How verbal support can be used to communicate value in an interesting and understandable manner

a potential or likely customer; a client

The importance and challenges of prospecting

  • Customer-bases are not permanent, salespeople may lose customers do to:
  • The prospecting process can be long
  • Prospecting isn't easy and often includes alot of rejection
  • Should be done on a regular basis

Customer-bases are not permanent, salespeople may lose customers due to: 

  • Low satisfaction
  • Competition
  • Economic fluctuation

The prospecting process can be long

  • It may take weeks to replace a lost customer with a new one
  • Revenue streams can fluctuate if "pipeline" isn't managed.

The Strategic Prospecting Process

To generate Sales leads:

  1. Determine Sales Prospects
  2. Prioritize Sales Prospects
  3. Prepare for Sales Dialogue
  4. Remaining Stages in Sales Process

A representation of the trust-based sales process and strategic sales prospecting process.

Strategic Prospecting Process

1. Sales Leads or Suspects 2. Qualifying Process 3. Sales Prospect

-Generate from internal or external sources -Lead generation methods should be managed

Need? Financial Resources Authority to Make Purchase Decision

-Prioritize prospect list -Initiate pre-call planning.

The characteristics of a firm's best customer or the perfect customer

-cold canvas -networking -company sources -published sources

-Cold calling via Phone -Cold calling in person -referrals -introductions

The network of people that each other knows. Salesperson is connected to many people based on who he or she knows.

-Company Records -Advertising Inquiries -Telephone Inquiries -Trade Shows -Seminars

-Directories

    • Hoovers
    • Harris Directory
    • Moody's industrial Directory

-Commercial Leads

    • Sales genie
    • infoUSA
    • others

-Other web sources (including use of NAICS)

Developing a strategic prospecting plan

-Allocate time -Stay positive -Keep records -Evaluate -Set goals

Establish a regular daily schedule for conducting prospecting activities.

Develop confidence by knowing your products and believing that you offer the best solution

Track your results from using the different prospecting methods

What is would for you? Compare results and use the methods that work best for you.

Establish daily, weekly, and monthly quotas for acquiring new prospects. 

Gathering Precall Information

About the buyer:

    • name, title, and contract information
    • Education and work background
    • community and organization involvement
    • hobbies and interests
    • communication styles

Gathering Precall Information: About the selling situation

  • Type of purchase
  • motivation for buying
  • buying center members and roles
  • buying process
  • current supplier
  • available budget
  • competitors involved.

  1. Social media
  2. Annual report
  3. online searches
  4. company database
  5. prospect's web sites
  6. contact with prospect
  7. trade & business press
  8. online & print directories

Types of sales communications

-Canned presentations -Written sales proposals -Organized sales dialogues and presentations

scripted, memorized, automated

complete self-contained sales presentations

organized sales dialogues and presentations

flexible, address individual customers and selling situations

Evaluating Sales proposals 5 important dimensions

1. Reliability 2. Assurance 3. Tangibles 4. Empathy 5. Responsiveness

reflects your (the seller's) ability to identify creative, dependable, and realistic solutions and strategies and match them to the buyer's needs and wants. 

this builds the buyer's trust and confidence in your ability to deliver, implement, produce, and/or provide benefits.

This enhance and supports the communication of your message and invite readership by its overall appearance, content, and organization.

confirms your thorough understanding of the buyer's business and his or her specific needs and wants

developed in a timely manner and demonstrates a willingness to provide solutions for the buyer's needs and wants to help measure results.

Organized sales dialogues

Conversation over multiple encounters including sales calls, phone calls, email, etc. Cons are customized based on each customer's unique characteristics May include standardized mkting communication material

Sales Dialogue Template: Section 1

Prospect information

  • Company names
  • key decision makers
  • type of business
  • buying influencers

Customer value proposition

A statement of how the sales offering will add value to the prospect's business by meeting a need or providing an opportunity.

Creating a value proposition

1. keep it simple 2. choose 1 or 2 key benefits 3. be specific-focus on tangible outcomes 4. reflect dimension that add value 5. promise only what you can deliver

Sales dialogue template Section 3

-What is your objective of this sales call? -What is it that you want the customer to do as a result of the call? -Should be specific enough to know if you have accomplished it at the end of the call.

Typically relate to the economics of the situation, including cost, profitability, quality, services offered, and the total value of the seller's offering as perceived by the customer.

