Presentations are a cornerstone of getting closer to making the sale. FILE PHOTO | NMG
No. Your sales job is not as
overwhelming as you make it out to be. You counter: “What with doing
reports, calling, replying to emails, prospecting, attending meetings,
et cetera?” Well, as this column has averred, the progressive sales
person has only three activities: customer facing, computer facing and
‘air’-facing.
The average seller busies herself with
the latter two: browsing the Internet and travelling (not merely moving)
from one sales meeting to another and then laments her lacklustre
performance.
Today, I want to dwell on the customer-facing activities that get you closer to making the sale.
Prospecting
is the cornerstone of successful selling. No. It is not closing. To
close, there must first be a prospect. A prospect is one who has the
need and means to buy your product or service. All others are suspects.
Successful prospecting starts with qualifying suspects and ends with
asking for a referral - who is a qualified prospect. Meaning, that
prospecting never ends and accelerated prospecting is done via
referrals, and referrals are in turn most effectively obtained in
customer- facing activities.
The alternative is to
spend time computer- and air-facing in the name of prospecting. Not that
you can’t get a prospect on, say, LinkedIn or, the streets, you can.
The problem is that you will have that bit higher an uphill task knowing
what prospect to look for and qualifying him, compared to if you had
just asked an existing buyer to, “Please refer me to two other Finance
directors in competing companies who would benefit from our services.”
Next,
it’s good to have a qualified prospect. But the girl you met last week
didn’t give you her number for you to sit on or brag to your boys, “I
got her number.” So what? Call her! Likewise, qualified prospects are
there to be reached out to and presented to.
Not
merely to fill up sales reports with, to impress the boss. And this
takes us back to prospecting via referrals; doing so allows you the
benefit of asking your customer to, “Please call him up and let him know
I’ll be calling on him (or, if you can send me over)”. This way, you
skip calling and introducing yourself (activities which could build a
wall) and you proceed to presenting because a bridge has already been
laid out for you.
Irrespective of the source of the qualified prospect
though, in the game of numbers that selling is, numerous presentations
are a cornerstone of getting closer to making the sale.
Closing is the ultimate activity for making the sale. The importance of an effective presentation cannot be gainsaid.
But
continually buying the girl coffee without telling her what you want
will only get you ‘friend-zoned.’ Just like the girl, the buyer won’t
tell you to ‘close’ - he’ll just send signals. When he does, attempt an
alternative close; “Would you prefer delivery today or tomorrow?” or, an
assumptive one, “Please sign here, and here.”
Busy yourself in favour of these three customer facing activities and watch your sales soar.
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