As a salesperson, I prefer informed buyers over uninformed buyers for the very reason that an informed buyer can make a decision and can be handled with logic, while the uninformed buyer cannot make a decision and tends to get emotional. When facts, data, and logic are missing, people get emotional, and when people get emotional, they can get irrational. It’s okay to sell with emotion, but you want to close with logic, data, and facts. An informed professional buyer is much easier to sell than one who is not informed. Someone who is not informed about the product will make an offer that has no reality to it. That would be an emotional offer, not a logical one. I want logic and facts in the close, not emotions. So I keep people logical by providing them with credible validation they can trust.
TIPS ON USING WRITTEN AND VISUAL INFORMATION TO CLOSE
Never sell with words. Always show documentation.
Never negotiate with words. Write your negotiations down on paper.
Never ask for the close with words. Use a buyer’s order.
Never make verbal promises. Put all of your assurances in writing.
The more data you provide, the better. Don’t be afraid to use a lot of data.
Keep your information current.
Have your written information available and easy to access.
Use third-party data as much as possible.
The more you’re able to access the data in real time, the better. Real-time data are preferable to prepared data.
Use computer-generated data whenever possible.
Have Internet access available so you can pull the data up in front of the customer and he can see that it hasn’t been contrived or manipulated.
Make it easy for the buyers to do research while they’re with you instead of at home or at their offices when you can’t be there. If the buyers want to look up their own information or research, encourage them to do so.
After consulting with thousands of companies on improving their sales processes, I’ve often encouraged business, management, and salespeople to make all competitive advertising available and fully displayed in their offices so that the buyers don’t have to go out and look at what the competition is offering; instead, they can do so without leaving.
HELP ’EM BELIEVE YOU
People want to believe you, but you have to help them. If you have a good product and a good service, then do everything you can to build your case and do it with written information. That way the buyer doesn’t have to trust you. Once buyers read that what you’re saying is so, they have no choice but to believe you.
I was involved in selling a 144-unit condo project that I owned, and the onsite management was having trouble selling the units. I decided to visit the building and find out what was going on. I walked into the office and asked them to run me through the process like I was a prospect. I found that there was no place to sign in and the pricing wasn’t available because the pricing sheets were kept in another office. They weren’t able to quote me a payment and finance rates and there were no data available to explain what the product offered. There was no competitive pricing displayed and there was nothing to offset the bad news about the neighborhood in the local newspapers.
I fired the project managers, installed a new group of inexperienced but eager people, and made sure that they had everything available for the sales team and prospects to look at. We sold thirty units in three months. That was three times the sales that the previous people had made in a year.
Some people distrust the selling profession because of the actions of a few criminals and the inactions of many well-intentioned salespeople who don’t understand this basic rule of selling: People believe what they see, not what they hear. So show them, don’t tell them!
CHAPTER TEN QUESTIONS
List three reasons people don’t trust salespeople as suggested by the author.
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Whose problem is it to handle the customer’s distrust?
When your prospect doesn’t fully trust the salesperson or the presentation, what will he add to the cycle?
Give an example of when you didn’t trust either the salesperson or the presentation and added time to the decision.
What is one of the most valuable assets of a salesperson?
The author suggests that people believe what they see, not what they hear. Explain.
What are four ways the author suggests building trust?
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4.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
GIVE, GIVE, GIVE
THE MAGIC OF GIVE, GIVE, GIVE
Selling is the act of giving, not getting; serving, not selling. Unfortunately, most people in sales are looking for their commission and what they’re going to get out of the deal rather than what they’re going to give, what their product really offers, and how the client will benefit. The old adage is that it’s better to give than to receive, but in selling, the only way to receive is to give first.