Track Selling Times - January, 1999
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Track Selling Times
The Voice of the Sales Profession
Issue No. 110
January 1, 1999
Published by Max Sacks International,
Home of 100% Guaranteed World Class Sales Training, and
Developers of the Track Selling System™.
Author/Editor: Roy Chitwood, President, MSI
Archives of this letter are available at
http://www.maxsacks.com/newsletter.html
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In this issue:
Feature:
Sections:
Focus on the Professional: Steve Helbock
Ask Roy
Survey
Newsletter Archives
"The Difference between Success and Failure in Selling" by Roy E. Chitwood, CSP, CSE
It has been observed that people buy not because they understand the
products or services you are offering, but because they feel you understand
them.
Accordingly, there is one simple, yet powerful, part of Track
Selling that usually means the difference between success and failure in
sales:
Step Three - Agreement on Need.
Here, then, are five distinct attributes of the 'Agreement on Need' step:
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1. It verifies that earlier steps
have been completed successfully.
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Seventy-five percent of the likelihood of making a sale comes from the
thoroughness with which Step One (Approach) and Step Two (Qualification)
are accomplished. The 'Agreement on Need' step is really a method of
verifying that these earlier points in the sales process have taken place
favorably.
During this step, the salesperson gives a concise summary of
his/her conclusions by saying, "As I understand it, you are looking for
something that will do X,Y and Z. Is that correct?" If the prospect
disagrees with your assessment of need or otherwise balks or is hesitant in
any way, it is vital that you backtrack and redo what you missed. Then
repeat the 'Agreement on Need' step based on a new understanding.
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2. It is a green light to proceed.
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Most salespeople exchange a few pleasantries and then engage in information
dumping. This is the practice of 'presenting' features and benefits to the
prospect. At it's worst, it is seen in most car showrooms where the
salespeople reel off slick sound bytes about one or more vehicles that they
think you should have - all without consulting your needs.
But by completing the 'Agreement on Need' step, you know what the person
wants, know that they are interested in hearing what you have to say, and
you are in a position to tailor your presentation to their requirements.
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3. It lets your customers know that you understand their needs.
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Too often, salespeople conduct presentations for people who are thinking,
"This guy doesn't understand me or my company." The 'Agreement on Need' step,
therefore, must accomplish more than just satisfying the salesperson of
prospect requirements.
By letting them know that you understand, they are more inclined to listen
to you, rather than wonder about the validity of what you have to say.
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4. It's a good indication that the first
buying decision has been achieved
- selling yourself.
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There are five psychological buying decisions that a prospect has to make
in any sale. The first of these is about you, the salesperson. Can you
be trusted? Will you go out of your way to meet their needs? Are you
reliable? It is during the 'Agreement on Need' step that you normally
discover how well you've succeeded in demonstrating to the potential buyer that you are a
person of integrity and someone with whom they can relate. Without this confidence
established, few sales ever take place.
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5. In follow up calls,
'Agreement on Need' reveals changes
that might critically affect the sale.
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I'm sure many of you have had the experience of coming back to complete a
sale and doing a lengthy presentation, only to be told at the end, "By the
way, we sold the company last week. The decision is out of our hands."
The 'Agreement on Need' step, therefore, must be repeated in every call to
check if anything new has developed that might affect the sale.
By saying
something like, "The last time I was here, you were looking for X, Y and Z. Has anything
changed?" major shifts are detected at the outset and presentations can be
adapted to suit new circumstances.
So before you launch into your favorite presentation about the wonders of
your product or service, take the time to find out what the prospect really
wants and needs.
Then verify your understanding by saying, "As I understand it, you are
looking for something that will ... is that correct?" If you are unable to articulate
their needs in a concise statement, what do you think the chances are that they can do it?
Instead of conducting sales calls for their own reasons, true salespeople
make them for only one reason: to be of service to the customer. Only by
proceeding with a clear understanding of the prospect's needs are you
engaged in professional selling.
Integrity Pays:
Handling Earlier Salespeople's Dropped Balls
Tom Bligh is Vice President of Marketing and Customer Relations at Genie
Industries in Redmond, WA, a company that makes aerial access equipment for
the construction and industrial markets worldwide.
He explains how sales
integrity stretches beyond responsibility for your own actions.
What is the importance of integrity in sales?
"The professional salesperson needs to be looking beyond the immediate sale
towards a long-term relationship. If you are only interested in meeting
your monthly quota, you may end up winning the battle and losing the war.
Integrity is a long-term proposition that involves thinking about customer
needs today and how these may change tomorrow. The true professional is
aware of this and blends it in to the everyday process."
Do you have any anecdotes that illustrate this concept?
"Several years ago I was doing education presentations. At one particular
school, I'd put in a tremendous amount of work yet there was always some
objection or other factor getting in the way of the order. I couldn't
figure out what was really wrong, despite checking everything. Finally, I
asked the superintendent outright what we needed to discuss to move to a
close. He told me that he was upset about a sales rep from years before
whose dropped ball had resulted in a billing problem that continued over
many years. His hidden need was to sort out the integrity of this old
problem."
