Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Phillip,
You really don't feel you were successful because of your exclusive access and cheapest price, do you?

All the seminars and white papers are great as long as they do one thing: Bring people into your sales system early on in the buying process. We look at the buying cycle as Void, Breakthrough, Gather information, Yes or No, Organize information, Release money.

If you're marketing well to each of these stages...based on where prospects are you should be able to close the deal. The point is that people want one thing---to believe they made a good decision. You have to educate them on HOW to make a good decision and, in most cases, the educator gets the business. Those who are leaving for the cheapest cost actually go back into the "Void" area of the cycle and can also be marketed to.


Michael

Dear Phillip

You’ve had some very good responses addressing the marketing aspects of your competition problem, so could I proffer one based on the sales end of your business?

I’m assuming that you do have a sales process whereby your sales team seek to close a piece of business. Maybe that needs to be looked at from a structured selling point of view. Old techniques in a new market setting, but in 25 years of sales and marketing, I haven’t seen the basic rules of selling change all that much – just the language they are couched in and the medium whereby they are delivered.

If you have a unique proposition, it will have some unique selling points – the old USP’s. True, the USP’s will vary both in nature and in importance from client to client, but you are only going to find out what they are by asking the client in a sales interview – an interview where you have the opportunity to close the sale whilst you demonstrate the value of your services to the clients own unique set of circumstances. That is a huge difference to analysing your strengths from existing clients and trying to distil a selling proposition in a white paper or other marketing medium and hoping that the power of a well thought out argument will stick with the prospect until they place their business with you.

Maybe you need to get out in front of the client with your new proposition, stop talking about it and start asking some questions, the answers to which will lead to enough of the USP’s for you to then be able to be able to make a sales pitch and close the sale at the same time.

Ask about the client’s experience of the problem areas you are able to solve. Listen to the answers. Probe the answers to clarify the points and be prepared to ask for his / her permission to run over your proposition when you have ascertained all the salient facts. Don’t go charging into a brilliant exposition of the benefits your firm will bring too early – you don’t know enough to be able to close the sale. Be prepared to keep asking questions – “May I return to that point in a moment?”, and, “Rather than attempt to answer that point in isolation could I first ask you ----?”

Once you have asked about 6 basic questions (The answers and probing additional questions will indicate which ones you need to go for) you will have enough information to present your new proposition. But don’t just expound it or deliver it. You can only sell the idea if you gain the prospect's assent to let you show a solution to each area he has opened up on. “Mr Jones, when I asked you about --------, you said that your problem was xxxxxx.” “May I show you how we solve this issue for our clients?” Shut up and wait for him to say, “Yes, please Do”

Show him and then ask if that is indeed a suitable resolution to his problem and one that he would be prepared to go along with from your company. Then dispatch the answers to your other questions in the same way, qualifying by asking him if he is happy that you have provided him with an acceptable solution. These are all trial closes and will give you the opportunity to overcome any objections.

Once you’ve finished, don’t summarise Ask him if you could now summarise. Shut up and wait for him to say yes. Run through the summary of all the assents he has given, checking that he is still happy.

Then ask the big one, “Mr Jones, you seem to be satisfied with the approach our company would take with each aspect of the areas you expressed a concern with. Is there any reason why you would be unwilling to let us handle this business for you?” It’s a trial close and you will need to finesse it. If there are any nagging doubts that he has he can raise them there and then. With the right training, your sales people can overcome these objections and then ask for the business. “Based on our discussion and the presentation I have given you, are you prepared to place your business with us?” Shut up!

This may sound like old 1950’s sales stuff and to an extent it is, but if you can get a close and a sale on the day, there is a much smaller chance that he will take away the ideas you have developed (There was no document to leave – you developed the whole thing in his office!) to someone else. If the objections can be gracefully dispatched, then there is no reason why the business can’t be concluded there and then. If you asked the right questions at the outset, you would know that this situation was a possible conclusion, so you can go for it.

Of course, there are hundreds of nuances that need sorting out and the whole proposition of structured selling needs to be meticulously thought through and placed in the context of the kind of objections which can be thrown up in 2005 rather than 1955, but it’s worth remembering that it was largely your industry in the 1940’s that revived the whole area of question based sales and objection handling, with a view to getting the sale before the client went cold after an otherwise technically excellent presentation.

Could it be that it’s time to return to your roots?

Sincerely

Steve Alker
Unimax Solutions