In this post I want to explore some fundamental basics of sales and how to increase your sales success. This method is best used in software or technology, it has not bee used with product sales so I don't know how that works. However, I've been using this method in software for the past 7 years with great success. This method is not a new type of rocket science, it is not something you are not familiar with, if you have been in sales for some time with success.
Who am I?
I am an MBA sales manager at a software company who focuses on creating software for the gaming industry, mostly Lotteries and Casinos but also in Sports betting. I have been using this method to create new clients, gather leads, make the most of my time by selecting which leads to follow and which not and increasing my closing rate. A usual sales cycle in this company I am working in now is about 1 year or more so this sales method is useful for long term sales. This is perhaps not the best method in sales that take place many times a day, such as retail.
The sales process
First of all let me say that I view the sales activity as a process. If you follow some fundamental steps you increase the likelihood of closing the sale. In sales nothing is guaranteed but I am sure that if you follow these fundamental steps you will increase the likelihood of closing a sale.
Sales activity is a process - it is bets run with some project management skills. You need to set out a plan of action that may take a long time to execute and some of the steps you need to repeat until a desire result has been achieved, but it is a process in my mind - not some genetically inherited skill of either you can sell or not! Everybody can sell - with great success - they just need to follow a simple process that logically moves the prospect from a mild interest in you solution to a state of desire to give you money for the service. If prospects are not willing to part with their money in return for your solution, then you are not selling anything. The process here show you how to take the prospect to this stage where they want to give you the money.
The basics - finding the prospects
Gathering potential clients is a task every sales person needs to master. If you cannot get the attention of potential customers you are not going to have any success of selling anything. So the first step is to find customers. How do you do this? Depending on your market, you should do some research here trying to find the actual companies that you would like to sell your products or services.
- Make a list of dream customers
- Make a list of second best customers
- Study your competitor's customers - make a list
When I say a list of customer I mean names of people, contacts - both e-mails and telephone numbers. It is not a good policy to send e-mails to e-mail addresses like "info@abc.com" or anything like that. This is going to get you nowhere. You need to come up with a good list of 100 companies and their contacts. In my experience, I always target the Marketing executives and Sales people - preferably C level - or as high up as possible. In the software industry or when selling a technology, I have never called the technical department. This is of course not applicable to every situation but it is my experience that the technical department will usually turn you down to begin with. Why? because they will view every new piece of technology or software as additional work - and therefore more problems - and from an operational standpoint that is probably true. So they will turn you down but the sales and marketing people will always want to hear how they can increase sales or solve some other problem that they may have.
Getting the leads
Identifying the problem your solution or product solves is crucial in this method of sales. Put a lot of work into finding out what problems this product solves for your existing clients. If you don't have any, figure out why this product or solution was made in the first place. Use this information to create a letter (e-mail) to sent to your potential customers. This letter is supposed to generate interest in your product or solution.
Formulate the letter in the following manner:
- Introduction
- List the problem some of your customers had (similar companies) - 3 items
- Explain how you solved this problem
- Offer them to have the same problems solved in their company
Coming up with problems to solve is a work of creation - you need to be creative here. Find a few customers who are willing to give you a statement of why they bought from you in the first place. What problems did you solve for them? My guess is that similar companies have similar problems that they need solving. Get this information into your letter.
Qualifying the sales lead
Make sure that the companies on your list are within your marketing criteria. Don't waste time following some hot leads that you are never going to sell to because of legal, environmental, political, financial or whatever other reason you need to have to be able to become your customer. If the reasons are financial, then the prospect needs to have a certain turnover per year etc. Make sure you know the company in question, study it's website, read their newsletter - become an expert in their products/services, try an understand how they function. This is what I call qualifying the prospect. I make some harsh cuts here to my list just to make sure I am putting my time into valuable prospects.
When this is done, get your letter out the door in reasonable chunks - 10 or 15 at a time. And make sure you follow up with a phone call to EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM! Just call them. The letter itself will not drive the prospects to you - you have to call them or visit them or whatever. You must get to that person one way or the other.
