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Sales success strategies: making a strong start to the sales callIn this segment--- Sales success strategies: making a strong start to the sales call --- we'll be focusing on two issues. First, some tips and considerations with implication on broad sales strategy, specifically, why people (and organizations) buy, and, hence, how you can help them WANT to buy what you offer. Then we'll be looking at some practical selling strategies addressing what to do just prior to the sales call, as well as how to make a strong start when you finally sit down with the prospect. Before getting to the how-to, we need to put it into perspective: Why do people buy? More specifically, why would they buy the product or service you are offering? Further, how does why they buy shape your approach as you plan a selling strategy for this unique meeting? Organizations, and the Decision Makers within them, buy only if they arrive at solidly "Yes" answers to four fundamental questions. Sales success strategies question #1 in the prospect's mind: Do we face a need? People and organizations buy if and only if they have and feel a need. No need? No buy. It's that simple. Without the pull of that need, all the bells and whistles, and all the price discounts and special offers are powerless to bring about the sale. Sales success strategies question #2 in the prospect's mind: Is that need strong enough to justify our spending money to fill it? We all face a variety of needs, more needs than we could ever hope to fill, so we give priority only to the needs we perceive as truly significant. Therefore, one of your most important tasks as you sell is to help the potential customer not only become aware of a need that can be filled by your product or service, but also become enthusiastic enough about filling it that it becomes a priority. Sales success strategies question #3 in the prospect's mind: Will this product or service in fact fill that need? Only after the need and its importance are clear to the Decision Maker is it appropriate to begin talking about your product and what it can do for that person or organization. After all, the prospect WILL NOT BE interested in buying your product for its own sake. What the potential buyer WILL BE interested in is finding a way of FILLING THE NEED that has now become important. Your product becomes of interest insofar as it is a useful means to filling that need. Therefore, to make the sale, you'll need to make the link clear between the specific needs of the customer (as you have explored them together) and the specific ways in which your product can fill those needs. (We'll examine ways of making this linkage clear in another segment here.) To conclude the sale, you'll need to deal with the issue of cost. But "price" and "real cost" are usually not the same. As we'll see, price---that is, what you pay at the start---is rarely as important as you think. What really matters is not so much what your product costs out of pocket today, as its overall "cost-effectiveness" -- that is, what the customer gets in return for the money spent. The key is to show how the $1.00 spent for your product brings back $1.01, or, even better $1.25. (We'll examine ways of accomplishing this in a later segment.) Sales success strategies: FINAL PREPARATIONS AND LAST-MINUTE TASKS BEFORE YOUR FACE-TO-FACE WITH THE PROSPECT
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