Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Closing the Sale Without Begging: Part Two
In part one of Closing The Sale Without Begging, we discussed the first two steps of how to close a sale by earning your customer’s trust.
Step 1. Be Original: Say something new.
Step 2. Be The First To Add Value: Adding value is the key to closing the sale in any industry.
To close a sale effectively our actions must lead to buy-in first. If your prospects don’t trust you, they will remain reluctant to buy from you no matter how many times you ask for their business. It’s simple: buy-in must come first or you will have to beg to close a sale. And handouts are no way to earn a living, especially when you don’t have to. Now onto step 3 of Closing the Sale Without Begging.
3. Be The First To Say Thank You.
Leave no doubt in your prospects’ mind that you consider it a privilege to meet them and have the opportunity to meet their needs. Without assuming that your prospect is ready to buy your product, make it evident that even if they choose to “think about it” in the end or even not buy the product, that you would still treat them with the same level of appreciation and respect. Always appreciate the opportunity to meet your prospects’ needs, not just their “yes” to doing business.
4. Respect Your Prospects’ Time.
Never assume that your prospects’ time is your to waste. Don’t drop into a feature-dropping rant. Do not move forward with any step in the transaction without first asking them if that is what they want to do. Demonstrate a genuine respect for your prospects’ time, and as a result, they’ll typically not have a problem spending more time with you, in turn, giving you more time to close the sale.
Ultimately, never take a single step toward closing the sale until you have first asked your prospects’ permission. By the way, don’t ask until you have already done the free three steps on the list. Asking your prospects whether they want to move forward without giving them a reason to want to move forward, makes you seem presumptuous and over-aggressive.
5. Don’t Stop Once The Sale Seems Imminent.
If during a sales transaction, you’ve done the previous four things on the list and it seems that you’re going to close the sale, don’t become overeager and forget yourself. Never assume that your prospect is going to buy. Even if you think the transaction is going well, don’t let that cause you to let up on setting yourself apart, adding value, being appreciative, or respecting the prospects’ time.
These steps should just be a part of how you do business, regardless of whether the prospect buys or not. It’s one thing to do everything right in order to get the prospect interested, but it’s another to remain consistent when you know you’re about to close the sale. Once you’ve closed the sale, don’t stop doing these steps. Consistency in your character is vital to your efforts in building trust.
In conclusion, when your authentic actions create an environment that breeds buy-in with your prospects’, closing sales tends to become an afterthought. That doesn’t mean that you won’t still have to ask for a prospect’s business. It just means that asking won’t be a chore. It won’t be begging. Closing the sale will be the natural conclusion to your prospect interactions and the natural beginning to your client relationships.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Closing the Sale Without Begging: Part One
Every salesperson has made the fatal mistake of trying to close the sale without first earning a customer’s trust. Asking for a prospects’ business without out an ounce of indication that they are ready to buy from you is just looking for a handout. It’s petitioning for a sale without earning your prospects’ vote and then, like a spoiled six year old, complaining that you didn’t get what you wanted when your prospect says no.
If that becomes your way of doing business, you’ll end up begging for more than sales. You’ll end up begging your boss for your job.
To be successful in the sales profession and ultimately in closing sales, you must understand that connecting with your customers is everything. The truth is, when you take the time to earn a prospect’s trust at the outset, asking for business is just a formality and closing the sale is just a natural progression in the relationship.
To understand how to earn and close a sale without doing a scrap of begging, I’m going to going to show you five ways to ensure that your prospects buy into you before you ask them for their business. When you adhere to these five steps of closing the sale using High Trust, you will find that you have to do very little “selling” in order to close sales.
1. Be Original.
The first step to closing the sale is to say something new! Never let it be said of you, “I’ve heard it all before.” If you can’t market and/or offer your services in a fresh and innovative way, don’t offer it at all. There is far too much competition for you to be selling run-of-the-mill products in a run-of-the-mill fashion, regardless of your industry. Set yourself apart. Determine unique ways to appeal to your customers and meet their needs, even if that simply means being completely authentic. Make it your goal not to be like the rest.
Remember that your prospective clients can probably get the same or a similar products from someone else, but they won’t be able to get another you.
2. Be The First To Add Value.
Adding value is the key to closing the sale in any industry. Don’t ever expect something from a prospect unless you have already added value. And by the way, having the privilege of meeting you is not a perceived value to your prospects. Do something upfront to let your prospects know that it is your primary goal to add real value to their lives through not only your product, but also your service.
