The Expert Podcast

So if you're any kind of commercial business the most important thing you need to do is sell stuff. Everything starts with a sale You have no revenue. To fund anything. Unless you have sales. You don't have payroll you don't have rent You don't have advertising marketing until you have sales. So how do you get sales Well, obviously you want to get people first to be aware of your product and to like it and want it, but you still need some process to transact. The sale, if it's a small, less than a hundred dollars transaction normally that can be done online. It could be done with a cash register. Once you start getting over a hundred 150 200 bucks. You probably need some type of conversation with the prospective buyer. If you're selling a car. You need a car salesman If you're selling real estate you need a real estate agent. If you're selling insurance you need insurance brokers…Even if it's a smaller item you want to have. Customer service somebody that can talk to your customer. Well do you have a plan for that? Does that person. Who is speaking to your clients, have a strategy. To make the sale. Highest. Priority. To give you the highest. Probability. That you're going to get that sale Look, if the customer called you they have some interest. If you're a real estate company or a car dealership they didn't call you to order a pizza…If you're selling insurance they didn't call to buy…Pad of paper. Right They're calling for a reason. So you want to have a strategy for that call The minute it comes in, because every one of those calls represents a person. That has your money in their pocket. We're not talking about misrepresenting things or high pressure sales We're talking about helping the customer flow through that sales funnel. To get them from, Hey I want to find out more. To them being very happy to do business with you…And that's a process. People are going to call They're going to be skeptical. Because that's the nature of the beast They're going to part with their hard earned money. However dollar amount you're asking that person for to give you for your product or service. Think about what went into them, earning that money. If it's a $300 item. Let's say…And even if that person. Earned $30 an hour. You're asking them to give you 10 hours of their. Labor 10 hours of their life for your product…So…certainly they have some interest in it. To begin with They see that it might solve a problem serve a need. That's why they're calling you but how do you get them from that point to. Ching where you're cashing the register. Well first you have to have a series of. We're going to talk about a…one possible way to do this with four steps. To follow through this road to a sale or pathway to a sale. Many of you familiar with this many of you already use this. But if you're not or even if you are you might want to make sure that. The process is at least intentional. You don't want to just be giving out information like a talking brochure and letting the customer buy something on their own. You want to help the customer That's why they called you. They don't want you to slam dunk them and high pressure them into something, but they do want you to help them. By the thing that they want to buy give them some confidence in it If you just say whatever if you feel you buy it great If not no big deal that doesn't help them. They want to see confidence that they're in the right place They're doing the right thing. They want you to validate their thought that what you have is good for them. If you're not even validating it or the person that you have on the phone…Has any confidence in your product How the heck are they going to, they want to see you have belief that this is going to solve their problem. And you can hear that in their voice when they ask you. The questions it's going to be for the purpose of. Erasing their skepticism. And, and confirming their enthusiasm. So how does it go Well first step one. If you want to develop a good rapport you want to start out with a pleasant. connection with them. You can call it meeting greeting whatever you want to call it. But whoever's on the phone wants to establish that you're not just another robot voice on the phone. We had a, an email come through the other day. From a potential customer that reach one of our divisions. After hours So we have some automated responses after hours when there's no live salespeople. And they said I don't want to do business with a computer some automated responses after hours when there's no live salespeople. And they said I don't want to do business with a computer. I don't buy things from computers. Valid point…Right They don't want. A automated response. If your salesperson is no different from an automated response in terms of enthusiasm or interest, you might as well have a computer. So that meeting and greeting Hey how's it going What's your name Good to meet you. I'm glad you called. You know, just real simple It doesn't have to be that complicated but at least it starts out on the right foot meet and greet. Number two. Is. Asking the customer. Where they're coming from call a qualifying fact-finding needs analysis, and it doesn't have to take a long time. It doesn't have to take hours, but you want to start out by understanding what the customer's trying to accomplish before you start selling Even if they ask you, Hey what is this product you're selling these widgets Are these widgets any good You might think that's an opportunity for you as a salesperson to jump into the widget selling mode. It's not, you're not there yet. You don't even know. if…They're really a prospect for that product You want to ask them Well great I'm glad I asked about it It's a really good product…What makes you ask about it today…You know your product better than anybody else, but you want to find out why the customer is inquiring Did you see our ad online Did you see the article that came out…If it's related to something else let's say you're selling up a car part You sell. Transmissions for Ford Mustangs…And they ask you. Hey. How are your transmissions Are they any good? Yeah we love. Our interest from the customers. What's your Ford Mustang like? Ask them questions to get them talking. Look, most people want to talk to you They want to be the one that talks more than you…Salespeople think they have to talk over the customer or they have to do all the talking. Let the customer talk. It's there. Stage. Let them tell you. Why they're interested in your product or service? It won't take much to get them to S to wind them up like a, a toy and let them run. Because they want to talk to you. They will tell you everything you need to know about how you can help them Or maybe you can't if you can't help them that's fine. But you want to know that before you try to sell a product or service that doesn't match what they're looking for…So get them to talk. Ask them questions. Again you don't want to be fake or cheesy or salesperson but be genuinely interested in what their…So what their problem is they're trying to solve. If you're not genuinely interested in the customer get out of selling Do something else…But you know as well as anybody else the people that call you up as a salesperson or as a company, Where they're coming from. Maybe you sell. Machine