Which question is most likely to provide the most valuable information from a buyer?

Question:
Which question is most likely to provide the most valuable information from a buyer?

Answer:
This sounds like a question from our Benchmark Selling Skills Assessment. The most valuable information is obtained by asking Open-Ended Questions. These are questions that cannot be answered by a “yes” or a “no.” I have found that when salespeople become skillful at asking the best questions, they are able to effectively sell themselves. This is the first and most important sale that gets made. Once a customer has bought the salesperson, the remaining decisions are far easier to accomplish.

In my sales book, Questions: The Answer to Sales, You will learn about how to ask great questions and dramatically improve sales performance. If you have not read this book, it is available on the web site http://www.ActionSelling.com. Thank you for your question.

Good Action Selling.

Online Sales Training
Sales Skills Newsletter

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How to Sell to a Lower-Level Decision Maker

Question:

I own a printing company and sell printing. I have a current customer that I’m doing work for. This is a non-profit organization and I do a lot of quotes for them and it seems the bottom line is price.

They have 2 or 3 other companies quoting on the same projects. I seem to be losing more of these jobs than I’m getting. When I ask how I did on the quote she tells me I was too high and the company with the lowest bid gets it. She is not the decision maker. she’s the graphic designer and she’s the one responsible for getting the quotes and then passes them on to her boss, who makes the final decision as to who gets the job.

Is there anything I can do to get out of this routine? She knows our quality is as good or better than the other companies and our service is 2nd to none.

Please help. I’m lost as to what steps to take next.

Answer:

Thank you very much for your question. Your situation is very common. I’ve heard this from sales people time and time again. When it comes to working with this level decision maker, it is critical that the seller has a high degree of understanding of what your customer’s personal needs are. What makes her job easier (or more difficult)? How is she evaluated by the people that she works for? What makes her look good? What can she do to earn a deeper level of respect and appreciation from her employer? What can she do that will allow her to make a huge difference in her company?

When you know what her personal needs are, you are in a far better position to show how you can help her accomplish her objectives with your products and services. In most cases, the sales person who does the best job of understanding the needs at this level, wins the business.

Right now it sounds like she is indifferent about who gets the business. She submits the bids and someone else decides who gets the order. You and your competitors are being treated like commodities. This is a very difficult game to play (selling commodities) unless you have the lowest price.

In addition, you can’t really ask her for the business because she can’t make that decision. However, she can make the decision to recommend you to the decision maker. Or, if she is compelled to do so, she could agree to allow you to gain access to the decision maker. I believe that this is the correct sales process for you. First she needs to be able to see how you can help her accomplish her personal objectives. Then she will be more willing to take you to the decision maker.

Have you read our sales book, Masters of Loyalty? If not, I would recommend this book to you.

http://www.actionselling.com/sales-books.asp#loyalty

For more Sales Training Information

To Your Success

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Sales are way down. How do I boost them?

Question:

Sales are way down. How do I boost them.

Answer:

Sorry to hear that your sales are way down. Without more information it is difficult to help you. Your problems could be related to marketing, sales prospecting, sales process or a whole bunch of other factors. Let’s focus on the factors that you might have some control over. When it comes to selling there are two things that you should look at: Quality and Quantity.

Are you making enough sales contacts? If not, you will need to breakdown the barriers that are keeping you from making enough sales calls.

When business is slow, you need to capitalize on a higher percentage of the opportunities that are available. This takes a planned and precise approach to selling. Here is where Action Selling can help. Have you read the Action Selling sales book? If not, it will be the best hour that you could invest in your career. Our sales books are available at www.thesalesboard.com.

To Your Success

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What to do when a customer says “Let Me Think About It.”

Question:
The question is, what do you do about it? If a customer says, I’m not sure, let me think about it for a week, what`s your next move? Please guide me.

Answer:
When the customer stalls, they are not completely sold yet. Action Selling suggests that you will need to do more selling in order to gain a commitment. Since I am not sure how familiar you are with Action Selling, I can give you some direction and suggest that you purchase the Action Selling Sales Book if you do not own one.

Action Selling suggests that you save a TFBR in case you hear a stall. Use the TFBR and ask for commitment again. If the customer is still not sold, what you will hear is an objection. It will be specific to one of the five buying decisions (salesperson, company, product, price, time to buy). You must deal with the objection by first returning to Act 3 and asking some questions.

I realize that this answer may not make sense to you if you have not had some exposure to Action Selling. If that is the case, get my book and read it a couple of times. You may also consider purchasing the Action Selling personal sales training system.

I hope this helps.

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Asking Questions Uncovers Needs

Yesterday, Mark and I made a call to UFP headquarters in Michigan.  At several points during the sales call, I was mentally packing up to close the meeting and get out of there however Mark continued to ask questions and he was asking good open ended questions.  Not only was he asking questions but he was uncovering a new laser opportunities and finding out an incredible amount of information about their current vendor.  He discovered that they like to have 2 vendors and then who the vendors were, where they were located, that one of the vendors was no longer a supplier because they no longer wanted this business from UFP.  After finding that turnaround time on short runs was very important, Mark was able to introduce our digital press capability and sell ID Technology and our digital press capability.

