Perfect Selling (Book Summary)

This book is about Call Management – how to plan and conduct individual sales interactions. The author is careful to stress this is about form, not formula; it is about call direction, not scripted dialogue.

Her 5 steps are as follows:

1. Connect
   • Action 1 (5 minutes): Greet / High-mileage rapport (a) create a strong first impression with clothing, body language, tone, and authenticity (b) connect on both the personal and business level blending preparation with spontaneity; business rapport includes topics not directly connected to the objective of the call (c) focus on and show interest in the customer; avoid talking too much about yourself (d) take the cue if the customer signals “get to business” (e) rapport can be maintained throughout the call
   • Action 2 (1 minute): Summary of events/leverage preparation (a) “At our last meeting we talked about… (b) “Since our last meeting, I developed …”
   • Action 3: Dual purpose & check (a) make it clear you are there to learn about their needs & objectives (b) clarify the reason for the meeting framed with potential benefits to the customer (c) ask for feedback on your agenda to ensure you are meeting their expectation (d) identify areas the customer would like to include in the agenda
   • Action 3.5: If critical, spend 2 minutes sharing your organization’s credentials.
   • Action 4: Transition to needs (a) Probe – “So I can focus on what is most important to you, may I ask you a few questions?” (b) optionally, conduct a time check
   • Be exactly sure how you will open the call so that you are in the driver’s seat
   • Use your message, your words, and your delivery so that the dialogue is natural.
2. Explore
   • Action 1: Objectives questions (a) Start with an objectives question such as “What are your objectives for…?” (b) drill down until your customer tells you there are no other objectives to share
   • Action 2: Current situation questions (a) “How do you currently …?”; “What have you tried?” (b) drill down
   • Action 3: Technical questions (a) “How many…?” (b) drill down
   • Action 4: Future and personal needs questions (a) “So that I can take into consideration any future initiatives that could influence what we recommend, what should we be aware of that may be coming up?” (b) drill down
   • Action 5: Implementation questions (a) Budget (b) Decision process (c) timeframe (d) competitors & your competitive position
   • Question and listen, suspending judgement and probing before leading to your solutions
   • Probing skills (a) Constructing as either open-ended or closed ended (b) Prefacing with a benefit to the customer, acknowledgment of something relevant to the customer, levering your knowledge, or positioning a strength (c) Drilling down
3. Leverage
   • You’ll be doing most of the talking in this step, but use your customer’s language
   • Action 1: Introduce your solution (a) Identify the headlines of what you will cover next (b) Prioritize them to align with the customer’s needs
   • Action 2: Customize your solution (a) Use your product knowledge (b) frame in the context of customer needs
   • Action 3: Summarize & check – Ask a specific, open-ended question that probes how what you have just presented meets the customer’s needs. For example, “How does… (solution) meet your needs to…?” . . . then be silent.
4. Resolve (aka objection handling)
   • Most customer questions are not objections. Many questions are just inquiries with no hidden agenda.
   • Action 1: Acknowledge
   • Action 2: Ask a question to narrow down & clarify the objection
   • Action 3: Position your response. For major objections, be ready to include a relevant example or success story to make your answers come alive.
   • Action 4: Ask for feedback
5. Act
   • Action 1: Know what you want the customer to do before beginning the call
   • Action 2: Ask for feedback throughout the call – “What do you think?”; “How would that work?”; etc.
   • Action 3: Ask for the business (bottom line close) or nail down the next step (momentum close) (a) Avoid safe-close actions that lack commitment from the customer (b) next steps should be part of a well-defined sales cycle
   • Regardless of where you are in the sales cycle, at the end of each contact plant the seed for closing and winning the business by telling the customer how much you would like to work with him or her.

After each call, assess (if you are with a colleague) or self-assess.

Other:

• Customers buy from salespeople they believe understand what they want and care about what is at stake for them.
• Take notes
• Maximize your listen/talk ratio
• Customers must not only think it is the right decision, they must feel it is the right decision
• Generously use the word “you.”
• To access online versions of these Perfect Selling tools throughout the book, please go to http://www.richardson.com/Resource-Center/Perfect-Selling-Tools/ and enter Username: perfectseller and Password: Richardson.