Consultative Professional Selling Advice

CONSULTATIVE PROFESSIONAL SELLING – PART 2

Part 2 can also be used in support or in isolation to any sales courses that you may attend

The level of customer awareness is important. Our levels of awareness move from completely unaware with no understanding through to very aware with strong understanding and possibly great personal need.

Clearly understanding what a product does will not necessarily mean we want or need the product. Conversely no understanding must mean we cannot recognise need. It follows that the level of customers’ need is important to the salesperson since it must influence the strategy and tactics that the salesperson should use.

The table below gives examples and indicates the salesperson’s strategy. In practice, this means balancing the amount of sales explanation to the probe questions used when establishing the exact portfolio of customer needs.

Level of awareness strength of want	Possible customer action	Salespersons’ strategy
High	Will seek out a supplier. May want to compare product features.	Sell benefits related to features. Help focus on issues important to the customer.
Medium	Is only slightly interested.	Sell the benefits of change. This may be change of circumstances.
Low	Does not really want to know.	Must sell the big benefits to get the customer’s interest. Only then can the sale move forward

COMMUNICATION SKILLS USED TO SELLING

The salesperson is a communicator. Selling depends upon communication. An essential skill for the salesperson is the ability to communicate with customers and prospects. Communication skills can always be improved whatever abilities you start with. In this chapter we are going to look at some of the key skills and consider how you can develop your abilities in this area.

Some of us are naturally more outgoing than others. There is a myth that the best salespeople are extrovert characters. As you read this chapter you will see why this is a false premise.

There are only five ways of communicating with another human being and that is via the five senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing.

Of these five senses it has been established that sight is the primary input sense. We believe that which we see more readily than that which we hear. Roughly 45% of our knowledge has come about through observation.

Hearing is the next most important input sense. About 25% of what settles in our brains has been heard. This means that the other three senses account for some 30% in total. They are in order of importance touch, taste and smell. The professional salesperson will use as many appeals to the senses as possible, knowing that they reinforce the message to the customer.

In practice this means that communication is by way of the voice and/or using the written word, and/or showing something, followed by appeals to touch, taste and smell. Let us now look at each in turn. I will start with the voice for it is most likely to be the first method of contact.

This first contact will probably be by telephone. The modern professional salesperson frequently uses the telephone, so it makes sense to work at developing good telephone sales techniques as part of your portfolio of selling skills. The following notes include specific telephone techniques as well as some general points on developing your voice.

YOUR VOICE

Some of us have beautiful voices. If you are one, count your blessings for you are very fortunate. Whatever the tonal qualities of your voice, it will be helped by an exercise and one of the best exercises is singing. You may sing formally in recreation, practice some hearty renditions in the bath, or while driving on the motorway. Try it!

Developing a good voice needs practice, plus care and attention to the following:

Clarity of Speech

The three ingredients of clear speech are diction, pronunciation and breathing. When on the telephone it is best to speak deliberately and slower than normal. Hold the hand piece about two or three inches from the mouth and speak across the mouthpiece, not directly into it.

Voice Control

To give ‘colour’ to your voice, the six variables are important. They are:

a) Variations in volume

b) Variations in speed

c) Inflection

d) Modulation

e) Pausing

f) Tone

Skilful use of the voice means learning to use these variables to create exactly the right feel to your voice.

Special care is required when using the telephone. The telephone system transmits the voice via an electro-mechanical system. However, good the present system may be, the fact remains that the full frequency range of the human voice is partially lost through the transmission process. The loss of frequency makes the voice sound ‘flatter’ than normal with a subsequent loss of inflection and meaning. Without the visual image of your face to help

understanding, the receiver of the call may have difficulty interpreting your precise meaning.

To replace what the telephone system takes away you have to be much more careful with your voice and the choice of words.

Using words

Simple words and easy to understand sentences are ‘golden rules’ for good communication. Do try to avoid unnecessary jargon, slang and colloquialisms. This is partly true when talking to someone from another country or even another part of your country, who may not understand your local expressions.

