I’ve already shared a little bit of this strategy with you, and many of you have seen me teach this live at boot camps. It is so crucial. Close your sales presentation with an open ended, positive question. Let me break that down for you before I get to the million dollar question.
Open-ended means that you are stating a question in a way that it is going to encourage a full answer. You aren’t going to allow your potential customer to get away with saying something like no, yes, uh-huh or any other answer that doesn’t give the opportunity to know exactly what they are thinking about your product, service, business, etc. This type of question also clearly lets the business prospect know that you are finished with your presentation, and it’s their turn to ask questions or voice concerns.
Let me give you a few examples for those of you that sell real estate: “John and Christie, what did you like best about the home?”
Do you see how that question empowers the buyer to not only answer the question fully, but also to focus on the positive things that they like about the house first? What you are doing is you are extracting, developing, and building from them a positive response. What if you would have said this instead: “John and Christie, what did you think about the home?”
That’s a horrible question! Why? Because most people “think” negative. You never want to ask anyone what they “think” about your product, service, business or whatever your selling. Those are weak words and don’t empower the buyer to do anything other than to complain.
After you ask the open-ended, positive question, you just listen to their response and then build off of that response to handle their questions and concerns. I already let the cat out of the bag in which it is likely obvious to you that the real million dollar closing question is “What did you like best about it?” You will just replace the “it” with whatever you are selling.
The next few strategies are short and sweet and tie together so make sure that you are taking notes and not skipping ahead on the reading.
Champion Tip: Always use open-ended positive questions at the end of your presentation to empower your buyer to answer the question fully and in a positive manner.
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Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Shotgun Versus Sniper
No, I’m not talking about the military. Listen up…Everyone walks into sales presentations like a shotgun. They try to blow up their prospects with tons of information, details, statistics and other useless knowledge. The presentation is not structured and takes too much time. The tactic is to confuse them to close them. Unfortunately, there are many sales managers that teach this tactic and it’s completely unethical. I can guarantee you that anyone that teaches or uses that type of closing strategy does not have long-lasting, profitable relationships.
Instead, be a sniper during your presentation. Know exactly what you need to cover briefly in order to close the sale and open the relationship. Share with them just enough to pique their interest and generate questions. If you expect to handle every objection and every concern during your presentation, you are wasting your time. You can handle the majority of them, but there’s simply no way that you will be able to tackle every question and concern during the initial presentation.
Unlike a shotgun, a sniper will focus in and take one shot at their target. No, I’m not saying to annihilate your customer, but you have to be as focused as a sniper on your ultimate goal. Your target is to close every sale and open up a long-term prosperous relationship. You don’t want to just confuse the daylights out of the person, close the sale and move on to the next victim. Once again, that’s unethical and no way to build a prosperous business.
Here’s a bonus for you. Most sales presentations should be limited to one hour. Yes, that’s only 60 minutes in which you will present your business/product for the first 30 minutes. The remaining 30 minutes will be completely devoted to any questions or concerns voiced by your customer. After you finish your presentation, ask them, “What did you like best about it?” This empowers the person to speak positively about your presentation. This is their time so just let them talk and ask questions. You basically shut-up and listen at this point.
Let’s say for real estate, the time of the showing will vary due to the factors involved in showing the home, but still don’t drag out the showing. Be prompt and courteous of the buyer’s time. After the showing, ask the buyer, “What did you like best about the house?” Of course, they will tell you the positive side of things after the question. This question will lead into them telling you what they didn’t like about the house such as they really wanted a view of the ocean. You still have the upper hand in this situation, because you can respond with something like, “Excellent! As a matter of fact, I have three more homes with that a view of the ocean that I can show to you tomorrow.” Even though that house wasn’t for the buyer, you listened and focused in on the buyer’s need to have the opportunity to show them a few other properties.
I know that I can sell product that I believe in, and I mean anything - real estate, high-end cars, furniture, nutrition, kitchen cabinets, anything under the sun, etc. Give me a sales presentation to do, and I will outsell the number one salesman, I guarantee it. It’s not based on my knowledge of the product. The end result of the sale is all about my belief in myself, the product and the sniper sales process. I’m confident that I can show the plan, handle the objections, close the sale and open a relationship with the prospect. It’s not difficult. You just have to be laser-focused!
That's why most salespeople never achieve any success, because they never get to the point. They just go on and on and on and on and on and on. Excuse my language, but I call it diarrhea of the mouth. By the time the salesperson is finished, the client has already decided not to invest in the product. All that useless information is highly ineffective and completely unnecessary.
You have to out-listen your competition. Since you know that most sales professionals talk too much, just make the decision to out-listen them. Listen to that potential client’s questions and concerns like you are being told the biggest secret in the world. You have to have ears like Dumbo tuned into every word that they are saying. Of course, your ultimate goal is to outsell your competition, but you have to out-listen first and then your sales will skyrocket.
Champion Tip: Become a sniper and focus on your target. Out-listen to outsell your competition.
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Instead, be a sniper during your presentation. Know exactly what you need to cover briefly in order to close the sale and open the relationship. Share with them just enough to pique their interest and generate questions. If you expect to handle every objection and every concern during your presentation, you are wasting your time. You can handle the majority of them, but there’s simply no way that you will be able to tackle every question and concern during the initial presentation.
