Back to Basics

SALES CALL STEPS

1. PRE-PLANNING: Know your customer, your product, and your competition, brush your teeth, and don't be late.

   The basics: You're prepared, you're cool.

2. DEVELOP RAPPORT: Earn the right to ask all those nosey questions you'll have to ask in the next step. How are you today? I just read about you in the Wall Street Journal. What do you think of their analysis? I just saved the world as we know it for the ABC Company and hope to contribute to your company's success as well. Can we talk about it?

   The basics: Greet, gain credibility, earn the right to go on.

3. DETERMINE OBJECTIVES: Ask probing, open-ended questions that lead to your customer's business objectives. Some customers may not have clearly defined objectives. Your questions can help the customer formulate the appropriate objectives. How do they compare with the industry's performance? What areas would they like to do better in? What areas are they doing great in? What do they think they need in order to be more competitive in their market? They must have some objectives you can help them with or you wouldn't have gotten this far.

   DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, talk about your product yet! Resist the urge. You are questioning and listening now, not pitching. You'll be more effective if you wait until customers have clearly communicated their requirements and what business objectives they are trying to achieve. Your product presentation will be much more focused and powerful if you can direct it to the items that are important to this customer.

   Throughout this process ask questions to qualify the situation. That is, what is their time frame? Have they set a budget for the project? Who will be making the decision? Should more people be met with to determine the objectives and hear the solution presented (when the time comes)? What alternatives besides your product have they considered? Oh, you've looked at Brand X. What did you like about them? What didn't you like about them? DON'T COMMENT, JUST LISTEN and take notes. In the next step you can gear the presentation of your solution to knock off the competition. Right now you're just gathering information and being a class act.

   The basics: Question, listen, summarize objectives, seek customer agreement to those objectives, and qualify (time, money, decision makers, competition).

4. PRESENT THE SOLUTION: At last! Isn't it nice to know that you will not waste your customer's time talking about things he doesn't really care about? You will be most appreciated for this thoughtfulness and efficiency. Points are stacking up on your side big time. Here's how it goes -- clear, clean, and classy:
   BRIEFLY, introduce your solution/product.

   Working down the list of objectives the customer has agreed to, describe the features that have benefits meeting each objective. You have them all at the tip of your tongue because you're so well prepared. Explain how each objective will be met by your features, then get a RESPONSE. Based on what you've just heard, can you see how your objective of improved productivity can be met? You're looking for Yes answers here. If you don't get them, ask open ended questions to understand the concern. Then try again. Continue down the list, objective, feature, benefit, response. This is the time to include features and benefits that outweigh the competition.

   Summarize, if it's been a long discussion, to remind your customer of all the Yes answers that have gone before.

   For example: Well, Jane, based on our discussion this morning, it is evident that using BB^x to develop your software will enable you to achieve all the objectives we identified and more. BB^x is the defacto standard in the Business BASIC world with over 800,000 installations worldwide. You said you needed to be able to reach more customers using a variety of platforms. BB^x provides portability across more than 30 platforms, including UNIX, DOS, Novell and Windows. In fact, this is one of the reasons Megabank chose BB^x for their Megabanker product. Do these platforms meet your requirements?

   The basics: Brief introduction of product, objective(benefit), feature, response, summary.

5. CLOSE: Don't be afraid to ask for the order. It's expected, especially after the customer has responded positively to your response questions in the previous step. Regardless, always confirm the next action step before bidding adieu.

Next time we will go into much more depth on the SKILLS of questioning, listening, and the black art of objection handling. In the meantime, take the initiative to learn more about your customer, product, and competition than ever before. Start using the sales call steps. Resist the urge to start talking about your product before you've listened to the customer and determined his or her objectives. Will your competitor go to all this trouble? Probably not. You'll have the edge!