Effective communication is the goal which also means taking account of the person being addressed. What you say to a friend is different to what you say to a new business contact.

If you need to use technical words, or words which are hard to understand, deliberately slow down and make a special effort to pronounce the words clearly and precisely.

Attitude

When you are face to face, the visible image that you present will have considerable bearing on the interpretation of what you say. Appearance and facial expressions are very important parts of communication. “Hello” said with a smile, is more welcoming than without. Obvious perhaps when face to face. You might think that it does not matter when on the telephone, but surprising as it may seem, the telephone actually magnifies your attitude. If you feel irritable you sound angry, if you are depressed you sound uncaring and unhelpful.

Scientific research has shown that when we smile we actually bring about chemical changes in the body. No, it is not appropriate for you to go around with a horrible fixed grin. That will not work. However, when face to face or on the telephone: To put yourself in the right frame of mind think a smile it really works.

ESTABLISHING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN BUYER AND SELLER

We have all heard those conversations where two people, each trying to make their point of view known, do not listen or respond to the other party. Instead, each is trying to monopolise talking time. The result – a total breakdown in communication.

A one sided dialogue does not require the presence of a sales person – a tape or video cassette could get the message across and would probably be cheaper than sending in a salesperson.

It follows that “selling”, which as we have already seen is the art of persuasion, relies on two-way communication between a seller and a buyer and the salesperson must use the unique two-way opportunity. Sometimes particular communication techniques are refined. These are what we commonly refer to as ‘sales techniques”.

Opening techniques employ carefully constructed statements. Demonstration techniques use a sequence to give power to the demonstration. Closing techniques are refined questioning techniques. We shall be looking at all of these.

Participative discussion with a customer makes the sales task much easier. There are five guidelines to help you to establish effective two-way participative, communications.

Guideline 1. Asking Questions

Questions are the most valuable asset that the consultative salesperson has to help make the sale. There are two kinds of question – open questions and closed questions, sometimes called direct and indirect questions.

Open questions demand answers other than “yes” and “no”.

A guideline for use in consultative selling is to ask open questions to gather information and closed questions to get decisions. Clearly you have to know how to construct an open question.

Guideline 2. Listening

It is a fact that most people are inefficient listeners. Tests have shown that often we hear, understand, properly evaluate and retain less than a quarter of what is said to us.

Many salespeople are so anxious to make their ‘sales pitch’ that they do not listen to the customer and thereby miss opportunities to satisfy the customer’s real needs. Few people are naturally good listeners and it is not a skill commonly taught in school. I suggest that you should deliberately work at developing your listening skills.

Guideline 3. Be able to Relate to Customers

The other party is an individual person with motivations and views which will differ and may even conflict with your own. Part of professionalism means that without getting emotionally involved, you understand and accept that there is another point of view – even when you do not agree. The word to describe this process is empathy.

Ask yourself:

What decisions do I want the customer to make? What reasons might

a customer have for not making that decision?

What can I do or say which will make the decision easier to make?

See everything from the others point of view – and encourage the other party to do the same ask: “Put yourself in my shoes….”.

Are you a people person? I do hope so, as you have chosen to go into the people business. It is probably not too strong to state that if you do not like people, or at least find them endlessly interesting, you are in the wrong business.

Think about this. Who do you like or find easy to get on with? Think possibly of a social gathering, meeting people you do not know well. The person with whom you struck up some rapport was almost certainly someone who showed an interest in you – for whatever reason. We are interested in those who are interested in us.

Guideline 4. Maintain the other party’s attention

You, the consultative salespeople are the professional communicator. Take the initiative and use the following simple techniques to keep the other party’s attention.

Find out and frequently use the other party’s name.

