add-on sales

So who is your most important customer?

The one in front of you.

If they have signed a contract or purchased something over the counter from you, then they are very inclined to buy more from you right now. The add-on sales is easier than the initial sell to.

What do you have that you can sell that will go in line with your product that the customer bought?

If nothing is the answer think hard on what accessories or added features you can add since these will be very easy to sell to the customer and create additional income for you.

Also add-on sales can be as easy as mailing out to existing customers. The hitrate will be lower but the effort will be minimal for the cash earned. If you have big customers / few customers then going there with the purpose of add-on sales is not frowned up on but actually expected. In this way you will do a customer satisfaction meeting and having the opportunity to expand and deepen your cooperation with the customer and even develop new products for said customer.

If a customer wants you to add benefits /gadgets /change the product  to better fit the needs of the customer should you do it?

Yes if you can treat it as add-on sales. In other words if the customer can pay for it or if you see a greater market potential in the suggestions.

So utilize old fashioned mail, email, the phone (or a telemarketing firm), book a meeting. Anything to get more add-on sales and think about starting a newsletter that will come out 1-2 times a year, chances are that the customer will appreciate it and create a mental note about it. and you can use this to launch new add-on´s for your products.

 

Add-on sales is good value for both you and your customers so take the opportunity to sell more!

 

sales reluctance

sales reluctance,

This is something that is commonly known as sales calls reluctance or a block.

Its something inside your head that makes you reluctant to pick up the phone and book your next meeting or even goes so far as making you physically ill in some cases.

the early signs would be irritability and personality changes in you / or your sales staff. be very observant on these small signs since you will have to deal with them immediately or they will grow into a major pain problem. I had a person in my staff that at first was nice to every one and then gradually began to be more introvert and after more time started being irritated on her colleges. things that a normal person would not even consider to be bothers worthy. she eventually “hit the wall” and had to quite her job. we had of course had numerous meetings about how we could ease her situation (and her colleges) but nothing seemed to be helping and if they did it was usually for a short period of time.

She had sellers block and was afraid / hesitant / reluctant to lift the phone since they (the customers) was mean / nasty towards her according to her. Listen in on her to calls to try to help her i could detect that she almost urged the customers to be aggressive like she wanted it to become a bad call.

this is how far something like this can go. but it surely it’s an extreme case. I have since this case been much more observant on the negativity and phrasing on sellers to change the path they stake out for themselves and on the bottom line the path they stake out for your company.

If you have the symptoms of sales reluctance then make sure to address it straight away to not let a small snowball create an avalanche.

How do you do that?

Review your last couple of days and your performance on the phone when booking meetings. if you start to see a did in performance and booked meetings then you should try to go back to a safe way of doing it like a script or pitch paper and use that since this has worked before it will work for you again. Start to build self-confidence in your ability to book new meetings and hopefully you will get up to speed again.

talk with someone who you trust and ask them to “spot” you ie listen in and come with positive critic and if this don’t work then really you should try to get external help like a sales coach or consultant since this will severely affect your ability to conduct any sort of business.

Usually you can check your new contracts numbers and see that you don’t take in any or very few since its much more convenient and easy to call existing customers.

Hope this helps someone!

Give and take

As a salesman / woman your main task is to bring cash, money, gold, profits in short business to your company.

So how does that make your potential (or for that matter existing customers) customer look at you?

They see you as a cost!

That’s some hill to climb and that is what we do all day long without really thinking about this, ignoring it or just being plain oblivious of this fact.

So hopefully you have picked up some pointers in this blog and read tons of books on how to be the most succesful salesperson you can be.

The customer is interested in knowing what you have to offer and that opens the door for you to give them something for their hard-earned money. If your really good at selling (giving) the customer in the end will feel like money don’t matter and a yes / signed contract is the only way to go forward. So you will hopefully make them money by giving them the chance to cooperate in business with you.

