If you are interested in developing
salespeople with master-level skills, this article will supply
you with a method that will absolutely, positively help you accomplish
this.
It is not necessarily the content of the following Seven Steps
to Every Sale that will make this article revolutionary. These
seven steps to every sale are fairly universal. There is, however,
a principle that is essential for success with the seven steps.
No skill is gained by mere intellectual agreement
There is a missing ingredient to almost every sales training program,
and it’s not information. In fact, the “better”
(based upon popularity) sales training programs usually have more
information, better information, and even more advanced ideas
and concepts. I’ve attended trainings on Neuro Linguistic
Programming, for example, and been quite impressed with the idea
of it, but have come away with no acquired skill.
Herein lies the problem with most sales training programs: You
do not gain skill by intellectual agreement. For example, you
might be very capable of understanding the principle behind a
judo flip, but to be able to do it, you have to practice. To do
it perfectly every time, you have to practice it continually.
If you’ve ever been part of a highly trained team, you know
the sense of confidence that translates into success. The secret
to building an excellent sales force (or team of any kind) is
in repeating core training on basic sales skills again and again.
The levels of learning
The lowest level of learning is memorization.
It is easy to memorize the seven steps to every sale, but that
does not mean that you can apply them. However, it is an excellent
starting point.
The highest level of learning is known as synthesis. This means
that you have learned the material so well that you can synthesize
it into your own style and method of doing things. Synthesis requires
a lot of repetition and practice.
To achieve synthesis in your sales team, begin by having them
commit the seven steps to memory, then set about polishing each
skill area until your people are masters of each.
The Seven Steps to Every Sale
The seven steps to every sale are:
• Establish rapport.
You will find that you close a much higher percentage of sales
if you have good, solid rapport with your client. The ultimate
definition of rapport is: They like you, they trust you, and they
respect you. Respect and trust lead to influence. Influence leads
to control over your market or the buying situation at hand. Work
with your staff to design standards for establishing rapport.
• Qualify the buyer (find the need). To reset a customer’s
buying criteria in favor of your product or service, you must
begin by gaining a complete understanding of his or her current
buying criteria. Develop the six to ten questions that you would
like to know about every prospect before you begin to present
your product or service. Drill these questions into your salespeople
until every one of them can recite them by heart.
• Build value. After
you have assessed your customers buying criteria, you must begin
to build value around your product or service. Make a presentation
at this point in the sales process. The presentation should be
targeted to the buyer, not to your product or service.
• Create desire. Be clear on this important point:
Your buyer will be a lot more motivated if his or her current
situation becomes unacceptable. To create desire, you must motivate
your buyer using a combination of problems and solutions, even
if you are the one pointing out the problems that they haven’t
really considered. For example, one company that sold information
services to accountants showed the accountants how much new tax
information (statutes, regulations, tax law, tax cases, etc.)
they have to know each year. This information made the accountants
feel overwhelmed and predisposed to purchasing anything that would
help them survive the tax-information plight. The company actually
helped create the “plight” by introducing the accountants
to the very real market statistics that existed but no one else
was showing them. It was very, very powerful.
• Overcome objections.
A talented salesperson does such a good job on finding the need
that objections are covered earlier in the sales process. A top
salesperson will qualify the buyer’s buying criteria right
down to his or her toes, before they even begin to sell. However,
an “objection” can still surface when it is time to
close the sale (see below). If you remember that “an objection
is an opportunity to close,” you will always be happy to
hear one. For example,
a)The client states an objection:
“I’d love to buy it, but I just can’t afford
it right now.”
b) Agree that the objection
is valid. The client will drop his or her guard: “If you
can’t afford it, you can’t afford it (meaningful pause).
But let me ask you a question: Is money the only thing standing
between you and the purchase of this product?” At this point,
if there are more objections, they will surface. If not, the client
will say, “No, if I could afford it, I’d buy it.”
You have just moved a huge step closer to closing the sale.
c) Lock down the sale: You say,
“So, if I can find a way for you to afford this product,
you will buy it?” If the client says yes, you have just
closed the sale. You will now need to be more creative in the
financing of the product or service or help create more desire,
so the prospect will pay the extra money to buy the product or
service.
Getting commitment is key to closing
the sale.
• Close the sale In truth, the best salespeople I have witnessed
do not “close”, they “bring the sale to a logical
conclusion.” They have helped set up such a logical buying
criteria that the prospect and the salesperson walk to the close
together. That being said, it should also be stated that most
people need help making decisions.
This article cannot cover all the aspects of closing a sale, but
it can cover the oldest close of all: assuming the sale. Do this
by asking a question like, “Who do we send the bill to?”
or “How did you want to pay for this?”
• Follow up – Last but not least, be prepared for
The Cool-Off Factor. Because enthusiasm and rapport are extremely
influential in the sales process, a salesperson must know that
a prospect is going to “cool off” after the salesperson
leaves the room.
How do you avoid this? Follow up strongly after the sale! The
fax machine was the greatest invention for a salesperson. A good
follow-up letter faxed hours after the sale, or the next day at
the latest, can go a long way toward avoiding the cool-off factor.
Summary
These seven steps are core sales skills and procedures. Just as
basketball coaches must constantly train their players on lay-up
shots and blocking, sales managers must constantly train their
players on polishing every angle of the Seven Steps to Every Sale.
Smart companies build tools, policies, and procedures that support
these seven steps. The more standards you set, the higher the
performance you can expect from every level of talent.
Go forth and master The Seven Steps to Every Sale. Only constant
practice and repetition will create master-level salespeople.
Chet Holmes is President and CEO of Jordan Productions, an international
marketing and sales consulting firm in San Rafael, California,
that specializes in helping companies develop strategic identities.
He has conducted training sessions at more than 60 Fortune 500
and other prestigious companies and is author of The Mega Marketing
& Sales Training Program. For more info or to purchase the
Video Training program: “How ToDouble Sales,” go to
www.chetholmes.com
Copyright @2003, reprint with permission only,
contact us
