Making It Happen! Bill Morland Orange County SCORE Selling Techniques Making It Happen! Bill Morland Orange County SCORE Three kinds of people: make happen, watch happen, what happened?? Sales is making it happen! Everyone is a salesperson—dating, getting a job, getting your son to clean his room, etc. Wouldn’t be here with out being able to sell. Everyone can sell—difference is motivation. Sometimes you don’t want to. Talk about Selling—3 biggest mistakes; do nothing else but these and you can sell. Ask questions---Burning questions??? Survey-how many are retail ie selling shoes at Nordstrom? How many retail –business to business ie copy machines? How many wholesale ie beauty supply distributor? How many OEM ie sell lumber to home builders.

Individual Purchase Process Love Buying Intention Shopping Consideration Awareness 2

What Is Selling? The face to face meeting with your prospect at the Intention or Buying level Getting there—right place, right time, right person What are we talking about? Selling is the face-face meeting. But in order to sell you have to get face to face. We’re going to discuss how to get there. Usually sale people spend 5-10 % of their time face-face—remainder of the time is getting there. Selling is a numbers game. The more you are in front of buyers the more sales you will close. Therefore a lot of selling is being in the right place at the right time talking to the right person.

What Do Customers Care About? THEMSELVES!! Wants, Needs, Desires 4

What Do They Buy? SOLUTIONS!!

What You Should Know About Your Customers Target – Who are they – decision maker? Needs, Wants – What do you need to solve? Value Perception – Their perceived value equation. 6

The Value Equation Value = Benefit/Cost

Before You Do Anything Else… Sell yourself Know your product Know the value equation Know your competition Know why your customer should buy from you instead of your competition Sell yourself—if you’re not sold no one else will be. BIG MISTAKE—talking in the third person. “They” have a good product. “They” will deliver this on Tuesday. Implies you don’t agree—You’re not sold! Only reason to use they is if you’re an independent sales agent—ie real estate, Know Product—Use it, ask questions, know what it can and can’t do for the client. Know how its made, know why its made, know the price, know why that’s the price. Know everything you can about your product or service. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Know Comp.—Who are they, where are they, where are they in relation to you, what do they say about their product—about your product. How big are they. What is their strength? What is their weakness? How do you find out? Shop them—Have a friend shop them. Visit their website. Ask your customers. Ask them. Ask the trade publications. Sets your product apart—Your reason-to-be. Express features as benefits—Have them do this. Discuss importance of it. We attitude—discuss importance of it. Tell about office space in Chicago.

Getting In Position to Sell Target your customer Know who is the decision maker Execute your plan consistently If you can’t/won’t do it, hire it done Target—You must know who your potential customer is. Marketing can tell you—often its common sense. Skateboards don’t sell well to Sr. citizens. Criteria can be the customer you can use your product advantage. If you’re selling riding lawn movers, your customer is probably not in urban Orange County. But maybe it’s the county. Decision Maker—Talk to the right person. Nothings worse than “I’ll ask my boss and get back to you.” It is necessary sometimes to soothe egos etc. but don’t let it control your relationship with the customer. How to find him—ask! Ask the receptionist; look at the org. chart. Look at the web site. Ask other salespeople. Ask the client when you enter the office if they will be making the final decision. If not, see if you can get the other person involved. Funnel of Leads—Sales lead time. Some sales take longer than others. Selling aircraft to United is a long process, Selling candy to a kid is a short one. Chances are you’re in between. Think of leads as a funnel—know how many marketing units go into the top of the funnel to produce the required leads out of the bottom. Direct mail, telephone calls, cold calls etc. Consistency—Do what you do every day. Don’t miss a day. Plan your time. Make your phone calls, make your cold calls, whatever; but do it every day. Consistency is the most important key to long term sales success. Hire It--if you can’t/won’t hire it done. If it needs to be done for your business to be successful you must budget for it. Be realistic with yourself. If you don’t do phone, find someone who does and pay them. Don’t fool yourself.

Prepare for the Sales Call Package yourself No negatives Research client Be on time Be observant Package—how you dress, how you look. Call in New York on banks, wear a business suit—call on feed stores in Kansas, wear blue jeans. No negatives—people make up their minds in 30 seconds—be sure that you’re not putting out negatives. Research—Know all there is to know a bout the potential client. On time—enough said! Observant—learn as you approach the business. Cars in the parking lot, consition of facility, location, condition of lobby, etc

The Sales Presentation Approach Present Objections Negotiations Close Approach—confident—introduce—observe—state purpose of call—ask open ended question to involve buyer (Not “How are you”); more like “your company had a 10 % sales increase last quarter. How did you do that in this down economy? Ask if you have time parameters (even if he says yes, he won’t necessarily hold you to them) Use example Lucky buyer. Try to be sure decision makers are present. Present—tailor presentation to client. Ask questions, fined his problems and then show how your product will solve them.

The Approach Eliminate possible distractions Lead with a question to involve client-and don’t say “how are you?” State the purpose of call in terms of your customers need Get agreement on the need Approach—confident—introduce—observe—state purpose of call—ask open ended question to involve buyer (Not “How are you”); more like “your company had a 10 % sales increase last quarter. How did you do that in this down economy? Ask if you have time parameters (even if he says yes, he won’t necessarily hold you to them) Use example Lucky buyer. Try to be sure decision makers are present.

The Body of the Presentation Use all senses possible Be aware of clues—body language, questions, etc Sell benefits not features Make it logical and end by filling the need Selling is finding out the problem and solving it. How important is the problem. Example; restaurants cleaning grease from drains.

Objections-Your Best Friend Objections are the client telling you how to sell them Restate the objection Answer in terms of your product’s benefits Move on

Negotiation End body of presentation with trial close If you get a “yes”--stop selling and start writing If you get a “no” ask “why not” Answer objection, negotiate, and trial close again Trial close—May I send you 6 cases? Do you want to take one home? Stop selling—hardest thing to do but don’t sell past he point of making the sale. Examples—Fed-Mart, Photo Stores Don’t be afraid to ask why not.

Close Either/or— ”would you like delivery on Friday or next Monday”? “Is that the only thing that is stopping you from buying”? Always, always ask for the order Either/or—Assumes the sale is made. Is that the only thing—roots out objections and means a commitment from the buyer Ask, Ask, Ask—close at least three times. Use example of kid in training school.

Important Tips Listen—listen more than you talk Never, never talk over the client-listen to what he says Control the flow Always ask for the order - if you do nothing else ask for the order Ask for referrals

Follow-up Sold: Thank Restate terms etc You’ll stay in the loop Didn’t sell: Thank Restate need and feature/benefit Leave a way back in

Keep Records Follow-up consistently Keep a tickler file Keep your promised dates Send correspondence about solutions to their problems Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up

Keeping Your Customers Never take them for granted Stay in touch Stress benefits of your product Ask them if they are happy—if not, FIX IT NOW

Customer Service Answer the phone No voice menus--no lengthy holds Resolve problems now Honor your time frames Complaints are your friend—you get to show how good you really are

Handling Complaints Don’t argue Apologize even if you’re not wrong Restate problem Give time frame to resolution If you can’t meet time, call and extend Let them know you care and that you are involved

The Three Most Common Sales Mistakes Not listening to the buyer Not asking for the order Forgetting to sell existing customers

Questions and Answers Want to get specific about solutions to your selling challenges? Call SCORE at 714-550-7369 for a no-charge counseling session Visit our local web site www.score114.org Visit our national web site www.score.org