Gathering Information
You must have a thorough understanding of the business and other aspects of the customers before first approaching him/her.
This will help you build a good rapport and relationship with the client and will build up your level of confidence while dealing with the customers.
Knowledge of the Customer’s Business:
An effective Salesperson must have the following knowledge about the customers:
- Name of the Customers Business, Location and Telephone numbers.
- Customer’s Main Business and Related Business.
- List of customer’s other branches and their location.
- Information about different products and services dealt by him.
- Customer’s major competitors.
- Study the customer’s market share and goodwill in the market.
- Find out who makes the buying decisions in your customer’s office.
- Find out the person in charge of the decision.
Knowledge of Your Company
You must have a thorough knowledge of your Company, its history, date of establishment, directors, managerial hierarchy, staff strength, branches, location, operations, market share, scope, and all other such valuable details of your Company as it will help you sell better.
Knowledge of The Products/Services of Your Company
You must have detailed knowledge of all the products offered and the services rendered by the Company and must know the rates and the discounts that can be offered for the products/services as per the Company’s policy.
You must have sound knowledge of the features, advantages, and benefits of the products/services and must also know all the valuable aids available for selling.
This will not only keep you confident but will also instil a good impression in the minds of the customers and will help you deal with customer queries more effectively.
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Knowledge of the Competitors
Adequate knowledge of the competitors will help you sell better and will enable you to have an edge over your competitors.
You must study their products/services, their market share, branches, price structure, discount policy, and so on.
Knowledge of competitors will enable you to uncover the competitor’s weaknesses and will help you to build on your own strengths to win over your competitors.
Planning
Once sufficient information about all the required aspects is gathered the next step would be to plan the approach. The following points must be borne in mind while planning the first approach to the customers.
- Know your sales territory and its scope well. Be familiar with all the places and shops in your respective territory.
- Make a list of all the customers/accounts you will be approaching on a particular day in a sequence to facilitate proper time management.
- Make note of all the relevant information collected on each account and arrange the information in the sequence of your day’s approach.
- Make a list of telephone numbers and addresses of the customers to be approached sequentially.
- Prepare display items/visual aids that can be used for the presentation.
- Know all your sales objectives well.
- Visualize customer interaction and rehearse the entire sales presentation with other unit members/friends whenever possible.
- Dress well and maintain good order and cleanliness. Carry a good presentable neat bag and keep all the sales material in order before approaching the accounts.
Introduction for Tele Calling Presentation
(Introduce yourself, the company, and the purpose of your call)
Example:
“Good morning, Mr. Customer. This is ___________ of xyz company.”
“We are in the process of………………………………………………….
Example:
“Hello, my name is ________________ and I am with XYZ company. We are currently putting together the information for our (new online business listing directory of ……..) May I speak with (contact person), concerning your advertising program?
It’s very important to Qualify for Authority. It’s a very big embarrassment for a salesperson to have a discussion in the business place without qualify for the authority.
Authority is nothing but MAN: Money Authority & Need. Sometime all 3 will not be with one person but still it’s very important to find the information of MAN before giving a presentation.
At the end of an hour discussion, if you propose to buy something, he/she may say that I don’t make any decision and you will have gone to another person who decides about purchasing or advertising or marketing. Think about this situation and what you may feel at the end of the presentation.
So, it’s very important to qualify for the authority before giving the presentation.
QUESTIONS TO QUALIFY FOR AUTHORITY:
Example – for the New Customers:
“Who is authorized to make decisions?
“Is there anyone else who should sit in our meeting?”
“Is there anyone else that needs to be involved in this decision?”
“Besides yourself, who else will make your buying decisions?”
“Is there anyone else who should sit in our meeting?”
Interest Creating Remarks (ICR): It is very important to use ICR at the right time to make an effective and result oriented sales discussion.
Great ICRs and you can use 2-3 at a different time according to the situation
- Say the client that your office is very spacious or beautiful
- Your logo or visiting card is very presentable.
- Your product or service is very user friendly and your customer support is very helpful
- Anything you saw best in his business or in his personal life tell him and appreciate it.
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11 Effective Hint to Help You to Use the ICR with The Client and Hold the Discussion Under Your Control.
- Ask questions to arouse interest. Keep on asking questions all the way through with interesting interaction. Don’t stop asking questions until you come to the desired step.
- Be sure your interest step is really interesting. It will be interesting if it tells the prospect what your goods or service will do to benefit them.
- To get the customer interested in anything you can show or demonstrate, let the prospect see it, feel it, ride in it…
- Avoid exaggerated claims about your product.
- Avoid using an ICR to which the prospect can say I’m not interested.
- Be sincerely always – but be super-sincere in this part of your talk.
- Get your prospect to think about his loss or disadvantages as a result of not owning the goods or service you are selling.
- Don’t think about yourself when you open the talk – think about your prospect. Put out of your mind thoughts of your commission. Put into your mind thoughts of benefits to your prospects.
- Talk to your prospect about his problem, his profits, his advancement, his home, his business…then you can defy him to be uninterested.
- Gain interest by telling a story – by giving an example of how your product benefited somebody.
- Become genuinely interested in other people.
ICR can be used in the pre-call as well as face to face sales presentation
Some other ways of Interest Creating Remarks
Example:
“Exciting new programs to help you attract new customers and achieve greater profits.”
Example:
“I would like to discuss with you how you can take further advantages of your business and location to get business from passers-by.”
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To be Continued in Part 4