The single best way to add value is by educating your clients, giving them the information they need to confidently make the right buying decision. Good advice breeds confidence, confidence brings trust, and trust is the key to closing the sale.
If that becomes your way of doing business, you’ll end up begging for more than sales. You’ll end up begging your boss for your job.
To be successful in the sales profession and ultimately in closing sales, you must understand that connecting with your customers is everything. The truth is, when you take the time to earn a prospect’s trust at the outset, asking for business is just a formality and closing the sale is just a natural progression in the relationship.
To understand how to earn and close a sale without doing a scrap of begging, I’m going to going to show you five ways to ensure that your prospects buy into you before you ask them for their business. When you adhere to these five steps of closing the sale using High Trust, you will find that you have to do very little “selling” in order to close sales.
1. Be Original.
The first step to closing the sale is to say something new! Never let it be said of you, “I’ve heard it all before.” If you can’t market and/or offer your services in a fresh and innovative way, don’t offer it at all. There is far too much competition for you to be selling run-of-the-mill products in a run-of-the-mill fashion, regardless of your industry. Set yourself apart. Determine unique ways to appeal to your customers and meet their needs, even if that simply means being completely authentic. Make it your goal not to be like the rest.
Remember that your prospective clients can probably get the same or a similar products from someone else, but they won’t be able to get another you.
2. Be The First To Add Value.
Adding value is the key to closing the sale in any industry. Don’t ever expect something from a prospect unless you have already added value. And by the way, having the privilege of meeting you is not a perceived value to your prospects. Do something upfront to let your prospects know that it is your primary goal to add real value to their lives through not only your product, but also your service.
The single best way to add value is by educating your clients, giving them the information they need to confidently make the right buying decision. Good advice breeds confidence, confidence brings trust, and trust is the key to closing the sale.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Relationships Must Be Essential
The Law of the Courtships says that for a sales relationship to work on the outside, it must first be right in the inside. In other words, to build loyal, lasting relationships with your clients, you must take the time to know them, not just know about them. And you must let them know you.
The more you know your prospects the more you will understand what’s important to them about a relationship with you, what they look for in your product and service, and what they place value on. This will make you more confident and competent in deciding if you should pursue a deeper relationship with them. Loan originators would increase their success rate dramatically if they did a better job “dating” their prospects before ever saying “I do” to a sales relationship.
Relationships Must Be “Essential”.
Ken Blanchard once gave Todd some great advice:
Relationships have two parts: essence and form. If essence is wrong, you will spend 90% of your time on form.
This advice exposes the root of most failing or failed sales relationships. When originators try to build revenue before building relationships, they are trying to grow the outside of the relationship (the form) before cultivating the inside of the relationship (the essence).
This results in sales relationships that are both shallow and fruitless. In new sales relationships, every prospect will either have an essence match with you or not. If there is a shared essence, the relationship can be highly profitable and void of unreasonable demands and stress. Without an essence match, the relationship will suffer under a burden of unrealistic expectations and unneeded stress.
The more you know your prospects the more you will understand what’s important to them about a relationship with you, what they look for in your product and service, and what they place value on. This will make you more confident and competent in deciding if you should pursue a deeper relationship with them. Loan originators would increase their success rate dramatically if they did a better job “dating” their prospects before ever saying “I do” to a sales relationship.
Relationships Must Be “Essential”.
Ken Blanchard once gave Todd some great advice:
Relationships have two parts: essence and form. If essence is wrong, you will spend 90% of your time on form.
This advice exposes the root of most failing or failed sales relationships. When originators try to build revenue before building relationships, they are trying to grow the outside of the relationship (the form) before cultivating the inside of the relationship (the essence).
This results in sales relationships that are both shallow and fruitless. In new sales relationships, every prospect will either have an essence match with you or not. If there is a shared essence, the relationship can be highly profitable and void of unreasonable demands and stress. Without an essence match, the relationship will suffer under a burden of unrealistic expectations and unneeded stress.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Staying In Control
Have you ever tried to have a perfect day and it didn’t work out as you planned it?
The good news is that if you can visualize a perfect day, you can make it happen. But you may have to change the way you think. First and foremost, you need to understand that event management, not time management, is the critical factor for creating the perfect day.
