by Bill Cherry
Selling Secrets Part One:
The Will to Prepare:
Over the last 25 years I have been a sales person, a sales manager, a director of sales and marketing. During that time I taught many sales people and there was one thing all of the successful sales people did; prepare well for the customer. It’s been said that the will to win, wins football games, but a famous football coach once said, “It’s the will to prepare that wins games.”
Most businesses across the U.S. have sales people. Some have a few, some have a lot, some female and some male. The one thing most of them have in common is that they are poorly prepared or not even prepared at all to call on a prospective customer.
Since most managers or owners of businesses did not learn to sell, they don’t know how to teach it to their sales staff. The blind leading the blind. The first job I had out of the university was selling advertising for an AM/FM radio station. The stations had four sales people. The general manager gave me a list of inactive clients and a list of clients he wanted but had no realistic chance of getting. “Go get’em” he said. No training about what to say, what to do, what to sell…nothing. I got in my car and drove to Main Street where I got out and started visiting the various businesses. When I told them I was from KDYL-FM they ate me alive. After a few hours of that I felt beat up and defeated. Not a good way to start a new career.
Unfortunately that story happens too often across our country. No wonder the sales profession has such a high failure and turn over rate. Good sales training doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive.
It all starts with knowing your products or services.
“Does it save money? Does it run on gas? Does it cost a lot? Does it turn itself on and off? Does it come in red? Will it wash my car?” How well do you know your products or services? Chances are not very well.
I coach some students who what help with their MLM business. As I talk with them I ask about their products. In most cases they don’t know very much, in fact almost nothing. No wonder so many fail.
In the 1980s I worked in Fort Worth, Texas selling life insurance. Every day I got questions I didn’t know the answers to. “Do I have to have a physical to renew the policy? Who gets the money if my wife, kids and I are killed at the same time? Can I take out a policy on my girl friend?” If I had been trained I would have known the answers to all those questions and could have used them to sell more insurance.
Why should they buy from you?
Do you know why customers buy from you? If you are not clear about it think about it. So many products are similar, in fact often you are selling the same product your competitor sells. Why should a customer buy from you?
The magic 12
Make a list of 12 good reasons a prospect should buy from you. It will be difficult to find 12. If you don’t have 12 reasons for your prospects to buy you are not prepared. Now here’s the deal; after creating your list memorize them…all 12. Right, that’s hard to do. The super stars do what the others will not. They pay the price. They have the will to prepare.
I have done this at every sales position I’ve held since I received 8 weeks of sales training in the 1980s. When you memorize the list of 12, you are a thousand percent more confident than you every were before. In addition to being amazingly prepared, you will impress every prospect you sell. But the real benefit is the increase in confidence you will have. If you had call reluctance before, it will be reduced dramatically when you memorize the 12 reasons to buy. Don’t cheat. Memorize them all, word for word. After you memorize them word for word, then you can say them in your own words. There is great power in the magic 12.
Benefits and Features
I have spent over 25 years working in all kinds of advertising and marketing. I have written many radio and TV ads, lot’s of print ads like newspaper and magazine, and other media like billboards, direct mail and more. One of the biggest mistakes many creative advertising people make when writing ads is they focus on the features of the product or business rather than the benefits.
People don’t want the product being advertised. They want what the product will do for them. The carpenter who needs a new ¼” drill bit doesn’t want the bit, he wants ¼” holes. When selling a product or a service focus on the benefit the product will provide for the customer.
Objections strike fear into the heart of sales people.
This is another one of those challenges sales people hate. Why? Because they haven’t prepared for them. They are afraid everyone will learn how poor their selling skills are.
In almost any sales meeting you visit on a Monday morning what you won’t see is roll playing. Just mention that “we are going to roll play handling objections,” and watch the sales people’s eyes glaze over in fear.
Have your sales team roll play at every sales meeting. Make it a positive experience. Never criticize. Always praise and encourage. Over time everyone will get better and better, and so will your sales.
Handling objections is where the rubber meets the road in selling. All sales groups should spend a lot of time each sales meeting roll playing, roll playing, roll playing. It’s powerful.
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