The Truth about Selling

Ini Kesimpulan dari tulisan James Gee, tentang the Truth about Selling

In Part 1 of “The Truth About Selling”, I highlighted that the reality about selling is that, after you remove the jargon and the fancy names and terminologies, selling is about 4 main aspects, namely :

Selling is a process
Selling is a numbers game
Selling is all about having good inter-personal communication and relationship
Selling is all about discipline

I also explained the Sales Process and the fact that to excel as a sales person, you will have to excel in each and every stage of this sales process. The better you are at each stage, the better your performance as a sales person.

In “The Truth About Selling Parts 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8 we had described the first 8 steps of the Sales Process in great detail. I hope that you can now see that Selling is a Process, and that each step is a technique and has to be properly mastered.

In this article, we shall Summarize all the points that we have explained in all the 8 previous articles.

Stage 1 – Leads & Referrals

“Leads” are to the sales person what blood is to the body. A good sales person must continually be able to generate new leads. There are several ways to generate leads.

1. From your existing circle of friends/relatives

2. From your extended circle of friends/relatives (friends of friends, friends of relatives, relatives of friends, relatives of relatives)

3. From people that you meet daily

4. Referral from happy and satisfied customers


Of the four sources of leads and referrals, the first and the last are the most promising. Successful sales people are continually getting an in-flow of good quality leads and referrals. So the question is simple.

Do you have a continuous in-flow of good quality leads ? If no, what do you have to do to get it ?

Are your existing clients actively giving you referrals ? If not, why ? Are they dissatisfied with your current level of support and service ? Or are you simply not asking them for it ?

Remember, without leads, your sales performance will dry up very quickly. This is the primary reason why some sales people seem to do very well in the first 2 years on the job, and then after that, their performance just goes down, down, down. Yet other sales people seem to bet better and better with the years. The main difference is their ability (or inability) to generate leads and referrals.

Stage 2 – Making Telephone Appointments

Once you have succeeded to get leads and referrals, the next step is to telephone these prospective clients to make an appointment to meet them. If you can’t even make an appointment to meet the prospective client, how are you ever going to have an opportunity to explain to him how your products/services can benefit him, much less sell to him ? Many sales people are extremely weak in Stage 2.

Even within this Telephone Stage, there are sub-processes.

You will have to get past the “gatekeeper” (secretary, receptionist, etc) ! A good sales person has learnt all the necessary skills to get past the gatekeeper (not by out-tricking the gatekeeper !) but by getting the gatekeeper to help/co-operate with the sales person.
After getting past the gatekeeper, you will speak directly with the decision-maker. You will then have to convince the decision maker that it is worth is time to see you face-to-face.

When you are telephoning to make an appointment, remember 2 basic principles :

1. Your ability to get an appointment by telephone is critical to your success as a sales person

2. You must not sell your product/services on the phone. The only thing that you are selling on the phone is an appointment !

Use Power Statements !

Stage 3 – Establishing Rapport

When you meet the potential customer, the human aspect of the interaction is most important. There is a popular saying in selling :

No rapport, no sale !

Establishing a good rapport with your customer so important because :

1. People buy based on 3 primary considerations:
2. Your Company (its reputation & reliability)
3. Your Product (as a solution to their problems / value for money, etc)
YOU

Of the 3 considerations, from my experience in Indonesia, number 3 (YOU) is still the most important deciding factor.

You need to gather as much information as possible about the prospective customer. You need to gather information such as his needs, his priorities, his constraints, his concerns, his doubts, his personalities, his budget, his hot buttons, the decision making process in his company, whether or not he is actually the decision-maker, the problems he is facing, whether or not he already has an existing supplier, if yes, is his relationship with the supplier good or bad, etc.

With the right information about the prospective client, you are now in a better position to design/propose a SOLUTION that is appropriate and matches with all the above. Yet incredibly, many sales people dive straight into product presentation without any fact-finding and still hope to get an order !!

Stage 4 – Presentation & Overcoming Objections

This stage could be relatively simple and smooth-sailing or a horrible nightmare ! It all depends on how much accurate fact-finding you have conducted in Stage 3.

