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Welcome to The Art of Selling!
We have developed this section with the help of John
Oppenheim, an expert in the field of selling.
John Oppenheim - Background
What is Selling?
Selling Over the Telephone
Jonh Oppenheim - Background
John has over 30 years of experience in sales and
sales management. John is the author of Dig-in
Training, a simple and straight forward interactive sales training
program. John consults companies and business people on selling
strategies, tactics and sales management processes. John also speaks
publicly on his subject and teaches graduate-level business students.
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What is Selling?
- The way you get business.
- Something you don't think you really do.
- Getting the other party to spend money
- A though job.
Why all the stigma about selling?
When someone mentions selling, a lot of us think of
the used car salesman. For most of us, the idea of a sleazy sales
type is only made worse by our natural discomfort to ask others
for money. Of course, these descriptions are old stereotypes that
have little to do with the reality of the majority of everyday transactions
between the buyers and the sellers of products and services.
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Selling
Over the Telephone
Introduction
Most coaches really don't think of themselves as salespeople.
Let's look at the psychology of selling. First of all, we are selling
all the time even though we may not actually think of it that way.
Getting someone to do something you want them to do is selling.
What makes real selling different is that we are trying to get someone
to spend money with us.
So there is a natural reluctance on the part of most
people to engage in "selling". Most of us really don't
like to be badgered and so we don't want to be thought of that way.
But if you are offering something that you think someone needs or
wants, then you are motivated to try to get them to see things your
way. One big issue is that there may be objections to saying yes
on the part of the prospect. Learning to overcome objections is
valuable because you can move the process along without seeming
to be pushy.
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The
challenges of the current selling environment
Asking someone to part with their money is uncomfortable
for most people, including a lot of professional salespeople. After
all, there are only two answers to the question "will you hire
me as your coach?". They are "yes" and "no".
And who really wants the rejection of hearing "no"? I
sure don't. On the other hand, it is how I make my living, so I
need to understand that the question needs to be asked. I don't
assume anything. This is really true when doing it over the phone.
As the cost of travel (both time and money) becomes
higher, the telephone and the Internet are a way of contact that,
used properly, can be valuable. While the telephone is not a new
instrument for selling, it is fairly new for its uses of replacing
face-to-face meetings. We all think of the telemarketers who interrupt
our dinners but beyond that style is one that requires new thinking.
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Two
important components of the selling process
In this article focuses on a couple of aspects of
selling:
- Asking questions (listening)
-
Closing and follow-up
When buyers are looking to purchase, they are looking
for comfort, not necessarily information that may or may not be
relevant. So why put all that burden on yourself and start pitching?
Just start conversing in their language and begin to discover what
that person is looking in a service that you may offer. Sounds easy,
doesn't it? Well, if it were that easy, most people would be wildly
successful in getting new business.
When I started in sales, I was taught there were five
steps to the sales cycle:
- Approaches
- Benefits
- Closing
- Answering Objections
- Asking questions (listening)
The latter point is the one I am talking about here.
How to ask questions is an art form and it takes a lot of practice.
Most of us want to ask easy questions that usually can only be answered
by a "yes" or a "no". These are called closed-ended
questions. There really isn't room for a lengthy answer. Open-ended
questions, on the other hand, elicit responses that can lead to
a good discussion on a topic. I am amazed by the television journalists
I see who rudely say something such as "tell me why you stopped
beating your wife." They learn to demand an answer to a question
because I don't think they really know how to interview people.
I learned to ask open-ended questions very early in my sales career
and it has served me well.
What is an open-ended question? One that cannot be
answered by a "yes" or a "no." Most of these
start with a "w." Who, what, when, where, why? And one
ends with a "w" - how. With a lot of practice, a person
can learn to ask these kinds of questions and find out a lot more
information about what a prospect is seeking. Such an innocuous
question as "what got you to ask for a coach?" is one
that can get a person talking about themselves and the reason they
contacted CoachLink.
This takes a lot of practice. To be really effective
and concentrate on the question rather than how to ask it will be
an arduous process, if you aren't already doing it. When I first
learned this technique, I practiced on everyone, including my family.
It then became second nature to me and even today, I am conscious
of whether my questions are open-ended or not.
The next step in this interview process is to pause
and consider an answer or comment. Sounds pretty basic, but I have
witnessed salespeople who just go on asking questions instead of
paying attention to the answers so they can then start "selling".
If you take the time to write down the question, and then even feed
it back to the prospect, you can gain a whole lot of credibility.
You might also consider some kind of "script"
to guide you. CoachLink provides the information from its online
client survey and this can be a good guide to the type of questions
you want to ask. If you put down those questions ahead of time,
you will be asking and confirming the "prospect's" needs.
You don't want to have the call sound scripted, but a little practice
ahead of time and going over your questions can make it look like
you are just conversing. As a matter of fact, it might even help
to let them know that you are just calling to ask them questions
and not to "sell" them on anything. Letting them know
ahead of time that you will be asking questions might put them at
ease.
The more you get them to talk, the more comfortable
they will be with you. After all, on this first call, they are evaluating
you, not really looking for more than that comfort mentioned earlier.
Again, though, even if you already know you can help that person
and coach them successfully, you don't want to jump ahead of the
process.
At some point in the call, you may be told that this
person is really comfortable with you and would like to proceed
with an engagement. Listen for the clues! Once in a while, if they
aren't responsive, ask them if you are asking the kind of question
they would like you to ask. This is a "trial close" that
should elicit an answer that tells you whether or not your are on
track. If that big "yes" appears, stop and ask a question
that confirms they want to hire you. It doesn't have to be that
blunt, but you do have to ask if they would like to proceed with
an engagement one way or another.
You might be told that they "want to think it
over". This is legitimate and OK. You do, however, want to
ask their permission to call back after a period of time to see
if they want to proceed. Sometimes they may not even want you to
initiate the call. That may be an indication that they are not comfortable
with you and would like to talk to someone else. At least you have
asked the closing question.
On the other hand, there may not be any clear indication
that you have gotten them to feel comfortable with you. This is
one of the problems with the telephone. You can't read facial and
body expressions. As stated above, it can be legitimate that they
need time to think it over. So you need some vehicle to keep your
name and thoughts in front of them.
Therefore, after the call, it might be a good
idea to summarize the questions and answers and send them to the
prospect, outlining what was said and restating the points that
were discussed. This way you are also getting agreement on what
the discussion points were, or maybe a correction to some of your
assumptions. In either case, you are building the case for them
engage you. It can be the basis for a follow-up presentation or
part of a proposal wherein you state some of the problems and the
solutions your can bring to them. This is something that is rarely
done today.
Contact John Oppenheim
with your questions.
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