Archive for January, 2017
How Sales Teams Should Approach Price Negotiations
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on January 31, 2017
Sales staff face many challenges en route to closing a deal, but one of the most difficult can be handling those tricky price negotiations. In many cases, a buyer will look to try and squeeze a discount out of a sales rep, forcing a negotiation to take place. So how should a sales team approach this?
Negotiate From the Beginning
Too many sales reps think of negotiation as something that takes place at the end of a sales process, after all of the other work has been done. In reality, your sales team needs to be negotiating throughout the process. However, early negotiation should be framed in terms of trying to find a mutually beneficial solution.
A common tactic from buyers is something known as ‘anchoring’, where they attempt to establish their own maximum price early. When this is attempted, sales reps should enquire as to how they arrived at that figure, and try to learn about the buyer’s needs. Ideally, sales staff should also be the first to state a figure.
Sell Value Rather Than Price
One of the best ways to improve negotiating is to sell value rather than price, and this should be emphasized in sales management training and become a part of the sales culture. Your product may be more expensive than a competitor’s because it is better. Selling value means staff can approach negotiations from a position of strength.
“The reality is, there are solutions customers will pay a premium for,” MHI Global writes in their document, The Problem With Price Discussions. “Ultimately, customers decide to buy from you because they believe you brought to the table something that has value to them that they can’t get elsewhere.”
Know When to Walk Away
Finally, a sales team should know that there will be times when a mutually beneficial solution cannot be reached. This is unfortunate, but staff should have a clearly defined breaking point and should not be afraid to walk away from sales opportunities that have no real potential.
Where possible, sales training should try to teach staff to recognize early warning signs that a negotiation will fail, so that as little time is wasted as possible. However, this can be difficult. The most important thing is to remember that other sales opportunities will exist if this one isn’t right for either party.
This Article was originally posted to the EyeOnSales Blog on December 2, 2016
Four Tips to Help You Connect With Those Hard-to-Reach Prospects
Posted by Rick Pranitis in MARKETING on January 25, 2017
Sometimes you just can’t seem to connect with that prospect you’ve been trying to reach. You call, you email, you try social media and it’s not working. Here are four quick tips that may give you hope.
Let me tell you a quick story. One of the sales people I was coaching last year was trying to get into a major retailer and called 42 times. I know the exact number because it became a game with him after the 5th or 6th try.
He had a place in his notebook where he put a check mark each time he called. He didn’t give up at 10 calls, kept going at 20 and finally on the 42nd call he reached the person that was in a position to review his product. The good news was the company not only showed interested in his product they became a customer. His persistence landed him a very large new account.
Here are three other proven methods for connecting
If you have a product that is typically reviewed by purchasing and you are having no luck talking to anyone in that department, then skip the buyer and go directly to someone in product management, operations or marketing. If they like the idea they can make the introduction to the buyer. “Fred you need to connect with Nick and take a serious look at this new product“.
If the person you are trying to reach has a company fax number listed on their website or product literature send them a fax. I have a client that uses faxes for lead generation regularly. Since no one is doing it anymore and most companies still have fax lines and fax machines it’s proven to be a great outbound lead generator for them. They are amazed at how well it’s working.
This is one on my favorites and I used it a lot when I was first starting out. I would send the person a Tim Horton’s gift certificate (it’s a Canadian thing) or other type of gift card in the mail.
The note with the gift card reads:
Hi Nick: It’s very difficult to schedule the time to have a coffee and talk about how _________ may be of value to (your company name) So instead of trying to set up a coffee meeting I’d like to buy you a coffee and give you a call (date, time) and speak to you for 5 minutes. Alternatively if you have a crazy busy phone schedule you can email me at _____________ and I will send you the information directly for your review”.
The coffee gift card is a very inexpensive sales tool and I landed some of my biggest accounts with this simple ice breaker.
Just remember that finding new customers can be one of the most difficult parts of building your business. Use a system, set aside time each day for prospecting and be persistent.
This article was originally posted to the Sales Compass Blog by Robert J. Weese on January 26, 2017.
-
You are currently browsing the archives for January, 2017
Follow On The Web!