Unlike a shotgun, a sniper will focus in and take one shot at their target. No, I’m not saying to annihilate your customer, but you have to be as focused as a sniper on your ultimate goal. Your target is to close every sale and open up a long-term prosperous relationship. You don’t want to just confuse the daylights out of the person, close the sale and move on to the next victim. Once again, that’s unethical and no way to build a prosperous business.
Here’s a bonus for you. Most sales presentations should be limited to one hour. Yes, that’s only 60 minutes in which you will present your business/product for the first 30 minutes. The remaining 30 minutes will be completely devoted to any questions or concerns voiced by your customer. After you finish your presentation, ask them, “What did you like best about it?” This empowers the person to speak positively about your presentation. This is their time so just let them talk and ask questions. You basically shut-up and listen at this point.
Let’s say for real estate, the time of the showing will vary due to the factors involved in showing the home, but still don’t drag out the showing. Be prompt and courteous of the buyer’s time. After the showing, ask the buyer, “What did you like best about the house?” Of course, they will tell you the positive side of things after the question. This question will lead into them telling you what they didn’t like about the house such as they really wanted a view of the ocean. You still have the upper hand in this situation, because you can respond with something like, “Excellent! As a matter of fact, I have three more homes with that a view of the ocean that I can show to you tomorrow.” Even though that house wasn’t for the buyer, you listened and focused in on the buyer’s need to have the opportunity to show them a few other properties.
I know that I can sell product that I believe in, and I mean anything - real estate, high-end cars, furniture, nutrition, kitchen cabinets, anything under the sun, etc. Give me a sales presentation to do, and I will outsell the number one salesman, I guarantee it. It’s not based on my knowledge of the product. The end result of the sale is all about my belief in myself, the product and the sniper sales process. I’m confident that I can show the plan, handle the objections, close the sale and open a relationship with the prospect. It’s not difficult. You just have to be laser-focused!
That's why most salespeople never achieve any success, because they never get to the point. They just go on and on and on and on and on and on. Excuse my language, but I call it diarrhea of the mouth. By the time the salesperson is finished, the client has already decided not to invest in the product. All that useless information is highly ineffective and completely unnecessary.
You have to out-listen your competition. Since you know that most sales professionals talk too much, just make the decision to out-listen them. Listen to that potential client’s questions and concerns like you are being told the biggest secret in the world. You have to have ears like Dumbo tuned into every word that they are saying. Of course, your ultimate goal is to outsell your competition, but you have to out-listen first and then your sales will skyrocket.
Champion Tip: Become a sniper and focus on your target. Out-listen to outsell your competition.
self help magazines
financial self help
Commitment - Most People Quit. Will You?
Let’s say that you are in real estate and you show a home to a couple in September 2008. They don’t purchase the home from you, but you send a thank you card and keep them in the loop of your business. Three years later, they are looking to purchase another home. Most likely, the realtor that sold them a home quit, moved or changed phone numbers, but you have been dripping on them. Now, they are ready to upgrade. Maybe they purchased a townhouse for $150,000.00 from the first realtor. Now, they want to purchase an $800,000.00 home. They see the yearly refrigerator calendar that you mailed them during the holidays and called you to see property.
Isn’t that awesome? That’s what happens when you commit to opening up long-term relationships with clients. It actually happened with me and my current broker. I didn’t use his services initially, but he kept sending me information and caught my eye with some of his promos. It was nearly four years before I engaged in any type of business with him. I saw that he was committed to his business and believed that he would be just as committed to my business with him.
Are you committed? Will you quit? If you are going to quit in whatever product or service you are doing right now, just please quit now for the benefit of the other ethical, moral champions involved in sales and marketing. Please quit now and let those who have a right to earn huge income do it when they have an ethical and moral product and/or service. BUT if you are truly committed to the process, then take action and start implementing the strategies that you have learned in this book to radically increase your sales ration and open up hundreds of long-term relationships.
Champion Tip: Stay committed and follow-up on the relationships that you have opened up. You will build trust with them through your commitment of opening up long-term relationships and earn the right to do business with them.
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self help project
Isn’t that awesome? That’s what happens when you commit to opening up long-term relationships with clients. It actually happened with me and my current broker. I didn’t use his services initially, but he kept sending me information and caught my eye with some of his promos. It was nearly four years before I engaged in any type of business with him. I saw that he was committed to his business and believed that he would be just as committed to my business with him.
Are you committed? Will you quit? If you are going to quit in whatever product or service you are doing right now, just please quit now for the benefit of the other ethical, moral champions involved in sales and marketing. Please quit now and let those who have a right to earn huge income do it when they have an ethical and moral product and/or service. BUT if you are truly committed to the process, then take action and start implementing the strategies that you have learned in this book to radically increase your sales ration and open up hundreds of long-term relationships.
Champion Tip: Stay committed and follow-up on the relationships that you have opened up. You will build trust with them through your commitment of opening up long-term relationships and earn the right to do business with them.
az self help
self help project
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