One of the most devastating conditions to a seasoned veteran sales person is the onset of complacency. This can occur anytime is a sales person’s career. But usually it follows a period of repeated success or recognition of achievement. It’s easy to fall victim, and easier to not recognize it’s happened. The best way to avoid such a situation having an impact on continued success is to be constantly looking for means of improvement. The best place to start is a regular review of your sales process.
As a professional sales person, you know the value of having a sales process or strategy which must be followed to be successful. In developing an effective strategy, it’s often helpful to look at the progression of the sales process as relates to your particular business or service. By reviewing the specific aspects of each step in the process, you can determine an effective method to apply. When you break the sales process down into specific steps, you can often improve your sales results by focusing on areas where you feel you may be weak.
Prospecting – The first part of the sales process is looking for promising leads which can bring you a sale. This can include cold calling and leads generated by referrals. Prospecting is not limited to the phone. This can be done via email or in person.
Appointment Setting – Once you have made the initial contact with the prospective client the next part of the sales process is to set an appointment with the client. It is always preferable to have an in-person appointment. If this is not possible, a phone appointment is acceptable, but you should try to turn it into a face-to-face meeting with the potential client.
Qualifying – The goal of qualifying the prospective client during the sales process is to make sure the client has a need for your product or service, is interested in buying your product or service, and, most importantly is in a position to buy. Part of the qualifying process is to make sure you are talking to the person who can actually make the decision to purchase your product or service.
Presenting – The presentation is undoubtedly the most important part of the sales process. It’s important you be prepared. This includes knowing your product and service inside and out. It also includes knowing the needs of the customer inside and out. You need to make sure your presentation is professional, interesting and relevant to the needs of the prospective client. Try to make your presentation interactive and fun. Make use of different media to keep it interesting. Don’t read your information, but have it memorized and present in a natural manner. Handouts should be relevant, fresh and simple.
Answering Questions and Resolving Concerns – As perfect as your presentation may be, the client is bound to have some questions. This may be one of the more difficult parts of the sales process. Many sales are lost when a sales person is not able to satisfactorily answer objections posed by the prospective client. If you’re not prepared, you may very likely not get the sale. If you are prepared, it makes your product or service look good, it makes your company look good, and it makes you look professional.
Closing – In this part of the sales process, you have completed your presentation and answered all questions and concerns. Now you ask for the sale. Many sales people skip this part of the sales process thinking that the presentation is the same as asking. You must directly ask the client to buy your product or service. You don’t go through the whole process and expect the client to stand up and yell “I’ll take it!” You need offer them the opportunity to buy.
Referrals – After the success of the sale, you feel good and, very often, the customer feels good too. This is the perfect time to ask for referrals. The client may know of other companies or individuals who would be interested in your product or service. Once you have the referrals, the sales process starts again with a new client.
It is important to have a sales process to follow. The sales process will help you to stay on track, keep focused and will allow you to break down each step you take that leads to the sale. Breaking the process down will allow you to make changes and adjustments in any of the stages where you might be able to improve. Reviewing your process and making necessary adjustments regularly will help you to avoid complacency in your activities and keep you on the path to continued success.
