Sales Tip 10
June 4th, 2010 | Written by: Level Five
Price is often the easiest way for a buyer to mask consequence issues. Customers and consumers find it much easier to tell you they have decided not to buy because of cost than to explain the real reasons for them not buying from you. Not buying because of a purported price-based decision often also has business respectability within their organisation and can therefore be an equally convenient internal justification for not going ahead with you.
Sales Tip 9
June 4th, 2010 | Written by: Level FiveMany salespeople, when they meet with a key decision-maker, allow the decision-maker to take complete control. Whilst Senior Executives are used to being in control of the conversation, that doesn’t mean you should sit back and let them steer the conversation. It is essential to have a plan about how you intend to use this valuable “C Level” time effectively. Structure the meeting by setting 2-3 agenda items that you know, from research and account knowledge, are going to engage the other party early in the meeting. Decision-makers appreciate preparation and expect you to use your time with them well. If they sense that you have no real purpose for the meeting, or you do not demonstrate one, it is likely to be difficult to get another meeting in the future.
Sales Tip 8
June 4th, 2010 | Written by: Level FiveWhen setting your sales budgets, make your sales team part of the process. Having salespeople owning their sales targets will provide you with a significant advantage over your competitors who are likely to have imposed sales targets that their sales force simply does not believe in.
Sales Tip 7
June 4th, 2010 | Written by: Level FiveDo you suffer from “premature presentation” syndrome?
If you do suffer from “PP”, you may find yourself presenting often, with positive and encouraging responses, but not getting the sales results that you should.
If you have strong industry sector knowledge and highly competitive products and solutions, prospects and customers are going to be more than open to listen to you and to even see product demonstrations and the like. But the question you need to ask yourself before you present is ‘Does the prospect / customer have a problem you can solve?’
Presenting too early and in the absence of admitted need is putting the cart before the horse. Start doing your Qualify and Develop steps of the sales process properly first and watch out for the difference in outcomes.
Sales Tip 6
June 4th, 2010 | Written by: Level FiveUnfortunately for salespeople who just love to talk, the old saying that “selling is telling” is a complete furphy. Good selling is actually just like good conversation. The best conversations involve genuine mutual engagement, the asking of good relevant questions and real listening. The best sales calls exhibit 80% / 20% conversation share – in the buyers favour. This is the sales equivalent of the Pareto Principle.
Here’s a good activity to test your persuasion style:
- Give yourself 3 minutes to persuade someone on a relevant topic that they will be mildly to strongly resistant about;
- Record the conversation on your mobile phone / hand held;
- Review the tape at 10 second intervals and determine who is talking at each 10 second point (this will give you 18 data points)
- Count the number of points at which the other person (i.e. the persuadee) was talking at the ten second mark; divide by 18 and multiply by 100. This will give you the % of time the persuadee was talking.
- Compare it to the 80/20 rule described above.
- What does this tell you about your persuasion style?