Selling skills
By Sean McPheat
The Best Close is a Great Open
You can avoid objections, establish credibility and eliminate your competition just by the way you open the sales process with a potential customer. Creating a good first impression is one thing. However, setting up the close during the very first contact with the prospect, is taking it to another level!
Better, Quicker, Faster
How do you develop an opening that sets you apart from the competition and exceeds the prospect’s expectations?
Find out what your competition does to open their sales process---and do better.
Beginning from the first contact with potential customers, you must out-deliver the competition. A good example is how you respond to inquires from your web site. Though many companies spend fortunes to drive more traffic to their web sites, few spend as much money and time on how to handle inquires from that traffic. Find out exactly how your competition opens their sales process, starting from how they handle a web request for more information—and do a better job.
Your competition’s (and perhaps your) opening to most prospective customers may look something like this:
- Prospect has a need.
- Prospect begins investigating by entering key words in a search engine.
- Finds several sites of companies that may satisfy the need and begins to visit those sites.
- At site, prospect submits form requesting “more information”
- Instantly receives an automated “we got your message” response.
- Prospect then waits days or weeks before receiving a live response.
- Such response comes in the form of a generic email that contains the same information that was on the website and nothing directly addressing the prospect’s questions and
- The email requests more contact details from the prospect before offering any answers
- Prospect then gets a telephone call from a sales person who begins to SELL and still does not exactly address the prospect’s concerns.
Upgrade your opening contact with the prospective customer to something more like this: With the first three steps the same as above…
4. Prospect submits form for more information and
5. Within ten minutes receives an email from a live sales professional, auto-responder
6. The email is not a generic mailer, but a customised piece that specifically addresses the prospect’s concerns and
7. The email offered new information and educated the prospect more about their problem
8. The email actually gave the prospect some FREE advice without demanding anything in return
9. Prospect then receives a telephone call (also within a few more minutes) from a sales professional who begins to help the prospect, offering more information directly relating to the prospect’s need
With an opening so much more effective than your competition’s, you will have eliminated them from the equation, established your company as the industry leader, practically eliminated price objections, and essentially closed the sale—before you even begin.
Sean McPheat is the managing director and founder of MTD Sales Training. MTD Have trained over 30,000 staff worldwide. Sean is a bestselling author and is regarded as a leading authority in the world of selling and has been featured on CNN, BBC, and ITV. Sign up to receive his free weekly tips at www.mtdsalestraining.com.
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