This is a more in depth look at my WINNING SALES FORMULA, as posted previously where I broke down 3 keys to converting prospects into sales.
1) Bring Down The Walls (& Pre-suade)
There are a lot of different ways to “bring down the walls” when sitting with a prospect. I can for sure say with absolute confidence, this is arguably the most important step in the sales process. If you aren’t able to establish a relationship of trust and comfort with your client first, all of the following steps are going to be a struggle. Here are some techniques that I use in order to bring down the walls:
- Establish yourself as a value provider, NOT a salesman
- Personality mirroring
- Find common ground
- Pre-suasion*
*The act of pre-suasion means to plant certain ideas in the head of your prospect in order to open up and condition their mind for your later offer (we will DEFINITELY go over this more in depth in another post).
2) Identify/Inform the Need (& Qualify)
This is your chance to inform or identify the needs of your client, in order to make the best case for your offer (or choose your offer as well). Be sure to ask them questions and be observant to determine where your offer will fit into their lives. As you become more experienced, you will start to determine a primary, secondary and tertiary need (you can use these in the upsell phase). Here are some techniques I use for presenting the need:
- Question the clients past decisions
- Talk about common struggles facing their demographic at large
- Ask about what’s important to your client
- Ask about relevant information (to your offer), respectfully (e.g. their line of work, family status, health, and subtly inquire about other options that they might already have that could deter them from your offer)
Whilst you ask and inform your client, also be sure to keep track of whether or not they qualify for your offer. Sometimes their past product decisions will reveal that they couldn’t qualify for other options.
3) Fulfill the Primary Need (& Close/Manage Objections)
Now’s your chance to shine! You’ve asked the right questions. You’ve built report. It’s time to make your offer. Present your offer however you wish, but here are some tips for ya:
- Put the aspects of your offer into real life context (e.g. if you are selling insurance, provide a story of how the policy could be used – whether it’s real or hypothetical)
- Ask questions for easy “yes” answers throughout the presentation
It’s also time to CLOSE! One of the most important aspects of sales. For the love of your future, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO CLOSE. We’ll go over a number of different closing techniques and objection managing techniques in a later post as well. REMEMBER. An objection is not always a no. The most successful closers on the planet, ask for the close multiple times (up to 5 according to research). If you’ve built report effectively, you can be a bit more free when managing objections and asking for the close.
4) Upsell Secondary Needs (& Close/Manage Objections)
Once you’ve secured your first offer, now’s your chance to MAXIMIZE your opportunity. You’ve taken care of the primary needs, so now you can make an offer to support their secondary and tertiary needs. Don’t forget, you don’t know that they’ll say no until you ask. So GO FOR IT! Once again, if you have great report, than don’t be afraid to make another offer*
I always recommend to make your primary offer the most expensive, for two reasons:
- It’s easier to upsell cheaper products on top of a higher ticket one
- If the primary offer is out of their budget, and you can’t overcome the objection, than you can offer these as alternatives (referred to as “pivoting”)
5) Ask for Referral
Referrals are an incredible and efficient way to build your client base. Prospects are MUCH more likely to purchase from you if they know someone who has as well. It’s a great way to preemptively build trust with potential clients. Once again, don’t be afraid to ask. If a client is happy with the value you’ve provided them, than they’d be happy to recommend you! This is another reason why you should establish yourself as a value provider, and BUILD RAPORT!!
6) Leave the Door Open
Always leave an option on the table for discussion in the future. If you were unable to close on the secondary and tertiary offers, than these are what you can leave on the table for a future sale. Some clients have a comfort when it comes to what they’d like to spend in one shot. If you are unable to overcome it, than don’t be too pushy, simply leave it for another time. This will also save you from repeating the entire process of identifying needs in the future (although to be fair, needs can change over time).
Conclusion
This is a general order of operations that anyone can follow in any industry to make sales. Great sales people are very authentic, so be sure to make it your own. I derived this process from reflecting on my own natural tendencies when in the field, and this is how I would teach it to my team. As mentioned above, I will be diving into each one of these steps in the future, providing insights and techniques for bringing down the walls, managing objections and closing!
Until next time y’all!
What’s YOUR sales process? Any tips? COMMENT down below!