What did you do about it?
"I put in a considerable amount of time to sort it out, including
recalculating the billing and having it reprocessed. As a result, our
company ended up giving his school a credit. When I gave it to him, he
almost fell off his chair. He couldn't believe that anyone would take the
time and recalled how many salespeople he'd asked before to help with the
matter. He then finalized the order and became a long-term customer."
Tom Bligh can be contacted at: Blight@genieind.com
World Class Sales Management:
Standardizing the Sales Process
By John Berghout,
Program Manager for Sales at Puget Sound Energy, Bellevue, WA
I've spent the last four years overseeing 17 salespeople in three offices
at one of our subsidiaries. At first, we were disorganized due to having
an abundance of sales methods that made it impossible to manage. As a
consequence, we were not achieving our sales targets and suffering from a
lack of leads which made our situation worse.
We realized that we were using a flawed model as we had no formalized
process for the salespeople to follow. With each selling in their own way,
it was difficult to track how they were doing and to know when anyone
needed help. As the old saying goes, 'You can't manage what you can't
measure.'
When we discovered Track Selling, however, we found a better way. Once
everyone graduated, our closing rate increased by 10 to 15 percent.
By
implementing the same selling process throughout our organization, sales
management became even easier. Interestingly, about 80 percent of what our
salespeople were doing turned out to have been correct.
What Track Selling did, however, was to label everything, provide the
missing ingredients and present it in a system that anyone can use.
From a
manager's point of view it made a big difference. With an agreed-upon way
of analyzing sales, I not only have a road map to accomplishing sales
objectives, I can also play a meaningful role in the success of my staff.
John Berghout can be contacted at:
Jbergh@puget.com
Focus on the Professional - Steve Helbock
Steve Helbock is President of Tao Communication Inc. of San Diego, a
company specializing in sales and account management training in the
insurance industry. He began his career as an insurance agent in 1978 and
has been selling ever since. Before starting his own business in 1995, he
serviced a $45 million dollar block of business in the insurance world.
"Prior to my involvement in Track Selling I was having only limited
success. I tended to dump data on the prospect instead of dealing with
their needs. Although I was good at developing relationships, I had no
real idea how to sell the value of the product.
Fortunately, completing the three-day Max Sacks workshop changed all that.
In fact, I've completed that workshop six more times to further hone my
sales skills."
How has Track Selling helped you?
"I can now identify the needs of my customers and provide them with
solutions. I'd say that I'm particularly good at managing complex sales
calls involving multiple buyers where you must identify the needs of
several individuals before orchestrating the sale."
What is the biggest challenge in selling for you?
"I'd say the qualification step. It isn't always easy to educate a client
while identifying needs. I think most salespeople only do a superficial
job of discovering the prospect's exact requirements. What I look for are
the needs that motivate the person to look at value rather than just price.
Track Selling enables me to complete this step much more efficiently -
though there is always room for improvement. Nowadays, I do my homework
before I go on a call, so that I have some understanding of the prospects'
needs before I see them."
What do you hope to achieve in the future as a salesperson?
"I'd like to join the really big players by becoming more of a strategic
seller. Instead of just locating the needs and fulfilling one's role as a
vendor, the top 10 percent in sales have the capability to view the big
picture and work in true partnership with their customers. At this stage
in selling, there is a level of fulfillment that goes way beyond personal
gain.
The best salespeople recognize that the way to keep young and stay on top
is to keep learning. That's why I keep striving to learn the job better no
matter how successful I am."
Steve Helbock can be contacted at:
helbock@AOL.com
Ask Roy
Rudi Johnson of Boston asks
"I am spending a lot of time on presentations to prospects that tell me my
service is not for them. I work on my presentation every day, making it
better and better, but it seems to miss more times than it hits the mark.
What's wrong?"
Roy's Answer:
"Well Rudi, there are four steps in the sales process that come before you
should even give a sales presentation, and it sounds to me like you are
falling down by not being aware of these earlier steps. It is essential
that you never venture beyond 'Approach' and 'Qualification' until you
achieve a definite 'Agreement on Need'. And even then, before you launch
into your presentation, complete the 'Sell the Company' step first.
Too often, salespeople do a superficial qualification and advance onward
with the attitude that if they tell you about their great products, you'll
buy.
Wrong! The presentation should be a foregone conclusion due to the
completion of the earlier parts of the Track Selling process.
"
Reader Survey
1. What do you think of Track Selling Times?
2. What else would you like to see included?
3. If you have sales questions for Roy, or know of a salesperson, sales manager or integrity story that should be featured in Track Selling Times, mail it
to:
The Editor, Track Selling Times
c/o Max Sacks International
2442 NW Market Street #409
Seattle
WA 98107
Tel: (206) 706-4119 Fax: (206) 706-5359
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