Selling Process

Selling Process

Prospecting & Qualifying Clients

1. Introduction:

Prospecting activities is very important to a web consultant's work. Prospecting is simply defined as to look for potential clients to work with. Prospecting should be a continuous routine activity to ensure that the web consultants will have enough new workable clients every month. Oftentimes, web consultants tend to neglect prospecting activities whenever they are taking care of many accounts already.

2. Prospect deep within a single industry or group:

There are a lot of advantages of working deep into a single industry:

• Your research time is lessened
• You become familiar to the industry's issues, players
• Clients will then see credibility and competence because you are familiar with their industry
• Selling effort is easier with familiarity

3. Potential Markets for Our Services:

i. Domain Registration prospects:

• Practically anybody who would be putting up a website.
• Those with expiring domains who would like to transfer to us because of lower price.
• Companies with websites but do not have their own domain names (ex. www.mozcom.com/officedepot) The reason for this is because they are probably subscribing their internet with mozcom and using mozcom's servers as hosting to put up their website-usually for free.

ii. Website Development prospects:

a) Businesses - All types of businesses regardless of the company size would benefit from having a website-although a website may have more impact on some businesses than others, depending on the nature of their business.

As an example, the following businesses will immediately benefit from having a website:

1) Business involving overseas operations (ex. Export)
2) Business has many products or services that needs explanation
3) Business is service oriented
4) Business needs to project credibility and prestige
5) Business spends a lot of money on brochures and advertisement.
6) E-Businesses or companies that operate online to generate income

b) Professionals (photographers, designers, artists, models, celebrities, politicians, brokers, etc) - they would need a website to advertise their services, show their works, profiles, communicate with their fans or constituents.

c) Government Agencies - Government agencies are required by presidential decree to have their own website.

d) Non-Government, Non-profit Agencies - Non-profit organizations usually have a message or a vision to spread. They also usually have to communicate with various members and agencies.

e) Associations, Federations, Unions - Associations are put up usually for a particular cause which can be strengthened by a website. Websites also help facilitate communication among members easily.

f) Institutions (Banks, Schools, Hospitals, Churches) - Institutions are usually service-oriented thereby requiring effective communication channels with its customers or members.

iii. Website Hosting Services prospects

• Those planning to put up a website
• Those with existing websites
• Web developers, free-lancers, individuals who know how to make a website but needs hosting services for the website they will make.


iv. Online Marketing prospects

• Those businesses that can benefit from online inquiries
• Existing websites that don't appear in search engines or has poor rankings in search engines
• Those who would like to have web banners to put in websites they would like to advertise.

v. Web Maintenance prospects

• Those with websites that require constant updating
• Firms who would subcontract maintenance instead of hiring a full-time IT worker

vi. CD Flash Presentations prospects

• Those businesses that require a lot of brochures, or selling materials.
• Those that need to often do presentations.

4. Sources of Prospects:

i. Personal Contacts - These are the best sources of clients. No need to go through the gatekeeper.

ii. Referrals - Referrals come from either friends or past clients. They are excellent sources too.

iii. Resellers - Resellers are partners like advertising companies whose clients are in need of our services.

iv. Advertisements

• Newspaper and Magazine Advertisements are excellent sources.
• Businesses who advertise in newspapers are good prospects as you know that they have some product or service to promote and are willing to pay for advertising.

• Yellow pages are excellent sources as they are classified by industry. Also yellow pages placement is expensive-ranging from 2,000 to 20,000 a month (compare that to the cost of annual web hosting fee of only P5,500). Therefore, from the yellow pages alone, you would know which company has the budget to spend or not.

• Outdoor Signs and Advertisements are expensive. Those boards along highways can cause from P100,000 to P400,000 a month in rentals. Those companies are good prospects.

