In my previous blogs on The Selling Journey, I talked about the importance of having the right mindset, knowing your product, finding out what the clients’ needs are and how you can have a conversation around those needs.
Now it’s time to present your product.
By now, you have learned about your customer’s needs and you are preparing to make your pitch.
You will want to build on the questions you have already asked. Each question, and its answer, will help you clarify your customer’s problems.
Throughout the process, remember that you are not pushing a product; you are matching up the customer’s needs with the right advice, or the problem you can solve for them.
Before you begin to give your advice, you need to be absolutely clear with your customers that the product or service you are going to offer them is the right one.
Getting clear on this is often called qualification. I also call it checking in.
You can use a simple system to “check in” with clients to make sure the advice you are giving is what they need and want to hear.
Checking In
Step 1: After asking your clients several questions about what they want to know about your product or service, you check in.
This means you actually feed back to them your understanding of their problem.
Your queries may include questions like:
- “What you are telling me is?”
- “I understand that is what you are wanting? Is this correct?”
- “So, what you are asking me is?”
- “What you are wanting as a result of using this product is? Correct?”
- “If I understand you, is what you want to do? Yes?”
As you can see from the prompts above, you are clarifying before you give any advice. Checking in is really an extension of what we have been doing all along, which is asking lots of questions, finding out about a need, and getting clear on the problems and their solutions.
Now the conversation needs to lead to giving the right advice to move the sale forward.
The Presentation
This is where many salespeople fall down. They forget to qualify.
Salespeople tend to think that if a client walks in the door or phones to ask about their service, then this customer must want to buy. These days we know that our consumer is better informed than ever, so it is vital that you check in or qualify your client.
I have seen hundreds of salespeople waste their time simply because they did not ask qualifying questions.
They missed exactly what the client was wanting. We often assume we know what a person wants. Feeling confident, we launch into “sales spiel” mode.
The client hears it and thinks, “Here we go. I sense a salesperson here, and I am being sold.” they shut down, put their defenses up, stuff their wallet back in their pocket, and say things like, “thanks, I want to think it over.”
Then they’re gone. Qualify hard and do it early enough that the sale practically closes itself.
Qualifying a client early in the process makes the closing part super easy because the path has been so well groomed, that you expend little extra effort to travel the last mile. Try the check-in exercise at the end of this chapter to see what I mean.
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Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and in 11 languages generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions which include rugby, travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY ME!