We all respond to our name whenever it is used. You know that if someone in a crowded room mentions your name, you hear it, even though you were not aware of the preceding conversation. When asked a question we respond. Questions demand answers which in turn ensures attention. Use questions particularly the rhetorical ones. “I realise you would like to earn more?”

Guidelines 5. Work at communication

Communication is a life skill. Skills have to be practised in order to improve. Use every opportunity to talk with others. At social gatherings to be the one to deliberately open or lead conversations. Remember that being a good listener, is far more important than being a good talker. You will be thought of as a good conversationalist if you use frequent open questions to keep the conversation going.

If you agree with someone, do so by looking at the case from the other party’s point of view, as ‘Devil’s Advocate’. This will enable you to disagree without confrontation.

As Abraham Lincoln once said;

“If you would win a man to your cause, first let that man know you

are his friend”.

BODY LANGUAGE

Observing people is an important part of communication that has only recently become more fully understood and accepted. It would now seem that empathy is, in part, an ability to read and understand body language.

As with listening skills (where hearing is only a part of listening) there is the matter of evaluation and interpretation before understanding can take place between people with no common language at the gesture level.

It is worth reading some of the comprehensive books that have been written on this subject. For the consultative salesperson the important elements of body language are:

POSTURE: The way you or someone else sits, indicates whether they are alert or not.

BODY POSITIONING: We move towards those we like. Respect is shown by walking half a pace behind someone.

BEARING AND GATE: The self assured swagger of some is a clear sign of their confidence.

GESTURE: You know exactly what that fellow in the other car was trying to communicate.

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS: Frowning, eyebrow lifting, smiling, and winking all add to the spoken word.

GAZE BEHAVIOUR: Look at those two over dinner, they cannot be married?

BODY CONTACTS: Those footballers are pleased. Oh look that woman is consoling that child.

Many of the signals are at the subconscious level and may be overlaid with conscious conflicting signals. Reactions to signals will depend upon the personality of the recipient.

MANAGING YOUR SALES PERFORMANCE Consultative sales people and management

One of the reasons why many professional salespeople make good managers is that many of the basics of management are learned whilst working as a salesperson. Salespeople learn about planning and preparation. They also learn self motivation, after all there is not usually much direct supervision. Often remuneration will depend upon results, which sharpens one’s perception of priorities. As we have already seen the salesperson learns and works at improving communication skills. Add time management to that and we have a truly useful foundation for management.

Perhaps you do not seek management but you will want to maximise your personal effectiveness (self management).

DETECTIVE WORK – THE ART OF FINDING NEW CUSTOMERS (PROSPECTING)

Prospecting is the first step in a sale. Prospecting is the common sales jargon for the process of finding people to whom you can sell. Prospects are the people to whom you sell:- they may be new contacts or they may be customers who buy on a repeat basis.

There are a number of salespeople who take the view that prospecting is the most important, step in the sale. There is a strong argument for this view. Clearly, if you do not have anyone to sell to, then all of your subsequent sales skills will be wasted. On the other hand if one could really excel at prospecting it is possible to visualise a situation where you only went to see people who would say something like: - “I am so glad that you called, I was about to ring you. I was just thinking of ordering…………”.

Unfortunately, life is not like that (well not often enough) but if salespeople spend all of their time talking to people who do not have a need for the goods and services that they offer, they will not do very well. Conversely the better your prospect list, the easier it is to make sales and the more successful you will be.

Whatever you sell, not everyone in the population will be a prospect. Taking the population as a whole there will be the majority who are clearly not prospects for your offer. Then, there are some who could be and finally a few who have an urgent and immediate need which only you and your offer can fully satisfy.

Finding the people with the real need is the problem and the consultative salesperson needs to be good at finding solutions. Prospecting is therefore the art of finding people who qualify as genuinely having a need for your products and services.

Finding new customers is more like detective work than selling as it is popularly perceived.

The process of building a dynamic prospect list goes through the stages of first finding SUSPECTS.

By a process of simple RESEARCH the weak prospects are eliminated.

