By John Hertel
December 17, 2007

In this issue, we will wrap up the 6 Step Selling Process Overview. In previous issues, we reviewed Steps 1 to 4: Preparation, Approach, Discovery, and Solution Design (click to review article 1 and article 2). Through these four steps, the sales professional will have successfully targeted the right customer, qualified the opportunity, gained trust, insight, and knowledge regarding the customer’s challenges and priorities, and have formulated a solution.

Now it’s time to present the solution, handle any objections, and close and implement the sale. If each of the first four steps were executed well, this part should be pretty straight forward and a natural extension of your discussions. Your client should be welcoming this part and anxious to move forward. However, because the anticipation and expectation is high, it is also a point in the sales process where a poor performance can be very disappointing for the client and may put the sale in jeopardy.

Often, your client contact will have set up this meeting to involve other members of the leadership and decision making team. He or she is trusting that you will deliver a compelling presentation and that the other members of the team will support the effort and time spent to get to this stage. Your contact’s credibility is often as much at stake as yours.

I’ll use primarily point form again to highlight key points.

Step 5 - Presentation

Bringing it all together …. The moment of truth

Summary Tips

1. Be organized – build the presentation to fit the time allotted by the client
2. Be professional – keep it simple, stick to the issues identified in the Discovery
3. Involve the customer - link it clearly to the customer’s own words expressed in the Discovery
4. Sell benefits – answer the “So what?" question
5. Be passionate – do what is right, believe in your solution

Organize Your Presentation

• Always use an agenda and have your customer confirm that this agenda will meet his/her expectations.
  Sample:
  • Introductions & Agenda Review
  • Review Current Situation (recap from the Discovery and have customer validate your summary)
  • Demonstration (or description of your solution)
  • Recommendation
  • Next Steps (having a list of next steps on the agenda is also a form of an ‘assumptive close’)

Benefits vs. Features No matter how experienced we are, we all fall into the trap of focusing on features more than benefits. Even when we look at most Marketing collateral that is produced, it is very feature oriented Features talk to feeds and speeds; durability, design, and specifications Benefits talk to what is derived from the features – answers the, “So what?” question. What does it mean to your customer’s business?

Use Professional Tools and Techniques

• Don’t PowerPoint your customer to death
• Use a mix of media and hands-on materials if possible
• When using PowerPoint, create some visual impact, and restrict each page to 3 – 5 key points with about 5 words per point
• Talk to the content – don’t read it to your customer

Uncover the Real Objections

• What the customer says may not be the whole story. When customers balk at your proposal and provide you with a simple generic response like: “The price is too high” they might really mean something quite different like:
  • “I don’t really see any value that would tell me to pay more than I can buy it from your competitor” or
  • “It might be worth it but I am almost out of budget for this year” or
  • “I can’t do this without some financing help” or “I can’t really make the decision on this topic; it really belongs in Marketing”
  • “This is out beyond my level of signing authority and my boss will be a tough sell”
  • It is really important to pursue the objection with an open mind
  • Ask questions of clarification
  • Probe until you find out the whole story

Guidelines for Closing the Sale

• ASK for the sale! It sounds so simple but it remains the primary shortcoming of most sales professionals
• Trial close throughout the presentation – it helps you clarify where you stand and how you are doing
• Negotiate the tough points before trying to close – e.g. no point hiding the fact that your delivery window is outside of the customers expectations
• Recognize buying signals e.g.
  • When your customer asks you questions like “Did you say that the ABC company has been using this for the past year?
  • Acknowledgements - “That would really help my team be more efficient”
  • Checking availability, dates - “Would you be able to ship to all of our locations within the same week?”
  • Body language – head nodding positively to your key points

Pick a Few Closes that Work for You

• Assumptive language through an open question or suggestion action is very effective at moving towards a close without putting yourself in a yes or no situation.
  Samples:
  • "What would be the best day…?"
  • "When should we meet with your team for the delivery…?"
  • "How will we train your sales team on…?"
  • "Who is the person I should see about the purchase order…?"
  • "I’ll set up a meeting to …"
  • "I’ll get the orders in motion…"

Step 6 - Implementation

Often, as Sales Professionals we think that the sales cycle is over when the customer says yes. But the research clearly shows that from the customers’ point of view it’s not over until the implementation is complete, they have received an accurate invoice, and they have made payment.

Many repeat sales are lost because of poor implementation, so it is important to view this step as the beginning of the next sale. Although this step is described briefly in this article, it is a critically important part of the 6 Step Selling Process.

During the Implementation phase the Sales Professionals’ goals are to: a) Follow through on promises, b) Follow up to ensure satisfaction, and c) Prospect for the next order

Summary Tips

• Build your capabilities to execute for your end users i.e. don’t over sell
• Be visible – communicate frequently; follow-up to ensure commitments are kept
• Be accountable for issues – own the problem; never point fingers toward someone else or another department
• Learn through the implementation of gaps or business problems still to be solved
• Expand your network of key contacts – leverage the current project to gain support for the next

For more information about this article, please contact John Hertel.