Many years ago, I developed a system that has proven to work in many
small businesses around the world. When you understand and apply this
system, I believe you can close more sales because I have seen it work many
times. Trough this system, you will also confirm that you have the right
type of prospect, and you will disqualify the price shoppers (sounds nice
doesn’t it?).
Step 1. Referred By
The purpose of this step is to:
• Track marketing results. This is the best time to track marketing
results. When you find out what ad they responded to or how
they were referred to you, put that information into a tracking
system. Tis way, you will know how many prospects each ad
source is producing. And when you track your close rates on a specific source, you can determine whether that source is work-
ing well for you or not. If not, you can change the ad or train the referral source. Does the source truly have the attention and trust
of your prime target market? These are the questions that will
come from tracking how people were referred to you. If you have
a facility, ask, “Have you been to our (store, restaurant, practice,
etc.) before?” Over the phone, you would say something like,
“Have you ordered from us before?”
• Build rapport. By discovering more about why they responded
to the ad or what the person who referred them said about you
opens the door for you to learn more about them. You can then
relate to them based on what they say. For example, when they
say, “Suzy recommended your product,” you say something like,
“Great, we love Suzy, and are so glad she referred you. What did
she say about us that interested you?”
• Learn their motivation. When they share the answer to that question, you may get tremendous insight into why they chose you over someone else. This also gives you tremendous insight into how your prospects make buying decisions, which helps you dramatically improve your marketing. Depending on your industry, you might ask, “What prompted you to call today?”
Finally, you should understand the emotional reasons your prospects call you. What is the irritating problem or the exciting opportunity they are contacting you about? There may be several. Identify what they are and have a list so that during the interview process, you can connect with those.
Step 2. Connect Emotionally
There will most likely be an overarching, broad, big picture emotion that
your prospects are experiencing when they first call you. For example, if you do weddings, what kind of emotions are you dealing with? In this case you have a combination of excitement and fear happening all at once! On one hand, the bride is excited about the biggest day of her life, while at the same time gripped by fear that someone or something could ruin it all.
You may have heard that people always buy on emotion. They justify
their purchase with logic, but the sale is really made on emotion. People not
only buy things because they have to—they want to. Te emotion of “have
to” is to avoid pain; the “want to” is to get gain. One is the emotion of fear
of loss (buying insurance), the other is the emotion of desire (getting that
new Lexus).
To be phenomenally successful in sales (instead of being an “order
taker”), you must connect with the dominant emotions your prospects have.
For example, what is the dominant emotion when selecting a service company to come into your home? Fear. Are they going to send someone who is trustworthy? Be sure to connect with them with a statement like, “We know there are unscrupulous service companies out there, but we’ll help you avoid them by giving you the most phenomenal service experience ever, guaranteed or your money back.”
If the dominant emotion is excitement (like when someone arrives at
your hotel to begin their vacation), you want to connect with that and be
excited for them.
Step 3. Build Credibility
Now it’s time for you to:
• Position your company as the company of choice
• Establish trust and believability
• Get your prospects’ minds of what they think is most important
at the moment
Start this step by asking the question, “Would you mind if I take a
moment and share a little about our company and how we are different from other companies?” If you have serious prospects, they will appreciate this step. Price shoppers don’t care, they just want a price, and may say something like, “Can you just tell me how much it is?” to which you will respond,
“Absolutely, but I will need to ask you a few more questions to determine
that.” Just because they are short with you and want a price doesn’t mean
they’re a price shopper. They might just be impatient.
Rushing the sales process won’t help you or them, but you can acknowledge their sense of urgency and promise that you’ll get through it as fast as possible.
As mentioned previously, best-selling author Bob Burg says, “People do
business with those they know, like, and trust.” Your sales presentation is all
about building on these three things. Trust is critical. Tis step of building
credibility is all about trust.
To establish credibility and trust, use the short version your Five Point
Marketing Message. You will share that there are five things that set you
apart and how those things benefit the person, the prospect. Remember that number one is reputation, which is trust. At this point, keep the five point marketing message as close to 60 seconds as possible.