• Trade directories are classified per industry and have complete information and contact person.

v. Trade Shows and Exhibits - Trade shows and exhibits are expensive to join. Usually costing anywhere from P30,000 to P200,000 a day! They are excellent sources of clients because they are aggressively spending on advertisements and their brochures are available for creating sample sites and sometimes the decision maker is there already.

vi. Internet

• Portals are websites where various businesses pay to be listed because they belong to a particular category. (Ex. weddinglibrary.com.ph, kasal.com). The businesses listed may only contain a one page website with some contact numbers-but they don't have their own domain name and more pages-they are excellent prospects.

• E-Directories. A good example of this is E-Yellow Pages (www.eyp.ph) where companies pay to listed in this internet-based directory. These are good prospects because they show companies who are open to an online presence but may not have their own website yet.

• Search engines showing companies with poorly-designed or incomplete websites.

vii. Email addresses - Email addresses will give clues whether that business will need our services. If you see an email address that is something like nestle@tri-isys.com, purefoods@yahoo.com. It usually means that the company uses internet and has an email but does not have a website. Ideally, their email should be something like sales@nestle.com.

5. Qualifying Prospects

It is important to qualify the prospect first before approaching them. That would primarily mean not only determining the impact to their business of having a website, but the financial costs of it as well. Ask yourself:

1. Does the client need a website?

2. Do the competitors of the clients have websites?

3. Would spending 15,000 to 30,000 etc. one time be too big for the client?

4. Can the client afford to pay yearly hosting and domain renewal?

5. Will the cost be high for the client initially but the advantages far outweigh the cost?

Pre-approach Before 1st Phone Call

What to do before calling the client?

1. Do a background check on the company:

• Although it's likely you don't know much about the company, at the very least get to know the basics.

• Check if they have an existing website, email, domain name.

• Check if their competitors have a website.

2. Have an idea on how a website can benefit the company.

• Try to imagine what benefits a website can do for their company.

3. Know who you should look for:

• The best is to have a name.

• If you don't have a name, best to ask who's in charge of marketing, etc. Different companies have different organizational set-up. Sometimes the person you will need to speak would be in marketing, MIS, purchasing, or even the general manager. Be sharp in sensing who you should be talking with.

4. Have a goal or an objective for the call:

• What's the purpose of your call? Is it to information about the company? Is it to ask for an appointment? Is it to make friends who can help you find the contact person?

5. Prepare a friendly and persuasive script:

• Before you attempt to call, always prepare what you are going to say. Never call unprepared and stutter your way-it's unprofessional and annoying. You should have something "powerful" and "convincing" to say. "Sir, I am very confident that when you see what I have to present, you will be very glad that you agreed to setup an appointment with me".


Setting up Appointments

1. Introduction:

One of the major challenges in selling is being able to convince the client to meet you, so that you can actually start selling. There are many reasons why it's tough:

• Clients does not know you or your company
• You don't know much exactly about the client
• Clients does not want to be interrupted
• Gatekeepers make sure that their bosses are not disturbed by salespeople

Despite this, there are equally many good reasons why you should persist in setting up an appointment:

• You are confident that what you're selling will help the client tremendously, he just doesn't know about it yet
• The client will never know exactly what your offering until you get a chance to see him
• Sooner or later, the client will get the services from the competition simply because the competition was there and you were not.
• The client might not like the interruption at first, but when he sees what you have to offer, he will be very happy you tried to reach him.

2. Ideally, you set-up an appointment with the decision-maker:

It's important to identify who the decision maker is so you won't waste time presenting to someone who cannot make a buying decision although sometimes, you will have to present to and befriend first someone who can influence the decision-maker.

3. Focus on the client's needs:

You have to create a need for the client to agree to see you. Here are some examples:

• Explain briefly how a website can help their business-in general

• Inform them that their competition is positioning on the internet and how they can too.

4. Never discuss final solutions yet without seeing them:

The objective is to get the appointment, not the order. You have to see them first and hear their situation before you can prescribe a solution. Never attempt to sell anything without seeing them first unless it's just a simple web hosting client.

