Fundamental selling behaviors and activities are what great sales processes are built on. Like Einstein’s theory of relativity, they connect all elements of the process to yield the desired result.

Fundamental Selling Survives Over Time

For those who remember the Bob Dylan song from mid last century “Times They Are A Changin’” will no doubt wonder whether the disruptive forces of change in today’s business were what Dyan was singing about. (For those who don’t know the song, Google it.)

Change has always been present. Small changes, large changes and monumental changes are the history of the world and affect how we have done business since one man first exchanged something of value to get a product from another. But the fundamental selling components of an effective sales process have held true through the millennia.

Use Technology to Support Fundamental Selling

We may live a world where technology is evolving at a breakneck pace. Perhaps faster than we can keep up. Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, and incredible amounts of Data are all impacting the way we do business. Still fundamental selling works: the purpose of a business is to make a profit. We do that by providing a product or service that fills a need for which customers are willing to pay. We win orders when we provide better value than our competitors.

Better value is based on knowing what problem the customer has and what it is costing his business. The best salespeople have customers who like and trust them and are in a long-term, mutually-beneficial relationship. The high performers plan each sales call. They understand the customer’s need and find out what they are willing to spend. Great sales people deal with decision makers. These are the fundamental selling components which form an effective selling process.

Available technology can help great sales people be more efficient. Communications tools make it easier to stay in touch with a customer. Customer relationship management systems track the sales process. Now we can FaceTime with customers without having to visit them. Proposals and documents can be available on line. Experts from all over can be brought together in a videoconference.

Fundamental Selling is Key to Success

But what ever way technology disrupts the way we traditionally have interacted with prospects and customers, a tried and true sales process based on fundamental selling performed well over and over is what will grow a sales territory, a business or an industry.

To learn more about the fundamental selling process see Chapter Eight, The Six Step Sales Process, in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club!

“See” you next week.

Good Selling!
Don Crawford

 

So you think practicing your sales skills is a waste of time? Interesting, since most star sales people practice all the time. Like people in other walks of life, champion sales people consider practice essential.

Practice Makes Successful Sales People

As soon as the first game of his comeback had ended, the basketball super star Michael Jordan said, “I need more practice.” Basketball’s greatest player, perhaps in history, and his first thought is about practice.

Once, after holing a 50-yard pitch shot, golfing star Jack Nicklaus said, tongue in cheek, “It’s interesting…the more I practice, the luckier I get!”

It’s amazing! The world’s greatest athletes seem preoccupied with practice.

Top Performing Sales People Practice All the Time

Star sales people practice their craft just like professional athletes do. They do not leave anything to chance. They rehearse, they study, they read, they role-play…they practice. Continue to practice your craft so that when you go out in the field you are ready to play your best!

Think about these questions:

• What do you do to prepare for your meetings with prospects?
• How much research did you do before you went to see your last prospect?
• Have you found that you are more successful in your bid for new business if you role-play the meeting with a team member before you meet with a prospect?
• What was the last book you read to improve your sales ability?

Each chapter in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling ends with exercises to boost your sales performance. Star performing sales people practice all the time. Do the hard work to make selling look easy. For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford

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The art of sales prospecting is a “state of mind.” The best prospectors are always looking for new opportunities. Always have your antenna up. Prospects are everywhere!

Prospecting – The Art Of Finding New Business

Our oldest daughter is a Disney Vacation Planner and a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant. It’s a joy to be out and about with her. She picks the longest line at the grocery store check out so she can chat with others as she waits. I’m amazed when she walks away from the store with a new prospect or two!

How about you:

• When you go out for an appointment, walk into the office on either side of your destination.
• If you’re on the golf course and don’t want to appear pushy, just say, “Joe, I have an idea I want to bounce off you. Now is not the time or place, but I’ll call you next week to discuss it.”
• When speaking to a civic or professional organization, ask for a “Yes” or a “No” at the end. Tell the audience, “A ‘Yes’ means that you would like to schedule an appointment to discuss how I might be able to help you.”
• Tell your new client that if they are pleased with the service you provide, you are going to ask for three or four referrals.

