Source: ACCA Contractor Excellence
The first part of this article covered the first ingredient in detail, so this part will cover the remaining 4 – who you represent, your product, the price, and time.
Who You Represent
This ingredient is quite often missed, as we quite often assume (wrongly) that as we are talking to a particular customer, it must mean that the customer is happy with the company – why else would the customer be in contact with me?
In every business, there is competition, and with competition comes comparisons. Your customers will want to compare your company (who you represent) with other companies selling a like product or service. You need to be able to sell your company to your prospective client.
So how is this done?
Remember the main steps to a sale as outlined in the first part of this article? Which of these steps is the best one to highlight your company.
The answer is: Service!
The best way to incorporate this vital element is to flow directly from the trial close. For example, if you have just completed a world class feature/function/benefit presentation of your product, and asked a question like, “So, on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is that you want to go ahead with this now, where are you?
Your customer may answer, “Well, subject to the price being right, it could well be a 10.” So, now you can follow up with, “Before I get you some great numbers, allow me to share with you the most important reason so many people do business, and continue to do business with us here at World Class Business.
Then share your service program with them. Do this with a “Why Buy Here” book. This is normally a 3 ring binder with plastic sleeves, holding documentation about your services and business. It could contain copies of letters from satisfied customers – an “evidence manual” if you like. You could include photographs of the service team – make it personal. If any of you would like help in putting something like this together, please contact me. You could take it a step further by filming your team and your facility and either play it or e-mail it to your client.
In this industry, your clients know that it is not just a matter of if; it is a matter of when they will need to use your service operation. They need to know that they will be looked after when this happened and they also need to know who will be looking after them. This will make both parties feel good about who they are dealing with. And, this one step will set you apart from your competition, because your competition is not doing this – they are all about selling the product and not the business!
Product – As I said in part 1, this is probably the easiest of the 5 ingredients to master.
The reason I make that statement is that you will normally have your presentations well rehearsed in order to either satisfy a concern or create a need and want to purchase.
The main steps to a sale for this ingredient are the interview, selecting the product or service, and the feature/function/benefit presentation.
If the interview is done correctly, you will know what your customer is looking for, his or her rough budget, and their “hot buttons.” Hot buttons are benefits, and normally come in the form of safety, performance, appearance, comfort, economy, and durability.
Once you find out these hot buttons, you can now tailor your presentation to match what the customer wants.
Remember this – customers will normally buy what they want – this may not necessarily be what they need.
Our job as salespeople is to help customers to buy. That is different from selling. Let them know about your product or service, give them options and allow them to make an informed decision.
Price.
The steps to use to sell the price of the product are:
All of them!
Why? Because very rarely is a sale about price. It is all about value. If a customer does not see particular value in your product or service, then in order for you to still make a sale, you will need to cut your price.
Where will customers see value? They need to see it first and foremost in you, so make sure you follow the guidelines I went through in part one. You need to make sure you select the right product or service to present to the customer – something to fit his budget, and more importantly, something to fit his wants and needs – this is where the interview and product selection come into play.
The feature/function/benefit presentation is hugely important in building value – remember that customers buy benefits, not features, so make sure you don’t talk about a feature without talking about what that feature will do for your customer.
The evidence manual will build value, too – the more value you build, the less important the price becomes.
Once you have the value built to match the price – you have sold this vital ingredient.
Time.
Why is time an important ingredient?
You have to sell your customer that now is the best time to make this purchase. You do this by talking about any specials or sales you have going on at the moment. You need to create the sense of urgency – this could be done by explaining what could happen if your customer put off the purchase until a later time – how much could it potentially cost? Customers are more afraid losing something, so use this fact to create urgency.
To recap – you need to sell yourself, the business you represent, the product itself, the price of that product, and the fact that there will never be a better time than now to make this purchase.
If you miss the sale, look back to see which of these 5 ingredients is missing – it will be one or more of them.