Following are the symptoms for each step that will alert you that something is wrong:
SYMPTOMS – step 1:
As I have written before, “sales is a contact sport,” and it is just as true now as when I first wrote about it. This step most commonly fails by thinking you have “contacted” the customer or client simply by sending them a letter, calling them on the phone, shaking their hand as a greeting or any other of the usual social business openings. The step will fail when it is reduced to only letting them know that you are there and exist. Just because you’re in a hurry to get to the next step doesn’t mean that they are! Spend as much time as necessary to ensure they are fully “contacted” as an individual customer or potential client.
How do you know when they are contacted and you are safe in moving to the next step? There will come a point when they become interested in you or your product or service. The door will now be open to asking more pointed questions about discovering their purposes, their problems and their hot buttons.
Until this state has been comfortably achieved, don’t bother moving on to the other steps, as you’ll be wasting time for both of you.
SYMPTOMS – step 2:
People are ordinarily open to talking about what they want to achieve or accomplish. It could be a purely business purpose, like to gain a bigger share of the market, or a personal one, which are as varied as there are people. Whatever it is, get them talking about it and they’ll be interested, I guarantee you!
If you do encounter a client who is resistive to inquiries about his/her purposes, they have not made it through #1, the “contact” step no matter what you say or think. Stop working on step #2 immediately as anything you do without first completing step #1 will severely worsen your chances to getting through to the close. It is even possible that you might possess personal characteristics that they can’t relate to, thus creating some irresolvable tension. In this case, you’ll never complete step #1; so if possible, you should excuse yourself with some credible reason and tag with another salesman/woman to take over as that might have better luck. Only when you (or another sales rep) have gotten to the real “cold-sweat” issues that are important to the customer are you safe in moving forward.
SYMPTOMS – step 3:
If, once you have some idea of their purposes and you start your demonstration or presentation, you find that the audience is less receptive than you expected, you’ve skipped a step, no matter what they’ve told you! If you find them interrupting you with odd questions unrelated to your presentation or find that “unexpectedly” they are called to attend another meeting and summarily leave your meeting; or they try to skip forward and start asking about the price for example; never think that you’ve got them ready for the close. You don’t. They are just avoiding the pain of facing their problems and looking for an easy way out by saying it’s too expensive.
If any of these things occur, don’t look any further than yourself. You blew it on step #2! Stop talking immediately. Go back, ask them for their help to clarify their purposes or find out if there is another more important purpose that they haven’t yet revealed. Or maybe they’ve already got a solution or think that nothing can help anyway so your presentation is a waste of their time as they are not a qualified prospect. Whatever it is, find out! Do not just continue and go through the motions, or you’ll be doing both you and the potential customer a huge disservice.
SYMPTOMS – step 4:
Unless you’re getting objections, you’ll never close the deal. The only exceptions are when it is a “point of sale” product sold on impulse or that some other salesperson has successfully completed all the prior steps to sell them before you came on the scene. Objections are buying signals. “No objections” means they didn’t make it completely through step #3. Invite objections, without them, you’ll never find out what remains to be handled before you get to the closing step. Beware the customer who accepts everything you say and agrees with everything you’re presenting. They either are not the person making the final decision or they don’t have enough understanding to evaluate what you’re talking about. Again, you blew it; probably as far back as the contact/qualification step.
Handling objections takes a little practice but is not all that difficult. You just listen (actively) to what they are telling you and not shrink away from it. Let them know you see how they feel (this is never rote by the way). Let them know you are familiar with what they’re saying and that others have expressed similar views and have felt the same way. But, that you have found in dealing with lots of clients that when they are truly serious about achieving their purposes (reference to step three), that they have always been able to find a way to get it.
A real acceptance will happen after you’ve encountered some resistance and handled it completely.
Some objection will always occur. If it doesn’t appear now, it will later, and it’s better to get it out of the way now instead of going on hoping that the other shoe will never fall . . . it always does, and often at some very inopportune moments. Believe me on this point.
SYMPTOMS – step 5:
If you find yourself in a position of the customer not being able to see or conceive how your product/service could benefit him/her personally, you’ve not made it through step #4. No amount of convincing or fast-talking will do the trick. Just bite the bullet and go back, find out what you missed and correct it. Doing so will make this step possible, otherwise it will be a struggle for you both.
As all of the Six Steps overlap and interrelate with each other to some degree, here is an example of handling an objection and increases understanding but also bridges into clarifying the benefits and reinforces their purposes.
Example:
Objection from client: “This house will require a lot of work to get it into shape.”
Handle from salesperson: “I know just how you feel and you’re absolutely right. Many others have looked at this place and felt the same way. They couldn’t conceive of what this place would look like when it was finished and so they walked away from a great opportunity. In my research on this house and this area, I found that the price (one of their purposes) is so low for this location (another of their purpose) and the value, dollar for dollar of the investment (their third purpose) in bringing the house up to speed will be worth every penny. The ones that have the vision to see what it could be and not just what it is will take advantage of this opportunity and enjoy the benefits that others missed.
Note: in addition to the FAB (feature, advantage, benefit) principles being touched on, that also the “feel, felt, found” principle is applied as well as a refocusing their attention and rekindling the achievement of their purposes. When the light bulb has gone off for them and they see a clear benefit for themselves, they will move forward to the close and you’ll almost see them physically reach for their checkbook. Stand back and the close the deal!
SYMPTOMS – step 6:
Much is said about “trial-closing” methods. I find this idea to be of limited value. The reason is simple. When they have made it through step #5, they will be anxious to close the deal. Why bother putting all this attention on a step that will occur naturally when approached correctly?
Closing is not something you have to work at it, just give them what they want and now demand! It is somewhat counterintuitive in that the harder you work at it with the client; the more they resist and make your job harder. It is a downward spiral and reminds me of that old joke about digging a hole. “When you find yourself in a hole . . . stop digging!” By now, I hope that it is apparent that nearly all problems with the close can be traced to this one fact as stated above.
Closing is the easy to do when the previous five steps have been done to the proper end result. It’s just like taking the final step on a stairway. That last one is no harder than any of the ones before it, you just take them one at a time, recognize when you have fully completed each step and go on to the next one and it just flows like melted butter.
Now, just get on the bike and ride the “sales cycle” and it will all fall into place. It’s not all that hard . . . really!
daniel w. jacobs
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