Leaving a dynamic PROSPECT LIST.

How do you find the suspects in the first place?

Prospecting Tactics

Prospecting means having some mechanisms for qualifying people as unable to buy, unlikely to buy or likely to buy.

People who are unlikely to buy are those who do not have the authority to buy, people who have no need for your goods or services or people who could not pay for them. When dealing with businesses, someone not having the authority to buy, is not so easy to detect as it might first appear. It is quite common for many managers to delegate fact finding on anything in which they are currently interested in to a junior member of staff.

This junior member of staff does not have the authority to buy, only the authority to recommend or veto. This means they can say “No”, or probably, that they will pass the information to someone else. Clearly this is not the most satisfactory situation for the salesperson.

The salesperson receiving an enquiry cannot easily by-pass the junior and yet selling to this person contravenes a basic rule of selling. ‘Only sell to the person with authority to buy’. We will discuss this and the other common problem of purchasing decisions being made by committee later in this workbook.

For the moment all I ask you to remember is that the minimum qualification is easily remembered as the mnemonic M.A.N. Which stands for MEANS – AUTHORITY – NEED. Remember it by making sure that you sell to the right M.A.N.

Authority implies that the person to whom you are talking has to be able to say “yes”. This is not always easy to discover (I will cover some techniques later on). For the moment remember that, it is better to start at the top and work down than to start at the bottom and work up.

This is so important that there are salespeople who prefer to make the first high level contact with a target company themselves. Enquiries passed to them by the sales office force them to deal with minions. Going to the top enables them to get the right person and of course they are totally in control. They do not have to relate their sales story to anyone but the right M.A.N. They start with the Managing Director (or other Director) with the intention of being referred down to the right level.

THE FIRST STEP IN PROSPECTING

The first step is to identify the profile who it is that makes a good prospect for yourself.

Think about and make notes on how you will find prospects for your current business.

A good starting point is to focus on your existing customers and consider where you can find more who are similar to them. For example if you have done well with manufacturing companies “benchmark” pertinent data e.g. what do they manufacture? How big are they? Do they have other group connections? What level are the decisions taken? What are the relevant production processes? Are other suppliers involved?

You must be satisfied that you know what criteria are important enough for you to identify a prospect. Then consider where you will find ‘suspect’ addresses and how you can check that these suspects match your prospect qualification criteria.

Time spent on research can save wasting time later on. If you know that the prospect really will benefit from your proposal and you know this before you make sales contact, your confidence will be greater and your sales approach much more positive.

PRE-CONTACT WORK

There are four key areas to work at prior to calling on prospects:

a) Territory Planning

b) Time Management

c) General Planning and Preparation

d) Specific Call Preparation

Territory Planning

Territory planning starts with buying a map of your territory. Often this means buying several and sticking them together to make a single map.

Now marking the map with customers that have to be looked after; most professionals use some sort of colour coding.

The next step is grouping the calls to minimise the journey times. This will usually depend upon the customer’s location in relation to a motorway. Salespeople who travel far usually group towns or cities and sometimes countries. If you are going to Italy you may as well fit in as many meetings as you can.

Record Keeping

One of the basic ‘rules’ of management is that one cannot manage what cannot be measured. This means having to keep records.

Many companies provide their sales teams with customised record systems so it is likely that you will have to use what is provided.

TIME MANAGEMENT

Time is precious, whether we intend to use the available time for work or leisure. We are all limited by 8,760 hours each year. Due to difficulty recording the exact length of each year Pope Gregory made it 8,784 hours every fourth year, but apart from leap years and theories of what happens at the speed of light, time is not capable of expansion.

It follows that the objectives for Time Management are not to lengthen the working day as such but to ensure that one gets more from the hours used. Good sales courses address how to make good use of sales time.

GENERAL PLANNING AND PREPARATION

You are aware how sensitive people are to first impressions. Over the telephone you have about 15 seconds to create the right impression; face to face possibly 30 seconds but not much more.

