Q: My
company sells and installs a window safety laminate that, among
other benefits, can prevent break-ins. I believe wholeheartedly in
my product, but I've had some trouble closing the sale with
potential customers. How can I create a sense of urgency in my
customers to want to protect their business, home and loved ones
with my product?
A:
You've touched on a topic that is near and dear to my heart! I
call it the "perched-pen" syndrome. Countless salespeople
experience the same situation you find yourself in: great product,
great benefits, proven track record, reasonable price and, by all
reasonable standards, it fits the prospect's needs. But the
result is typically no sale and a constant stream of calls not
returned, appointments canceled and frustration on the part of the
salesperson. Let's stop the madness! I suggest that you take
the advice that follows and place it firmly into your sales
process. In the end, you'll get more sales sooner and golden
referrals that are worth their weight in gold.
1. Pre-qualify each and every one of your prospects
before you call on them. Make sure they have a lot of
characteristics in common with your best customers. This is the
fastest way to a sale, as you'll only be approaching prospects
likely to buy your product.
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2. Get a firm grip on what motivates your prospects. I
know that sounds simplistic, but you'd be surprised how many
times we salespeople forget the simple fact that there are only two
motivators that drive each one of us (including our prospects). The
first is moving toward a reward or goal, and the second is moving
away from or avoiding fear or loss. That's it! Therefore,
it's essential to establish whether the prospect is moving
toward a goal or away from a fear.
For your business, try this question: "What's
personally important to you about creating a safer and healthier
environment for your employees/family/customers?" Say your
prospect responds with something like "It's important for
me to provide the best for my people because they are the core of
what keeps my business running." Your prospect is moving
toward the reward of having happy and loyal employees. If, on the
other hand, your prospect says "If I don't, they'll
all leave and go work for my competition!" then you clearly
have a prospect that wants to avoid fear and loss to their
competition.
Here's why it matters: A prospect who's moving toward a
reward will move more slowly and methodically and evaluate all his
options. But the prospect who is avoiding fear will grab the first
option--and usually the lowest price--that's close at
hand--which, by the way, may be nothing at all!
3. Know what your prospect's personality style is.
According to personality theorist David Merrill (his research in
this area has been popular since the late '60s), there are four
very different styles: amiable, analytic, driver and expressive.
Merrill refined his research into a model that is extremely
accurate and effective in pinpointing these different styles.
What's this got to do with selling? Everything! You've
heard the adages "People buy from people they like," and
"If you're like someone, they'll like you." Well,
Merrill has taken this a step further in helping us understand how
to interact and relate to the four different styles. In short:
Amiable: Loves to relate on a personal basis; family and
friends come first. Think warm and fuzzy stuff. When approaching
this type of person, keep everything low-key, safe and secure. They
move slowly and resist change. Your offer to put your product
between him and a speeding bullet would make this prospect retreat
to a fetal position!
Analytic: Needs facts and figures, statistics, research
and trends with plenty of proof and demonstrations. They are very
methodical in their decision-making process. They'll demand
proof for everything! Your offer to demonstrate your product's
capabilities would knock the socks off this prospect.
Expressive: This prospect loves being the center of
attention and anything else that's happening! This social
butterfly is very opinionated. Name-dropping will impress this
prospect more than anything else. It's best to provide plenty
of social proof about your product with reprints of articles and
pictures of some "mover and shaker" standing in front of
your product. Your proposed demo would likely be met with a
"let me invite a few of my business partners to see this"
response.
Driver: Demanding, fast-moving and quick to decide.
Whatever they say, they stick to it. You'd best be prepared to
state your case in less than 10 seconds to any prospect who is a
"driver." When you find yourself working with a driver,
all you need to do is quickly state what this person would lose
(fear motivator) or gain (reward motivator) by using your product.
The driver would want to "pull the trigger" during your
demo!
It's not hard to see that your product pitch and approach
must be different with each of these four styles. This means that
"one size fits all" thinking is out of the question when
it comes to selling.
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