5. Telemarketing

A. Formula:

• Have a friendly, confident greeting

• Build Rapport (talk the same language, commonalities)

• Explain how you were able to find their company (ex. yellow pages etc.)

• State your intentions in helping their company and why you think you can

• Ask questions, uncover their needs (Questions)

• Give a brief explanation why you think you can help them (Benefits)

• State your intention to ask to for an appointment to the decision maker (offer choices of schedules)

B. General Guidelines for telemarketing:

• To be successful in telemarketing, you must prepare (script).

• Clear your desk.

• Smile and be friendly-smiling will affect your voice tone and your demeanor (use a mirror).

• Sound enthusiastic and excited.

• Make friends with the receptionist. Remember their name.

• Prospects like to be heard and understood, Acknowledge that you hear them.

o Ex. "I see your point..", "I understand…"

• When they ask that you send a proposal, tell them that this is something that can be best explained person to person and will only take a few minutes of their time-no commitment.

• Have your leads and call times planned-either night before or early morning.

• Arrange your calls geographically so you can set appointments
o geographically.

• Use powerful, words that have impact to the client.
o ("I know", "I'm sure", "revenues", "increase sales")

C. Reasons Why People won't set up an appointment with you

• Client does not see the benefit in meeting with you.

• The client's needs are not aligned to the benefits we are selling.

• Client feels you're talking AT them and not TO them.

• They simply have no time yet.

D. How to overcome a tough gatekeeper:

• Be informal

• Ask for the client's first name. Mention your first name only.
• If they ask regarding what matter, say that it's a personal call.

o Don't be afraid of this cause once you reach the client, he will be glad to know that his business will benefit from your services.

6. Wave Mailers

Wave mailers are defined as "sending mailers in series". You send not just one, but a group of mailers to a single client. The reason for sending groups of mailers is this not only makes sure that it reaches the decision maker, it also breeds name recall and familiarity so that when you make your phone call, you are no longer a stranger to the client. This is a very powerful marketing tool. If done correctly, this can generate a lot of sales for the web consultant.

A. General Principles:

1. A wave mailer is composed of 3 mails sent to 1 client.

2. The 3 mails should have varying contents and messages. Sending of these three mails should be spaced-out 5 days of each other.

3. Send only a right number of mails that you can handle each month. Remember that you must have the time to follow-up on these mails later on. Sending out too much might overwhelm you.

4. Should the client call you on the first mail-then viola!

5. Mailer should be professionally done, and should look like a personal letter to the decision maker.

6. The more specific the content, the more personal the message, the better.

B. Wave Mailers Content:

1. Wave mailer one

2. Wave mailer two

3. Wave mailer three

C. Sample Wave Mailers:

7. Cold Calls:

Cold Calls is traditionally defined as "doing prospecting on the phone". However, at ServoBox, the term cold-calling is to specifically mean going to a client unannounced. This is a very effective sales activity especially when the salesperson is having problems setting appointments with the client because of a tough gatekeeper. This is most effective for small to medium sized businesses.

i. Disadvantages of cold calls:

1. There's a chance that the client is not available when you come.

2. It doesn't come natural for most people.

ii. Advantages of cold calls:

1. You are able to immediately meet the decision maker without having to set an appointment or make numerous futile phone calls. Face to face with the client is the most valuable time in a salesperson's work!

2. Gatekeepers, clients tend to be nicer when they see you in person rather than when you just talk to them on the phone.

3. You can plan your day to cover many clients in a single geography. You can actually cover many clients in one day. Especially if you do so on a highly commercial building.

iii. Principles:

1. Plan your area. Find out immediately what kinds of businesses you will be cold-calling.

2. Have a clear script in mind (similar to the telephone script)-concentrate on telling the client that you have something important to show that the client will be interested in. Based on experience, showing the competitor's website or a website of a business that's similar to the client is quite effective. Prepare before hand and save the website in your laptop.