If the first impression that you create is good, credibility stays with you for sometime. If the first impression is poor, then in selling you probably do not get the chance to build up credibility. It is a tough competitive world out there and if the prospect has mentally dismissed you, the rest of the interview is spent actually getting rid of you.

In this business of selling the difference between being a star or an average performer is not so much great flair but a willingness to pay attention to the details and get them right.

SPECIFIC PLANNING AND PREPARATION

At this stage, one should plan the objectives for a call. The specifics of what you plan before calling are the subject of subsequent chapters. You will plan your approach, questions you must ask, making specific proposals, demonstrations, handling objections and asking for the business.

The primary objective for the call might be to take an order. Being realistic it may not be possible to get the sale on this visit – so ask yourself; “If I do not achieve my first objective what would be next best?”

The next best might be to complete a full presentation and if you do not get this far.

The next best might be (finally) to leave the door open – to be able to call again.

The planning principle just covered is that of ‘Retreat Aims’ which means that if you do not get the primary objective them go for the next best.

THAT VITAL FIRST CONTACT The Importance of the Opening Statement

Before you can sell anything, you must first of all sell yourself.

An opening statement is essential to ‘sell’ the idea of talking with you. This is done by the special way in which you introduce yourself. Clearly if you cannot “sell” the idea that you are worth talking to, then business is unlikely to ensue.

It is well worth the time and trouble that it takes to prepare a good opening statement because it will serve you well, enabling you to get the conversation off to a good start in a number of situations. The opening statement can be used over the telephone. It can be used when writing a warm up letter, or as part of an email, prior to ringing for an appointment. It should also be used very early in the interview when meeting the prospect, whether calling by appointment or not, to establish your credibility and get off to an interesting, business like start.

Opening statements should be used with established customers at the appropriate moment to ‘sell’ each interview with them. Failing to do this will quickly result in your regular meetings being shortened, until you get to the point where your customer does not want to see you as frequently as you need to see him.

There are many elements that constitute the right professional impression. The image of the company represented by the sales person, the salesperson’s dress, demeanour, manners, timing and what is said.

The prospect will normally make a very quick judgement of you based upon your appearance. After this you normally have only a few seconds to say something to which the prospect will react favourably. If the approach is wrong then you will find the prospect saying, “Not interested, just now, thank you”.

Think about the situation from the prospect’s point of view. The prospect is going about his/her business; the salesperson’s first approach (usually by telephone) is an interruption. It is, therefore, an essential step in the sale to convince the prospect that it is likely to be worth their while spending a little time in discussion. Otherwise they will not agree to an appointment.

It is important to sell the idea of the discussion even when calling by appointment. Consider the next step of the sale. Normally this will be – to establish what the customer needs. In practice this means asking the customer questions. How do you think you would feel if someone called, even with an appointment, and without a ‘by your leave’ straightaway launched into a series of questions, which at the time may seem of minor importance, and of no immediate direct concern to you?

It can be seen that the opening statement should focus on how you can either help the prospect move towards their business or personal objectives, solve a problem or satisfy a need and then present that thought clearly to the prospect. A question rather than a statement can sometimes be used but beware of becoming too interrogative too soon.

MAKING APPOINTMENTS BY TELEPHONE

Making an appointment is in effect a ‘sale’. The prospect has been ‘sold’ the idea that it is worth spending a little time with you. When making an appointment one goes through the sequence of a sale.

There is an approach, a building of interest followed by handling some objections and leading finally to a close – getting the appointment.

Granting an appointment is not in itself a major decision for the prospect, yet many salespeople do have difficulty in this area. It is fair to say that the more specialised the sale the harder it is to make appointments. The salesperson selling stock items to independent retail shops hardly needs appointments. The salesperson selling to other businesses cannot work without them.

