I like to say that marketing can be summed up as, “Ask your market what they want and give it to them.”
I think that good sales can be conducted in the same way. Many of us have been to training or seminars that taught us to get our prospects to tell us why they’re saying ‘no’ so that we can help them overcome this block, or objection. Keep pushing, keep prodding, until they finally break.
Ugh!
The key to making a successful sale is to create a win-win situation. How do you do that? Easy.
Ask your prospect what they want and then offer it to them. A while back, when I was doing sales, I was asked to land a key account. ‘Asked’ in the form of an order, really. I was coached how to close a deal, how important this was, etc. etc. etc. I decided, rather than using the ‘close the deal’ method, that I would use two separate meetings on this one. First, I would sit down with this prospect and listen — find out what was really important to him. Second, I would go back to my office (or, in this case the hotel in Vegas), and put together an offer that was tailored to what this guy wanted. And that’s what I did.
Do you know what he wanted? He wanted to be #1 in his market. Recognition. He wanted to be recognized. Easy. I offered him the opportunity to be #1 instantly by carrying all of our products, and I offered him a title to be recognized by: ‘Elite.’ He would be our only ‘Elite’ dealer in Vegas. I offered what he wanted and he signed on. Win win. I shut up and listened, then made a good offer.
Rather than think of selling as an exercise to negotiate and win a deal, start thinking of the win-win component. Get to know your prospect and start making offers that make sense for both of you. A funny thing, but in the process, you’ll also start to weed out those prospects that would have made for bad customers. Even more win-win!
Where Should I Go Now?
Main Blog Page
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I think that good sales can be conducted in the same way. Many of us have been to training or seminars that taught us to get our prospects to tell us why they’re saying ‘no’ so that we can help them overcome this block, or objection. Keep pushing, keep prodding, until they finally break.
Ugh!
The key to making a successful sale is to create a win-win situation. How do you do that? Easy.
Ask your prospect what they want and then offer it to them. A while back, when I was doing sales, I was asked to land a key account. ‘Asked’ in the form of an order, really. I was coached how to close a deal, how important this was, etc. etc. etc. I decided, rather than using the ‘close the deal’ method, that I would use two separate meetings on this one. First, I would sit down with this prospect and listen — find out what was really important to him. Second, I would go back to my office (or, in this case the hotel in Vegas), and put together an offer that was tailored to what this guy wanted. And that’s what I did.
Do you know what he wanted? He wanted to be #1 in his market. Recognition. He wanted to be recognized. Easy. I offered him the opportunity to be #1 instantly by carrying all of our products, and I offered him a title to be recognized by: ‘Elite.’ He would be our only ‘Elite’ dealer in Vegas. I offered what he wanted and he signed on. Win win. I shut up and listened, then made a good offer.
Rather than think of selling as an exercise to negotiate and win a deal, start thinking of the win-win component. Get to know your prospect and start making offers that make sense for both of you. A funny thing, but in the process, you’ll also start to weed out those prospects that would have made for bad customers. Even more win-win!
Where Should I Go Now?
Main Blog Page
Become A Business Coach like Stuart
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