How to approach the Sales Process... #31
- Adrian Dionisio - business737 owner
- Aug 24, 2021
- 8 min read
Updated: May 23, 2024
“Seek prospects from current and former clients, as well as everyone you call on, regardless of the sales results. Can you ‘see’ a prospect behind every bush, corner and tree? Keep on the hustle with enthusiasm and dedication. Combine these factors with knowledge, expertise, experience and skill".
How to approach any and every sales situation
Sales are what generates revenue and without revenue you do not have a business. There are countless sales techniques and procedures that exist. You can get lost in them all. Here, the only the most important principles and concepts will be mentioned. They are what is truly important. These frameworks will provide the foundation of all successful endeavours. They will guide you how to approach each and every sales process.
1. Honesty
The most important thing, above all, is to have a belief and honest conviction in what you are doing. Arrive at the realisation that you are not selling but helping.
You are providing a service and being of assistance to others. Clients must believe in what you are saying and have confidence in you as a person. Before the prospect buys your explanations or product, they must buy you. They must buy your personality, your sincerity, and your credibility. The bottom line is that they must TRUST you.
Feel a sincere and moral obligation to sell a product which is good for the customer. Make every legitimate effort to sell, to serve and to help.
Often people buy from us not necessarily because they understand our offer, but because they feel we understand them. This is why it is so important to speak from the heart. It is not all about facts, figures and speaking from an intellectual base. What really counts is developing relationships and connections through honesty, integrity and sincerity.
When the inner being speaks, the deepest sincerity is communicated. This is why you have to truly believe in your product/ service, otherwise, you cannot speak from your heart. A completely honest approach is always he best approach. Honesty means to believe so deeply, so completely in what you are selling that you can’t understand if people don’t buy.
The most important part of the sales process is the sales person. Sincerity is the most important key. Trust is critical and sincerity is the key that opens the “I trust you” door
2. Belief
People are persuaded by your belief more than anything else. This is because selling is essentially a transference of feeling. In order to transfer the feeling, you have to have that feeling, you have to be committed to your product. You have to believe in it and have conviction in it. If you’re going to be convincing you have to be convinced.
What is critical is your total conviction and complete belief that the product or service you sell is truly the best buy for the prospect. Believe in your product and company. Transfer that belief to the prospect and not only will you sell more – you will sell it more easily and those customers will get you other customers. Sell from a belief base tied directly to your heart.
The best salesmen are those who feel very strongly about what they are selling, by the force of their convictions, by the depth of their beliefs, by their enthusiasm, they are able to persuade people, who are not even hot prospects, to go ahead and buy.
Their belief in the product is so deep, they rationalises no prospect could say no, if they clearly understood and believed the claims. Therefore be careful not to feel rejected if the prospect says no. Understand the difference between refusal and rejection.
Remember, when you get an appointment the prospect is saying “ I buy you, now come and tell me the story” . When the prospect becomes a customer he is saying “I trust you, I believe you are telling the truth, so go ahead and write the order.
They must buy you before they buy your ideas or services. A sale is made on every presentation, The prospect either sells you that they can’t or won’t buy or you sell him that he can and should buy.
3. Understand the customer
You must always, in every sales situation, be thinking as a seller and as a buyer. Think from both viewpoints. Move from one side of the table where you think and feel as a salesperson, to the other side of the table where you think and feel as the customer. Understand their wants, needs and desires. How can they truly benefit from doing business with you? What could be their potential objections? What can be making them hesitant? These are questions you must be asking if you really want to help them to solve their problem.
Deep down the prospect is scared.
The prospects needs reassurance. They need to know that it is ok to take this step, that what they’re buying is fairly priced, that you represent a legitimate organisation, that your integrity is solid.
They have a haunting fear that they are paying too much. They are scared that what they are getting is not worth the asking price. Their fear will ultimately be put to rest because of his confidence in you as a person. You are the bridge that they must cross if they are to move from fearful prospect to confident buyer.
Your prospect’s sense of fairness is involved. Perhaps they have been taken advantage of in the past and they certainly doesn’t want it to happen again. You must totally believe what you are selling has real value and is fairly priced.