Sales prospecting is a never-ending part of your daily routine, not a hit-or-miss thing. Keep doing it.

Start now:

• Make a list of current and past clients to ask for referrals.
• Ask about others within the same company who might need your product or service. Maybe another branch office is in need of your product or service.
• Review your social and civic organizations’ member lists and find two people you would like to get to know better or to learn more about their business. Then call them and invite them to lunch.
• Join a resource and referral network.

To learn more secrets about sales prospecting read the first part of Chapter Eight, The Six-Step Sales Process, in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford

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Most buying decisions are made emotionally and one of the strongest emotions known to man is pain. People will go to great lengths to alleviate or avoid pain, including paying top dollar.

Successful professional salespeople master the art of getting the prospect to open up and reveal not only needs, but real pain.

Finding the Pain

Neil Rackman’s SPIN selling technique can help you get your prospect’s pain on the table early in the interview. SPIN stands for:

• Situation
• Problem
• Implications
• Needs

SPIN Selling

When using SPIN selling:

1. Ask only enough Situation questions to know what’s going on. Have the prospect describe the situation as it exists and use words to paint you a picture.
2. Get the prospect to define the Problem and identify dissatisfactions that lead to pain.
3. Determine the Implications of the problem. How does the problem affect the prospect?
4. When the problem is solved, what is the Needs payoff, that is, what is the desired outcome?

Listen carefully. Make sure you get all the pain out on the table so you can craft a solution using your products or services.

Getting Results

The key to the sales interview is the salesperson’s ability to ask the disturbing questions in a natural, non-threatening manner. When you finish the sales meeting, you should know:

• How long has the prospect had this pain?
• What happened the last time the prospect tried to solve/cure it?
• What is it costing the prospect to have this pain?
• How much is the prospect willing to budget to get rid of the pain?

Remember, no pain…no change!

To learn more sales secrets see Chapter Ten, Finding the Pain, in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford

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Dealing With A Price Objection

Price is the monetary value we place on the product or service we sell. It represents what our customer is willing to pay for the solution to the problem they are trying to solve.

For most products, the marketplace sets the price a customer will pay to exchange their money for the good or service you are selling. For mass-marketed consumer products, competition limits the price for a product. But for unique one-of-a-kind solutions to products, the benefit of solving a problem drives the price.

Should You Move On?

What’s a salesperson to do when they get to the close and the customer thinks the price is too high to pay? Or the customer says: “I can get this for less money from your competitor.”

One approach could be to pack up your brief case and thank the customer for their time and move on. Then look for their reaction. If they are happy to see you go, move on to the next prospect. But if they are uneasy that you are pulling out, it’s probably a strong signal they want to work with you but need help in justifying the price.

Or Start Over?

If you choose to try to overcome the price objection, begin by again reviewing the problem they are looking to solve. How much is that costing them? If they use your solution, how quick is the payback? Is there added value by using your solution, your company, and you that they can’t get elsewhere? When presenting to a decision making group, find out who is driving the price objection and what their motivation is.

What’s Your Advantage?

Let’s say you are selling a part to a growing manufacturing company. Their current supplier can’t keep up with their demand so they are looking for a second source. The part you are selling is suitable for the application but it is 10% more expensive than the current supplier because they are only buying a small quantity from you. You have agreed to have a guaranteed stock level at all times to meet their demand and you can ship in one day compared to three days from the current supplier. All this adds a level of comfort to the buyer and the added value of not running out of the part and shutting down production would exceed the additional cost. Plus you can offer a volume discount for larger order quantities that would reduce the price difference between the buyer’s sources.

Avoiding the Price Objection

The key to overcoming the price objection is to know what value your product or service adds to the customer’s business. When you have been talking value and benefit compared to their budget all along through the selling process, then the price objection rarely happens at the close. The best sales people have nailed down the price expectation before the closing presentation.

For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford & Lois Carter Crawford

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