 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dear reader, if you have missed the article on Objection Handling -
the fifth step in Advanced Successful Selling - you may review it
here.You've been selling your entire life. Whether you like it or not, this is truth. Remember in kindergarten - you told your friends something cool about yourself, or your parents or showed them a new toy. As a result of this your rank went through the roof... suddenly you became a "cool kid". Consciously or subconsciously you've sold yourself. Same with your first date... remember you've put on a nice outfit - that your parents called totally outrageous - but it was considered to be "cool" at the time. You had told your date bunch of stories, some of them were true, some slightly modified and some were outright exaggerated. If it did the job, you've got the second date planned, if not - you learned your lesson and adjusted your opening or closing lines. Or anything in the middle, that didn't work as well as you'd hoped for. You probably went through the same process while finding your first job, getting your mortgage approved, etc. All above are selling systems - you sell yourself, your skills, your charm, etc. Sometimes you tend to oversell ... but of course astute sales person never would do something like this. Would you agree that the better your systems are the more success you have [in selling]? Allow me to answer positively. What tends to happen when you sell is this: you know your opening line quite well - because you practice it a lot - "I like your hair"... hmm maybe not. What about "This is my first time here. What's good on the menu?" ... ok - better. "Do you want to dance?" - "No" - "If you don't want to dance, do you mind if I join you for some conversation?" - well maybe. You know your presentation more or less - "I spent my last summer in Tibet" and the story goes on. By now you know how to handle their objections. What you don't use too often is the CLOSE . "Your place or mine" line can easily ruin perfect presentation. You see, generally people don't practice CLOSE often enough. That's why it's important to know your close irrespective of how frequently you use it. What is your CLOSE rate? How many sales do you close? 10%? 25% or maybe 75%? No matter how good you are - if you improve your close ratio - this WILL improve your bottom line. Finally we have arrived to my point! In sales (I hope that you are in sales - if not - this letter is not for you) it's vitally important to know your CLOSING STRATEGY. If you've done any sales at all, you would agree with me that knowing the Closing Strategy is one thing - using it all the time to the dot is another. It's a matter of disciplining yourself to stick to it. What are the CLOSING STRATEGIES? Before we go into it - let me point out one more thing about "Closing". An astute sales person is always ready to finalise the deal. She or he doesn't need to finish presentation or qualification or objection handling if prospect is ready to buy - there's no point to carry on explaining the benefits of the product or service - is there? If they are ready to buy - and you had establish it by using trial closes - you would have asked for the order using your CLOSING STRATEGY: You can assume that the sale is to go ahead and ask them - "Where would you like it to be installed?" or - "When would you like it to be delivered?" You may consider giving them an incentive, if they would make a decision now - by offering additional discounts. Taking physical action is another technique - if they've decided to negotiate - narrow the price range and tell them that you have to confirm this with your office. Even if you are your office - you still can use it by saying: "Jo, I'm not sure that I can do this price, however if I check with my office and they can confirm the price, will you buy it?" Tell them a story that will support your close. "These people thought so and so and when they bought this, how their life has changed". This will link known and unknown, as well as invoke a third party into closing sequence. You can use impending event technique - this can be based on upcoming price raise, stock running out, limited numbers, special discount available for limited time only, etc. Your imagination is the limit. If you remember only one thing about asking for order, here it is: after you've asked your planned, close question - "shut up" - say nothing, zipppo - let your prospect think and for heaven sake don't talk yourself out of the sale. I've seen this happened many times - I'm guilty of doing this in the past and I'm sure you are too. If you’d like to learn more on how to apply these strategies - go here now.  © Outstanding Results Company Ltd. All Rights Reserved. |
