One of the key roles of a business owner is to be the chief salesperson for the business itself, and in many instances this role also includes being the chief salesperson to the largest and most important customers.
Some business owners are very competent in one or both of these sales roles, but for many who do not have sales or marketing backgrounds, and even some who do, the necessity for them to perform these roles can often be quite challenging, and they often find that the efforts that they do put in, deliver less than optimal results.
Regardless of their backgrounds, all business owners can improve their sales performance if they remember the old adage “God gave you two ears and only one mouth, use them in that proportion, if you wish to be successful”.
When you are in front of a prospective customer or client for the first time, how much air time do you give to them? If the ration is not at least 70% of the time you spend with them, you are more than likely talking yourself out of a lot of new business.
How often do you interrupt your prospective customer or client during an average first interaction? Any interruption is a bad mistake. Apart from being seen as rude behaviour, the chances are high that you will not discover a key piece of information, which could help you win the business.
If a prospective customer or client says something you disagree with strongly, are you able to hold off countering with an argument before they have fully expressed their views? If you can't, you will establish the climate for multiple objections to your offering, as well as perhaps missing a hot button or two that you could later push to win the business.
Do you constantly intersperse your presentations with personal stories? Whilst personalising your presentation and building rapport in the initial phase of the first meeting is good form, constant story telling throughout a presentation wastes time, and can easily divert the dialogue away from the business at hand.
Are you a great finisher of other people's sentences? If you are, you will frustrate your prospective customer or client who will see you as a rude, unlikeable person with whom they will not want to do business on a long term basis. You will also be more often wrong than right in your assumptions, as to what they were about to say.
Do you clearly convey to your prospective customer or client your impatience for them to finish speaking so that you can make your point? This is a deadly habit as your prospect knows you are not listening to anything they are saying to you while you are rehearsing in your mind your response to what they said at an earlier point in their dialogue.
Whilst not regularly acknowledged, your eyes are also a tool to enhance communication and you need to be careful that yours don’t bore into your prospective customer or clients eyes like laser beams on full and continuous power. It is easy to overdo eye contact, and this will create tension in the person being subjected to such scrutiny, and this tension will usually block effective communication.
If you improve your listening skills in each of the above areas you will remove a significant barrier between yourself and your potential customers or clients thereby allowing you to more easily establish constructive relationships, which in turn will lead to far more successful business outcomes.
How many of these common listening mistakes are you currently making by force of habit?
When did you last do any training to improve your listening skills?
If you were to remove these listening mistakes completely from your sales presentations, what effect would that have on your closing ratios for new business, and what would this mean in terms of additional revenue for your business?
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About Me
- Daniel Watson
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Born in the mid 1950's and raised in a very small country town situated in Northern Victoria. Resident of Melbourne since 1980 and happy to stay living in one of the world's most liveable cities. You can view my professional profile at http://www.linkedin/in/danielwatson
Showing posts with label lead conversion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lead conversion. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Don’t Blow it Next Time
As a business owner, you will most likely have walked away from at least one past business meeting or presentation with a sinking feeling in your stomach, usually providing you with very clear evidence that you had blown the opportunity, to get the business you were pursuing.
It is also likely, that whilst you suspected that you knew where you may have gone wrong, you were never quite sure whether it was a single factor, or a combination of many factors, that led to the less than desirable outcome.
The reality is that there are many key factors that a potential customer or client may take into consideration during their decision making process, and even if you present a compelling case, you do not have to go wrong on very many of these key factors, to effectively blow your hard won opportunity.
Your audience expect, and want a lot, from the person making the presentation to them, and the key factors they will take into account in exercising their judgement include;
• Are you a user of the specific the product or service you are pitching
• Are you displaying any signs of deception or game playing with them
• Are you wasting time their time by straying from the relevant factual information
• Do you share stories of other people using the product / service you offer
• Is your product/service a good deal with clear value at the lowest price possible
• Are you listening to them far more than you talk yourself
• Can you establish the market competitiveness of your pricing policy
• Do you remain positive and upbeat with no hint of negativity of any kind
• Do you convey and maintain sincerity along with showing a strong smiling face
• Do you refrain from inferring that bad decisions may have been made previously
• Are you demonstrating that you really like them as individuals and as a group
• Can you establish confidence that they will definitely get what they pay for
• Will you assist them to actually make and justify the purchase decision
• Are you able to show them exactly how you will support them after they buy
• Are you likely to pressure or harass them to make early decisions
• Did you treat them as adult decision makers
• Did you make them feel as they are special and important to your business
• Were you able to provide clear proof and valid evidence of all claims you made
The real secret to not blowing it in future, is to do whatever you have to do in terms of preparing for, delivering, and closing your pitch, with the utmost care, thereby ensuring that the potential customer or client ticks off on the vast majority, if not all, of these key factors, as your presentation progresses and concludes.