Making sure you understand the problem
Now you have sent your letter and you have made the call and the prospect is on the line or you have a meeting. Do me a favor - leave PowerPoint at home. People who use power point to sell never sell anything. The sales process begins with a conversation. The point of this conversation is to find out as much as you can about your client. You can perhaps begin with a short description of your company and it services - in general terms (PowerPoint if the client seems worried) - but make sure you do not use the 1 hour you get with him/her in talking. You want to make the prospect talk. There is one fireproof way to do that - ask questions! This is where your study of the company kicks in - you should make a list of questions related to the company or the situation and make sure you understand the problem they have perfectly - this is not the time to sell - don't sell here! Just listen and ask questions. One man said to me once "Do you know why sales people have one mouth but two ears?"
I am sure you got the sales job because you have the gift of the gap - but in this step you should just listen - learn. Prospects will tell you a lot nd they will even tell you how to sell to their company. Sales and marketing people are always very helpful.
Make sure the solution fits the problem
Now this stage is a rinse and repeat. You should ask all the questions you can about their business and specifically about their problem. At some point you are expected to solve this problem. But you have to make sure you get their problem identified and agreed upon. The prospect ahs to accept this problem he has. Once he has done that or even a list of a few problems - you can start using you solution to solve each and everyone of them. The conversation should be along the lines of "... if I can show you how this problem can be solved will you take seriously look at our solution". The point here is to make him say "go" to exploring your solution further and giving you a chance of proving that his problem is solved with your solution. This step could take a few meetings.
And get it in writing. After the first meeting make sure you do meeting minutes where you state everything decided in the meeting or conversation, especially that the prospect has admitted his problem and accepted to explore your solution further. Depending on the level of complexity, this could be a few meetings and conversations on the phone as well. I've had prospect that took months in defining the problem and making sure the solution fits.
Now you go back to your team and get them involved in showing proof that your solution can solve the prospects problem. Here is a good idea to do a schedule - like an evaluation period. Get this schedule worked out with the prospect and get him to agree to it - he will if he made it with you.
OK so now we are here:
- the problem is identified
- the solution to the problem has been found
Now he wants to know how much it costs. Sure, this stage is always a little tricky but I have found a great way to get around the embarrassing "offer and pray" situation that I used to fall into. But before you give them the numbers..... you need one more thing from them: access to decision makers.
Getting to decision makers
They are not going to get the price unless you get to present it yourself to the guy or the committee that takes the final decision. This is crucial to keep in control of the sales process. As soon as you give them the numbers you lose control of the process - remember that. How do you get to the actual decision makers? Again you ask " are you the guy who decides on this?" If no, it is not unreasonable to ask if you could deliver the offer yourself, you are the best in explaining the offer etc.
Once you get to the actual decision makers make sure they identify with the problem and accept it. If they do not, your solution is not solving anything for them = no sale.
How to make an offer they cannot refuse
In making the offer itself I always use the same trick I learned for the book Solution Selling - sit down with your prospect - in a pre-proposal meeting and create the offer with him. Show him the numbers and how you make the offer. Tell him that you are going over the offer and you want his opinion on some things. Then you sit down together and you show him the draft version of the offer and you go over some items. Often, almost always he will make changes to the offer - either take this thing out or lower this number or whatever. Here you need to stand your ground on sensitive issues - don't sell out.
Closing the sale
Now you deliver the offer. It is an offer that is bullet proof. It is a solution solving the company's biggest problem and it is going to help them earn more money. If you can do a return on investment plan that would be dynamite but the reality is that you cannot always do that. Now you meet the decision makers, present you case and the offer they have helped creating. Chances are they will accept it since they helped you to create it.
Now you get that signature and hand over to legal for contracting.
This is more or less how I sell every sale I make. I am sure that if you follow these steps you are going to turn your dead end no sale job into a winning streak of nothing but closing every month - guaranteeing you that sales commission. I also suggest that if you are interested in thsi topci you should read more on it on Entrepreneur.com
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