CONFIRMING CUSTOMER NEEDS

If there is one step in the selling process that is the most important and most differentiates consultative salespeople from the conventional view of selling, it is the process of confirming customer needs or the survey stage of the sale. The survey is the most vital step in your sales plan. This is the step that does most to remove you from the ranks of the high pressure merchants. It shows you to be a professional with proper interest in and concern for the customer.

In this section the term ‘Consultative Selling’ comes into its own. Business consultants cannot advise without asking questions, the medical consultant has to ask questions before being able to diagnose problems. The consultative salesperson sells by asking questions. You may have heard the expression “Telling is not selling”. It is questioning skills that sell. Questions are far more powerful than any sales statement. The consultative salesperson deliberately gets the prospect to sell themselves. How this is achieved is what we shall now consider.

After having introduced yourself, exchanged pleasantries and ‘sold’ the interview with your opening gambit, you move to the confirmation of needs stage by asking if the prospect does not mind confirming a few points, or something similar. You may now go ahead with your questions

WHAT QUESTIONS SHOULD WE ASK?

You will have found out something about your prospect. You will have developed a list of things that you need to know to qualify this prospect.

Some things that you need to know before you can make a sale can only be found out in discussion with the prospect, so you will ask about these points.

The objective of the survey is to establish the customers’ needs and what priority the customer puts on each point so that we might relate our products to satisfying those needs.

Until the prospective customer confirms that benefits apply to their circumstances, your list of benefits is only a list of likely benefits.

Questions indicate interest. Statements are self-centred. Who would you rather deal with? Someone only concerned with themselves, or someone who shows an interest in you and your problems? That essential interest is demonstrated by asking questions.

A preliminary step in this process is to ask ourselves specific questions about this prospect in our pre-call planning:

- Why should they buy from us?

- How will they gain?

- What are the most appropriate benefits for this prospect?

- What are the objections this person is likely to raise?

Once we have worked out the answers to these questions, then we are able to frame questions that will lead the prospect to discover their needs and how they gain by buying from us.

The questions to ask

Let us now consider the questions that you should ask. There are three main areas.

1. Questions to check that you are in front of a real prospect (the decision maker).

“In addition to yourself is anyone else going to be interested in this project?”

2.Questions to lead the prospect to discover the benefits that are appropriate to their needs.

“Would easy contact with your sales people enable you to react faster to enquiries”. “Would that improve your chances of winning business?”

3.Questions that move the project along.

“So what will happen when I have written out the proposal?”

PRESENTING YOUR CASE

Now we finally reach the stage where many would consider the sale starts, the sales presentation.

You have done a lot of preparatory work, made an appointment, opened the interview well, asked a number of questions and failed to find benefits for your customer. How do you present a convincing case?

Answer

You thank the prospect for their time; ‘leave the door open’ should there be a future requirement and go on to your next appointment. (Well, the question was intended as a slight catch question). The important point is that if you have questioned your prospect and still cannot see benefits from the prospect, they are not a prospect, and you cannot sell to them. In consultative selling if the sales consultant cannot see why the prospect should buy, then the consultative salesperson does not attempt to sell.

Please think about this, for unless you have missed something in your survey of needs, in which case you need to rethink your strategy and tactics, you cannot make the sale. To attempt to sell to someone with no need for your product is what the high pressure cowboys try to do. It is a waste of time. You will be far more successful spending your time working on a better quality prospect.

PROFESSIONAL ATTITUDE TO PRESENTATIONS

Your professional attitude enables you to have a more positive relationship with your prospects. The rule is that you do not make a presentation until the prospective customer’s needs have been established. Now rules are for the guidance of wise men and the blind observance of fools. There will be times when you make a presentation and possibly a demonstration as the mechanism by which you discover the prospect’s needs. You will know when these times are and will recognise upon which step of the sale you are working.

DEMONSTRATIONS

There are two kinds of demonstration. The smaller ones, where something is demonstrated on the prospective customer’s premises such as portable telephones or small tools. In this category also comes the work by the astute salesperson who tries to involve all the senses of the prospect.