(Sample script, after the intro) "….I would like to speak the person in-charge because I need to show him something that your competitors are doing on the internet."

3. Make sure you have enough calling cards, profiles, order forms, and O.R!-It is not impossible to get a down payment on the first call as demonstrated by experience.

4. As much as possible, don't leave proposals. The reason you're there is to be able to do what a brochure can't do which is to actually sell! If you leave the proposal, it will give the client a chance to not see you anymore.

5. For tips on how to present, go to the presentation section of the manual.

6. Follow-up! Most sales people get a favorable result on the first visit to the client but rarely do they come back to follow-up. Keep showing up in their office and build friendships there. Reinforce your first visit. Strike while the iron is hot.

7. Have a tough, persistent attitude. Don't take your set-backs personally. It's the client's lost not yours. Keep moving on, guaranteed you will see the fruits of your labor later on.


Pre-approach before the 1st Meeting

Before going to the client, make sure that you prepare the following:

1. Calling Card
2. Company Profile
3. Service Order Form
4. Website Portfolios (our works) - preferably similar to the client's business
5. Website samples-either competitor's websites or related to the client's business
6. Research on Domain Name choices
7. Official Receipt
8. Any other power-point or presentation aid.
9. Equipment testing-laptops, internet connections.
10. Presentation Plan-visualize and rehearse
11. Questions for needs analysis.

1st Meeting – Problem Solving Selling

Phase I: Position the meeting

It's all about the relationship. If the potential client does not feel good about working with you, that person won't do business with you-it's that simple!

1. Put the Customer at Ease

How to gain a client's trust:

Credibility X Intimacy
Trust = ___________________________

Risk
Credibility:

• Knowing your product well
• Being believable when you make recommendations
• Credibility of the company

Intimacy:

• How well the client knows and likes you
• Comfort level of the client with you

Risk: The consequence to the buyer making the wrong decisions


2. Confirm the Agenda

Explain to the client first what you're about to do. Don't immediately start asking questions. Explain that you intend to ask certain questions and how the client can benefit by answering them.

3. Clarify the Logistics

• Respect the prospect's time: Get agreement up front on the time frame for the sales call and adhere to it.
• Ask permission to take notes and to ask questions.
• Respect for the prospect's space: avoid putting things on the person's desk.

Things to do to build trust, credibility:

• Come with references from people that your buyer knows.
• Highlight our company's years in business.
• Refer numerous long-term successful relationships you have with your clients.
• Describe situations similar to the client's and describe their outcomes.
• Acknowledge the client's fears as legitimate.
• Talk about what's going on in the prospect's industry or business.
• Admit when you don't know the answer or don't have a solution. Offer to get back to the prospect within two days! (Wait a week and you've blown it!)


Some Important Points for Phase I:

• Respect for your competitors. Never put them down because if the prospect is their customers, you're putting down the prospect too.

• Let the person know you're listening and have heard what he or she had to say. Verify your understanding of the persons needs.

• Be sensitive to the client's mood, thoughts, and feelings.


Phase II: Analyze the Situation

Determining customer's needs, or analyzing the situation, is the single most important component of the selling process. Success in this phase rests on two seemingly simple skills: questioning and listening.

Ask the right questions in a sensitive way!

In most cases, the way salespeople ask questions is one of the behaviors that upset buyers most.
Straightforward, compassionate questioning that is genuinely an intellectual inquiry, with no covert agenda, works best in all selling situations.

1. Prepare the Customer for questioning

a) Ask pre-question statements to ease yourself and the client. These statements explain the reason why you need the information and how it benefits the customer for you to ask it.

Example:

Statistics say that 68% of sales calls were made to those other than the decision maker! That means many sales people are presenting to the wrong people! But then again, it's not easy to immediately ask the client, "Are you the decision maker?" Therefore, use a pre-question statement like the ff:

"Ms. Buyer, every company has its own decision-making process. I would not like to waste anyone's time by not understanding how decisions are made in your company. Could you tell me how the process works here?"