As Joey Reiman says in Thinking For a Living, “Time cannot be expanded, accumulated, or mortgaged. It’s the one thing that’s beyond our control. We can only learn to tame the time we have and make it work for us rather than against us.”
If you tame time today, you will transform your opportunities tomorrow. In the process, you will begin to earn more money in less time with less stress.
In order to create and maintain your perfect day, you must also understand the following seven truths about time:
1. People say all the time that they don’t have time, yet how is that possible when they have all the time there is?
2. Most people never develop true freedom because they are chained to their confining and disempowering paradigms.
3. The concept of time management is overrated. Event management is the name of the game.
4. If you don’t know what’s important to you, you will do the things that aren’t.
5. It doesn’t matter where you work. It matters how you work where you are.
6. Run your business or it will run you.
7. Focus on quality – it creates massive freedom.
As you’re thinking more about these time truths, you need to recognize that right now there is a past you, present you, and future you. The past you is the person you think you’ve been up until now. The present you is the person you think you are right now. The future you is the person you think you will become. The present you is really a combination of your past you and future you. This is where each of us differs.
Do you find yourself spending more time wallowing in your past than focusing on your future? If so, then chances are you have become frozen in a past image of yourself and predictable in your thoughts and behavior. You also make what has already happened more important than your future possibilities.
You need to realize that your uniqueness starts in your future you. When you are committed to your future, you are committed to your vision of who you intend to become. If you stay focused on your past, your unique ability will never have the chance to develop.
So, which you are you committed to – the you you are now or the you you can become?
The good news is that if you can visualize a perfect day, you can make it happen. But you may have to change the way you think. First and foremost, you need to understand that event management, not time management, is the critical factor for creating the perfect day.
As Joey Reiman says in Thinking For a Living, “Time cannot be expanded, accumulated, or mortgaged. It’s the one thing that’s beyond our control. We can only learn to tame the time we have and make it work for us rather than against us.”
If you tame time today, you will transform your opportunities tomorrow. In the process, you will begin to earn more money in less time with less stress.
In order to create and maintain your perfect day, you must also understand the following seven truths about time:
1. People say all the time that they don’t have time, yet how is that possible when they have all the time there is?
2. Most people never develop true freedom because they are chained to their confining and disempowering paradigms.
3. The concept of time management is overrated. Event management is the name of the game.
4. If you don’t know what’s important to you, you will do the things that aren’t.
5. It doesn’t matter where you work. It matters how you work where you are.
6. Run your business or it will run you.
7. Focus on quality – it creates massive freedom.
As you’re thinking more about these time truths, you need to recognize that right now there is a past you, present you, and future you. The past you is the person you think you’ve been up until now. The present you is the person you think you are right now. The future you is the person you think you will become. The present you is really a combination of your past you and future you. This is where each of us differs.
Do you find yourself spending more time wallowing in your past than focusing on your future? If so, then chances are you have become frozen in a past image of yourself and predictable in your thoughts and behavior. You also make what has already happened more important than your future possibilities.
You need to realize that your uniqueness starts in your future you. When you are committed to your future, you are committed to your vision of who you intend to become. If you stay focused on your past, your unique ability will never have the chance to develop.
So, which you are you committed to – the you you are now or the you you can become?
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
The Foundation of Business Efficiency
Have you ever had a game plan for your day but by 9:30 am it was thoroughly messed up? Have you ever then stayed relatively messed up the remainder of the day? Have you ever gotten to the end of a day like this and felt like it was a waste? If so, you are not alone.
Here’s what you need to know: If you experience wasted days, it's almost certainly because you're not running a clean business.
Wasted days happen when you don’t have a plan, when you lack vision, when you’re not clear on how to establish trust with customers, and when you don’t know how to say no to interruptions, marginal deals, or high maintenance customers. Wasted days happen when you wake up early to handle the stuff that didn’t get done yesterday, then try to make your cold calls without warming up, then attend a sales meeting where you don’t learn anything, then handle problem loans, then return calls to unsatisfied Realtors ®, then become a courier, a copy mechanic and coffee maker in one.
Can you imagine what the videotape of you would look like during a day like this? In short, wasted days happen when you let red activities rule your day. But the good news is that time blocking offers a much better way to structure your time, your day, and your life.