When we replayed the call, I asked Mark if he would have ever spent as much time asking questions prior to Action Selling. Mark stated that there was no way he would have uncovered as much information prior to Action Selling Sales Training.  As a result of this call, Mark now has several good opportunities as well as a good understanding on how we can position ourselves for business in our full product line

Please make sure that you are using Action Selling.  It works.
__________________________________
Alan J. Shipman
ID Technology

Learn How to Ask The Best Questions. Get our Sales Book: Questions. The Answer to Sales

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How does the Action Selling drama apply to cold calls?

Question:

I am almost finished reading your Action Selling Sales Book. As you know it is a phenomenal approach. I have 3 questions regarding its use in my type of sales. 1. I sell industrial engineering software on the phone. Instead of seeing 1 or 2 customers a day I may make up to 50 cold calls a day! I develop interest after initial contact but so far only incoming leads have produced sales for me. How does the Action Selling drama apply to cold calls where there is not the presumption of a customer`s need on the 1st call? What should my Commitment Objective be on the initial call?

Answer:

Your Commitment Objective is determined by the typical sell cycle for your product.  One of the most important things that salespeople learn during the Action Selling workshop is how to document their sell cycle for the products or service that they sell.  Once you have done this, Commitment Objectives lead you from one sell cycle milestone to the next.  As an example, your initial sell cycle milestone may be to schedule another phone call where you conduct a needs analysis for your product.  Following the needs analysis, you might accomplish a Commitment Objective of scheduling another phone meeting to present your proposal… and so on.

Question:

My sell cycle usually involves a 30 day trial of our software. Where does this fit into the Drama? 

Answer:

I think that this may fit after the proposal meeting.  If you are not able to gain a commitment to purchase, you can offer the 30 day trial as an option to “try before they buy.”

Question:

On page 23 of Action Selling, during Act 2 of the sell cycle, a customer tries to hurry Christine along to Act 6. Christine adroitly proceeds to Act 3 and performs a more detailed Needs Analysis instead. During an appointment or meeting this is not so difficult but I have to deal with more complex forms of interference. Here’s a real example; A client has visited our site and filled out a short questionnaire requesting more information on our software as well as the 30 day free trial. I call her back based on her contact information that she left us. As it turns out she is both an engineer and a union representative. Some of her clients are using our software so she has already been exposed to it. Furthermore, she is at the airport and will be airborne in 1 hour. She wants me to email her pricing information as well as the link for the 30 day trial and some other documentation. She has a Blackberry and wants me to email this stuff within the hour so she can peruse it at her leisure while she flies. I am sure you can see how many obstacles to the correct execution of the drama are presented by this situation. I suspect that the correct course of action is to tell her to wait until she is finished traveling so we can go through the process step by step. Am I right? And if so, how do I convince this very busy woman that I must set the pace and order of operations in our dealings? She travels weekly.

Answer:

When the buyer is in control of the sales process, you most likely won’t be able to sell to all of the buying decisions (Salesperson, Company, Product, Price, Time to Buy).  I recommend that you conduct a brief needs analysis during the phone call.  As an example, “So I can email you the most relevant information, may I ask you a couple of questions about your situation?  This way I can zero in on exactly what information that you will be most interested in reviewing.”
 
I’m sure that she will be interested in this.  Once the commitment to proceed is gained, you will be able to follow the acts of Action Selling and sell to all of the decisions that she will be making.
 
Lerron, I hope that I have answered your questions to your satisfaction.  This and a million additional questions are answered during our Action Selling workshop.  You can gain information about the workshop by calling us at (800) 232-3485.  Our Training Consultants will be happy to help you.

To get more information about Sales Training or the Action Selling Process, please call us or visit our web site.

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What is Sold First? Salesperson or Product/Service?

Question:

What is sold first? Is it Sales Person or his Product/ Service. I am sure only when a sales guy has been bought will the prospect buy you product/ services. I think I have sold myself with a client. He has given me some 50k business. He has more opportunities, which he is not extending to me. He knows he can trust me. However I am unable to scale this account. What do you think is wrong here? Is it my approach or my wrong analysis on the available opportunity?

Answer:

You are looking at this situation the correct way.  In order for you to get $50,000 in business, you must have a $50,000 sales relationship with this customer.  In order to “scale” the business, you must also “scale” the relationship.  It appears to me that this has not yet happened.

Please do not get discouraged.  There is a lot of potential for you with this situation.  My guess is that you need to invest more in Act 2, 3 and 4 of the Action Selling process.  Do you know these terms?  If not, I highly recommend reading our book, Sales Book: Action Selling.

If you have more sales training or sales related questions, please contact us at 1-800-232-3485.

Thanks

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