shop services to companies that need customized parts Hey how much are you charged for a CNC machining? Great We have a lot of different things. what kind of parts you need? What are you doing now? Where are you getting your parts from now That's a good question to ask. If a customer is asking for a product or service that generally is purchased more than once you can ask them. Where you get your stuff from now? Why is that important Well obviously they're not going back to where that was and they might tell you well I was getting it from this place, but they're taking too long Their price went up. There. They're a quality went down. Guy I was dealing with left. Right You want to know these things? That's going to help you in a minute. Do not gloss over that part Don't be afraid to let the customer talk. Don't be afraid for some challenging questions You don't have to answer them right away. How much discount can I get? Does your product any good Are you guys a scam? You get that question flat out…Collect all that information Don't answer them all right away…Now step three is. Product presentation service presentation. You're going to answer all their questions and mix in the things about your product or service that you want them to know about. There are certain things that customers don't ask but it's important for them to know. Good and bad. Hey did you know you have to pay tax on this? Be aware that this is something that might not be available for two weeks. You want to mix in the bad things along with the good things that they asked about and things that maybe they didn't ask about that but you know are important things. Now do your sales presentation whatever that is product service, but just make sure. Hopefully you were paying attention in writing down the things that that person was asking about so that when you do your presentation you can key in on those, or at least include them. You don't want to read from a brochure about your selling point. That has nothing to do with what their needs are their problems are. You want to key in on their particular things and add the things that you know are important and add in. The negative So there's no surprises later…You don't want bad customer service. After you've done that. That's step three…Don't forget step four. Step for us to say Hey you want to buy it…You got to ask for the sale…And you've got a…Let the customer have an opportunity to do business with you. Look, if they're not ready to buy at that point. Let the customer have an opportunity to do business with you. Look, if they're not ready to buy at that point that's fine. You don't want to try the high pressure or strong arm somebody into a sale It's not going to do you any good anyways, but you at least want to ask…And if they are not ready to transact right Then maybe it's not something people buy on the spot Maybe it's something they have to check into get quotes on That's fine. But at least you want to know where you stand. Excellent. you're going to get quotes Are you going to put in a good word for me…You want to know if you're in the running? If they say well not really because it doesn't match what we need Well what does it match? You want to give one more shot to try to overcome some objections? Don't let it just be. Passive. Don't be afraid of rejection. If somebody doesn't like what you have own it. Find out about it So you it'll help you with the next person. Maybe they misunderstood something that you described that…Makes you less desirable. But your product really. Solves their problem that you just missed that point. So ask them Hey am I in the running…Is this a good match for you? Tell me I'm you know I want to know. Right. Don't be afraid to flush that out Many salespeople are afraid of rejection afraid of the negatives, because it's a hard job sales nine times out of 10 you don't sell anything and people say no. So you don't want to get any more nos, get as many nos as you can. That's a good thing. So ask them don't leave a passive Hey if you want to buy great If you don't no big deal. Had a company trying to sell us a service It was pretty expensive. Eight or $9,000 a month. And they said well you know, whether you buy or not really doesn't matter to us. Really. Then why am I wasting time with you? it should matter to you. You should want the customer to buy. You should feel like if the customer doesn't buy from you. That they lost out more than you did. Whatever revenue commission bonus benefit you get from selling…That's that's great That's good for you but you've got to look at it like the customer's going to gain something too. And if they don't buy from you and don't have your great product or service or whatever it is you're selling, maybe you're an accounting firm. And you want to sell accounting services to somebody. You want to look at it Like if they don't hook up with you. Then they're going to be either not having really good accounting and tax services or they're going to go to somebody else That's more defective than you. You have to look at it Like it's a big loss for them Oh my God I hate I'm S I'm disappointed in myself for not being able to help you…Those are some good ways to start the sales process. And again do it with as much upbeat attitude as you can because sales is tough. You're going to get run down. If you're a business owner you want to make sure the people that are out there. Trying to harvest. Revenue for your company…From. Good solid qualified customers. Are doing the right thing Cause you spent a lot of time and money. Developing your business developing your product. Having a great corporate culture. Having a high quality service. Think about what your overhead is every. Month. All of that money is going into producing an excellent product or service. You want to make sure that the people who are out there representing you in the sales…Are maximizing. The opportunity. For your clients to benefit from the entire investment you've made in that product or service, did you believe in it Right…And if your sales staff. Is not Giving your customers the maximum opportunity to take advantage of you to take advantage of your investment. Then some of that investment's being wasted. Because you could have an ice cream stand. With the best ice cream. In the middle of the desert if nobody's there to sell it to a customer. Then all the ice cream goes to waste. And your company is like an ice cream stand unless there's somebody that's out there presenting it. To people who need it. And would benefit from it. That investment. Is wasted on you. But also wasted on the market…And one last little thing don't con don't confuse marketing with sales marketing. Just put your product out there as information This is kind of like putting flyers on windshields It doesn't sell anything. It gets people to know about you to maybe call up, but that's not enough You have to have somebody or some system. To convert those inquiries into transactions and inquiry is just a passive Hey how's it going? They're looking for you to help them. They might be skeptical because salespeople are. Supposed to be. Disputed against. But that's your job to dissolve that and make it easier for the customer to feel comfortable. Enough to take advantage of your product because if you didn't you both lose.