Example 1: A preserves salesperson, who will open a jar to let the buyer taste the real fruit flavour.

Example 2: A warehouse racking sales engineer who will use models to show how various stacking systems operate.

Example 3: Many salespeople show short videos of complex processes, or to demonstrate work done for others.

Many demonstrations, such as a machine tool demonstration, probably require the prospect to visit another town or even another country. These major demonstrations may take place at a number of different places.

MAKING YOUR PROPOSAL

Always try to obtain a decision, at least to the next step in the sale, on the current visit. In many sales situations, such as, selling capital equipment or complex solutions is not usually possible to get the order on one visit. With a big project the steps of a sale may spread over many months. Sometimes you will want to confirm your proposals in writing. Whether made verbally or in writing there is a logical format to follow.

Be careful not to accept a request to, “put in writing” as an end to the interview. Many buyers use this device as an easy way to get rid of salespeople.

A request to “Put it in writing” does not cost the buyer anything but it is going to take you time and cost you money to comply with their request.

HOW TO ANSWER THE CUSTOMER’S QUESTIONS

In every sale, the prospect is likely to raise objections. These are reasons for not being ready to accept the products or services that you are offering. The prospect may not think of them as objections, they are often simply questions which the prospective customer needs to have clarified before reaching a decision.

Objections may arise at any stage of the sale; at the very beginning – when the prospect might not even agree to see you; at the end – and after you have made your presentation, the prospect may turn down your offer.

COUNTER OBJECTION STRATEGIES

To succeed in refuting or countering customer objection, the consultative salesperson requires a strategy, some techniques and tactics. Let us look at strategies first.

There are four strategies that you might consider:

1. Pre-empt the objection

This means that you anticipate that the prospect is likely to raise this subject as an objection and you deal with it before it is raised. If it is re-introduced into the conversation it is more easily dealt with.

2. Outweigh the objection

This is the strategy to use for objections which are perfectly valid. For example the customer objects to the size of your product. It is a fact and there is probably nothing you can do to physically change the size. In such cases use this sequence to outweigh the objection.

Example

Buyer: “I am not going to pay that much money”.

Salesperson: “At first glance it does seem like a lot to ask, and you are right to be concerned that you get value for money. Let us look at my suggestions and see what they mean to you”.

The salesperson now has to go through each benefit for the customer preferably expressed in value terms. The value must add up to substantially more than the cost. It may be that there is a ‘hot button’ in your list.

3. Answer the objection

This will be your most common strategic response to an objection. The majority of objections from prospects are questions, because at the time of asking they do not perceive the whole picture. You could treat a simple price objection as a misunderstanding. Your attitude is that you, the consultative salesperson have not fully briefed the prospect on what value for money they are getting. It is your fault that they do not understand so you ‘take the blame’ for not explaining.

One of the main weapons in your objection handling armoury will be a good answer for every objection that you are likely to bear.

This is where we separate the real professionals from the well intentioned.

As you move towards this level of competence your confidence grows and you will need to guard against the danger of responding too quickly to an objection. I suggest that you develop the habit of pausing or restating the objection before you respond. You may also find that deliberately ‘taking the blame’ helps. I do not mean apologising, that is too strong but some phrase such as: “Thanks for asking that, I should have explained… and then deliver your well thought out and rehearsed answer.

4. Ignore the objection

There will be times when you know the prospect is giving you a false objection. If you telephone for an appointment and the prospect says they are too busy to see you, the chances are that they mean that you have failed to interest them. When the prospect says “Send something in the post”, there is a more than evens chance that what they really mean is go away and do not bother me.

To try and deal with these false objections is quite pointless, as they are false objections you will not get anywhere with logical argument. The best strategy is to ignore them. Sometimes you can do just that – not respond at all but carry on. On other occasions apply the strategy of ignoring using a little more subtlety.

