Selling Skills Tip 3

this month's top tip is

Be organised! Plan!

Sales people seem to have a reputation for making it up as they go along, but the best ones have a good clear plan ready before they go in.

This plan should include:

1. Written sales call objective.

2. Questions which are likely to reveal customer needs, and make the customer realise that they have these needs (Sales is not necessarily about making the customer want your product, but about helping him realise that he wants your product)

3. Something to show.

4. How you differ (in a good way! ... or at least not in a bad way) from your competitors.

5. Benefits to the customer (not features!)

6. Investment return - benefits turned into real money for the customer (approximate estimates will do)

7. Anticipated customer concerns and objections and a plan for how you will deal with these

8. Your favourite closing strategy - or possibly a choice of these, ready to use.

9. Expected surprises (yes! Because after a number of calls they will start to repeat).

This may seem like rather a lot of work, but of course the same list can be used, broadly, for every customer, and you only have to plan it once. It's worth it