 Track Selling Times - June, 2001
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Track Selling Times
The Voice of the Sales Profession
Issue No.139
June 1, 2001
Published by Max Sacks International,
Home of 100% Guaranteed World Class Sales Training
Developers of the Track Selling System™.
Author/Editor: Roy Chitwood, President, MSI
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Feature:
Sections:
Newsletter Archives
"Revisiting the basics: The Track Selling System
by Roy E. Chitwood, CSP, CSE |
At the end of each newsletter we ask for your comments and suggestions on how to improve Track Selling Times and provide you with more real-world value. During the past several months we've received numerous requests for us to revisit the basic fundamentals of selling and that's the focus of this feature.
It's been our experience that repetition is, in fact, the mother of skill. This is evidenced by the experience many of our graduates share with us at the end of a Track Selling System workshop. Almost without exception, an attendee says that she received more from the program each time she completed the workshop. That the concepts, while basic on the surface, run much deeper and are more powerful the more you learn and use them.
Once you've learned the Track Selling System process, it's the only selling process that you will ever need to learn. All other sales education material that you review, such as SPIN Selling, Strategic Selling, etc., will only compliment this process.
Several years ago in an article for Master Salesmanship, I wrote, "The sales profession is undergoing a historic change. All salespeople must decide where they stand in relation to this change. On the path from the past, pseudo-salespeople maneuver, ambush, trick and cajole customers into buying a product or service. On the path to the future, up-front, empathetic, professional salespeople serve their customers as advisors, counselors and even partners." I believe we're now there.
Our contacts with thousands of salespeople have convinced me, that to succeed today's salesperson must make the customer's needs primary. If the customer doesn't benefit from a sale, the sale shouldn't take place. And the best way to uncover and meet those needs is to use the Track Selling System. So here is a capsule outline of the Five Buying Decisions every prospect must make before buying, the seven steps of the scientific Track Selling System that are based on helping the prospect make those buying decisions, followed by the Six Buying Motives that motivate a person to buy.
The Five Buying Decisions
There are Five Buying Decisions people make (often subconsciously) when you're trying to sell them something. Once you know these Five Buying Decisions, you can conduct your sales interview so that each of your prospect's decisions is positive.
Decision 1: About you, the salesperson. Your integrity. Your judgment.
Decision 2: About your company. Is it dependable? Can it support service after the sale?
Decision 3: About your product or service, factual details. Can the product/service solve my problem? My needs?
Decision 4: About your price. Is the product or service affordable? People don't really buy because of price, they buy because of value. Don't push price, sell value.
Decision 5: About time. The customer has made the first four decisions and found you are a decent, likeable person with integrity and good judgment. Your company sounds honest and capable. Your product or service fills a genuine need or solves a genuine problem. Your price is fair in terms of value received. The only thing left to decide is WHEN to buy. When that's all that is left to decide, it's time to ask for the order.
The Seven Steps of the Track Selling System
The seven steps of the Track Selling System parallel the Five Buying Decisions. Their purpose is to help your prospects make each decision positively.
Step 1: Approach. Because the first few minutes with customers have a tremendous impact on whether you make the sale, your initial approach must include two essential factors: professional integrity and a well-groomed personal appearance. Approach customers with the knowledge that your job is to be of service to her.
Step 2: Qualification. This is your information-gathering period. Here you will qualify the person as a genuine prospect and uncover the problems or needs that exist so you can present your product's benefits in their most attractive light. You determine whether there is a need for your
product/service, who the company's decision-maker is, and whether your product/service fits into his budget.
Step 3: Agreement On Need. Here you summarize for your prospects the information you gathered in Step 2 to verify and clarify the facts. You demonstrate your understanding of your prospect's unique problems and needs.
Step 4: Sell the Company. Your prospects want to know about your company. Does it operate with integrity? Does it have the competence and capability to perform as promised? In this step, you supply your prospects with the information she needs to make this decision.
Step 5: Fill the Need. Prospects want to know about the product or service you sell and the price. In this step you show your prospects how your product or service solves his problems or fills his needs precisely and the value he will receive.
Step 6: Act of Commitment. This is the closing step, during which, you ask for the order or the Act of Commitment. Closing requires the ability to overcome the prospect's F.U.D.'s (fears, uncertainties, or doubts about you or your product or service).
Step 7: Cement the Sale. People buy emotionally, then justify their buying decision logically. In this step you "cement" in your prospects' minds the reasons that they used to make their purchasing decisions, sound and intelligent so that your sales will wear well.
As I cited earlier, also at play are the Six Buying Motives that are influencing you prospect's decision. These Six Buying Motives are not presented in any special order. No one is more important than another, but at least one of these motives - and often more than one - applies to every purchase, every time.
1. Desire for Gain - $. This is a relatively simple one. A prospect purchases your product or service expecting some financial gain from it such as increased sales or improved productivity.
2. Fear of Loss - $. This motive refers to the fear of financial loss if the product or service is not acquired. The Y2k scenario is a perfect example of people buying a product or service out of the fear of loss they would have suffered on Jan. 1, 2000, had they not done so.
