Sell to Businesses
Selling is simple, and by "adopting" the steps outlined below, you'll be able to sell absolutely ANY product or service. Sales is in all of us, everyone has the ability to sell. Here´s how to put that ability to good use.
Steps
- Be Professionals.
- P-Polished
- R-Refined
- O-Overachieving
- F-Fundamentally
- E-Established
- S-Solution
- S-Selling
- I-Integrator
- O-Of
- N-Neat
- A-Appearance
- L-Leading
- S-sales for the company...
- Basically, dress the part, live the part, surround yourself with other successful people, and openly teach what you've learned to those who seek your knowledge. Be sincere, honest, and maintain integrity. On to Selling.
- Know your products and solutions. Believe in them yourself, and exude confidence in them through your enthusiastic inflections. Every great sales person knows their products inside and out, and it's a necessity.
- Know your competition. Understand their strengths, understand their weaknesses, and understand the weaknesses they may be exploiting about your solution. NEVER bash your competition, simply express how your products benefits are numerous, well thought out, and differentiate those benefits. This strategy separates you from the competition, and you've taken the high road. You never know if the person you're dealing with purchased from the competition in the past, or has had experiences that may have been great with their products, so don't bash the comp.
- Get yourself some Facetime! That's right, all the phone calls in the world are great, but who do businesses actually buy from? They buy from people, sales people, and after you put these steps into action, they should be buying from You. I hope you knew that was the answer. These are the leading steps to successful "pre-sales". Now onto the real dirty work...
- Cold Calling. Numbers count here. There are 2 ways to effectively cold call.
- Phone call on possible prospect.
- Drop by in person.
- A good strategy. When you´re on an appointment, drop collateral for businesses in the area, and most importantly - get your contact´s name after having a friendly and sincere conversation with the gate keeping secretary! There's a tip for you. Now, when you´re cold calling the next morning, you can ask for the person you´re looking to speak with and not get coke-blocked by the secretary / gatekeeper / assistant / whoever might be paid to hide the contact you need from those other sales people that do nothing more than pester the poor buyer.
- Use the phone in cold calling. Be brief, and do NOT read a script! In cold calling over the phone, you have one goal: get a face to face meeting. That's it. Simple. How? You introduce yourself, and politely ask if they "would have an hour to share over the next few days so that I might be able to gain a better understanding of your business and initiatives, as well as to best convey the capabilities of our organization, Mozilla Technologies, Inc. Would early afternoon on Tuesday accommodate your schedule?" Guaranteed: you'll have a brief conversation, and they will question you vigorously on your products on the phone. Do not obviously divert their question, rather, use this as an opportunity to entice them into the meeting.
- Prospect "What is it your company does exactly?"
- You-"We offer a wide array of solutions for businesses, and depending on your initiatives, I would expect you'd find an exceptional amount of value in our offerings. Much like XYZ did in using our -blah blah product - for their initiative. It's saved them 10% in overall ops cost and produced a drastic process improvement measure. A time savings to the tune of 90 minutes a day per employee! That's exactly why I'd like take the opportunity to introduce our company to you sir. I believe you'll find tremendous benefit from the hours worth of time on Tuesday afternoon..."
- Silent pause and wait for their response. Odds are - you'll get something to this effect - "Well Tuesday is booked and actually I'm booked solid for a few weeks. Could you send me something?" - but you were smart about it because you had already dropped off collateral from your previous campus cold calling!
- You - "actually, I had dropped off some information for you, but with out a better understanding your company, it may not even be pertinent to you, and I certainly don't want to waste your time. I would be happy to put something on the calendar for later next week if you like?" From here, you've gave it you all, and your odds are a solid 70% for a meeting. That is all you needed to do. Save the selling for the meeting, and hit the next number on your prospect list.
- Prepare for the Initial Meeting. Way to go! The cold calling paid off. What do you do for the first meeting? You be a boy scout. Be Prepared. Research the company, research your prospect, and come in informed prior to the meeting. Once introduced and you're settling in to talk in an office / conference room you build rapport. Ask about tenure, family, hobbies, and be pleasant. Upon getting the meeting rolling, address the clock. Ask if the time-frame you had requested is still good with the client, and be aware of the clock throughout the meeting.
- Sell the solution. You're now in front of your target audience for the first time. Set the agenda by having the future client describe their position, the company, their initiatives, and what it is that keeps them up at night. As you pose these questions, listen, and continue to build rapport. The worst sales people, contrary to the popular misconception, are those that talk too damn much. Keep the prospect engaged and ask the ever so clever open-ended questions. For those of you who have not been introduced to sales, ever, an open-ended question is one which cannot be answered with a simple yes or no answer. Build more rapport and present your solution as it corresponds to their pain points. How to uncover those pain points and interject your solution could be a book in itself, but I will leave you with a clue. Create a vision in the future client's mind. A vision with your solution tackling their problems, and making them look good in the process. Ultimately, any good sales person is one who is happy to position themselves quietly behind their client, allowing their client to take the credit for "finding" or "implementing" the solution. Once this has been done, your set for easier, future successes with a grade A account!
- Do not be afraid to make mistakes, just be sure that you learn from them. Sales cycles differ with clients, with products, and with budgets. So keep prospecting, cold calling, and running appointments. Sales is a numbers game, but focus on the accounts that bring you those numbers. - I grade my accounts A through D - An A being a top client with ample budget for me to consume throughout the year, and B's being a client that needs to move towards an A account. D's and C's are prospects, and classified by budget, size, potential, and relationship status. Check out the additional tips and warnings below!
- Remember: Every sales person succeeds in different manors, find what works for you and build on the positives! There are 2 trains of thought - work on your weakness, or build on your strengths. Happy selling.
Tips
- Ask smart questions to your clients, ask humble questions to your peers, and listen intently to their responses.
- Read as many sales books as possible.
- Read, learn, and ask!
- Learn from your mistakes and more importantly, learn from your successes!
- Never lose your confidence! Everyone fails, but understand how and why you failed, so that it does not become a habit.
Warnings
- Businesses Understand Negotiating - and so should you! When negotiating, do not simply give on your pricing / product. You've spent all this time adding value, and if you've done your job properly, you should be able to ask for commitment in return. (i.e. I can look into discounting the pricing further for you, - but if I were to be able to reduce some of your investment in -insert product/service here- along with the many benefits that -insert product/service- will be bringing and providing a significant return to your purchase, would you be willing to -go ahead /sign off on with the deal- if I'm able to meet that price?)
- Some opportunities simply are not worth your time and effort. With practice and application, you'll begin to discern the differences between A clients and D clients. That's what separates the excellent sales person from the average product pusher by the way.
- Do not speak of price or push products first! Ever!
