Selling effective techniques that work!

Mustafa Khan
Business Beam Pvt. Limited

Our Topics Today…

• Selling Essentials
• Sales Cycle
• First-Ever Meeting
• Presentation
• Key Elements Towards Successful Sale Closure
• It Just Doesn’t End Here – Beyond Closure!

Mustafa Khan - Business Beam Pvt. Limited 2

Selling Essentials
Defining Sales:
Sales is asking people what they do, how they do
it, when they do it, where they do it, why they do
it, and who they do it with—and then helping
them do it better!

Defining Sales Closure:
Closing a sale is a natural outgrowth of your
earlier work, not a separate conclusion you
somehow impose upon your prospect.


Selling Essentials (2)
Win-Win Situation:
Selling is not a game where you win if you
close the sale and your prospect wins if you
don’t.
A Win-Win situation is when salesperson
closes a sale with a solution to a Prospect’s
problem which benefits him to do business
better.


One-Third of Sale
A salesperson successfully closes one-third of
sale no matter what!
It can be that Prospect who is just waiting for someone to pop up with a solution
at the right time.

The Other One-Third of Sale
One-third of sale is lost no matter what.
You try your very best, or not; you provide the best solution to the Prospect, but
all in vain.


The Middle-Third
The ones that the salesperson try to win.
That’s where the salesperson does all the
work of understanding and outlining
Prospect’s objectives and concerns and give
his/her best to devise a solution for Prospect
to achieve those objectives.


Your Four Roles
• Seller
– It Just happened!
• Vendor
– Contacts and some relationships
68% budget cut example!
• Supplier
– Some reputation with finite influence
• Partner
– Part of planning process
– Meet with board, use your influence


Sales Cycle (1)
Stage One: Prospecting
That’s where you make sure that the person is
willing to talk about the potential usefulness of
you have to offer
Suspect  Prospect
Suspect is one who may or may not be able to
use the product.
Prospect is one who has interest to learn more
about what you have to offer; potential customer.


Sales Cycle (2)
Stage Two: Interviewing
This is where you get detailed information
about the goals of your prospect in order to
determine what you will say later on, during
your presentation.
Salesperson gets information, demonstrates
briefly about product, makes sure to give a
rough schedule and pricing, and verify
information.


Sales Cycle (3)
Stage Three: Presentation
This is where you use the verified information
and supply more specific data about the
benefits of the product and service as those
benefits directly relate to the particular
prospect.
Categorizing in three: Benefits, Features, and
Proof (How will you map those features to
Benefits for Prospect)


Sales Cycle (4)
Stage Four: Closing
Closing means confidently asking for the sale
without “polarizing” the relationship
After all the ground work has been laid;
information gathered and verified, and
presentation that elaborates mapping of features
to Prospect’s benefits; that’s when you
confidently close the sale.


Know your Product
• You as a salesperson with leadership must have good
understanding of your product.
• Technical versus Practical Knowledge of Product:
Unless you have yourself used the product, you don’t
know the (potential) benefits it (can) provides.
• Consider your product/service malleable: consider the
variants, think out of the box, think how else your
product can benefit Prospect.
• Examples: Paper Clip(fix eye glasses, cleaning tiny
places), Baking soda (food, washing, pamper) etc.
• Don’t just sell your product one way!

Initial Contact
Standardize you approach
Refine and script your cold calling techniques
(Another book by Stephen on this topic)
Figure out by your history and past
suspects/prospects and find the right numbers:
Typical number of calls needed
Typical number of in-person visits
Trend analysis of your previous work


Pre-Meeting Steps (1)
Step one: What do we sell?
Should be able to precisely describe products and
services you offer.
Step two: What makes us different/better from
the competition?
Know your competitors and know their offerings.
Step Three: Even though we are not the least
expensive, people buy from us because…
Know how you are/can be above and beyond
competitor.


Pre-Meeting Steps (2)
Step Four: Do your right pre-meeting research
Use the internet, use some digging , check prospect’s website, success stories of
your company with similar prospects.
What else will you look for?
Step Five: Create the Flow
Opening the discussion, driving it, starting with your company’s commercial. How
you can control the flow of the meeting.
Step Six: Establish your Next Step strategy
A next step and a backup next step.
Get some tangible, scheduled commitment for action from the Prospect.
Example: A follow-up meeting with same person scheduled. Or meet more influential,
decision makers to have a more broader perspective.