3. Comfort and Convenience. Perhaps a person purchases a new automobile with a leather interior and premium sound system. These are not necessities, however, they motivate this particular buyer as if they were.
4. Security and Protection. People make innumerable purchases motivated by the desire to avoid physical harm to themselves, their loved ones or their property. A business that installs a monitored security system or a young family purchasing a life insurance policy are examples.
5. Pride of Ownership. Why do people buy a Mercedes or Jaguar and then encase the license in a frame that reads "Mercedes" or "Jaguar"? The reason is because they take pride in owning these vehicles. It's that simple.
6. Satisfaction of Emotion. Why buy a birthday gift for a co-worker or take him out to lunch on his special day? Besides your being considerate, giving this person something is emotionally satisfying.
Each of these Six Buying Motives is emotional not logical. This point cannot be emphasized strongly enough. Once again, people buy emotionally and then justify their purchase logically. To sell effectively, you must fix the idea in your mind that everybody buys for emotional reasons, learn to detect which motives are influencing your prospect, and then, highlight the features and benefits of your product or service that satisfy these motives.
Making a sale isn't an event. It's a process. And that's exactly what the Track Selling System is: a process for selling. If you learn it, use it and master it, its track record ensures your success.
Integrity Pays:
"Courteous and knowledgeable support staff
are becoming rare"
by Liz James
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Liz James operates Liz James Management, a public relations and business consulting firm based in Victoria, B.C. She has more than ten years of experience in public relations and is a consultant with Max Sacks International.
In my business, I spend 85-90 percent of my time on the telephone. My daily interactions range from CEO's and publishers at major publications, to editorial and administrative assistants just getting their start. Without question, the biggest frustration I experience, and the most glaring deficiency I see in the support staff of many businesses, is a lack of basic courtesy and business etiquette coupled with a solid understanding of the business (the product or service, operating procedures of various departments, responsibilities of specific senior staff, etc.).
I'm continually amazed that I talk to companies everyday and their front line people - who should be promoting the quality of their company's product in every way - rarely pick up the phone and ask, "How are you today?" "How can I help you today?" It's funny that a fast-food restaurant, like McDonald's, will ask a nine year old who's pulling pennies out her pocket to buy an ice cream cone, this basic question without fail, yet most companies - whose customers spend exponentially more than the 89 cents - don't ask the same.
Obviously, the senior staff isn't knowingly promoting ignorance or disregard to their front line people. So, I'm beginning to think that the top-level doesn't know what their front line people are doing. For example, last week I called a business publication and asked the receptionist if I could speak with the publisher. He wasn't available so then I asked for information regarding several other contacts. I provided their names and titles and asked what their responsibilities were. The woman became unglued and was obviously frustrated at my asking these questions, as well as, her lack of information. She finally said, "I don't know. They're in another department."
On another occasion, I called a New York radio station and asked the receptionist if the host of the radio program was conducting any on air interviews because I was working with a prominent executive who had received significant media coverage in the past and would be in town. I was curtly told, "We're not hiring," to be followed by a dial tone.
The economic boom of the past several years is over. Hence Darwinism in business is becoming prominent - it's now truly survival of the fittest. With shrinking profit margins and this dog-eat-dog climate, it's imperative that companies protect every external contact like gold. And I believe a few of the weapons they can use are a return to the basics of excellent customer service, business etiquette and a sound knowledge of the business.
World Class Sales Management:
Act, don't react, to remain competitive in today's economy
by Ray Felix
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Ray Felix is Regional Manager and Senior Instructor for Max Sacks International, located in Southern California, and a former 35 year executive in the forestry products industry, specializing in corrugated containers and folding cartons.
Upon being interviewed for Track Selling Times and discussing the various sections of this month's edition, an overriding question surfaced: how can companies and salespeople remain profitable during the current economic crawl? My immediate response was, as we teach in our workshops, you (companies and salespeople alike) must act, not react.
Go back through history and the one constant has been that nothing's constant. There's always change. This is obvious, right? But if so, why do so many companies and salespeople fail to change as well?
In my opinion, the most powerful step any company, or individual salesperson, can take during very difficult times, is to get back to the basics of what we teach. That is, selling is a people business and you must always be serving the interests of your clients and meeting their needs.
Almost without exception, most experienced salespeople who are struggling are doing so because they're in "react-mode" in one of two ways. The first is that since they already have a client, they put servicing this client on the backburner. while they chase new accounts. They fail to remain in frequent contact with the client and therefore aren't regularly asking questions about how the business is going, how the client's needs have changed, and most importantly, whether anything in the business has changed. The second way is they don't realize that they must always continue to prospect. They become complacent and don't work as hard as they have in the
past.
Both of these oversights are fine - on paper - during an economy that's peaking. However, the true litmus test comes when budgets are slashed, staff is dropped and the entire focus of a company becomes one of survival. It's during these times that salespeople who haven't remained in the 'people business' begin reacting, not acting. If a salesperson hasn't been intimately in-tune with the affairs of their clients business, anticipated changes, and made a plan with the client to help them overcome their challenges, they'll be dropped as they won't be considered business critical. And since the salesperson has slacked on her prospecting, when she reacts and tries tapping into her contact pipeline, it will dry up faster than a mud puddle in Tahiti.
