by Rick Baker
On Jan 16, 2013
The @GKWCC #P2P series of thought tweets contains ideas, quotes, & suggestions provided by local business leaders at "CEO Peer-to-Peer" group meetings, sponsored by the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce.
The goals of the thought tweets: to help local business leaders and to promote the sharing of business thoughts.
The thoughts expressed are not opinions of the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce...they are opinions of local business leaders who are Chamber members and participate in the Chamber's CEO P2P program.
by Rick Baker
On Jan 12, 2013
The @GKWCC #P2P series of thought tweets contains ideas, quotes, & suggestions provided by local business leaders at "CEO Peer-to-Peer" group meetings, sponsored by the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce.
The goals of the thought tweets: to help local business leaders and to promote the sharing of business thoughts.
The thoughts expressed are not opinions of the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce...they are opinions of local business leaders who are Chamber members and participate in the Chamber's CEO P2P program.
by Rick Baker
On Dec 28, 2012
In simple terms the Sales Steps are:
- Start: contact some Leads
- Qualify: determine if those Leads contain Opportunities
- Propose: when those Leads contain Opportunities, present Proposals
- Close: when it is clear the Proposals are embraced by your clients, Close the Deals
Start: We could add a whole bunch of details. We could try to anticipate every possibility around people's behaviour. We could philosophize at length about sales process and messages. We could let uncertainties baffle and stall us. We could weigh the merits of social-media this and traditional networking that.
But, if we want to make sales then sooner or later we will have to Start. That happens when we make contact with at least one other person. We have choices on how we make that contact. We need to consider some of those action-choices, predict some scenarios of how things might unfold under each of the action-choices, perform some of the actions to test the action-choices, measure the results, and keep doing this testing until the most successful Start action-choices are confirmed. Those most-successful Start choices should then serve as the foundation, your process to Start sales. Start is a distinct piece of sales process. And, it should be measured and tested that way.
Qualify is the sales step that separates possible/likely client-people from the people who will not be a client, for one reason or another. When we Qualify prospective client-people we must consider, at least:
- Emotions - your emotions and the prospective clients' emotions. Some argue that emotions are not important...remove those people from your company because you do not have the time or energy to correct the problems they will create for you and your clients.
- Relationships - yes, I recognize some people think relationships do not matter anymore...strike those people from your list of prospective clients because you cannot afford to serve them.
- Needs - your needs and the prospective clients' needs. Needs will be heavily laced with emotions...that can make them very hard to understand. Start with yourself. Consider your needs and what drives them. After you take the time to do some introspection and you understand the complexity of your needs then you will have a better chance of understanding other people's needs.
- Money - your money and the prospective clients' money. Money serves two roles: (1) it facilitates the exchange of value by providing a benchmark and (2) it provides a great excuse for not making purchases [and, similarly, a great excuse for not making sales].
- Performance - what?, when?, where?, how?, quality, delivery, service, etc. These qualification details are the simplest part of the sale. Make sure they do not creep toward complexity.
Propose: A sales proposal is a process that informs, entertains, touches the emotions, and helps the client take purchasing action. A proposal should be clear, concise, pointed and it should include:
- What? - A statement of the problem/opportunity (the two sides of the same coin). This statement will include your Key Insight.
- Why? - Why it's worth solving/winning (dimensions things and puts them into perspective)
- Who? Who is the competition and the prospective clients' competitive status (quantitative & qualitative assessment of 'belief' systems - tangible and perceived - in play)
- How? How to address the problem/opportunity and beat the competition (the key elements of the value proposition and 'differentiators')
- The Plan - The roadmap (key activities and milestones over the next significant period of time)
Close: In order to Close a sale the salesperson needs 4 things:
- Talent - each salesperson needs to spend time assessing and working to understand his or her unique talents
- Specialized Knowledge - the company [through Strategic Planning & Marketing study] and the salespeople [on their own initiate] must gather focused specialized knowledge and insight
- Skill - each salesperson must practice all sales steps and actions until they become part of his or her nature
- Opportunity - timing is critical...sensitivity to 'best timing' can be intuitive ['natural-born salespeople'] and it can be learned by anyone who is truly committed to succeeding in a sales role
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Tags:
Sales | Sales