Time blocking is the foundation of business efficiency. You must commit to mastering this principle if you want to build a booming origination business. The fundamental rationale for time blocking is the knowledge that if green(revenue generating) activities don’t get scheduled, they usually get done feebly, fruitlessly, or not at all. Therefore, great advances can be made if an originator determines to begin scheduling specific blocks of time for green activities, and commits to not spending time on red activities until green activities are done.
Here’s what you need to know: If you experience wasted days, it's almost certainly because you're not running a clean business.
Wasted days happen when you don’t have a plan, when you lack vision, when you’re not clear on how to establish trust with customers, and when you don’t know how to say no to interruptions, marginal deals, or high maintenance customers. Wasted days happen when you wake up early to handle the stuff that didn’t get done yesterday, then try to make your cold calls without warming up, then attend a sales meeting where you don’t learn anything, then handle problem loans, then return calls to unsatisfied Realtors ®, then become a courier, a copy mechanic and coffee maker in one.
Can you imagine what the videotape of you would look like during a day like this? In short, wasted days happen when you let red activities rule your day. But the good news is that time blocking offers a much better way to structure your time, your day, and your life.
Time blocking is the foundation of business efficiency. You must commit to mastering this principle if you want to build a booming origination business. The fundamental rationale for time blocking is the knowledge that if green(revenue generating) activities don’t get scheduled, they usually get done feebly, fruitlessly, or not at all. Therefore, great advances can be made if an originator determines to begin scheduling specific blocks of time for green activities, and commits to not spending time on red activities until green activities are done.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Adding Value Adds Stability
There is no greater discipline in the High Trust Selling Process than adding value. A regular dose of value decreases the likelihood that your clients will be wooed by your competitors and therefore increases the stability of your business.
To ensure that you maintain a value-adding approach to building your sales business, make sure that every value-adding effort is:
1. Profitable: Don’t spend money to add value without measuring whether or not the return is good. Remember the Law of the Scale and invest more in your best clients than in any of the rest.
2. Systems Supported: Schedule your value-adding efforts regularly so you won’t forget them.
3. Content Rich: Become an expert in your business and your clients’ businesses so you can best direct your clients’ efforts for you and add the most value to your clients. Invest in training audio/video lessons, books and seminars and be the expert your clients rely on for advice.
4. Heartfelt: Make sure your value-adding efforts are meaningful and sincere. Handwritten notes, deeply sincere words, and an expressed desire for their total success will have an immeasurable impact on your business over time.
5. Unpredictable: Add value when your clients least expect it.
6. Relevant: Make sure your value-adding efforts are distinctively valuable to your clients (i.e., don’t send something on golf to a non-golfer.) The more thoughtful your efforts, the better.
7. Fresh: Regularly change the manner in which you add value so your clients are continually impressed and sincerely grateful for your relationship.
When it comes to the Law of Incubation, one thing is certain: If you consistently add significant value to your clients over time, they will eventually come to a place where they cannot imagine doing business with, or referring business to, anyone else.
To ensure that you maintain a value-adding approach to building your sales business, make sure that every value-adding effort is:
1. Profitable: Don’t spend money to add value without measuring whether or not the return is good. Remember the Law of the Scale and invest more in your best clients than in any of the rest.
2. Systems Supported: Schedule your value-adding efforts regularly so you won’t forget them.
3. Content Rich: Become an expert in your business and your clients’ businesses so you can best direct your clients’ efforts for you and add the most value to your clients. Invest in training audio/video lessons, books and seminars and be the expert your clients rely on for advice.
4. Heartfelt: Make sure your value-adding efforts are meaningful and sincere. Handwritten notes, deeply sincere words, and an expressed desire for their total success will have an immeasurable impact on your business over time.
5. Unpredictable: Add value when your clients least expect it.
6. Relevant: Make sure your value-adding efforts are distinctively valuable to your clients (i.e., don’t send something on golf to a non-golfer.) The more thoughtful your efforts, the better.
7. Fresh: Regularly change the manner in which you add value so your clients are continually impressed and sincerely grateful for your relationship.
When it comes to the Law of Incubation, one thing is certain: If you consistently add significant value to your clients over time, they will eventually come to a place where they cannot imagine doing business with, or referring business to, anyone else.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Defining Leadership with Andy Andrews
There are many qualities that will help you along the way to creating
the life you truly desire. Persistence, gratitude, and service are a few
of many possible examples. But there’s one quality in particular that
we can tend to overlook when taking stock of ourselves—the quality of
leadership.
