You can avoid objections, establish credibility and eliminate your competition just by the way you open the sales process with a potential customer in sales jobs. Creating a good first impression is one thing, but setting up the close during the very first contact with the prospect, is taking it to another level!
So 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 inquiries from your website. Though many companies spend fortunes to drive more traffic to their websites, 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:
1. Customer has a need.
2. Prospect begins investigating by entering key words in a search engine.
3. Finds several sites of companies that may satisfy their need and begins to visit those sites.
4. At the site, they submit a form requesting “more information” .
5. They instantly receive an automated “we got your message” response.
6. Customer then waits days or weeks before receiving a live response.
7. Such response comes in the form of a generic email that contains the same information that was on the web site and nothing directly addressing the prospect’s questions.
8. The email requests more contact details from them before offering any answers
9. They then get a telephone call from a sales person who begins to sell and still does not exactly address their concerns.
Time for an upgrade
You need to 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 .
5. Within ten minutes receives an email from a live sales professional, auto-responder.
6. The email is not a generic mailer, but a customized piece that specifically addresses the prospect’s concerns.
7. The email offered new information and educated them 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 their needs.
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 regarded as a leading authority in the world of selling and has been featured on CNN, BBC, and ITV. Check his free weekly tips and his MTD sales blog for more advice.
