Selling a service

People do business with people they know,like, and trust.

Your service is not something your potential clients can touch or taste, they cant even see it.

They have only YOU who represents the service. You will be the mesuring stock that they will base their judgement on.

To go for it or not.

It’s always easier to say no. If you say yes you stick your neck out as a buyer. YOU are the one being hanged out if the service salesman can not fulfill the promises made.

So as a service seller (like me) you will have to make sure that you project an image of someone they would like to know better, someone they can like, someone they can trust.

These things will be easier to say than to do in the real world.

Trust.

How can you trust anyone? I do trust persons on face value and adjust my trustometer accordingly after new impressions come along. For instance if a person acts trustworthy and don’t have any inconsistency in their approach, sales pitch and answers questions in a nice, knowledgeable and correct way i judge that they can be trusted. (if they slip up along the way this needs to be addressed and pointed out so you can clear out this, or the trustometer will sink fast.)

Likeability.

You don’t like every person you meet neither do i. Most people i meet, i do like and those i try to get along with, and it will be the same in the pitching situation. You can easily judge if you will dislike the customer or if you can get along. Do business with the ones you like and don’t do it with the ones you dislike since that will usually end up in situations that will degrade your value and take a lot of energy to get past. So use your time helping customers who appreciate you and your work.

 

Getting to know a customer.

This can happen in a fraction of seconds. Last time that happened, I was meeting a new client and we just clicked like that and it felt like we known each other for years. Mostly this will take some time to develop and along the way you will just have to be genuinely interested and interesting and things solve themselves. Take a lunch, bring some cake, mail them an interesting article or a link to a blog that concerns your business and feel free to come up with things like this since it strengthen your bond and will get you to know your customer and your customer to know you.

 

Veni vidi vici

www.patrikolson.com

Related articles

• 7 ways to Increase Sales by creating Trust (yoast.com)
• What Do You Call A Salesman You Can Trust (frontofficebox.com)
• Can social media improve online trust for small businesses? (marketing.yell.com)
• 12 Customer Dos & Don’ts (empwaynek.wordpress.com)
• How much faith do you have in trust? (successnetwork.wordpress.com)
• Do You Trust Me? (monkiss.wordpress.com)
• Definition of Trust (hikageinochisan.wordpress.com)
• Do Your People Trust You? (empwaynek.wordpress.com)
• Should the salesman be liked or trusted ? (leadsexplorer.com)
• Goal or behavior oriented (patrikolson.wordpress.com)
• Hiring your salesforce (patrikolson.wordpress.com)
• Reflections on the life of a salesman (dralfoldman.wordpress.com)
• Give away the diagnostic, sell the remedy (cdixon.org)

ABC of sales

Ok so Alec Baldwin character didn’t come across as very sympathetic but that probably wasnt why he was there.

He was abusive and kicked hard but above all he was right about the sales part.

A lways

B e

C losing

If you do this and have no emphatic ability you will crash and burn every single time.

You have to have a feeling or the right training to get where and when the timing is right or a presentation that naturally gives you the opportunity to close.

So how do you achieve this without sounding like a complete tool?

In the presentation, build in sections that presents one unique selling point and that goes on for about as long as you / the customer feels comfortable about it, preferably they should cut to the core and after the points been made you do either a closing attempt or an interest check and then a close depending on  the answer.

This should enable you to rescue a no and hopefully continue with 3-4 more unique selling points but the following pitches should definitely be played harder to get the deal if it’s a sell now or get nought. If you can rescue and chicken out you could opt for a second meeting with better preparation. This is usually not a good approach. Decide before the closing meeting if you should chance to blow it or take it home.

Whats the difference?

Interest check = how did that sound to you?

Close attempt = if this sounds good to you would you like to sign right here and now.

Interest check is a soft opening for a close.

The first close attempts should be softer than the coming ones to check out the customers reaction and be really observant here to read all the info from face/body language what they say and what they really meant by saying it.

So A lways B e C losing and you will make you deals than you did before pratice makes perfect and the more customers you meet and try this with the better you will be at it.

The mindset and attitude is very important so walk the walk talk the talk and close the deal.

Oh and you dont need a set of brass balls, just be yourself!

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!