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Business Strategies In A Recession: How to Make Relationship Building Sales Calls That Drive Loyalty
12:22 AM
I want to share important tips on how to make relationship selling calls that drive maximum loyalty. A transaction sales call is one where you are under the gun to make an impression, get in and get out...phones are ringing, people are standing in line to possibly buy your product or service and time is of the essence. A relationship sales call is one where you go out to meet a client/potential client, or they come to see you, but you have more time to do this thing right. I will list the numerous elements of the formula, but will only talk about those I feel have not been duly driven home in the marketplace. This should give you the edge when making calls on the same folks that your competition does. Speaking of which, you should know who those competing salespeople are, you should know what they say and how they say it. It's you against them..mano e mano (or however you spell that). It 's not just product against product, service against service. It starts with you against them...very very personal. If you don't know what they say or how they say things about you, against you, comparing to you..then ask your clients. Ask those you lost business to '..may I ask you what you really like about my competition and in particular what you liked about the salesperson that I can learn from....' I tell a story in my new book that is about to come out 'Ethical Theft....how to steal business from your competition' that in WWII there was a branch of the German army that studied the actions of the American Generals. They figured the more they knew about them, the better they could calculate their next strategic and tactical moves. They concluded that General George Patton was a devoted historian and would construct battle plans from those already fought at some point in the past. They took this news to Adolf Hitler and thankfully he dismissed them as a sandwich short of a picnic. Thank goodness he did, because Patton was an historian and he did fashion battle plans from historical battles. The more you know about your competition the better you can sell against them. The better you sell against them the better your chances of winning....pretty basic, eh?
A Relationship Building Sales Call: My book offers much more in-depth, but here are the essentials.
1. Do Your Homework. Where has your potential client bought before and how much have they paid? Eliminates the need to ask them '....so what is your budget?' Also eliminates the need for them to lie to you about how much of a budget they have.
2. Warm-Up. Make a personal connection with an observation you make in that first meeting or something you learned from doing your homework. You are a real person and so is this potential client....there is so much more to this relationship than making money and don't ever forget it. Loyalty between the two of you is the ultimate goal.
3. Personality Partner. Get an education on how to tap into someone's personality and how to practice the platinum rule of communicating in a style that makes them feel more comfortable and not one that makes you feel more comfortable. E-mail me if you think I need to write a blog on the 4 personality styles and how to sell to each (it's also in my book) .
4. Uncover Their Needs. More time should be spent here than on any single item in this entire formula. Shut up and listen. Find out if they are 'want' needs (would like to have but not critical) or 'must' needs.
5. Determine if This Business Is Right For You. You are under the gun to produce, I know, but don't book bad business for your company because you need the production. Bosses..don't be stupid by getting your sales folks to concentrate only on their production. I've asked many salespeople how their business is doing and they say 'awesome'...and they mean it, but meanwhile the asset is losing millions of dollars. Why? Because they thought the question meant 'are you producing your quota?'
6. Connect BIG Benefit Reasons As To Why This Client Should Use You...too many times I hear sales people talking minutia when they should be thinking and talking B I G.
7. Additional Benefits tied to client's needs..smaller, but still important.
8. Trial Close. Rarely should a client ever say no to your question of 'can we have your business'. Rarely should your salesperson be messing with objection statements (things they say of a client does not buy). Instead ask '...Ms. So and So, we reviewed the 17 big benefits to using our hotel/cruise lines/whatever business and we even talked about the 2 challenges we face that we will still work on overcoming. Are we on path that will get you to say yes to using us? The potential client says 'no....don't think so'. Your retort '...then please tell me what we must do to earn your business?' if you cannot deliver all that they need then you should not ask to confirm until you can satisfy her needs, or she has found out that no other competitor can satisfy every one of her needs as well.
9. Overcome Objections. After the trial close...move challenges/negatives into the positive column with creative ideas that you and the potential client construct. Now there is a team effort..your client helping you to help them.
10. Use a Strong Close...when you think the answer is yes. Ms. So and So... I love my competition because they are so good that we keep each other honest. Having said that I still think we are the best, we now have 18 positives and 1 negative......18 to 1 good. May I please earn the right to service your business?'
11. Follow up Sooner Than The Client Expects.
12. Seek to Improve. Make a face to face sales call on every client who used your services and ask them what you can do be better next time. Make them tell you something...there is always something you can do to improve just one thing.
13. Always Be Advancing the Sale, and Not Just Continuing. Continuance is when you make a sales call and they don't have specific needs just yet, but they will sometime in the future and you say '....I'll call you in a few months' Bad. Advancement would be...I will call you the week of March 12th and will e-mail you 2 weeks out to get a great day and time for you....' and you do it. When you advance they will be better prepared to have feedback for you.
Bosses, salespeople can make great calls, but they are making them to the wrong person. Sales people can be making great calls to the right people, but those right people have a personal/professional agenda that they cannot share with you right now (merger, going public or private...that kind of thing). If you don't think your salespeople are producing enough then go out on sales calls with them. Don't guess at what they are doing right or wrong...go with them. They may be doing everything right and it is just a matter of advancing the sale...which can take time. Even if you are doing great and you love your sales staff...get to know the clients on an intimate level. The power lies with he/she who can deliver the revenue production. Hang onto these revenue producers and by all means do not let your competition steal them. How many of you have trained your staff for the competition? Too many of you. Personally, I'd rather lose a great general manager than a great sales person who can bring in a bunch of business. If we lose the GM the clients may not even notice...but if you keep losing great salespeople...your clients will notice that something is not quite right with your operation. I expect someone to e-mail me and say how can a GM be great if they are not close to their clients and I would say you are dead right...they can't be great if they are not wired to who brings in the business.
Loyalty is the end game. You made a great sales call and as a result they used your facility. You continue to drive value and deliver more than they expected each and every time. You are well on your way to realizing a lifelong client who is loyal to you and you to them. Your client was not worth one small meeting. They are worth one small meeting 50 times over the next 10 years, not to mention every person they told to use your facility too.
Happy hunting everyone. Hope to catch you next time when I go into more detail on how to make follow-up sales calls more dynamic and compelling.
By: Don Farrell
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