We have a habit of telling ourselves the same lie over and over: “Not everyone is a natural leader.”
Why is this a lie? Because everyone—yes, including you—is a leader whether they know it or not. You have within you the qualities you need to lead people. Now, conventional wisdom would tell you otherwise. In my opinion, though, leadership as a course or study is overblown, overcomplicated, and a stumbling block to a lot of people. You don’t have to read hundreds of books on leadership to become an actual leader.
All you have to do to begin leading is recognize the leadership qualities you already possess…and then use them! Your beliefs about yourself play a large role in dictating who you actually are. When you begin to think differently about yourself as a leader, you can totally alter the path you are currently walking.
It is important you understand that leadership essentially boils down to two things:
Your perspective or beliefs about yourself.
The quality we can call “likeability.” Likeability can be defined as the ability to build rapport so that others listen to you. We listen to the people we like.
At this point in your life, I promise you already have plenty of experience as a leader, even if the people you have been leading are your children or friends whose opinions you want to sway to your own.
Leadership, simply defined, is as follows: Relating your beliefs or opinions to others with conviction in such a way that it creates a vision for their own future—a future they see you are determined to help them obtain.
How many times have you been in the car on a family road trip when the dreaded question arises: “So, where does everyone want to eat?”
Usually, you’ll get an answer like, “I don’t know. Where do you want to eat?”
But all it really takes for a decision to be made is for one person to say, “McDonald’s. Let’s go to McDonald’s.”
The group likely responds, “Okay.”
Have you ever noticed that there’s one person in your group who inevitably decides:
Leadership is not nearly as complicated or scary as we make it out to be. You already have it inside yourself. The next time you are faced with a decision, step up and stand out. Do not allow fear to hold you back. If your decision happens to be wrong, it won’t be long before you are presented with an opportunity to redeem yourself.
Just remember, those who leave decisions to others rarely determine the direction of their own lives. If you’re ready to steer your life in the direction of your choosing, it’s time to recognize and become the leader you already have inside.
How do you define leadership?
© 2009-2013, Andy Andrews. Used by Permission. Originally posted on AndyAndrews.com.
We have a habit of telling ourselves the same lie over and over: “Not everyone is a natural leader.”
Why is this a lie? Because everyone—yes, including you—is a leader whether they know it or not. You have within you the qualities you need to lead people. Now, conventional wisdom would tell you otherwise. In my opinion, though, leadership as a course or study is overblown, overcomplicated, and a stumbling block to a lot of people. You don’t have to read hundreds of books on leadership to become an actual leader.
All you have to do to begin leading is recognize the leadership qualities you already possess…and then use them! Your beliefs about yourself play a large role in dictating who you actually are. When you begin to think differently about yourself as a leader, you can totally alter the path you are currently walking.
It is important you understand that leadership essentially boils down to two things:
Your perspective or beliefs about yourself.
The quality we can call “likeability.” Likeability can be defined as the ability to build rapport so that others listen to you. We listen to the people we like.
At this point in your life, I promise you already have plenty of experience as a leader, even if the people you have been leading are your children or friends whose opinions you want to sway to your own.
Leadership, simply defined, is as follows: Relating your beliefs or opinions to others with conviction in such a way that it creates a vision for their own future—a future they see you are determined to help them obtain.
How many times have you been in the car on a family road trip when the dreaded question arises: “So, where does everyone want to eat?”
Usually, you’ll get an answer like, “I don’t know. Where do you want to eat?”
But all it really takes for a decision to be made is for one person to say, “McDonald’s. Let’s go to McDonald’s.”
The group likely responds, “Okay.”
Have you ever noticed that there’s one person in your group who inevitably decides:
- The time at which the group will meet
- The movie the group will see
- The restaurant at which the group will eat
- Everyone pretty much likes this person
- This person simply says something
Leadership is not nearly as complicated or scary as we make it out to be. You already have it inside yourself. The next time you are faced with a decision, step up and stand out. Do not allow fear to hold you back. If your decision happens to be wrong, it won’t be long before you are presented with an opportunity to redeem yourself.
Just remember, those who leave decisions to others rarely determine the direction of their own lives. If you’re ready to steer your life in the direction of your choosing, it’s time to recognize and become the leader you already have inside.
How do you define leadership?
© 2009-2013, Andy Andrews. Used by Permission. Originally posted on AndyAndrews.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)