Includes motives such as security, status, and need to be liked; sometimes difficult for salespeople to uncover these motives.

A quality or characteristic of a product or service designed to provide value to a buyer. In a car: fuel efficient V6 engine is a feature.

The added value or favorable outcome derived from features of the product or service seller offers. In a car: higher miles per gallon reduced fuel costs.

Sales dialogue template: section 6

Critical first few mins Greetings, intros, polite convos Proceed with Q to assess the situation, discover needs Friendly, positive Flexible with agenda Be sensitive to their needs and opinions First impressions are crucial.

Request an appointment: -give the prospect a reason why an appointment should be granted -request a specific amount of time -suggest a specific time for the appointment

Keys to effective sales dialogue

1. Are planned and practiced by salespeople 2. encourage buyer feedback 3. focus on creating value for the buyer 4. successfully communicate value gain 5. engage and involve the buyer 6. support customer value through objective claims

Check-Backs or Response-Checks

Questions salespeople use throughout a sales dialogue to generate feedback from the buyer.

Check-backs or response-checks are commonly used to:

-Confirm benefits and assess buyer's level of interest -Evaluate the level to which the salesperson has handled a buyer's objection

Creating customer value. Salespeople should strive to communicate to the buyer...

-How the buyer's needs will be met or how an opportunity can be realized as a result of a purchase. -How the product features translate, in a functional sense, into benefits for the buyer.

Creating customer value: Salespeople should strive to communicate to the buyer... while remembering that...:

-Features may have many benefits -Not all features are important to the buyer -Not all benefits of a particular feature are important to the buyer.

Interesting and Understandable Sales dialogue

Verbal Support: -Voice characteristics -Examples and anecdotes -Comparisons and analogies
Sales Aids: -The use of printed materials, electronic materials, and product demonstrations to engage and involve buyers

"XYZ copiers are the most dependable copiers on the market."

Types of Sales Aids: Visual Materials

-Advantages: easy to carry, can be left behind easily, can present complex information in a simplified format -Disadvantages: Relatively expensive to produce for distribution, do not engage the buyer directly, once developed are not customizable.

Types of Sales Aids: Electronic Material

-Advantages: greater sensory presentation of materials, low cost to distribute and use, can present complex information in a simple format -Disadvantages: Maybe expensive to produce the original, requires access to a power source, requires equipment and may fail to operate.

Types of sales aids: Product demonstrations

-Advantages: engage the buyer directly, gives buyer the opportunity to see the product in action, by focusing on the targeted solutions the salesperson can demonstrate the value creation. -Disadvantages: May be difficult to arrange, product failure is potential deal killer and hard to recover from.

-State selling point and introduce the sales aid -Present the sales aid -Explain the sales aid -Summarize

Supporting Product Claims: Proof Providers

-Statistics-facts that lead believability to product claims -Testimonials- statements from satisfied customers of the selling organization's products and services -Case histories-A testimonial in a story or anecdotal form

Group Sales Presentations

"When selling to groups, salespeople can expect tough questions and should prepare accordingly." "When selling to a group, salespeople should take every opportunity to pre-sell individual group members prior to the group presentation."

Sales tactics for selling to groups

-Arrival: Arrive and setup before the buying group. -Eye contact: make periodic eye contact with each member of the buying group -Communication: Solicit opinions and feedback from each member of the buying group and avoid taking sides.

Handling Questions in Group Presentation

-Listen carefully and maintain eye contact with the person asking the question -Repeat or restate the question as necessary to ensure understanding -Answer each question succinctly and convincingly.

buyer's objections to a product or service during a sales presentation

Reason why prospects raise objections

-The prospect want to avoid the sales interview. -The salesperson has failed to prospect and qualify properly. -Objecting is a matter of custom. -The prospect resists change. -The prospect fails to recognize a need -Prospect lacks information

Major categories of objections

1. No need. 2. Product or service objection 3. Company objection 4. Price is too high. 5. Time/Delaying

Responding to need objections

Stimulate need awareness through effective questioning (SPIN, ADAPT) and presentation of key features and benefits that may peak the prospect's interest.