Prospects are not only buying for themselves, they are buying with other people in mind. They are concerned what others think, concerned about friends, family, fellow employees, neighbours etc. There will be people who mock him about the purchase so arm them with things to say.
The prospect ultimately buys future enjoyment. With this in mind you can write down the reasons you can give the prospects to buy and the excuses or objections that they can give. You must always give your prospect a reason to buy – an excuse so to speak. The best excuse is usually financial. A reason and excuse to buy will make it easier for the prospect to commit.
Calm, confident, positive, reassuring representative, working from a base of honesty and integrity is the most effective tool to calm any fears.
4. Use words that sell
The master salesman takes his verbal paintbrush and instinctively uses full words like home instead of empty words such as house. The first word that sells is your prospects name. – their name is the sweetest sound of them all.
Warm, descriptive word paint pictures. Those pictures and sounds have a substantial impact on buyer’s decision whether or not to buy. You must learn to use words in an effective picture painting process.
Take the verbal paint brush and paint the prospects into the picture. Show them enjoying the luxury, comfort, or other benefits of using your products. You have to paint the picture of satisfaction and gratification. Focus on benefits not features.
The picture must be in colour and in the present tense. Every product and service can be sold by painting word pictures especially if the pictures are in the present tense. We think in pictures, we buy in pictures if we are painted into the picture as satisfied customers.
People do not buy products or services- they buy picture of the end result of using the product or service. When a person makes a significant purchase of any kind he generally makes that purchase only after he has gone through the picture painting process in his own mind. As a professional you need to help the prospect with the picture painting process.
Paint the picture of satisfaction and gratification. Why? It is because you don’t sell what the product is -you sell what the product does. Your prospect is not going to buy cold, hard facts. He is going to buy warm people benefits.
Paint the picture of a business that cares, who appreciates your custom, who is going to look after your needs as they arise. Paint a picture of someone who is people and service oriented. This is how to make more sales and build a solid foundation for your business.
5. Listen
Listen. Really listen to what your prospects and customers are saying. If you really hear what they says and what they are saying they will give you the key to making the sale.
Hear everything and register things. Remember your main aim is to help the prospect buy. Listen with your eyes and act on signals. Ask questions to find out what they really want. Remember that in most cases the other party will be delighted to give you pertinent information if you will just ask for it. Find out the prospects major interest and then show them how your product will meet his needs and satisfy their interests.
If you really want to improve and excel you can record your sales presentations. Listen to them and ask yourself – would I be able to persuade myself to take action on the offer? You must do this to know how you sound to your prospect. Constantly listen back to your pitch. Practice and make adjustments and improvements. Fine tune the process. This is the path to excellence.
Keep records on all customers. What they bought, when , how. This will prove invaluable later down the line. If anyone make a significant purchase from you, you should put them on your super customer list and court them as long as they are your customer. The best way to get a prospect to make a favourable new decision is to make them happy with an old decision. If you attack a former purchase, you attack the purchaser, their judgment, taste and intelligence.
Most sales people need to be a little hard of hearing when the prospect says they are not interested
Remember the prospect is the big winner so be enthusiastic and forceful.
Be enthusiastically optimistic that you will make the sale. Your expectancy has a direct bearing on the prospect’s decision.
Be patient and take time with your client. They want to be right and understood. Do not argue or contradict but listen to the prospect. Never become argumentative, defensive or antagonistic, instead positively influence. Empathise with them. Answer questions, people become open and fair minded when you do.
Power Points
Persuasion is a very useful and helpful for anyone who has to persuade other to take action of any kind (mothers, teachers, dentists, husbands, ministers, coaches, policemen, salesmen – anyone)
You can get everything you want in life if you will just help enough other people get what they want
Many sales are missed not because of poor technique- but because of no technique. Ask for the sale! Too many sales are missed because the salesperson doesn’t ask the prospect to buy.
Know you can’t play the role of success in the costume of failure.
Give every sales call or meeting your best. Make every effort to extend your goods, services, products to the person you are dealing with. But if he does not buy, then don’t beat yourself to death as a result. Walk away and mentally prepare yourself to make the next sale on the next call. Remember that you have not failed on a sales call unless you let it negatively affect your attitude on the next sales call.
Understand your business success will depend on what you do with what you know, not just on what you know.
Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation
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