dont want to waste your time by talking
about some of the great things about our product if it doesnt apply to
you.”
The information you get will tell you how to answer the question – why this product for me?
2) Learn how to sell your product or service
Very few sales people are formally trained to actually sell the
benefits of their product. They expect it to speak for itself; they
believe in it so much they assume the client knows more than they do;
they think that they are talking too much; they are reluctant to feel
pushy.
Once you have got the right information, it is now your job as a
pro-active sales person to “sell” this product to this client matching
the benefits to the clients problems. This is the only time you talk and
you talk eloquently and in a planned manner which you have practised.
“Mr Client, I know you are a very busy person and anything which
slows you down, slows down your business. Thats why this software is
going to be so useful to you. Being able to have multiple programs open
at once (feature/fact), its not only going to help you get through your
workload faster, its going to help make you and your business more
efficient (strong benefit for this client). Would that be important to
you?”
Also, notice the question, which results in the answer “Yes!” Ask lots of yes questions.
0 comments:
Post a Comment