How Does a Sale Unfold - Ch 3 How You Make the Sale Series at Catch a Gideon

January 26th, 2007 by digerati

This is Chapter 3 of the [How You Make the Sale] Series. This chapter is titled “How Does a Sale Unfold.” It is about the sales process from the salesperson perspective. Chapter 2 was an overview of the process from the customer’s perspective.

Here are the steps of the Sales Process:

* Research prior to sale.
* How does the product compare to my competitors?
* How do customers use my product?

* What problems (real or perceived) does my product solve?
* Know the features and benefits of the product.
* Meet and Greet. Build rapport and get the customer to bring you into their problem solving process.
* Discovery. Learn what problem the customer wants to solve. Determine the purchase criteria that will drive the sale. Fully understand the customers problem and what it will take the solve that problem. Name the problem - you can’t solve a problem you can’t name.
* Features and Benefits. Bridge from the features of the product to how those features will benefit the customer. Basically, how does a feature solve the customer’s problem. Talk only to the customer’s problem and its solution. Nothing else about the product matters.
* Making the case / presenting the solution. Present the solution to the problem. Then use a trial close to flush out objections. Generally make the case that your product can solve the customer’s problem better than any other product.
* Deal with resistence. Customer’s need to be sure the solution will solve their problem. Respond to any objections. Objections rarely mean “no,” but usually mean “tell me more.”
* Close. Ask to complete the sale. If all has gone well, this is the easiest step.
* Follow up. Don’t lose the customer after the sale. Find out what other problems they have that you may be able to solve.

Some things to consider:

Scripting doesn’t work. The customer will respond to your first comment, and your second comment must respond to his comment.
Sales: “hi, i’m bob”
Customer: “hi bob, what time is it?”
Sales (script) “I’m from Widgets are us, would you like to buy a widget?”

This totally lame example shows why scripts don’t work. You need to create a mini relationship with the customer during every sale. The rapport is what allows you to setup the best solution for the customer. Mr. Covey calls this Win-Win.

If you skip steps in the sales process, you’ll miss the sale.

You earn the right to move to the next step of the process after completing all the work in the current step. If you aren’t sure if you’re done with a step, ask the customer, they know where they are in the sales process.

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How You Make the Sale is an excellent book for entrepreneurs or those who will be dealing directly with customers for their companies.

How You Make the Sale Series page contains all chapters in the book.