Think back to your last pitch for a piece of significant business where you feel that you really blew it, and you will most likely find that even from your own viewpoint you will be able to highlight one or two of the key factors, where you probably failed in the eyes of the prospect(s).
For your next important pitch for business, use this list of key factors as a checklist to help you prepare for both the presentation itself, and for carefully tailoring the content, to ensure you get as many ticks as possible from the potential customer / client.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment below or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.
It is also likely, that whilst you suspected that you knew where you may have gone wrong, you were never quite sure whether it was a single factor, or a combination of many factors, that led to the less than desirable outcome.
The reality is that there are many key factors that a potential customer or client may take into consideration during their decision making process, and even if you present a compelling case, you do not have to go wrong on very many of these key factors, to effectively blow your hard won opportunity.
Your audience expect, and want a lot, from the person making the presentation to them, and the key factors they will take into account in exercising their judgement include;
• Are you a user of the specific the product or service you are pitching
• Are you displaying any signs of deception or game playing with them
• Are you wasting time their time by straying from the relevant factual information
• Do you share stories of other people using the product / service you offer
• Is your product/service a good deal with clear value at the lowest price possible
• Are you listening to them far more than you talk yourself
• Can you establish the market competitiveness of your pricing policy
• Do you remain positive and upbeat with no hint of negativity of any kind
• Do you convey and maintain sincerity along with showing a strong smiling face
• Do you refrain from inferring that bad decisions may have been made previously
• Are you demonstrating that you really like them as individuals and as a group
• Can you establish confidence that they will definitely get what they pay for
• Will you assist them to actually make and justify the purchase decision
• Are you able to show them exactly how you will support them after they buy
• Are you likely to pressure or harass them to make early decisions
• Did you treat them as adult decision makers
• Did you make them feel as they are special and important to your business
• Were you able to provide clear proof and valid evidence of all claims you made
The real secret to not blowing it in future, is to do whatever you have to do in terms of preparing for, delivering, and closing your pitch, with the utmost care, thereby ensuring that the potential customer or client ticks off on the vast majority, if not all, of these key factors, as your presentation progresses and concludes.
Think back to your last pitch for a piece of significant business where you feel that you really blew it, and you will most likely find that even from your own viewpoint you will be able to highlight one or two of the key factors, where you probably failed in the eyes of the prospect(s).
For your next important pitch for business, use this list of key factors as a checklist to help you prepare for both the presentation itself, and for carefully tailoring the content, to ensure you get as many ticks as possible from the potential customer / client.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment below or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Are you missing out in the new business race?
The question really should be; what is it that you are not doing, that if you did it, you would see a dramatic upswing in the fortunes of your business through the regular acquisition of new customers or clients?
Whether you like it or not, if you own a business of any kind, you are primarily in the sales business and despite the array of social media tools available today, the greatest and most effective tool anyone in the sales business has at their disposal, is still the telephone.
In the right hands, the telephone is the cheapest and most time effective means of introducing any offering to a target market and making appointments to present directly to the key decision maker.
To succeed in virtually any business, you need to have a consistent flow of appointments, to get appointments you need to talk to decision makers or their gatekeepers, to do this effectively you need to master the telephone and use it frequently to contact potential prospects who you want to become your customers or clients.
You can engineer a dramatic upswing in the fortunes of your business if you master the telephone, and make a minimum of twelve (12) calls to targeted business owners each and every business day, without fail.
After doing so for a few weeks, refining your pitch as you go along, you will find that at a minimum you should be converting at least 5 to 10 percent of the 60 weekly calls to appointments, where you will have the opportunity to make a sale. Covert a reasonable percentage of these appointments into new customers or clients, and you will be well rewarded.
The trick to succeeding in this endeavour is to set aside a minimum of 45 minutes each day, find a place where you can work free of any distractions, and do nothing in this time but make the calls. It works even better if you assign the same block of time each day to this activity.
Any business owner who adopts this discipline, sticks to it religiously on a permanent basis and at the same time works assiduously at refining and improving their pitch to the targets involved, cannot help being successful at the key task of getting in front of as many prospects as possible, in the time they have available.
