It is essential to have salespeople perform at the top of their game to keep revenues flowing as the sales process is happening more and more online.
The other day I was speaking with my bank account rep and she asked if I took credit cards for which I replied yes. She said they worked with another firm who were offering great deals now and would I be interested to learn more. I said yes and she had the sales rep call me.
When the rep called it sounded like she just wanted an order and did not seem to want to take the time to explain the offer. It seemed that because I was referred by my bank it would be a sure sale.
I thought about this call afterwards and realized how the sales rep did a poor job of selling.
Selling is not difficult; you just need to follow certain principles and steps. It is the job of the business owner or manager to make sure that salespeople are professionally trained and that their performance is managed and reviewed.
Principles of Sales
The basic principle of selling is first to qualify your prospect. Assuming the person is going to buy just because of your brand or market position is wrong.
Qualifying the prospect may mean different things to each company but you need to know what your qualification criteria is and train your salespeople on that. This also means what action to take when people qualify and when they do not.
Qualification Criteria
Here are some basic qualification criteria I use to know how to proceed with my prospect. The sales rep I spoke to seemed to be completely unaware of this.
- What is the concern, problem, or opportunity that the prospect has, and can my product or service solve that?
- Is this the right time to solve the problem or address the opportunity?
- Can the prospect afford our solution?
- Am I speaking with the decision-maker?
Asking Questions
To qualify the prospect according to the above criteria, the salesperson needs to ask questions. This is also how they can stay in control of the selling process. If the prospect is asking all the questions, then they are in control and you cannot properly qualify them to determine next steps or close the sale.
Of course, they might just decide to buy based on the answers provided but then if there is an objection that you do not know, you cannot decide what to do to continue selling.
Closing the Sale
If the prospect meets all the qualification criteria, then the salespeople only needs to ask for the order and treat any objections that the persona may have. A good rule of thumb is to ask as many as four times for the order. The worst that can happen is the person says no.
But when people do not buy when you ask and they meet all qualification criteria, then you ask more questions to find out what there concern is and then you ask to buy again, once you address the concern.
Need More Information
Sometimes the prospect meets 3 out of 4 of the qualification criteria and so the salesperson needs to know what to do to get them qualified. This may mean calling about at a better time due to other issues taking priority or perhaps getting to speak to the decision maker.
The salesperson needs to note down follow-up actions to take once they better understand what the situation is by asking more question.
As you can see asking questions and listening well is the most powerful skills salespeople need to learn to be more effective in filling the sales pipeline and closing sales.
It is the responsibility to the business owner or manager to ensure that salespeople receive adequate training and coaching and there is a way to measure their performance and give feedback.
If you see a need to address the performance of your salespeople decide what action you can take now and get it done.