Ex you sell consulting hours. the consultants are highly trained and the customer will make millions on the consultants work once finished. The hours they pay for however will cost them as little as 10-15% of the potential earnings a couple of 100k that’s a lot to shell out (cost). Providing this service should be easy as one two three since the customer will make a whooping profit, in other words they will be given more than they pay for. The seller in this case should focus on skill, smoothness, consistency, timely delivery and achieving said profit in a nice package.

So think about what you can give the customer this is if not unique selling points USP at least they are the main points to push for in your presentation.

Can you give things/services away for free?

Sure but then it’s because you get something else than money back.

Personal satisfaction / personal development / Its fun as ….

If you give your product away with freebies with little value, then ok but when it comes to cars, vacations, golf club membership etc then your on thin ice. this can of c be a strategy and it often works but it’s no fun at all when found out or discovered. So think about your company / brand and set out from the start if you want to bribe people to accept your service /product and if you can live with the consequences that may come.

For the rest of us hard work and a lot of handshaking is in the cards.

Want to support your local community?

Give away some of your time to lecture / speak / inspire kids and students in and about sales since that is one of the few remaining careers where you can “be a geek from the street” and still make it and become a star or at least make a respectable income.”zero to hero” springs to mind as a good saying in this field to. This will help some in that classroom to look more hopeful on their future and that can only be good!

Well lets close the deal.

Give more than you take and business will be better than ever!

 

Business clothing

What to wear?

Check out what your customers are wearing!

If there is a certain style then use that and do the conservative approach on it.

Beware that the customer will have different dress codes in different markets and country’s. Meaning you can be way overdressed and wearing the same outfit in another country and being way under dressed. (usually this can be quickly remedied by saying im from x and this is what we wear but i will dress more appropriate next time)

Example they wear shoes,jeans, shirt, jacket and no tie. Then go with safe grey jacket, jeans with few ornaments and no bling and make sure they are not punctured with holes in the name of fashion, blue or dark blue shirt (very conservative), shoes seems to be free in Sweden but in the rest of the world black is the thing maybe dark brown. the only place you are allowed to space out is the hanky in the brest pocket and if you have the guts 😉 the socks.

So why is it important that you tone down your clothing?

It makes you and your word more solid and down to earth. Hence you increase the weight in your offer and what your company stands for you will be taken more seriously and will have the added effect that customers will have an easier time taking you and your product in and making it easier for you to get the contract.

Having a sale staff with different clothing styles?

Decide what you want them to wear and make it mandatory. (buy a them the cloths if problems arise and consider it an investment).

Looking the part is an important factor to be the part!

Related articles

• I want to dress better but don’t know how. (ask.metafilter.com)

Seal the deal

Closing!

What does it take to get the contract.

Have you established a need for the customer? So if your product solves the need it should sell itself? It’s your job to sell the product that the customer needs so you better sell it.

So you got about 5 chances to close the deal if your savvy enough to repair the no from the previous 4 closing attempts. Most sellers will only ask the customer 1-2 times for the contract and a majority only do it on impulses that are clear from the client/customer.

Top 10 % of the sellers gets the deal before counting to 5 attempts but the reason they are top 10 is that they can get back to pitching after a no.

First of prepare a place in your pitch / presentation that naturally gives a space to ask the client /customer if they want your service /product. Try it out on real people and see if it works if so try to create 4 more catch phrases / pitch sections in your presentation since they then will give you more opportunities to ask the them again.

So if the customer says no (and they usually do just that the first time you ask them) make sure you have a comeback to rely on.

If you think that your head of sales is saying the same thing as me but in different words your probably right since this the most important point to learn when working in sales!

ps check out this clip with Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross that’s one boss you don’t want to have. ds

The first business meeting

So let’s get onwards,

1. Be prepared, read up on the company you are to visit (homepage, news, articles products any and everything you can get your eyes on.)
2. You are a welcome person act like it. (you would not have a meeting otherwise).
3. You are expected so be on time or at the most 5 minutes early.
4. When booking you should have made it clear that the meeting should take somewhere up to 60 minutes.
5. Dress accordingly
6. No matter what be polite (even if they are far from it)
7. End the meeting with a thank you for the business or as you will make business in the future see you next time 🙂

Ok you are now in and the person /persons are potential costumers.

