Resources for Young Entrepreneurs
Selling techniques
During the first prospecting visit there are some basic questions that you should always try to get answered:
Who is the decision-maker – are you the person who signs the order/cheques?
What is the decision making process – does the person you are talking to make the decision by himself, or is there a partner or a committee?
Who needs to be involved?
What time scales are they working to – if they decide to buy from you when do they want it?
Do they have a budget – how much do they plan to spend?
Who else are they talking to – who is your competition?
It is no good spending a lot of time discussing someone’s needs and requirements only to find out that there is no authority to make a decision. You may not be able to get “higher up” in an organisation once you have made initial contact “lower down”.
Also if you know a company is not in the position to buy for many months, you can pace your visits accordingly.
Have a very good understanding of what the competition offer – you need to be able to pre-empt any possible comparison that may not be to your advantage.
Example:
Sally has just completed the fact-finding part of a sales interview. The next part of the conversation might go something like this:
“Thank you very much for that information Mr Smith, it has helped me to understand how your company operates. From what you’ve told me I believe that Commercial Cleaners can be of real benefit to your organisation.
However, just to make sure I’ve understood you correctly, do you mind if I recap quickly?
(“That’s okay.” from Mr Smith).
From what we’ve discussed, I understand that at the moment you employ two cleaners yourselves for a total of ten hours each week from 7.30am to 8.30am. (One hour per morning per cleaner).
You used to employ just one cleaner for two hours but if she didn’t turn up then no cleaning was done. Even though you have no real complaints about the quality of their work, you still find that they can be unreliable. Often they don’t arrive on time and they are still cleaning when the office staff arrive, or only one turns up, so the other works the extra hours.
When the cleaners go on holiday you make do with just the other one, an arrangement you are not very happy with. At the moment you pay your cleaners £3.75 per hour. You also have high turnover of cleaning staff, and it is your responsibility as Office Manager to replace them.
Have I summarised the current situation correctly?
(“Yes.” from Mr Smith).
Well Mr Smith Commercial Cleaners can offer you a service which would guarantee the cleaning staff arrived an finished on time, maintained a high standard of work and any change over of staff would be handled by us.
Let me tell you how we would do this … (Sally would then, AND ONLY THEN, talk about how Commercial Cleaners operated).
…From what I have told you Mr Smith do you feel our service would be of benefit to you?”
Mr Smith would probably comment something like:
“Well yes, but how much is this going to cost me?”
Sally would answer:
“At the moment Mr Smith you are paying £37.50 each week for your cleaners, is that correct – including three weeks when they are on holiday?”
(“Yes.” from Mr Smith).
For an extra weekly fee of £12.50 we could provide a quality service which would ensure that you didn’t have the worry of organising and controlling your cleaning staff. I’m sure you’ll agree Mr Smith, that quality and peace of mind for an extra £12.50 per week is good value?”
(“Yes.” from Mr Smith).
Overcoming Objections
Not all sales run smoothly however. Often your prospect is still doubtful, or doesn’t want to make a decision, or feels that your product/service is too expensive.
How you respond to this objection may well determine whether or not to get the sale.
Strangely enough, the more objections you get the more likely you are to close the sale. If someone is seriously considering buying what you have to offer then they will start to look at the possible problems they might encounter – so objections are really “buying” signals.
First of all make sure the objection is genuine.
Prospect: “I’m afraid I didn’t want to pay that much.”
Sales: “Is there anything else that’s bothering you?”
Prospect: “No, just the price.”
Sales: “So if we can come to some agreement about the price, you will go ahead and place an order?”
Once you have established that your prospect has no other doubts, you can then set about overcoming the objection.
First of all either agree or sympathise with him:
“I can appreciate that at first glance our price might seem a little high, however…”
If you start by disagreeing, or using the word “but”, you will find yourself caught up in a downward spiral battle of words – and there can only be one winner – your prospect!
If he beats you – you’ve lost the sale. If you beat him – you’ve lost the sale.
“However… how often do you replace your existing parts?”
“Every six months.”
“Well our parts come with a two year money back guarantee, so you would only be buying our product once every two years, instead of every six months. Now let’s see how much that would save you…”
The telephone
Establish contact with the correct person
Give reason for calling
Qualify customer to make sure it is worth continuing
Identify customer needs through open questions
Remember people don’t like to be talked at for too long
Meet needs with the benefits that you have prepared
Arrange time and date when you can visit/send brochures/call again.
Remember to smile – helps you to relax.
Think about the importance of the time of day that you call
Face-to-face
Dress appropriately.
Friendly greeting, smile, polite conversation
Express reason for calling, brief outline of your product or service.
Establish what the customer needs. This can only be done through listening.
Planning the Sale
1) Knowledge of your product or service.
Be confident in what you have to offer.
2) Who are you going to target?
Different types of customers may be approached in different ways.
3) Who is the person you should be dealing with?
It should be the person with the money, authority and needs.
4) What are the needs of your potential customers?
How will you, your product and service satisfy these needs?
5) What objections may the customer give?
Think of how you can deal with these objections.
6) Devise a customer record system
This should be done for all potential customers that you contact.
7) What is your bottom line?
If a customer does try to knock down your price or ask for free delivery, what deal if any will your business be able to bear.
8) Prepare sales material
Business cards, brochures, samples, portfolios, price list, diaries, pens paper etc.
9) Plan how to get there
10) Plan a script
This doesn’t have to be stuck to rigidly, but it will help you to prepare and plan.
Active listening
Shows that you are listening and makes the customer feel important.
1) Paraphrasing
Check understanding; repeat main points but in your own words.e.g. So what you are saying is…
2) Reflecting
Try to get customers to express their feelings. Helps you to understand your customer better.
E.g. You say you don’t like colour photographs…
3) Open questions
Encourages the customer to talk which allows you to gather
Information relating to their needs.
When? What? How? Why? Which? Who?
E.g. What is it that you like about this design?
4) Focusing
Allows you to gather more detailed information about a subject that the customer has mentioned
E.g. You mentioned just now that you could buy paper supplies from tyler stationery; are you satisfied with that service?
5) Summarising
Summarise what the customer has said in broad outline confirms understanding.
6) Listening
Listening without interrupting allows the customer to complete their train of thought and give them a sense of being attended to.
7) Silence
Using silence skilfully often elicits valuable information from the customer.
