I would like to start by reviewing some of the main points which have been covered in the previous lessons. These are:
Everyone is a salesperson: you are always selling yourself, your ideas or opinions.
The things that are important to you when you purchase an expensive item are the same things that are important to your potential customer.
Always remember, you can never take back your first impression.
A basic rule of salesmanship is that people buy with their emotions, and justify their purchase with logic.
Price is never based solely upon the amount of money that you think you want to spend, it is based upon the perceived value that you will get for your investment.
Your potential customers have to feel they are safe (no sense of danger) throughout the sales presentation.
This sense of well being will be caused by everything that they see and hear.
We can now turn our attention to the sales presentation. This presentation starts with the first contact with someone representing your company, and continues until the system has been installed and the last person is walking out the door. You might ask: "Why so long, I thought the presentation was over when the contract was signed?" You are partially correct. The sales transaction is over; however, there are a lot of other factors to consider.
First, there is always the three day "right of rescission" (or buyer's remorse) law, which gives the customer a chance to re-think their decision and to change their mind.
Second, you want your customer just as excited about their new security system when you finish the installation, as they were when they signed the contract. What would stop this from happening? A number of things, such as:
Your customer has a perceived standard of quality which was derived from everything they have seen and heard up until now. Unfortunately, when your installers arrive, they looked and acted like the three stooges!; or,
Your installers look acceptable, but they hooked up three infrared detectors and are unable to get any of them to work properly; or
The system works properly, but the installers left the house a mess, etc.
The best sales representative that you will ever have is a brand new customer. They are happy and proud of their new purchase, and they want to tell people about it. (Remember how you felt when you purchased your last item over $1,000?) Unfortunately, if anything negative happens from the time the contract is signed until the installation is completed, the customers enthusiasm to spread the word may be lost.
The Sales Presentation
Please remember, this is an article on the basic concepts of selling. Your presentation will be based upon your customer's actual needs and budget; however, all presentations are basically alike because of the factors involved. These start with who you are, which includes:
The initial introduction of yourself (and/or salesperson), and
The introduction of your company, which would include showing your license from the Bureau of Security and Investigations, (for California only), and explaining the license, including the background criminal investigation. This educates the customer and establishes you as a licensed professional which starts to build confidence in you, and
A statement of what you have to offer them (why you are there, or more correctly, what's in it for them).
Is this opening sequence really important? Yes!, it is. There is a general principal that states: "Even a brand new salesperson will be able to close 1 out of 10 sales presentations." That sounds encouraging; however, the new salesperson may have to talk to 100 people before someone will let them make a presentation. Whether or not you get to make the presentation may (and often time does) depend upon the potential customer's initial evaluation of you and/or your salesperson, and this may occur during the first few seconds.
When I was in submarine school in New London, Connecticut, I joined a company that sold very expensive waterless cookware. It was a "high ticket" item, especially for military families, and the presentation took a minimum of one hour to cover all of the points (which included the close). Every part of the presentation was critical to building value.
After I got out of the navy, I spent a few years in cable television marketing, and then became the Director of Operations for the first pay movie channel in California. The years I spent in this field gave me a wealth of experience, both from training of door-to-door salesman (including taking them all in the field to show them how it is done), and the many seminars that my company sent me to. Door-to-door selling would seem like a fate worse than death to some people, but it is a fantastic experience once you master the techniques.
The first thing we had to know was how to control the impact of the first appearance. When a person came to the door, there were a number of negative factors which immediately had to be overcome:
The person who came to the door was doing something when you rang the door bell, and you disturbed them, and
Usually when you are disturbed, you try to get rid of the disturbance as quickly as possible, and
The person definitely did not get up and go to the door to buy anything.
Based upon these factors, many psychological studies have been done in order to develop successful techniques for door-to-door salespeople. These studies were very interesting and determined two very important factors (laws). If you were to get inside the residence to give your presentation:
1)You have approximately 20 seconds to introduce yourself and your company, explain why you are there (why you disturbed them), what you want to do for them and how long it will take. This basically is one statement, and it must be given in a way that is totally non-threatening; and,
2)Usually what the potential customer sees and hears in the first 10 seconds will determine if they will open the door and let you in to give your presentation.
You are not under this type of immediate scrutinization, however the same factors apply, and by understanding more of how your potential customer perceives you, the more you will be able to control that perception in a way that will be beneficial to you.
