NO SALESMAN IS AN ISLAND
Remember the salesman archetypes presented at the outset, in Part 1 of this series?
Each represents many, many people in the sales business. Each of them is an expert at bridging one of the three gaps in the sales process, but they invariably do not succeed as fully as they could and should because they are not adept at building all of the bridges.
The Dead-Eye Closer misses out on potential clients because he doesn’t promote his product to find the leads in the first place.
Old Golden Throat drops the ball when it’s time to touch the prospect with just the right emotional chord to make him sign.
The Tireless Cold Caller sheds perfectly good leads like a cat does fur because he doesn’t develop the interest he’s created with his attention grabber.
Sure, they all do get sales. That is because occasionally, by whatever means outside their influence, the bridges all get built anyway and enough momentum is established to close the sale. But for every one they get, a dozen slip away. It doesn’t have to be that way. An awareness of the three bridges of sales and marketing, and then proper implementation of them, will keep most every sale on track and progressing steadily until it finally comes home for the close.
To underscore the point, from the dictionary I found the following:
Action is regarded as occupying some time and involving more than one step. The process of doing something. An act or thing done.
As covered earlier, this was after all, not only one of the components in our equation, but the stated goal of the whole activity. We wanted to capture their attention and move them into action, not just thinkingness.
No matter how expert your marketing activity, how practiced your sales presentation, how impressive your skills, how slick and glib your carefully learned closing techniques, all would come to naught unless you actually could get something done…and close the deal! Properly handled, with your service or product aligned to their purposes, this last step should be simple.
But skip one of the earlier points, neglect or ignore what they were really telling you, and it was like pulling teeth without an anesthetic. It was painful for you and for them. And the more you sought to force the issue at the close, the more they seemed to dig in and resist even harder. Not a pretty picture.
To recap, we have now established the first four pillars necessary to support our bridge. If you can master and apply each of these four discrete areas, you should increase your close ration exponentially.
* ATTENTION, which is essentially the creation of awareness.
* INTEREST, which is essentially the arousal of a curiosity, desire, or wanting to know more about.
* EMOTION, which is a stimulation of feeling in the individual, prompting a tendency toward motion of some kind.
* ACTION, which is a “doingness;” a motion or process that leads toward the end result of accomplishment and having that which is desired.
They’ll want it.
They’ll know it’s valuable.
And happily, they’ll willingly generate the energy necessary to get it.
daniel w. jacobs
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sales master class series
