In the field of direct sales, much ado is made about having the right personality, building a relationship, and negotiating fiercely. Each of these things certainly has their place in the process but I would like to point out some of the critical but perhaps lesser chanted components of closing a deal.
Chase deals that are a good fit: Develop prospect screening criteria based on your company's core strengths. Alternatively, you can analyze what type of customers you already have to determine which types of companies are most likely to become customers. Then vet your leads so that you are pursuing companies that have the very best chance of becoming customers. This leads to sales EFFICIENCY or what we call a HIGHER CLOSE RATIO.
Call the decision maker: True decision makers are difficult to reach and even more difficult to meet. Hence, an all-too-common mistake of novice salespeople is speaking with contacts in the target company that lack true decision making authority. However, if you call persistently call decision makers during strategic times of the day (early and late) with a compelling value proposition, you can earn face time with them.
Ask probing questions: To learn what makes someone buy, you need only ask them. Ask your prospective customer about their company, goals, satisfaction level with their current vendor, and any other questions that will help you understand their biases, wants, and needs.
Pre-close: Early in the sales process, ask the prospective customer if they will indeed move forward with your company if you can satisfy their stated needs. This will ensure that you will both proceed down the sales path with fair expectations.
Book a meeting from a meeting: Never leave a meeting without the next meeting booked. This will save you time and phone calls as well as help you maintain momentum, one of the most important ingredients in an effective sales process.
Close the deal: When you reach the point in the sale when you have uncovered and addressed all important issues, either ask for the business or move forward with the assumption that the business is already yours.
Overcome objections: If there is hesitation or explicit objections when you ask for the business, probe to ensure you understand each and every source of resistance. Then repeat the objections back to the prospect to validate their feelings and concerns. Explain how your program will address each of these issues and then gently move forward again by asking for the business.
Hand hold the on-boarding process: Start your customer in the proper manner with reasonable expectations to ensure that the relationship starts on the right foot.
Check in regularly to ensure you have a happy customer: Checking in regularly by stopping by or calling your customer will allow you to uncover any issues before they become major problems. Avoid waiting until a customer calls you with a major heartache.
Sanjit Singh is the CEO and Founder of SalesThink, an executive leadership and sales coaching company, and President of USS Logistics, a transportation company. Sanjit draws from his 18 years of award-winning sales performance in the software, medical device, and transportation industries to drive sales teams to reach a higher level of achievement. He has helmed a number of successful sales teams and is considered a turnaround expert for poorly performing sales teams.
In addition to speaking and consulting for private clients, Sanjit has lectured at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Pasadena City College, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and UC Santa Barbara. Sanjit holds a BA in Biology and Psychology from UC Santa Barbara and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
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