The above statement is direct, respectful and will save you a lot of time.

b) Group questions in clusters. Group your questions to related topics. This gives your questioning a sense of orderliness and logic. If the client thinks you're disorganized with your questions, they might become confused and worse, it might diminish your credibility.

You can for example, group your topics according to the ff:

• The customer's product Line
• The customer's competitors
• The customer's strategy
• The customer's mission or vision
• The customer's advertising strategy

After you group your questions in clusters, use pre-clusters statements to prepare the client to go from one cluster to another.

Example:

"Thank you. That was extremely helpful. Now I would like to a few questions about your advertising strategy."

2. Asking Appropriate Questions

Having prepared the customer for questions, the next step is to ask appropriate questions.

a) Transactional Questions

Transactional questions are fact-finding questions. They provide you with account specifications.

Ex. “Do you have a website?”
“Do you have internet access?”
“Where do you host your web site?”

These kinds of questions are important, and you have to ask them. But they don't always reveal a lot about the customer's needs.

b) Needs-Clarification Questions

These are the questions that uncover the client's needs.

i. Strategic Questions

These questions focus on long-term plans, objectives of the company. A useful model would be known as SPOT (Strengths, problems, Opportunities, Threats).

By discussing the S (strength) in SPOT, you'll be able to see what sets the clients apart from their competitors.

Be careful when discussing the P (problems) in SPOT. Some clients might be reluctant to admit their problems. Again use the technique of building trust and using pre-question statements.

"Problem questions open the door for some serious problem-solving opportunities with the customer."

O (Opportunity) questions are strategic questions that invite the customer to look at some area of their business they might not have investigated yet.

T (Threats) questions are more complicated. They ask about the risks and challenges they have to face. Ask them only when the client feels safe with you. They require the clients to think. Avoid asking too many of them.

ii. Speculative Questions

Speculative questions guide customers to think about what they would like to see happen, and then what they expect to happen.

Example:

"What would you most like to change in the way you do business?"
"How do you think your customers are changing?"

"If you could change anything about your current supplier (web host) what would it be?"

"What would be an example of the kinds of things salespeople have done for you in the past that demonstrated they were the kind of people you wanted to work with?"

iii. Current Events Questions

Current events questions invite customers to talk about what is happening in the marketplace, the economy, the country, and the world, and how it is affecting their business.

If anything, by asking these questions, you show some credibility-you did your homework.


c). Problem-Analysis Questions

They are open-ended questions designed to get buyers talking about a particular problem. It asks for the background of the problem, explanation why it's a problem, and what hope can be done about it.

Some Important Points about questioning

• More properly asked question; more sales.

• Don't get too worried when customers become uncomfortable when you ask provocative questions that are not the norm. If you use pre-question and pre-cluster statements, chances are they'll understand why you asked. After you leave, they might just think about how you made them ponder some things they typically avoid. When you encourage clients to think strategically, you take them to places they don't usually go. The results can be extraordinary.

• Finally, don't forget that your sales team can help you analyze the client's needs.

3. Listen For Needs and Opportunities

You need excellent listening skills or you'll never figure out the client's needs.

Barriers to Effective Listening:

• Thinking about what you're going to say
• Anticipating what the other person will say
• Formulating an idea or a question
• Being preoccupied with something else
• Being bored with the conversation
• Trying to understand what was said
• Having preconceived ideas about the task at hand
• Worrying about the sale

In other words, you listen to yourself than to the client.

The answer, Take down Notes!

Take everything down first. Don't stop to think of solutions. Often clients say the most important things last. You'll miss it if you're preoccupied with your thoughts.

Avoid Premature Presentations!