Good and keep this in mind until you walk out the door (unless you sign a contract then and there of course).

Ideally like we discussed on the last post you have now been introduced to the company and their products. The customer is not hostile and you have gotten past the niceties.

Your turn!

I suggest you use the same tactic as you did when booking the meeting:

Try and cut to the chase (time is money).

Use the words you used when booking  five to ten words that you think will be the best ones for your business and that will make the customer really interested in your product / service. These you now will use to build up your pitch with.

Now add some positive sounding words around these so it will be an understandable and preferably strong short catch phrase.

The catch phrases are excellent places in your pitch to get the customer involved. Ask them what benefit they themselves could see in your products /services. Get them talking once you have presented 1 or 2 key points to get them on the same train. Dont let them take charge of the meeting however then it could end very soon you should be in charge of the conversation but let them talk and guide them to where you want them (towards your closing pitch. and a signed contract.) This is the key to be succesful or unsuccessful as a salesperson. If you can control the conversation in a nice and relaxed manner and create rapport with the customer they will be likely to buy now and continue to do so in the future. If you lose grip on the conversation you will have a customer who don’t know how to present your product (and they should not) so they will try to end the meeting.

Rule: Guide / control the meeting towards your goal signing the contract.

Road 1 :If you go into the meeting with a firm mindset to walk out with the contract in hand then go for it.

Road 2:If you go into the meeting wanting to get a contract in a few months time you still will be needing to act in the meeting as if you want to sell now but not pushing the signing in the end but leaving it open for the coming meeting.

Walk,talk and act like you are 100 % sure that you will get the contract until you have walked out of the door.  This will make a stronger impression about you and your product and increase its value to the customer.

If you have the contract congrats!

If you don’t?

Make sure you end the meeting with booking a new one on the phone or in real life and make sure the customer understands that it is for the closing so they are prepared to sign or say no (usually they have some confirmation questions first).

Onwards and forwards! go out and try!

The meeting

Congratulations!

You booked your first meeting.

So today is the day your going to meet your potential costumer and hopefully make a good argument for your product / service.

What you do and say has more importance than if the stuff you sell are good or crap.

So first of:

1. Be prepared, read up on the company you are to visit (homepage, news, articles products any and everything you can get your eyes on.)
2. You are a welcome person act like it. (you would not have a meeting otherwise).
3. You are expected so be on time or at the most 5 minutes early.
4. When booking you should have made it clear that the meeting should take somewhere up to 60 minutes.
5. Dress accordingly
6. No matter what be polite (even if they are far from it)
7. End the meeting with a thank you for the business or as you will make business in the future

 

So first thing first. After greetings you should preferably let the customer talk and show you around his or hers company.

They are proud to show you around and you should take mental notes of what they do and how they do it since you will be using this in the sales pitch later in the meeting.

Sometimes however they do not wish to show you around or talk about their company first but will more or less force you to pitch first since this will give them a good advantage when negotiating later.

Try as best as you can to avoid this. If they don’t want to talk about their company go for the personal approach and try to find at least some common ground to stand on. You will get a (hopefully) picture about the other person by the pictures and things they have in their office hook on to some of these to make a topic to talk about. You have 60 min and the actual pitch will usually only take 5 – 10 min and the rest is the parley that you are doing now.

Big company s may stop you even here and send you and their buyer to a neutral meeting room to give you as little leverage as possible. Then you will just try to do the best of it if you can’t or they wont talk anything else than business do that but at every opportunity try to find out how they do things and what use they could have from your product /service.

You will most likely be nervous when doing this for the first time it will show so if its to oblivious then tell the customer that this is in fact your first meeting but that you have worked in this field / you are confident in you product etc. This can create rapport so that he /she feels sympathy for you, makes them go easier and help you land the deal.

They are also humans!

Ok more on this in the next post.