To maximise the effectiveness of this simple solution, business owners need to learn the art of the three minute telephone call. Buy an egg timer and if you see the sand has run out, and you have not arranged an appointment, terminate the conversation and move on to the next prospect.
It also helps if you keep daily records of the number of calls made, the number of appointments gained, the conversion rate of calls to appointments, and then track this ratio on an ongoing basis as you develop your skills in this area.
Who to call? You call anyone that you wish to make a customer or client within the niche you wish to create for yourself. The best sources of business leads for cold telemarketing have always been the yellow pages, local business directories, local newspaper advertisements, businesses letter drops in your local area, your local government authority, and the local chamber of commerce.
What to say? Prepare a very well crafted mini sales pitch for your product or service which will quickly grab the attention of the prospect you call, which focuses on the benefits for the customer or client, and which allows you to quickly uncover whether or not the prospect has a need for your offering.
Overcome your reluctance to pick up the telephone and then commit to simply making 12 calls each and every day to make appointments with prospective customers or clients, and before long, you will see the results and your business will be more successful.
Remember, that to make this a habitual activity and to ensure that you refine your sales pitch until it works brilliantly, you need to commit to this discipline for a minimum of 21 business days.
Is your business acquiring as many customers or clients that your product or service deserves?
Do you have a disciplined approach to telephone prospecting?
Will you devote a minimum of 5 hours per week to producing an upswing in the fortunes of your business?
Whether you like it or not, if you own a business of any kind, you are primarily in the sales business and despite the array of social media tools available today, the greatest and most effective tool anyone in the sales business has at their disposal, is still the telephone.
In the right hands, the telephone is the cheapest and most time effective means of introducing any offering to a target market and making appointments to present directly to the key decision maker.
To succeed in virtually any business, you need to have a consistent flow of appointments, to get appointments you need to talk to decision makers or their gatekeepers, to do this effectively you need to master the telephone and use it frequently to contact potential prospects who you want to become your customers or clients.
You can engineer a dramatic upswing in the fortunes of your business if you master the telephone, and make a minimum of twelve (12) calls to targeted business owners each and every business day, without fail.
After doing so for a few weeks, refining your pitch as you go along, you will find that at a minimum you should be converting at least 5 to 10 percent of the 60 weekly calls to appointments, where you will have the opportunity to make a sale. Covert a reasonable percentage of these appointments into new customers or clients, and you will be well rewarded.
The trick to succeeding in this endeavour is to set aside a minimum of 45 minutes each day, find a place where you can work free of any distractions, and do nothing in this time but make the calls. It works even better if you assign the same block of time each day to this activity.
Any business owner who adopts this discipline, sticks to it religiously on a permanent basis and at the same time works assiduously at refining and improving their pitch to the targets involved, cannot help being successful at the key task of getting in front of as many prospects as possible, in the time they have available.
To maximise the effectiveness of this simple solution, business owners need to learn the art of the three minute telephone call. Buy an egg timer and if you see the sand has run out, and you have not arranged an appointment, terminate the conversation and move on to the next prospect.
It also helps if you keep daily records of the number of calls made, the number of appointments gained, the conversion rate of calls to appointments, and then track this ratio on an ongoing basis as you develop your skills in this area.
Who to call? You call anyone that you wish to make a customer or client within the niche you wish to create for yourself. The best sources of business leads for cold telemarketing have always been the yellow pages, local business directories, local newspaper advertisements, businesses letter drops in your local area, your local government authority, and the local chamber of commerce.
What to say? Prepare a very well crafted mini sales pitch for your product or service which will quickly grab the attention of the prospect you call, which focuses on the benefits for the customer or client, and which allows you to quickly uncover whether or not the prospect has a need for your offering.
Overcome your reluctance to pick up the telephone and then commit to simply making 12 calls each and every day to make appointments with prospective customers or clients, and before long, you will see the results and your business will be more successful.
Remember, that to make this a habitual activity and to ensure that you refine your sales pitch until it works brilliantly, you need to commit to this discipline for a minimum of 21 business days.
Is your business acquiring as many customers or clients that your product or service deserves?
Do you have a disciplined approach to telephone prospecting?
Will you devote a minimum of 5 hours per week to producing an upswing in the fortunes of your business?
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Rapidly Improve Lead to Customer Conversion Rates
As a business owner, you need to clearly understand and ensure that all charged with converting your hard to generate sales leads into valuable customers for your business, clearly understand and apply a set of sequential steps which, if followed religiously, will generate far more sales and make each member of your sales team more productive.
