HOW TO SELL FACE-TO-FACE: SURVIVAL GUIDE, a to-the-point sales how-to handbook, based largely on a consultative selling approach, especially for people getting
started in face-to-face sales, or marketing their skills or services as consultants, free-agents, career-changers,
or in new business start-ups. 6×9, 125 pages. ISBN:
0-9768406-2-6.
Available in both paper ($9.95) and e-book ($2.99) versions via Amazon. (A free Kindle reader is available at the Amazon site. Also, it can be read on other types of readers, including iPad, IPhone, and Blackberries via free Apps that are available from this Amazon site.)
UPDATE: HOW TO SELL FACE-TO-FACE: SURVIVAL GUIDE IS NOW ALSO AVAILABLE ON KOBO. KOBO is "device neutral" — which is a techie way of saying that if you buy via KOBO you can read it on your PC, MAC, iBook, IPad, etc. etc. KOBO provides free readers/adapters. Here's the link to Kobo's version of HOW TO SELL FACE-TO-FACE: SURVIVAL GUIDE .
KOBO, in case you haven't heard of it, links with Borders— which I'm sure you have heard of.
BARGAIN! BARGAIN! BARGAIN!
At this point, the e-book of HOW TO SELL FACE-TO-FACE: SURVIVAL GUIDE is a smidgen cheaper via Kobo than via Amazon/Kindle. ($1.79 versus $2.99.)
The five-step model approach in responding to objections and questions: Explore, Listen Well, Restate (if appropriate), Respond, then Move on.
1. Explore. Ask questions to get the person talking about what they really mean by the objection, and why it's important to them. (Why do you feel that way? will do if nothing better comes to mind.)
2. Listen well to their response. You may have heard this objection a dozen times already this week, but this person may put a different twist on it. Don't be too quick in cutting off the Prospect's response in order to interject your response. The more you know about the Prospect's needs and mindset the better you can target your response. Sometimes, the Prospect will actually respond to her own concern, and say something like, Never mind, I think I've answered myself. That's really not so important, after all.
3. Restate, if appropriate. In many cases, it can be helpful to both yourself and the Prospect to paraphrase your understanding of the core of the Prospect's response. For one thing, it forces you to listen closely, so you can restate it clearly. Second, it forces the Prospect to listen to you in turn, to ensure that your restatement is accurate. Further, in some cases, by restating, you may be able to defuse, or take the edge off, the customer's concern. 4. Respond to what they have actually said. There may be a deeper meaning behind the objection, so focus on that. Example
“You say that your firm has already tried using consultants, and isn't interested. But I'm picking up a deeper message that your dissatisfaction was with the work of one particular consulting firm that didn't work out for you. I'd like to explain how . . .”
5. Move on from there; don't get bogged down in your response. Respond to the objection, then go on with your sales call.
If you say too much in response to an objection, you may blow it up into something larger and more significant than the Prospect originally had in mind. If you bog down on it, repeating and elaborating your reaction, the Prospect will think this really must be a major concern, and take that as a reason not to buy.
Conversely, if you treat the objection as a small issue not very important, you are send the subliminal message is that it is just that— minor, not a significant concern, not an issue that could possibly stop the sale.
The content in this post has been adapted from my books, How to Sell Face to Face: Survival Guide, and Selling 101. They are available in various e-book and paper editions; see below:
Survival Guide:Order e-book as Amazon Kindle (Amazon offers free apps that enable you to read it on your PC, Apple I-pad, I-pod, Blackberry, and others)
Selling 101 (third edition): Order e-book as Amazon Kindle (Amazon offers free apps that enable you to read it on your PC, Apple I-pad, I-pod, Blackberry, and others)
"COLD CALL SALES AND PROSPECTING CHECKLIST: 14 PRACTICAL STRATEGIES WHEN COLD-COLD CALLING" which had been here in four parts is now a short E-book, available via Amazon.
You can read it on a Kindle, or in various other E-reader formats, including your PC. Amazon offfers free apps to enable you to do that.
Objections and questions as buying signals — cues that the prospect is ready to buy, or at the very least, nearly ready.
Sometimes, when you look through a prospect's question, or even what appears to be an objection, you find that they are subconsciously signaling their readiness to buy.
For example, you may encounter the question, "How soon could you install?"
"COLD CALL SALES AND PROSPECTING CHECKLIST: 14 PRACTICAL STRATEGIES WHEN COLD-COLD CALLING" which had been here in four parts is now a short E-book, available via Amazon.
You can read it on a Kindle, or in various other E-reader formats, including your PC. Amazon offfers free apps to enable you to do that.
Some questions and objections are so easy that you can safely respond to them
quickly and directly, and move on.
For our meaning here, that kind of "easy" question or objection is in an area
in which your product or service is strong, or that raise issues that you can
handle quickly without raising secondary concerns.
For example, if the objection relates to a misunderstanding on price that you
can set right by pointing to a catalog, do that and move on:
"The answer is yes, we do guarantee our installations for three years, the
longest in the industry, according to this survey in Industry Times which I'll
leave with you. Now, moving on to the issue of . . ."
You’ll find here free sales training articles and tutorials, checklists and sales tips, as well as links to our sales training books — all focused on Selling Face to Face.
The free sales training articles and tutorials here are adapted from the courses and workshops I developed on contract for the “sales universities” of world-class marketing companies such as Xerox in the United States and abroad, Kodak, Motorola, Sylvania, Bank of America, and others . . . as filtered through my own experience in marketing consulting services.
The aim is to provide practical sales training across the spectrum from beginners (starting up new businesses, or making career changes) to experienced sales people looking for fresh approaches, or hoping to gain the kind of professional selling skills they would have developed as attendees in big company sales training programs.
In the free sales training articles here, and in the related books, we cover topics including,
Finding and getting through to sales prospects
Telephone etiquette in getting past screens
Sales cold calling: when, when not, and how
Consultative selling— selling by asking smart questions
Helping sales prospects become more aware of the value of filling needs
Ways of closing sales
Handling objections, questions, and hesitations.
The how-to of Sales presentations and demonstrations
As you make cold calls (whether by phone or in person), on these initial prospecting sweeps for leads and information, your tone should be that of a conversation, not an interrogation. Be friendly. Don't put them on the spot with a barrage of questions.
If someone you meet during these calls is reluctant to talk, it could be that they are only a temporary employee and doesn't want to admit it. Or it may be that they don't want to give away too much information without knowing why you're there, and what you're going to do with this information