Marketing
Selling Is a Processby Tim Connor
One of the biggest problems for many salespeople is not understanding that selling is a process, not an event. Effective selling is not just closing the sale, better prospecting or more effective sales presentations – although, all of these are important in their own way. Effective selling today is blending each of these together in such a way that the prospect trusts, believes and respects you and your organization, and wants and/or needs your product or service to help improve the quality of their life or business enterprise.
For many years, traditional sales training focused on the "close of the sale" as the most important element. Then the 70s and 80s rolled around and the hot topic was prospecting, qualifying and getting to the key decision-makers. Then it was the nineties and consultative selling. What will the next decade bring? Who knows for sure? What we do know now is that to sell successfully is only half of the task – the balance is keeping the business. Organizations expend millions of dollars annually to attract and sell new business. Then they lose it for any number of reasons and have to replace it. So the saga continues.
Selling is about finding good potential prospects who can benefit from your products/services, persuading them to buy from you, and then maintaining positive ongoing relationships with them to ensure repeat, referral business, as well as positive references.
Are you only focusing on any one particular aspect of the sales process as you sell? Are you weak in any particular part?
Each element of the process is intricately related to the others. For example, let's consider prospecting. If you have a poor prospect, it will be difficult to give a solid sales presentation. It will be impossible to overcome sales objections, and closing the sale – forget it.
How about the attitude issues in the sales process? Let's say you lack confidence in the quality of your products. That will affect your willingness to find new prospects. If you do find some, it will impact your ability to give a confident sales presentation, etc., etc., etc.
How about one more? Let's say you have a fear of rejection. This will impact your willingness to ask questions to qualify your prospects and discuss sales presentation issues that may be perceived as less that ideal. And asking for the order? Well, not in this lifetime.
I am sure you see my point. If you are going to sell successfully, you can't just improve one aspect of the sales process. You can't make up for poor prospecting with tricky closes. You can't make up for poor product knowledge with fancy footwork.
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Tim Connor, CSP, is a professional speaker and expert in the fields of management, sales, team building, and customer service. He's the author of 19 books and can be reached at 704-895-1230, speaker@bellsouth.net or www.timconnor.com.