Responding to Product/Service Objections

Improve fact-finding during early stages of the sales cycle; to offset perceived downsides, make sure to present and emphasize features and benefits that add value and are important to the prospect

Possible product/service objections

"I do not like design, color, etc" "A maintenance agreement should be included." "Packaging is too bulky" "How do I know if you will meet our delivery requirements?"
"The product is poor quality." "The product is incompatible with the present system"

"I have all I can use." "I do not need any." "The equipment I have is still good." "I am satisfied with the company we use now."
"We have no room for your line."

Company or source objections

"You company is too small to meet my needs." "I have never heard of your company." "Your company is too big. I will get lost in the shuffle." "Your company is pretty new. How do I know you will be around to take care of me in the future?" "Your company was recently in the newspaper. Are you having problems?"

Strategy for responding to company/service objections

Evaluate validity of concern; offer evidence (preferable third-party) to counter or alleviate concern; highlight competitive strengths without making disparaging remarks about competitors.

Strategy to respond to price objection

Recognize price objections are often an attempt to get a lower price; present evidence showing how the value gained exceeds the perceived cost; find ways to build-in additional value.

"We cannot afford it." "I cannot afford to spend that much right now." "That is 30% higher than your competitor's comparable model." "We have a better offer from your competitor." "I need something alot cheaper." "Your price is not different enough to change suppliers."

Responding to price objections

Recognize price objections are common and often an attempt to get a lower price; present evidence showing how the value gained exceeds the perceived cost; find ways to build-in additional value.

"I need to think it over." "Ask me again next month when you stop by." "I am not ready to buy yet." "I have not make up my mind."
"I do not want to commit myself until I have had a chance to talk to another department."

Responding to time objections

Be sensitive to prospect's timing issues (avoid being perceived as pushy); where appropriate and accurate, present meaningful reasons to move forward in the sales process.

Handling Buyer Resistance: LAARC

Listen Acknowledge Assess Respond Confirm

Other method for handling buyer resistance

forestall direct denial indirect denial translation or boomerang compensation

introduce the source of the objection before the prospect brings it up

a rather harsh response that the prospect is wrong

softening the blow when correcting a prospect's information

Turn a reason not to buy (the source of the objection) into a reason to buy.

Counterbalance the objection with an offsetting benefit

Ask the buyer assessment questions to gain a better understanding of the what they are objecting to

Third party reinforcement

Use the opinion or data from a third party source to help overcome the objection and reinforce the salesperson's points.

Salesperson relates that other actually found their initial opinions to be unfounded.

The salesperson tell the buyer that he or she will be covering the objection later in his or her presentation

Often referred to as "closing," gaining commitment refers to the prospect's willingness to make a purchase from the salesperson

Guidelines for Earning commitment

Look for commitment signals: "That will get the job done." "I didn't realize you delivered everyday."
"The price is lower than I thought it would be." Ask trial commitment questions: "What do you think about what we've discussed?" "Do you see how this will help your organization?"

Last guideline for earning commitment

Resolve "Red Light" statements made by the prospect: "I'm not sure that will work." "The price is higher than I thought it would be." "Your delivery schedule does not work for us."
"I don't see the advantage of going with your proposal."

Techniques to earn commitment

Success story balance sheet direct commitment legitimate choice summary commitment

Traditional methods to avoid

1. Standing-room only 2. Assumptive 3. Fear 4. Continuous Yes 5. Minor-points

puts a time limit on the client in attempt to hurry the decision. "These prices are good only until tomorrow."

Assumes agreement; order placed before the client with pen in hand.

tell something bad happening if the purchase is not made

saying yes gets to be a habit

seeks agreement on trivial issues, "Do you prefer cash or charge?"

How can sales people make sales dialogue interesting and understandable to buyers?

This can be accomplished by varying the pitch and speed of speech, using examples and anecdotes, and including comparisons and analogies. The use of voice characteristics, examples and anecdotes, and comparisons and analogies to make sales dialogue interesting and understandable.

What is the term for questions salespeople use throughout a sales dialogue to generate feedback from the buyer?

What is the term for questions salespeople use throughout a sales dialogue to generate feedback from the buyer? check-backs or response checks.

Are facts that lend believability to claims of value and benefit?

Statistics are facts that lend believability to claims of value and benefit. When available, statistics from authoritative, third-party sources carry the highest credibility.

What are the key characteristics of effective sales dialogues?

Characteristics of an Effective Sales Dialogue.
Encourage Buyer Feedback..
Engage and Involve the Buyer..
Planning and Practice..
Creating Value for the Customer and Presenting it in an Understanding Way..