CHAMPION STRATEGIS

Strategies for customer centered selling success

 

July 10, 2010                                                                                             Newsletter # 1510

 

Adding Value to Every Sales Engagement

In this pressurized, multi-tasking world, time is more precious than ever. Your guests, clients, and customers are feeling the pressure. They are expected to produce more in less time and don’t want to waste what free time they have left. Will you waste their time or bring value to it?

If you are to be successful in the world of professional engagement sales, you’ll need to create a reputation: time spent with you is worth the investment. Create that idea in their minds and you’ll find them generally willing to meet with you whether away from or at your dealership. In an economy where “too much to do and not enough time to do it” is the prevalent mind set, that reputation is a valuable asset and one worth cultivating.

But how to cultivate that skill? It starts with thoughtful preparation. As we prepare for a sales engagement, we so often think about what we want to accomplish and what we want to gain out of the sales engagement.

Lesson number one: Concentrate on what the customer wants to get out of the sales engagement. Here’s a mental trick to help you focus on that. Before every sales engagement, as you think about what you want to do, and which tools and materials you’ll need, take a moment and ask “What is the customer going to gain out of time spent with me?”

Lesson number two: Wasted time destroys business and personal relationships. You may be able to withstand one or two of those wasted engagements, but in the long run, it will keep you from getting repeat and referral opportunities.

If you are going to bring value to every guest every time, you’ll need to spend more time preparing to add value to every sales engagement by having something to talk about and educate them on that is valuable to them.

Lesson number three: Present something, every time. Using stories or examples of past clients as they used your product or service, you can:

  • Give them ideas to help in their buying decision.
  • Find ways to distinguish themselves from others in their market or industry.
  • Satisfy a personal pleasure point.
  • Teach how to reduce costs with your product or services over a specific rate of travel.
  • Bring good things to think about.
  • Help resolve a conflict or clear up some misinformation.
  • Simplify decisions by making information clear.
  • Present information that helps them solve one or more problems.
  • Move them closer to their buying objective.
  • Improve their opinion about themselves or their businesses as they use your product or service.
  • Present ideas that will help them cut their costs, increase revenues, save time, make them look good, and help them make their job or personal routine easier.

Plus, they get to spend time with your charming and entertaining personality. Remember, buyers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. So, what is the customer going to gain out of time spent with you? If you can’t name anything, then you can safely assume that the time they spend with you in that sales engagement will be a waste of their time.

Lesson number four: Ask something on every sales engagement. And I don’t mean “What do you think of the weather today?” Ask a question that causes the prospect/customer to:

  • Think about their job, business, or personal space in some different way.
  • Consider something that they have probably not thought of before.
  • Clarify values, goals, objectives, or strategies.

In his book Question Your Way to Sales Success, David Kahle makes the point that the ultimate power of a good question is that it causes the other person to think. The thinking process that results is the value a customer may receive from the time spent with you. The purpose of the question is not for you to gain information, rather, it is to direct the customer to think about some things in different ways so that the customer receives a valuable insight.

If you take time to prepare your presentation and questions for each sales engagement, more times than not you will be perceived as bringing value to the guest. Over time, he’ll be more and more willing to meet with you. That reputation will be one of your greatest strengths in the marketplace. Remember, before you invade someone’s personal space to engage in a sales opportunity, ask yourself, “Am I wasting their time or have I added value to their life?”

Make It A Champion Day!

“SALES TRAINING MATTERS”