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The real key to sales and persuasive success, on the phone
or face-to-face, is in the entire PROCESS.
Using the context of the professional sales call, that process involves: 1. Your
Opening. The
result of a good one is putting someone in a positive, receptive frame of mind
and moving him to the questioning phase of the call. 2.
Questioning.
Here, we help move them more into a frame of mind where they not only
give us information, but also think about their problems,
pains, or desires. Then they are
much more likely to be receptive to our next step. 3.
Recommendation. Just
like a doctor, we prescribe the appropriate solution for their situation.
But notice, it comes after the questioning. 4.
Commitment.
This is where we simply validate everything that has taken place up to
this point. Theoretically, if we've
done a stellar job thus far, they would volunteer the sale--which does happen,
albeit not often enough for any of us. Therefore
we still do need to ask. But if I were a new salesperson starting out, I
wouldn't focus all of my self-improvement time on learning "closing
techniques" at the expense of the other steps in the process.
After all, if a person went up to a stranger in a bar, it wouldn't make
much difference whether he said, "How would you feel about marrying
me?" or "What would you think about marrying me?" On the
other hand, if they were dating for quite some time and the person was wildly in
love with the other, it wouldn't matter how the question was ultimately phrased,
as long as it was asked. Don't get
me wrong, incorrect word usage can cause your sales demise, and I've helped lots
of people make plenty of money by choosing the right words to evoke the emotions
and actions they are looking for. Successful
sales is using the right words within the process. |