Focus on “Opening” rather than “Closing”; Don’t rush/jump on the Sale Cycle!


First In-Person Visit (1)
• Remember definition of Sales
– what, how, when, where, why, and with who they do IT
• Goals:
1. Brief identification showing professionalism and
accountability (“Its good business to do business with us”)
2. Listen!
3. Focus on your aim.
4. Don’t throw up on the customer loaded with features.
5. In committees, get yourself early in agenda.

What if your contact doesn’t know about your interview
questions???


Not the right audience for interview or
presentation 

HOLD YOUR HORSES!!!!


First In-Person Visit (2)
• Efficient Interviewing
– Get all the information you can from the Prospect
• Learn the business around your product
• Learn their processes execution
• Learn the prospect (e.g. MBTI! )
• Ask the one-in-a-million salesperson question

Listen!
…and write them all down!


Concluding your First Visit

• Never loose sight of your Next Steps!
– Should have some backup next steps.

• What if you need more time to think?
• What if Prospect doesn’t want to meet again?


Verifying Information
• Confirm information gathered from Prospect

• Outline
– What you can do for the Prospect
– Time commitments and prices (just an estimate)
• Better to have feedback now!


Your Presentation – core stuff!!
-a proposal that should lead to a decision of client to work with you

• Who to deliver? …..the decision maker!
• Interviewed information
– No outline; no presentation!
• Decide on your aim; be realistic!
– Replacing present supplier/vendor; part of the business towards
longer relationship or offer just a pilot program to re-evaluate in 6
months.
• Core – cover letter, summary, outlines in detail that
help prospect do their job better, time & cost


What’s Next after Presentation…
• Closing statements…
• I’ll have to think about it…
• Dealing with obstacles and questions from
Prospect
• Responding to a flat-out “NO!”


Closing Statements (1)
• Interviewing…..dot on target!
• Gathering information….dot on target!
• Verifying information….dot on target!
• Presentation that answers Prospect’s
objectives, goals, concerns, forward plans,
objections, and how they can do their job
better…dot on target!
• …then you find yourself confident with the
closing statement to the prospect, like…

• You say….
“Mr. Prospect, I don’t know about you, but this program makes a lot of
sense to me. I think your company would benefit a lot from working with us.
What do you think?”
• Or a variation…
“Mr. Prospect, we have spent a lot of time developing this together, and I
have to tell you that I have a good feeling about this. How do you feel
about it?”
• Or…
“Mr. Prospect, that’s our proposal. I’ll be very frank with you: It seems to
me that we can really benefit from working together. What do you think?”


Prospect’s reply and your response…

• Can be “ I’ll have to think about it.” (Widely
expected)
• Obstacles/concerns/responses; Can be a flat-
out “NO” 
• Can just go ahead and sign the contract (your
middle-third win-win situation!)

“I’ll have to think about it” (1)
Give prospect an option to disagree with you! 
Like “taking responsibility” for emphasizing too
much on a topic that is core objective of
Prospect. You can say…
Mr. Prospect, you know, as I finished this, I have to admit, I was a little
concerned that I might have put too much emphasis on FOO <pick some
nonthreatening topic>. What do you think?
90% of the time, Prospect will reply as…
“No, it is not FOO that I am concerned about, its actually WOO!”
There you go! You’ve just uncovered the real obstacle.


“I’ll have to think about it” (2)
• Fine-tune what you have to offer
• Tell success stories if you have (At ABC Corp. we
dealt with similar situation like bla bla...)
• If you don’t know enough about your customers
to be able to do this comfortable, find out!
• Your core concern and aim should be:
– Keep things moving smoothly
– Don’t run into the risk of polarizing the relationship


Dealing with Obstacles (1)
• Objections are responses – assume optimistically
• Don’t respond too quickly.
• Objections are not roadblocks; they are in fact
Prospect’s issues.
• Prospect saying “No” – take the response
positively!
- Shows that’s Prospect is listening and thinking about your product!

• Ask the right follow up question! There’s
something in the line that went down-hill.

Steps to effectively handle responses:
1. IDENTIFY/ISOLATE
 How does this response/concern fit into Prospect’s goals
2. VALIDATE
 YOU:“You are not alone. My experience is that, if people have a problem
with WOO, it usually comes up at this point in discussion. Lets see what we
can do”
 Take an open and honest approach.
3. RESOLVE
 All prospects are unique so listen carefully and help Prospect reach a
logical conclusion.
 Don’t use cookie-cutter approach. Help Prospect develop a creative
solution.