What should you listen for: Kinds of Needs

a. Organizational Needs
How the organization can benefit from the buying decision. Simply put-Profit! (either by revenue generation or cost reduction).

b. Job Needs
How the buying decision can make the client's work easier.

c. Personal Needs
How the buying decision can affect the way the clients feel about themselves.


d. Obvious, Implied, and Unconscious Needs

Obvious needs are the ones clients tell you outright. Implied Needs are those that you have to read between the lines. Unconscious needs are a result of ignorance.

Difference between a need and a solution:

Early on in the selling process, clients don't want to hear solutions from salespeople. Like a new love interest, they need to be courted first. They're looking for salespeople who can understand their need now and offer solutions later.

In addition, by presenting early, clients might misinterpret it as to mean that you care more about what you're selling, than the customer's needs.

Example:

You need to eat to appease your hunger (need)

You need a Big Mac (solution)

You need to generate revenues online (need)

You need a website w/ a shopping cart (solution)

Avoid solutions yet at this point. Just jot down all the needs of the clients as they come and show to the clients what you think they are.


Phase III: Generate Alternatives

Most Salespeople rush into this too early.

Make sure you fully understand the client's needs first before you present.

Sometimes, when we're so comfortable with the client, we present too early.

No two presentations are alike! Different customers have different needs. Therefore, your presentations will always be different from client to client. The difference will be in emphasizing the benefits that are specific to the customer's needs.

This does not mean however, that you should not practice presenting by yourself. You need to practice first and master the concept and feel confident before you can tailor fit it to the client.

Features-is a description of some characteristic of a product or service. (What?)

Benefits-is an explanation of how the feature will help the individual. (So What?)

Most salespeople are comfortable discussing the features of the product but are not as comfortable discussing the benefit. However, discussing the benefit is the key to the sale!

It's not enough to discuss shopping cart or database. You have to explain their specific benefits to the customers.

Steps to Generating Alternatives:

1. Review your understanding of the customer's needs and opportunities

2. Make Recommendation

Speak to be listened too. (Most important points first).

State the best solutions first! State the client's specific need then present the specific solution and benefit.

Offer Ideas, don't just products or services. Ask permission to offer ideas to be tactful. Bear in mind that customers want you to bring them ideas-even if they don't say it!

Sometimes you have to use all your creative resources to solve a problem, not just what you in the bag-be resourceful and creative!


3. Ask The Customer for feedback

Request for feedback should be genuine and sincere.

Ask open ended questions (Questions that can't be answered by yes or no).

Example:

"How does that sound to you?"

"What are your thought about this idea?"

"Can you give me some feedback?"

Phase IV: Resolving the Issues

Often, when we encounter objections from clients, the sales process transforms from collaborative to a conflict. It's easy to loose your cool in these situations-especially if you thought that you've done your best to present a great solution.

It's better to use the phrase, "resolving the issues", instead of the war-like phrase "overcoming objections" . When we work to resolve the issues, we stay in the problem solving mode and use our process skills to work with the client toward a workable solution.

1. Introduction: Why Customer's Object

If you've gone shopping before, notice that sometimes you want to buy an appliance or a tool. And then, when a salesperson walks to you, you start questioning a lot (objecting) when in fact, you really are convinced already of buying the product. Why is this so?

The reason is because you wanted confirmation!

Most clients object, not because they don't like the product, but because they want to feel sure that they'll make the right decision!

2. Steps

a. Acknowledge the Objection

Acknowledging simply means simply giving back what you heard. It does not mean you
are agreeing with the client. You are simply saying you understand how they feel and
you're flexible and willing to discuss the issue further.

For example:

Client, "It costs too much,"

Sales person, "I understand cost is a big concern,"

Use the words, "I understand…"

Sometimes it's appropriate to agree with what the customer says without suggesting that this is reason not to proceed with the sale.

For Example:

Client, "It's very expensive,"

Sales Person, "Yes, it is expensive. But I think it's worth discussing whether the cost is worth what it can do for you…"

2. Ask for Elaboration

After acknowledging the problem, don't refute it right away. Ask the client to elaborate on the problem.