These 7 steps address standard buyer behaviour, and it is important that each step be used and that the next step is not tackled until the potential customer is clearly ready to move up to the next step.
The first step is to establish if there is actually a real need for whatever you are offering. If you can’t get the customer to agree that they have a real need for what you are offering, don’t waste any further time trying to sell them. Simply get their details and agreement to be added to your mailing list, and move on to another prospect.
The second step is to get them to acknowledge the effect that meeting their need will have on them personally. As you have already established the potential customer has a need for your offering, you must determine what it will mean for them personally if this need is able to be satisfied by your offering.
The third step is to instil a fear of the situation continuing to worsen over time. In this step you simply up the ante on the last step, and reinforce how it will continue to affect them personally, if they don’t immediately meet the need they have identified for your offering, and then get them to agree that this will be the case.
The fourth step is to help the potential customer realise that they have a compelling need for change. Having laid the ground work in the previous two steps, this step should be easy for any accomplished salesperson. Simply put, the potential customer needs to be led to the point where they acknowledge that it makes no sense to continue to put up with their current situation.
The fifth step is to lead the potential customer to the point where there is now a clear demand for an improvement in their situation. At this step, the potential customer needs to be helped to paint a picture in their mind, of how their situation will look when they implement the change that your offering will bring to their world.
The sixth step is to give them hope for a better future by suggesting that there are a range of solutions for the burden that they presently carry. This is where you outline the possibilities they might embrace in order to get relief from the pressing need they now have to improve their worsening situation and also determine the level of investment they are willing to make to resolve their situation.
The seventh and final step is to show them how you can deliver the solution for your customer now that you know they have a genuine need for your offering, are ready to take action to satisfy the need, and have indicated how much they are willing to spend to get the relief from the burden they have been carrying. Then you can confidently and quickly close the sale, and move on to the next potential customer.
Are you clear on the importance of each of these 7 steps and why they must be sequential and why you should not move off any step until the potential customer has clearly indicated that they are at the position where you can move them on without losing them?
In your business, are these 7 steps rigorously practiced with all new leads that come into your business?
How much more revenue could your business be generating if these 7 steps were competently practiced on every occasion by well drilled sales staff?
These 7 steps address standard buyer behaviour, and it is important that each step be used and that the next step is not tackled until the potential customer is clearly ready to move up to the next step.
The first step is to establish if there is actually a real need for whatever you are offering. If you can’t get the customer to agree that they have a real need for what you are offering, don’t waste any further time trying to sell them. Simply get their details and agreement to be added to your mailing list, and move on to another prospect.
The second step is to get them to acknowledge the effect that meeting their need will have on them personally. As you have already established the potential customer has a need for your offering, you must determine what it will mean for them personally if this need is able to be satisfied by your offering.
The third step is to instil a fear of the situation continuing to worsen over time. In this step you simply up the ante on the last step, and reinforce how it will continue to affect them personally, if they don’t immediately meet the need they have identified for your offering, and then get them to agree that this will be the case.
The fourth step is to help the potential customer realise that they have a compelling need for change. Having laid the ground work in the previous two steps, this step should be easy for any accomplished salesperson. Simply put, the potential customer needs to be led to the point where they acknowledge that it makes no sense to continue to put up with their current situation.
The fifth step is to lead the potential customer to the point where there is now a clear demand for an improvement in their situation. At this step, the potential customer needs to be helped to paint a picture in their mind, of how their situation will look when they implement the change that your offering will bring to their world.
The sixth step is to give them hope for a better future by suggesting that there are a range of solutions for the burden that they presently carry. This is where you outline the possibilities they might embrace in order to get relief from the pressing need they now have to improve their worsening situation and also determine the level of investment they are willing to make to resolve their situation.
The seventh and final step is to show them how you can deliver the solution for your customer now that you know they have a genuine need for your offering, are ready to take action to satisfy the need, and have indicated how much they are willing to spend to get the relief from the burden they have been carrying. Then you can confidently and quickly close the sale, and move on to the next potential customer.
Are you clear on the importance of each of these 7 steps and why they must be sequential and why you should not move off any step until the potential customer has clearly indicated that they are at the position where you can move them on without losing them?
In your business, are these 7 steps rigorously practiced with all new leads that come into your business?
How much more revenue could your business be generating if these 7 steps were competently practiced on every occasion by well drilled sales staff?
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