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Close
for an Action not an Email
©
2006 David Peterson
Sales reps work so hard opening the call, probing for the
prospects needs, and then painting the proper picture for
those prospects. Reps grind through the daily prospecting, and
pitching, prospecting, and pitching until they finally get an
interested decision maker.
Good
reps know how to take an interested decision maker and probe
for their wants and needs. Open ended questions will lead to a
variety of these prospect’s needs that will leave your reps
with possible opportunities. These uncovered opportunities
basically turn your decision maker from a penniless suspect to
solid prospect.
Next
those uncovered opportunities are then tied to your product or
service by painting the picture. The reps paint each brush
stroke with a verbal song that drives the prospect’s needs
into solid wants and must haves. This is a crucial step, you
should already know that that prospect needs your product but
getting them to want it… now that takes skill. Your reps
will be painting the lines on the road so your prospect will
drive to the location you want them to go.
Out of every 100 calls that a rep makes, maybe they get 4
interested parties and only 1 gives them the time of day to
make a complete sales pitch. This is hard work. Average or
marginal reps tend to change jobs a lot because it is such
hard work. They will hit their sales goals one month and miss
it in the next. Hit then miss until they see the handwriting
on the wall or worse get terminated, fired, exited from the
business or allowed to find greater opportunities elsewhere.
The
silly part of the story is that most reps can open the
conversation. Most reps can use some probing questions to find
the needs. Finally most reps can paint some type of picture,
it may not be a masterpiece but they give it their best shot.
If reps can open, probe, and paint, why can’t they get the
business?
They
can’t get the business because they refuse to close for some
type of action. Reps that fail will repeatedly ask the
prospect if they can send them an email explaining the
products benefits. I have heard this type of “close” over
and over in my career. I have heard it with new college
graduates and sales veterans. Do you know who doesn’t use
this type of close? Top Performers.
Top Performers don’t close for an email, or a letter, or a
callback. Top Performers close for an action. They close for
something to happen next. This action of closing for something
to happen is such a subtle change that you really have to be
listening to make sure that it has occurred. Take these two
examples:
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Mr. Smith I have explained to you how our products will
benefit your company and I will send you an email that
recovers these points. Let’s talk on Thursday November
30th at 1 pm. Will that time work for you?
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Mr.
Smith I have explained to you how our products will
benefit your company and since I haven’t heard any
objections that would stop you from purchasing let’s go
ahead and begin the paperwork now.
I bet there are a lot of people reading this article that just
became a little squeamish at the second statement. I’m okay
with that. It takes practice. Most marginal reps are terrified
at getting a “no.” They are afraid of hearing… “No I
don’t want to get the paperwork started.” I’m just the
opposite I want the “no” so I know to stop pestering my
prospect with follow-up calls and emails. I don’t want to
waste my time or worse my prospect’s time. They may be a
real live prospect one day so don’t waste their time. The
above statement may get you a “no” but at least you will
know why you got the “no.” Now if they have said “no”
and didn’t tell you why then that is a topic for another
discussion.
Reps will tell you that they closed the call. They will swear
up and down that they sent out the email and they gave a
closing statement. But have they really closed for an action
or have they closed for an email? Which one do you think will
result in more closed business?
Sincerely,
David
Peterson
Author
of:
Been There - Done That
David
Peterson's Search Engine Optimization Guide
Please
send all correspondence to: questions@usreference.com
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