Great Sales is About People Effectiveness
As a business coach and consultant I am surprised by the number of business owners who have responsibility for sales but don’t have a clearly defined sales process. They do not understand that making sales is about clear and effective communications. It is also about leadership. The art of helping people make good decisions.
There is a six step process that anyone can learn to grow sales. Like anything else, it takes a bit of practice to master. This material is not designed for the professional sales person who is out on the street every day, through this is something they can use as well, it is designed for the business owner who needs to sell but does not know how, and does not want to look or becomes a “slick willie” kind of sales person (or anyone in the organization who has sales responsibility but is not a professional sales person.
The sales process to grow sales looks like this:
A. Action – What action do you want the client to take, or stated another way, what is the desired outcome for this sales call.
B. Build Rapport – Building rapport, if done incorrectly, can ruin any chance for creating a buyer/seller relationship. In this section we will discuss different ways to do that.
C. Create and agree on an agenda – Many sales people fail because the buyer does not know the reason for the meeting or how the selling process can and should work. In this step you gain agreement on the sales process, ask permission to ask questions and agree on the reason for the appointment.
D. Define Pain – Here is where you ask question that allows the client to tell you the problems they are experiencing.
E. Explore Pain – In this step you explore with the prospect the impact of the pains uncovered in the Define Pain step. The step explores what will happen (especially to the prospect) if action is not taken.
F. Finalize nest steps – this is a logical outcome of a well structured sales call. Is the outcome another meeting to further explore specific issues, is it time to ask for the order, is it time to ask for introduction to others in the organization that will help you further the sales process. This should have been defined in the action step and here is where you determine your success.
To improving your people skills,
Ron Finklestein
Small Business Coach
330-990-0788
