3 Steps to Making a Successful Sales Calls
Posted by completesalesmanagement on April 11, 2010
By Robert Estupinian
Making sales calls is the essence of being a salesperson. However, today more than ever businesses need to utilize their resources carefully to obtain the best return on their investment. Making a sales call is, after all, an investment in time and money and done properly will have an immediate impact on the bottom line. So, let’s take a look at what can be done to maximize this activity.
Step 1. Don’t data dump on your prospect.
The average salesperson has a tendency to call on a prospect and begin to download everything about their product and services as soon as they get past the greeting. Most of the time the information is feature based rather than benefit based so the client usually just shuts down. Research shows that customers only retain up to three sentences before they are overloaded. A better approach is a consultative customer centric presentation where the salesperson is using open questions and eliciting requests for feedback from the prospect.
Step 2. Let the customer talk and listen intently
This does not mean sitting quietly and coming up with the next thing to say. Listening intently also includes taking in information regarding the prospects attitude and mood. Then being able to adjust the presentation accordingly and build trust and rapport.
Step 3 Quickly determine if they are a buyer and if they will buy soon
There is no sense in wasting time on trying to convince a prospect they should buy your services or products. Similarly there are those prospects who want to buy but either it is not the right time or they lack the ability to buy. Average salespeople have a tendency to fill the funnel with prospects in “hope” that they will someday become customers. All this results in is having a very big funnel full of very little. Sure, some will buy eventually, but is that a strategy that any smart business person should use in this economy?
Understanding these three steps will reduce wasting time, increase efficiency and reduce the number of stalled deals. For more information on the specifics of these and other sales techniques please feel free to contact Robert at 408-879-7280.