Sometimes the real reasons for refusal are embarrassing for the customer and they search for excuses. They may not even know at the time how to react to your offer and just cites the first excuse that comes to mind e. g.

Purchaser: “Acquiring your model PX2000 is out of the question for us, for financial reasons”.

What the purchasing manager really means is: “Then we will have to restrain staff. The workers will resist that, and the shop manager will be afraid of losing production. Let’s just leave this well alone”.

A salesperson who takes the false objection at face value may, for example, expand on their firm’s favourable terms of payment. By trying to give a logical answer to the objection they are inevitably leading the conversation up a blind alley.

Clarify all objections before you reply. Test the objection by asking questions.

Where to concede

Only experience will enable you to properly identify the types of objection which may be glossed over or agreed before being virtually ignored. Experience will sharpen your perception as to which strategy works best in varying circumstances.

CLOSING THE SALE

Closing a sale means getting the prospect’s decision to buy. Everything you have worked for up to this point has been to enable you to take an order. This final step of the sale is, therefore, the culmination of all your work. It is important to give yourself the best possible chance to secure the business.

There is no one magical moment to close - any time may become the right time. The problem is that if a close is attempted and it does not work, the consultative salesperson will have to try again. To keep closing using just one technique is likely to seem to be pushing for the business. This goes against all the consultative selling principles that have been covered. For these reasons consultative salespeople should have several closing techniques ready to use. Then when a close is attempted and fails, another alternative may soon be attempted.

PREPARING TO CLOSE

Right from the start, you must take it for granted that your prospect will buy from you. It is the logical outcome of your sales presentation. If all the steps of the sale have been carried out fully and professionally, you will have built up a willingness to purchase.

The salesperson’s attitude must be positive and, once again, we see the importance of the right mental attitude. If you believe the prospect should buy there is a good chance that they will. If you do not believe this, your body language will signal your hesitation and the prospect will probably want “To take some time to think it over”.

DECISION SIGNALS

Sometimes the buyer is ahead of the salesperson and is ready to purchase before the presentation is completed. Often a competitor will have motivated a prospect, but failed to close. Be alert to such opportunities. If you think you detect a buying signal, try to close.

Decision signals can be verbal or physical (body language).

The buyer may say something which shows that they are thinking about what it would be like to own the product or they may ask you to repeat details which you have already made clear – just to reassure themselves. They may offer verbal agreement by repeating or reinforcing your statements.

The physical signals may be facial expressions which imply approval or handling the product, treating it as though it was already owned. Be aware of all the signals being made around you.

TRIAL CLOSES

As a consultative salesperson you will become alert to any comment or question from the prospect which indicates serious consideration of your proposal. This can be the time to use a trial close in an attempt to close the sale. If the attempt is not successful, continue with your presentation and wait for the next signal.

Asking for the order is the final proof that you have the confidence in your product or service. Buyers expect you to ask for the order. If you make no attempt to close the sale, your prospect may interpret your hesitation as lack of honesty or sincerity.

WHY SALESPEOPLE HESITATE TO CLOSE

The truthful answer is fear. Salespeople have to take a lot of rejection and any psychologist will tell you that people try to distance themselves from that which causes pain. The result is that they hesitate to ask for the order in case the prospect says “No”. They will then try to justify their failure to close by saying things like, “They will tell me when they are ready to order”. This is not true. Customers are not concerned about the salesperson’s hang-ups, they interpret the hesitation as a lack of conviction. Customers expect the salesperson to ask for the order.

We hope that you have found this material useful. If you are interested in developing your sales skills to complement your knowledge of consultative professional selling please see our range of training courses in selling by clicking on the link sales courses

Course Directory

Tailored Training

Spearhead Training

Announcements

Tel: +44 (0)1608 644 144
Fax: +44 (0)1608 649 680

Testimonials

'The course was a success & everyone got something out of it'
T.R. - Dec 2006
B.S.B