Use Open-ended questions:

"Why do you feel that way?"

"Can you be more specific?"

3. Transform the Objection into a Need

Every objection is just unsatisfied need!

Reframe the objection in such a way that states a need.

Example:

Customer, "Actually, I think a website is useless for us."

Sales person, "Could you elaborate on that sir, why would it be useless for you?"

Customer, "I think newspaper advertising is enough for us to get new clients."

Sales person, "I see. So you need to be convinced that a website can help you generate more new clients other than newspaper advertising. Is that right sir?"

Customer, "Yes,"

4. Respond to the Need

a) Use benefit statements

Specific benefit statements address the customer's needs-use them. Also sometimes, you need to repeat or re-emphasize the benefits you presented earlier-the client may have missed it or forgotten it.

b) Sell yourself

Explain to the customer how you will do the kinds of things that others won't do as a way to justify the objection. Talk about your commitment, your dedication, or your responsiveness.

c) Sell organization

Explain your organization's resources, capabilities, strengths, and ways of doing business can address the customer's needs.

d) Describe parallel situations

Many customers feel better knowing someone else had a similar concern and that you were able to resolve them.

e) Involve the customer

Sometimes the buyer is interested in getting your product but the objection is because of some third party who won't approve the project. In this case, use "we" and involve the buyer in problem-solving.

f) Respond with ideas

Sometimes the buyer wants to get your product but has some specific problems in proceeding (ex. No time, lack of materials, no personnel). Offer ideas or engage in problem solving to resolve the issues.


g) Use your resources

Bring your sales team.

h) Call time-out

When you've transformed the objection into a need, it's appropriate to call time-out sometimes to prepare for an adequate response.

5. Invite Other Objections

Once you have resolved all the issues (objection), the final step is to invite other objections! Ask for more negative response until there are not any more.

Don't use the words: "problems, issues, worries, or objections."

Use the following:

"Is there anything else we need to discuss?"

"Do you have any other questions?"

"Is there anything else on your mind?"

Four Levels of Idea Response

Level 1: Just plain No!
The idea or concept is just unacceptable. "I don't like websites period!" (Could be personal?)

Level 2: No, because..

The idea or concept is the main objection. Why should I have a website?

Level 3: No, but if I could..

The idea has some value to the client. But the objections are issues or of implementation, price etc. "I want to have a website, but.."

Level 4: that gives me another idea

This is where you want the client to go!

Application of the four levels of idea response

The truly consultative salesperson is the one who can grab customers by the brains, walk them up the "idea staircase" and reach a mutually acceptable solution.

The key is to find out exactly the issues to get from one level to another. Use problem solving process.



Phase V: State the Solution and Action Plan

Closing is the natural outgrowth of a problem-solving process.

1. Ask For the Business

• Most salespeople, no matter how seasoned, are at some level reluctant to ask for the business.

• After all the issues (objections) are resolved, ask for the business! Ask for the order!

• Avoid traditional manipulative techniques in closing.

• Don't be a wimp! Ask for the business!

Believe that you are giving to the customer; not taking from them!

2. Establish the Next Steps

• Clarify the steps. Clarify the timetable.

Generating Referrals
1. Getting Referrals and Testimonials:

A client referral is the best prospective client. It will make your life so much easier as the referrer can influence the decision of the prospect positively, instantly. Testimonials are powerful tools for future transactions. Don't let the opportunity pass by without getting them.

a. Referral Rewards
Our referral rewards program is one of the strengths of marketing. We give 1,000 pesos to any client that refers to us (note that only past clients are allowed to refer). Kindly ask about this for more details.

b. General Principles

• The best time to get the referral and testimonial is after the sale.

• Make it easy for your clients to write their testimonial (can be in tagalog), and referral.

• The client will earn P1,000. Make him earn it. Ask them to call the prospect if you're having a hard time.

• Keep coming back for more referrals.