A good introduction book into selling – where Linda explains a 5 step process:
- Connect
- Explore
- Leverage
- Resolve
- Act
Linda also stresses the need for taking notes during meetings, maximizing listening/talking ratio and how customers buy from salespeople they believe understand what they want and care what is at stake for them.
Memorable quotes
Questioning is much more than a skill. It is a mindset. How you think about and use questions during a sales call reveals a lot about how you see your customers. By asking questions, you signal to your customers that you feel they are smart and perceptive. You show you believe they know their business and have the capacity to tell you how to sell to them.
Many salespeople aren’t sure what their first question will be. Often for their first question they ask a technical question such as, ìWhat are you doing now in? How many do you use each month? While these are great questions, they are not the best first question because they are narrow. While asking almost any question is better than immediately presenting information without probing, technical questions are too tactical to begin a deeper needs dialogue. Start with the objectives questions.
If you want your customers to be excited about your solutions, you have to be passionate about their needs.
To summarise, good salespeople know how to gain insights. Your job is to listen attentively, acknowledge what the customer says, and continue to probe until you know enough to offer a winning solution.
But customers need more than facts to make a commitment. We also know the best technical solution, even at a competitive price, does not always win. This is because buying decisions are in part emotional. Most customers must not only think it is the right decision, they must feel it is the right decision.
Rather than beginning by talking about your products with the words We offer or Our product, it is much more persuasive to lead with We have talked about your needs for X and Y. Start with and incorporate customer needs into every sentence. Generously use the word you.
You can become more persuasive by: maintaining your presence leveraging your preparation and contacts remembering to acknowledge or empathize probing/drilling-down before giving your perspective customizing your response to listener needs using examples or success stories to make things real checking for feedback.
Responding immediately with a rebuttal invites a defensive reaction from the customer who in turn digs in his or her heels. If instead you acknowledge or empathize, you can help neutralize the situation and help lower the customer’s guard
Your technical knowledge is, without a doubt, an essential part of resolving objections. Technical expertise supplies the substance and credibility of your response. Your ability to communicate that expertise, however, supplies the persuasiveness. Whether you carry technical knowledge and experience in your head or rely on a specialist and support materials, how that technical message is communicated determines how persuasive it is. It might seem the technical knowledge you use to resolve any particular objection would be set in stone.However, because most customer objections are vague the answer to any given objection isn’t so clear-cut. To provide the best, most persuasive answer, you usually have to clarify the objection. The good news is that the actions in Resolve will help you work through any objection, and the actions are always the same.
In situations in which you are not sure of the next step, at a minimum ask the customer, What do you see as the next step? But don’t settle for a “Let me think about it and get back to you2. If the customer suggests getting back to you, say, Great. May I call you on (date)? Ask for a reasonable next step that is in your control, not the customer’s. When you walk out the door, be in the driver’s seat.
Debriefing can also help you populate your customer relationship management system with more than numbers and technical facts. Include insights, customer language, concerns, personal data such as birthday dates, all the information you can use for follow-up, to prepare for your next contact, and differentiate yourself