Selling More by Talking Less - Sales Training, Sales Motivation, Sales Techniques, Prospecting

This company, their sales strategy was to follow up with individuals who had indicated some level of interest by completing a form on a website and requesting additional information.  Sharing their name, phone number and e-mail address.On the surface these should be very hot leads, a no brainier with a high success rate…but this wasn’t happening.

Last week, one of my clients—we'll call him Rick—had a demo scheduled with a prospect. The standard "show up and throw up" they typically did early in the sales cycle. Trying to shorten the sales cycle, I asked naively, "Why does the customer want to buy? What are they trying to accomplish?" Rick couldn't tell me. I asked if he thought the salespeople knew. He said no. I gave him an assignment: he had to find out "Why," "Why now," and "What's it worth." Otherwise no demo.

Here is a real bold statement; Send this email and you will close more sales.  Now let’s see if I can live up to it…. You be the judge and jury on this one…  Ready?

Should we be closing implies there are things that we need to understand before we share what we have in specific detail.

Let your competition roll the dice and hope they get a return call…then have to decide if they should just keep pretending their being ignored.You stay in the driver seat by telling them the next time you’ll be calling, setting a soft appointment and building credibility along the way.

Think about when you’re on the phone.  Better yet, think about the last sales call you made…were you simultaneously online clicking though different web pages? YouTube, Facebook maybe CNN?  How about playing games on your phone?You may or may not be able to relate….The fact that it’s possible that you COULD have been doing something while on the phone it’s ALSO reasonable that your prospects are MAY BE doing something else while there on the phone.  Fair?

Call any office in America today get someone's voice mail and you will likely hear some version of: "Hi, you've reached the desk of ______; I'm either on the phone or away from my desk.  Please leave me your name and number I'll get back to you as soon as possible."

Nowadays, marketing has been made much easier. With a strong email list and some few ideas, you're set to give your business all the prospects you’ll ever need. Here’s a quick 10 point list: 

Our job is to help prospects identify the gap between where they are and where they want to be.We can do this is by asking questions that challenge the assumptions they have, creating an opening for them to want something different.

The hungry, they don’t get fed… Just because we need a sale doesn't mean we get a sale.  In fact the more we need it, the higher the likelihood we won’t do the things that need to be done to get it.  Ask the hard questions and clear next steps.

How much pressure do we as salespeople put on ourselves unnecessarily?  After all literally what do we have control over? It’s been said when two people want to do business together the details can be worked out – but – when two people do not want to do business together the details will always stand in the way.

How many sales have been lost because the person we are talking to didn’t get what we were saying and suddenly felt unsure about their ability to make an informed decision.

What I’m getting ready to share with you is a simple tool you can use to take the follow up calls you’re already making and transform them into laser focused discussions that get your prospects to start telling you why they need what you have and literally asking “What’s the next step?”… 

“I’m tired of wasting time with people who waste my time...”  This is how the conversation started with a new perspective client.

There an interesting dynamic many salespeople drop into when dealing someone who has come to them on the recommendation of someone else. They abandon their sales process.

Let’s get clear on what happened and make some specific decisions that will affect our results next time.

“Success demands singleness of purpose.”    -  Vince LombardiThere really is a difference in what the top 20% do.  Here’s one of them….

At the beginning of the year or whenever I start working with a new coaching client there is an exercise that has proven over time to be very profitable to walk through.  - I call it Where and When.

We want to get a clear understanding of who we’re talking to and how to speak the same language…. Making sure our communication gets us the response we want.

What separates good sales people from those who struggle is their ability to learn how to get out of their own way.