Don't talk too much.
Have you ever left a meeting with a prospect and realised that you had done most of the talking, having found out very little about the prospect?
All you've ended up doing is what can be called "unpaid consulting" where you educate the prospect, give away your knowledge and expertise, but fail to get any commitment in return. This problem typically occurs for one or more of the following reasons:
1. As a personality type, salespeople instinctively feel more comfortable offering what they know, thinking they are helping somebody, rather than asking questions and listening.
2. A savvy prospect knows the right questions to ask to get you talking and divert attention away from themselves: "Tell me why you're different to competitors," for example.
3. To establish their credibility, salespeople often try to show how knowledgeable they are by providing information, in so doing talking a great deal more than necessary.
There's an unwritten rule - "The person asking the questions is usually in control". Unfortunately for many salespeople it's not them if they're having to do all the answering.
Successful salespeople know that early in the sale they are information getters and not information givers. They also know that they can prove their credibility by the type and relevance of questions they ask.
As a general rule you should aim to get the prospect talking for at least 70% of the time in the first meeting. Ask questions, lots of questions and remember not to talk too much.
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Filling the Funnel
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Funnel health is always an important component for any selling organization, so here are a few things to think about as you fill your sales funnel.
1. Start with a profile, not an activity plan.
As much as we all know that traditional cold calling is a thing of the past and proven to not have ROI, organizations are still falling into the trap of setting activity quotas to drive urgency. Before you set activity quotas, make sure you’ve built a strong profile on the most likely suspects. This is best arrived by knowing as much as you can about why your current customers see you as different from the competition, which brings me to my next point…
2. Know why your customers buy from you.
It’s astonishing how many sales leaders cannot put a succinct answer to why their customers are buying from them. This is fundamental and critical to deciding what new clients to pursue. Narrow down your suspects in ways that best align with the attributes of your best clients.
3. Sales and marketing collaboration.
The top of the funnel absolutely is the critical overlap between sales and marketing. If your sales and marketing strategies are not aligned related to new client acquisition, then you are missing an enormous opportunity.
4. Timing is everything.
As part of understanding the attributes of why your customers buy from you, take a look at when they made the decision to buy initially. What was driving the decision? What was happening inside their organization or within their respective industry? It’s important to know the key “triggers” that might exist. Take a close look at these details and you may find some nice comparisons to some of the deals you won in the past.
5. Lose faster.
More is definitely not always better when it comes to what is in the funnel. Make sure your organization has a system for quickly assessing new opportunities before they zap too many resources. When you lose, it’s far better to do it fast and quickly move on to those you have a real shot at to win.
© 2011 Miller Heiman
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The Fear of Loss close
You Get What You Pay For. Wouldn't you agree that it's better to invest a little more than you had planned, instead of less than you should?
Now, here's a reason that I ask you that question. If you invest a little more than you had planned, you're talking peanuts. If you invest less than you should - and the service or products you buy don't
do the job you needed done or needed to do - then you literally have lost everything.
© 2002 Ziglar Training Systems
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