That's one of the greatest benefits of the Track Selling System workshops. In that, we teach people how to sell, and more critically, we teach them about people and how to relate to them. Never forget that it's your people knowledge that makes your product knowledge pay off. We're all in the people business.
Focus on the Professional -
"Spencer Stewart"
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Spencer Stewart is Vice President of Sales of Seattle, Wash.-based essention, Inc., an application service provider (ASP) of property and facility management solutions. Stewart has brought more than 12 years of commercial real estate brokerage and eight years of property management experience to this position. For more information, please visit www.essention.com.
When did you take the workshop and what were the immediate results?
I attended the Seattle workshop in February 2001 and, as the VP of Sales, it's my responsibility to build my sales team up in the knowledge of sales. I've never seen a program that provides the skeleton on which I can hang my sales reps personality. It's a consistent framework that works with any sales person new or experienced, huge ego or ego-free.
Within days of completing the workshop, I delivered three telephone presentations using the seven steps. Each one resulted in the prospect saying, "No," to the very powerful questions: "If we can ..., can you think of any reason why we shouldn't.?" That means they committed! Due to the long sales cycle for my product (three to eight months), each Act of Commitment is crucial. In each instance, all the prospect could say was, "No." I guess it's a bit shocking not to hear them squirm or try to wriggle out of the appointment, but to simply say, "No," and nothing else.
What's been your biggest learning experience?
The power and effectiveness of the questioning techniques taught. By asking fact-finding, feeling-finding and open-ended questions throughout the entire qualification process, my prospects reveal their true thoughts and lead me directly to their needs. It removes the guesswork, eliminates my possible objections prior to them becoming objections, and ironically, helps the prospect feel as if he's in control. And, after a client answers a question, it's amazing what responses you get to deep and thoughtful follow up comments like, "Tell me more," "Wow," "I see," "I can appreciate that," or, "Is that so?"
How have your prospects reacted to this newly found approach?
Very favorably. In fact, I've begun to create meeting agendas around the seven steps. In one case the client even reviewed the agenda and wrote back saying it looked just right (in other words, they want to be sold and I'm helping them get there).
Book Review -
The Myth of Excellence: Why Great Companies Never
Try to Be the Best at Everything
by Fred Crawford, Ryan Mathews
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The essence of The Myth of Excellence: Why Great Companies Never Try to Be the Best at Everything is printed on the back cover. It reads, "Tired of business drivel? If you are ready to step beyond platitudinous mission statements and strategies cooked up in distant boardrooms that have no connection to the trenches where business battles are actually being fought, this is the book for you. It is grounded, readable, and honest -- just like your business should be."
Crawford, Executive Vice President of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's consumer products consulting practice, and Mathews interviewed more than 10,000 consumers and dozens of executives worldwide to learn what they really wanted from the companies from whom they bought products and services. What they discovered was shocking. Consumers - more than anything - are looking for companies with values such as respect, honesty, trust and fairness, not companies that merely provide product or service value.
However, most companies, who are still fooled by the myth of excellence and continue to try to be the best at everything (price, product, access, experience, service) usually end up being only marginal at all things. The authors suggest a company dominate one of these elements, differentiate on a second, and be at par for the other three. Doing so will build upon shared values and increase customer loyalty.
If you're willing to analyze your company's practices with brutal honesty, the Myth of Excellence can help you chart a new course. It provides an effective model that your company can follow to improve customer loyalty and satisfaction, and thus, increase profits. And we all want that.
| Ask Roy
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Laurie Glenn of Baltimore asks:
"I'm on the support team of a large sales organization but am not in the field myself. My annual review is approaching and I want to highlight my accomplishments, detail how I can compliment the company moving forward as well as request a pay increase. What's the best way to broach this during the review?"
Roy's Answer:
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I believe the best way to sell any product, service or idea is to put it on 'track' with the Track Selling System. Selling is selling is selling. When asking for a raise or promotion, there's little difference between you and a salesperson in the field. In this instance, your boss is your prospect and you're the commodity (product or service). You must help your boss answer his or her five buying decisions about you positively. And you accomplish this by following the seven steps of the Track Selling System and appealing to his or her most dominant Buying Motives.
Prior to your meeting, go through the seven steps and note three to five of your top personal strengths (features) and the benefits they yield for the company, so you're prepared to speak to each. Also, make certain that you project into the future about what you can do for the company (an idea to save the company money, a customer retention plan, etc.) rather than dwell
on what you've done.
For example, when my former director of communications asked me for a raise during his annual review several years ago, he identified three specific communications expenditures our company was making monthly. He showed how he could take all three in-house, perform the work himself, and earn the raise he was seeking, while still saving our company a significant amount of money. This was a no-brainer because the investment in him was less than we were already spending and his performance had assured me that he was up to the task. So, whether you're trying to get a raise or make a record-breaking sale, the Track Selling System can help.
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| Reader Survey
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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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