CLOSING THE SALE
This is the part that most salespeople dread....asking for the money. What is the best way to do this? Sunrise!, you have already accomplished the hard part: the presentation. From your initial introduction to the prospect, to your presentation of the proposals and drawings, everything that you have done was to build desire for your system and to instill confidence in you and your company to be the one to install it. One basic rule to remember is:
IF PEOPLE WANT SOMETHING BAD ENOUGH,THEY WILL FIND A WAY TO GET IT!
Do you remember the example I used in the first Basic Salesmanship lesson? I had an immediate need for $500 and you only had $20.00 with you. I showed you a Rolex watch that my father had left to me. It had diamonds on it, and I had the original receipt which shows the purchase price was $2,500. How fast would it have taken you get $480 more to purchase the watch?
The purpose of the presentation is to educate, and to build value while doing so. At the end of your presentation, your potential customer should know that:
You are a professional, and
Your company is fully capable of installing a quality system which will meet all of their needs, and
The system is guaranteed, and will have routine scheduled maintenance, and
The system will protect their lives and property, and someone will be monitoring their system 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
If they know this, they will want the system, and the only thing left is to tell them how quickly the system can be installed and how the payment will be made. The rule here is to have as many types of payment available as possible (which includes credit cards).
If there is an objection, the first thing to do is to understand exactly what the objection is. By asking questions you can determine exactly what the objection is, and then overcome it by going back to the part of the presentation which addressed that subject. If there is an objection about something that was not covered in your presentation, then you have to address it as best as you can.
The best way to do this is to address the features and benefits that your system offers. And, later on, you can change your presentation so that it will address that situation the next time that you give it. Objections are great indicators to show the things that were left out of your presentation, or the things that were not covered properly so the customer did not understand the features or the benefits. A good salesperson will always reflect on their last sale and determine things that can be changed or added for their next presentation. In about one year of doing this, your presentation should be perfected to the point that it covers every feature and benefit of your installation and service, and includes sections that have been designed to overcome the majority of objections that you have encountered. The success for you presentation will be determined by your closing rate.
I found out the hard way how important the presentation is through experience. When I was selling waterless cookware at 19 (while in submarine school) we had a sales meeting twice a week. The motivation was terrific! However, there was one rule at the sales meetings that kept everyone sharp: the last five people that arrived had to give one of the five parts of the presentation to the rest of the salespeople (talk about a hard audience!). While you were doing your best to look and act professional, your audience would be continuously forming opinions about what the saw and heard (e.g., "you do not sound very sincere, you do not look enthusiastic, your not very sure of yourself", etc.). It was a very frightening experience at first, but it sure motivated you to learn the presentation (not only learn it, but to know it well enough to be able to deliver it with confidence and sincerity, even to your peers). By the time that I was able to do this, my closing rate had tripled!
About ten years later, I began selling motivational courses. My sales increased to a certain point, and then leveled off. I had an opportunity to meet a sales trainer who had been the best vacuum cleaner salesman in the nation. When I was alone with him, I asked him if he could give me some tips on increasing my sales. Instead of giving me the "magic phrases", he sat down and told me to give him my complete sales presentation. I was not prepared to do this, since I basically made it up as I went along. When I told him that I did not have a prepared presentation, and he told me to prepare one and learn it well enough to give it confidently and professionally at a moment's notice. After I had done this, he would listen to my presentation and give me some advice. Then he added: If you are prepared to give a complete presentation at a moment's notice, you will not have time to come to me for advice because you will be to busy making sales. When I developed a complete presentation, based upon my prior training, I was so busy selling that I never got a chance to go back to him.
When do you give up?
According to Jim Obermayer, Vice President of Sales for Inquiry Handling Service, Inc., you never give up. Jim has three sales secrets that successful salespeople try to hide. Visit Inquiry Handling Service Inc. Web Site
These are:
45% of all leads turn into a sale for someone.
Within one year 45% of all leads that you receive will turn into a sale for you or your competitor. 22%-25% will convert within the first six months.
Great salespeople follow up every sales lead until the prospect buys or dies.
Great salespeople don't give up. They call and call until the prospect answers. They visit, write and follow up until the person says that they bought another product, or they are no longer in the market (they have literally or figuratively died).
The older the lead, the less the competition.
When the lead is six months old, there is a 50% chance that the decision is still pending. At nine months you still have a 25% chance of making the sale.
Some of Jim's other facts are:
76% of the people who inquire intend to buy.
40% of the time your prospect does not call your competitor.
More than 50% of sales leads are not followed up. Some research indicates that number could be as high as 87.5%.
The odds are always with the salesperson who continues to work the prospect when others give up.