Types of issues raised:
Problem /Question: “We used you a few years ago and had tremendous
delivery problems!”
 Get help from outside authority and solve the issue.

Stall: Let me run this by my people one more time!
 Settle on a determined decision date.

Reassurance: With such young sales force, this could be complicated to
implement!
 Get reference letters, testimonials, call current customer, see how Prospect reassured
previously about other vendors.

Doubt &Fear: “How many people use this?” Or “Will this really work?”
 Outline how you will get them started and take responsibility for the success of the
program – and follow through!


By the way, make a note of this…

A lot of objections means early part of
presentation was inefficient! 


Dealing with flat-out “NO” (1)
 Take Responsibility – After all the work, interview, homework,
outline, presentations and discussions, with all your
commitment shown to prospect; Yes, you have the right to ask:
 Mr. Prospect, I am genuinely surprised, please tell me what went
wrong.
OR
 Mr. Prospect, I am so convinced that we have the best service,
best pricing and customization and best reputation that I can
think of only one reason for you to not sign with us. And that’s
that I must have done something terribly wrong. So I am going to
ask you to give me a hand and tell me where I went off course.
I’d really hate to make a mistake on something this important.


Only to be used with an outright NO
Earning TRUST is really the same thing as
accepting responsibility.
Salesperson should have this mandatory
conviction in his/her heart that the best
possible solution for the Prospect’s problem
has been offered
Response from Prospect will most probably be laid back and
explanatory! That’s where you gather more information that
is needed and follow up


Realize this: You cannot force Prospect to do
anything!
Work towards finding common grounds of
agreement and find the problem
Think of your product’s malleability and
highlight potential solutions


Negotiations – A brief touch!
Taking quick example from the book:
Prospect (committee) when hears about pricing, President agrees but CEO has
reservations. If you researched the company well enough to know it’s a growing firm
and that growing tends to eat lot of cash, you will offer payments in extended period.
To negotiate, you should have some idea about a company’s:
 Business
 Cash flows
 Prospects
 Processes
 People
 Objectives
 Hurdles, etc
The more insight you have, the better you understand the boundaries of your Prospect,
the better you negotiate; rather than always taking the option of extended payments or
discounts.
MORE ON NEGOTIATIONS IN APPENDIX OF BOOK


Garam Masala Tips for Closing Success! (1)

• Don’t rush the sales cycle

• Ask Prospect “What are you trying to accomplish in FOO?”. This
will distinguish yourself from your competition

• First in-person visit should start from memorable
element from earlier phone conversations

• Don’t try to present during interview stage

• Don’t confuse presentation with a demonstration


• Visit the prospect’s facility to get familiar

• Take notes! Not just to show…

• Introduce (rough) pricing in interviewing stage to
relieve pressure from prospect (rough = negotiable)

• Its YOU who is presenting, not the company. Establish
relationship! Tell prospect that YOU want the business.



• Trend analysis of similar purchases will show how
decisions have been made as mostly all upcoming
decisions will be of same way. Learn them!
• Aim Right! and Aim High! Try to meet the top
person in an organization, even if that person
doesn’t make the final decision regarding your
product/service.
• Be ready for common objections. Don’t be
caught off guard.
• Last but not least:
Keep your promises. People will remember you!

Follow Me! – Lead the Prospect!
• Salesperson should exhibit leadership
• A good salesperson with leadership skills will
 Study all the angles of Prospect’s objectives and
concerns;
 Inspire Prospect and point the way towards doing
business better;
 Be accountable;
 Takes time to decide; and once decided, will stick to
it against all obstacles. Similarly, a good leader
knows when to try new things.


Follow Me! – Lead the Prospect! (2)
• Leader verses Manipulator
Manipulators are not particularly good leaders
because people have difficulty coming to trust
them.
• Leader listens to Prospect’s problems in
entirety, and provides a full solution to
address those problems.
• When salesperson says: “Follow me!”,
Prospect follows. Why???

Follow Me! – Lead the Prospect! (3)

• Because you have A Plan!
• A Plan that works and has all the answers
to Prospect’ concerns!
• That’s what makes you a “Salesperson
with Leadership”!


Beyond Closure
Closing Techniques (That Really Works!)
• Cold Calling Scripts
• Sample Sales Dialogues
• Questions your should be able to answer
before you try to close the deal
• Effective negotiations
• Etc


Selling effective techniques that work!

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