How do you determine what the customer wants, if he himself doesn’t? Or, doesn’t want to divulge it? Explore. To begin with, if only there was a list of customer wants. (Sigh!). Alas! contrary to popular belief, customers don’t know what they want. So that list would be constantly evolving. A seller who takes this
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Accept sales rejections. Being shouted at like that has happened to many experienced salespeople. And many reasons abound for this. “You! When I see you here disturbing my people I will kick you out!” So, thundered the Senior Human Resources Manager at a firm with 4,000 employees. All of them, potential prospects for this bank
The prospect feels heard, listened to, assured. These are the qualities that exercising patience when selling yields. And they dramatically increase customer retention. Patience. (Pause and digest that first). Patience isn’t just a virtue. Patience is a sales virtue. Exercise patience when selling. Many sales are lost because the potential buyer (prospect) felt rushed and
He’s the CEO. Don’t fight this if you want the sale; align to it. He is used to giving direction and making decisions. Let him. It’s not for him to adapt to you. He won’t. It’s you that should adapt to him. And no, this is not about becoming a yes man. It’s about selling
Are customers rational or emotional? They are both. Sticking to the rational needs only will get you an agreement but unlikely the sale. I like how this 20-a-day for two decades smoker explains her journey to quitting: “I had meant to give up smoking for years. Yet, despite all the horrible labels on cigarette packets
Does hiring pre-trained salespeople, work? What do you think? To begin with, thinking, ‘Hmm! How much does it cost to hire a salesperson?’, some companies seek plug and play salespeople. They want fast food. Not to slog away buying the different ingredients from the different places. Then, again, slogging away in the kitchen, mixing a
In a country woven together by SMEs, folding a business stating, “I can’t sell” can kill the economic fabric. The more, given solutions exist. “I started a business but it failed because I don’t know sales.” (Or, “I can’t go into business because I can’t sell”). I have received this lamentation in different variations, usually
“I want you to train my sales team. I’ve recently started a business and I handle the technical aspects. It’s why I started the business. Selling is not my thing so I want you to train my team.” If only it were that simple, I silently think. You see, contrary to what it’s screaming, this
What can you do to get the attention of the potential customer? To begin with, picture this. Your phone beep-beeps in the dead of night. You are sound asleep. And this piercing intrusion in the silent night is not holy. So, you click your tongue, cursing, “Now, who is this sending messages at this time?”
As counter-intuitive as sounds, following up to close the sale in this ‘Corona’ period, is even more necessary. Buyers want responsive sellers but are not responsive themselves. This emphasizes the need to follow-up to close the sale. A foot in the door doesn’t a closed sale. Increase your chances of getting the sale by following