If you had established a good rapport with the potential customer, truly uncovered his needs/problems/constraints/motivation to buy/the true decision-maker, etc then this Stage becomes quite smooth sailing because you will be offering him the exact solution to his problems and therefore he will have less objections.

Still, during the Presentation Stage, there are some basic principles that you have to observe.

How you present depends on whether you are presenting to an individual or a team (audience). Each type of audience will require some different approaches.

As part of the Presentation stage, you will inevitably face some Objections. Sales people must realize that objections are part of the sales presentation and that they have to prepare thoroughly to face objections. One way to do this is by preparing and having a Sales Script.

Stage 5 – Close The Deal !

For the sales person, this is the climax after having gone through the tedious, stressful and often painful stages 1,2,3 and 4. ! However, as with all the other stages of the selling process, there are proper techniques which can help you to improve your success stage. Sales people should learn to ask for the order from the very beginning.

The “Closing” or “Asking for the Order” is a PROCESS rather than an event. An effective sales person does not wait till the last part of his presentation / meeting to ask for the order. Instead, he is continually “conditioning” and preparing his customer for the stage “Yes” stage.

During the Closing stage, there are several points that you have to pay attention :

1. Watch against your Attitude during Closing time

2. There are things that you will have to do during closing time to calm the customer

3. You have to be competent at watching and correctly interpreting your customer’s body language

4. There are Closing Techniques that will be useful to help you to get the sale when you use them correctly

Stage 6 – The “Delivery” Stage

The Delivery Stage is a very important stage because it marks a CHANGE IN STATUS.

From PROSPECT to CUSTOMER / CLIENT

From SALES PERSON to BUSINESS PARTNER / RELIABLE FRIEND

From SELLING TO THE PROSPECT to SERVING THE CUSTOMER

From PROMISING TO DELIVER to DELIVERING THE PROMISE


This is the stage that the customer gets the FIRST EXPERIENCE (FIRST IMPRESSION) of the quality of your service and the service provided by your company.

This is the stage that the customer either feels that “Yes, you and your company are reliable and would be a good long term business partner”

Or

This is the stage that he sighs to himself “Oh boy ! Here is the beginning of my headaches ! I wish I had not bought from them !”

Therefore, the “Delivery” stage is the FIRST opportunity for the company (and the sales person) to show to the customer how responsible (or irresponsible!) he is in delivering his promise!

Stage 7 – The “Service” Stage

Many sales people have the WRONG attitude that selling process (and therefore their responsibility to the customer) ENDS at the Closing Stage (Stage 5). Consequently, they neglect Stages 6 and 7 and leave these stages to their colleagues in the Delivery Department, After-Sales Department, Customer Support Department, Technical Department, etc. This is NOT WRONG, but this practice creates disadvantages to the sales person himself !

Remember this

If you do not serve your customer well AFTER the sale, then you are depriving yourself for future sales (and referrals) that you could actually have got from these customers. It’s your loss.

Therefore, as a sales person, MUST take time and effort to service this customer.

Stage 8 – The “Follow-up and Cross-Sell” Stage

Stage 8 can be considered the most pleasant stage of the Sales Process. However, many sales people consider this stage to be the most awkward, embarrassing and difficult stage ! Why the contrast in opinion ?

The answer is very straight-forward.

The “Follow-up and Cross-Sell” Stage is pleasant if the sales person has serviced his customer well. It becomes awkward and embarrassing the sales person had disappointed his customer or had poor after-sales service.

So once again, the problems faced in Stage 8 are a direct consequence of neglecting Stages 6 (Delivery) & 7 (Service).

So, do you have a SYSTEM that REMINDS you when to follow-up on which customer ?

Understand and make full use of THE POWER OF 500

On average, a person knows 500 people. So if you know one person, you can actually gain access to 500 people. So every satisfied / happy customer is a door to 500 other potential customers ! So make maximum use of the Power of 500 and ask for a referral !

If you do not ask for a referral, how in the world will your customer know that you need his help ??!!!

Remember, Stage 8 is a HIDDEN GOLDMINE for the sales person who :

Performs very well in Stages 6 & 7, and

Who ASKS for referrals

So you can now see that selling is indeed a process. To become an effective and successful sales person, you must pay attention to EVERY stage of the selling process.