*Video above covers the article below word for word*
The three steps to the sales system are to explore, present and act. When we explore, we are trying to find what it is the customer wants most. What they want is generally more potent than what they need because what they want is based on emotion. To find out what they want make it a habit of asking second level questions. A second level question is when you ask yet another question after they responded an initial one you do this to get a deeper understanding into their reasoning also Ask why often. Why do you feel this is a better choice for you, why are you in the market for the product? Why can be very powerful.
A tip I would suggest is to take notes on the conversation this not only tells the customer that you are engaged but also it makes it easier to remember all the valuable information your gathering from the talk.
Lastly, during the exploration phase, we want to summarize back to the client all they are looking for as a solution. This gives them the opportunity to correct us if we have gathered some information wrong and puts us on the same page.
The second phase is to present to the customer how your product or service matches what they want but beware of speaking too much or providing free consulting only share with the prospect how your product or service meets their needs.
A tip I would also give you is to provide the cost of your product or service early or at least provide them with a range because all to often prospect miss your whole presentation because they are too focused or worried about what it will cost. Focus on engaging your prospect, get them to speak as well. The presentation should be an experience, not a lecture but be careful to give too much information and don't talk about product features if it's not in line with what the prospect wants as this can hinder the sale. Think about it lets, say your in the process of buying a car and the salesperson is reading off features that you have no interest in guess what's going to happen 8 out of 10 times you won't take the car because in your mind all those features are driving the price up and you have no interest in those features anyways.
Make an effort to make your presentation lighthearted a little humor is useful in bringing their guard down, look for nonverbal cues, how are they sitting? Are they distracted? If you notice someone is disengaged, I would suggest you pause and ask them a question as to reel them back in.
Next, we move onto the final phase the act phase “closing phase” but tread carefully here because you may scare your prospect if you are too aggressive. The first thing you may want to do is ask the customers how they would like to proceed? You have to give them the opportunity to close themselves. In most cases, they will not be fully ready to commit so ask them a couple questions and gauge where they are at. For example on a scale of 1-10 how interested are they in the product or service? If they are low on the scale, then you may want to ask further questions and explore their position further. If you notice they are not interested you may ask “it seems your not ready to proceed at the moment is that correct?”
Letting the customer know your comfortable with them telling you no makes you much more trustworthy and saves you time ill explain a little later. Ultimately your goal is to guide the customer through to the next step of your sales process. So if they need time to think about it or they are shopping around what you need to do is let them know that's perfectly fine, but you would like to set up a follow-up call for a set date that's good for them. This adds some urgency but lets them know your ok with them testing the market I mean they are going to do it anyway so. Before you let them go a fundamental question you should ask is this. Have I described the product or service adequately, is there anything you would like for me to clarify further? Critical you ask that because you have invested time in this presentation and you don't want the prospect going out into the market with confusion about your product.
Needless to say you must follow-up with this lead, because the money is in the follow-up even though a lot of your prospects will still be undecided on your follow-up. You will have to keep reaching out and reaching out until they say no. The goal is to get an answer from them even if its no. If your open about being ok with them saying no you not only separate yourself from the typical sales person but you also save yourself a lot of time on a lead that no matter what will go nowhere. What do I mean by that? Well most people are polite so they have a hard time saying no so instead they give you the run-around and quite frankly just make you lose valuable time so why not eliminate the possibility of that happening and figure out as soon as possible how they feel about your product and what's stopping them from committing even if you get a no you still won because you saved yourself valuable time. So shoot for an answer even if its no, now if they genuinely need time then perfect set a new date and follow up again and make sure you don't miss that date.
All your meetings or phone calls should inch you closer to the end game which is for the prospect to commit and becoming a customer.