- August 28, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Some sales calls just go so well, flow so smoothly and have little to no resistance. Some have no competition, others have plenty of money and a few allow unlimited access to senior decision-makers. Some of your sales happen so quickly that you wonder why they can’t all be that easy.
Your salespeople can have more easy calls, but you’ll have to change up a few things.
- They’ll need to qualify much more thoroughly. Those easy sales were already prequalified, but it wasn’t your salespeople who did the thorough qualifying. The customers just happened to meet all of the criteria.
- They’ll need to differentiate much more effectively. Your company was differentiated because your customer had already eliminated your competitors. They were ready for you!
- They’ll need to do a better job of selling value. Your company’s value proposition was well-known to your customer before your salesperson called or appeared.
For the prior three things to occur on a regular basis, your salespeople must become proficient at selling more consultatively. When all is said and done, that means being able to do three things better than your competition:
- Listen,
- Ask good, tough, timely questions and
- Uncover the compelling reasons to buy from you.
Those easy sales were those customers who had compelling reasons to buy from you, but your salespeople may not have known what they were. Your salespeople must develop superior listening skills, superior questioning skills and a superior ability to continue asking relevant questions until they have uncovered the compelling reasons to buy from you. Those compelling reasons could be the consequences of problems or opportunities. Either way, most salespeople fail to learn about the problems and opportunities, never getting close to consequences or, even deeper, to personal feelings.
That’s the secret to consistent easy selling. By easy, I mean that they consistently get the business without much resistance, delay and the advantage of having the lowest prices. Do your salespeople find the going difficult or easy?
One of the biggest questions for companies today is the challenge of whether their salespeople can make the transition from transactional selling (demo or present, quote or propose and close) to consultative selling. A sales force evaluation will answer that question and so much more.