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Sales Skills: The First Appointment - Understanding the Basics
What is a successful sale worth to you? Is it $100, $500 or over a thousand dollars? Making a sale is important. Sales are the life blood of any business. Without new sales, your business can not survive. Let's look at your sales history. Think about your successful sales. Why were you successful? Conversely, if you experienced a situation were you unsuccessful, how would you correct it? What would you do differently? Your success might determine whether you will have filet mignon or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner. Have you heard some of these statements during a first appointment from a prospect?
What are you hearing? If you are hearing these statements, then you will probably not complete the sale. Don't fall in love with this prospect. There is no chance for a sale. Move on. Don't waste your time. What do the sales gurus tell you?
These sales gurus will tell you WHAT to do. But, not HOW to do it! They don't teach you how to sell on a first appointment. They don't teach you a system for selling during the first appointment. To be successful, you have to a system for conducting a first appointment. You must learn HOW to conduct a successful first appointment if you want to get the sale! If you hear on your first appointment the following from your prospect:
Congratulations! You probably have a new client! Which outcome would you rather have? Would you want your appointment to produce a sale or be a waste of time? What can you do to enhance your chances to add a new client? What separates the winners from the losers? The most critical part of a successful sales system is the first appointment. With the first appointment, you can determine whether you have a suspect, prospect or a potential client. Additionally, it is your opportunity for you to get to know and understand your potential client's needs, goals, objectives, challenges and problems. Likewise, the potential client has an opportunity to get to know you and understand how your product or service can fix a problem or support her needs or objectives. If you don't have a successful first appointment, you will not have a potential sale. A successful first appointment creates an opportunity to move to the next step in the sales process. What are specific steps to conducting a successful first appointment? Some people will "wing it". That is, they do a first call without prior planning or thinking. Unsuccessful sales people will ignore that they must have a system for conducting first appointments. Here are the nine specific steps that you need to complete for a winning first appointment:
Preparation Preparation is critical to the success of your first appointment. You must prepare because it allows you to stay in control of the appointment. It gives you the ability to overcome objections. Lastly, it gives you a better insight and understanding of your prospect. Building rapport You must build rapport because people will not buy from people that they don't like. Make a friend. Discover their likes and dislikes. Understand who this person is and why she is in business. Why has the company been successful? What are their company goals? What are her hobbies? Listen to her more and talk less. Setting the agenda and accomplishing appointment objectives You must set an agenda because it gives you an outline of what you want to accomplish. It gives you to get agreement from the prospect the priorities for the meeting. It keeps the sales person in control of the meeting. It provides prospects to an opportunity to give input. It communicates to the prospect that she is important. It allows you to focus on the critical elements. Establish creditability and trust During the first appointment, it is critical to establish creditability and trust. Your prospect wants to know do you and your company have the experience and expertise to support her business. If you can't convince that you are a potential strategic partner, you will never earn the business. Power of questions Some people know that you must ask prospects questions during your first appointment. However, asking the right type of question will guarantee success and capture the critical information that you need to have to close the deal. There are two types of questions: close probe and open probe. Close probe questions can be answered with a yes or a no. Be careful with these questions. If you ask a question that can be answer with a no, this can negatively effect your conversation and your appointment. What would happen if every question that you ask was answered with a no instead of a "yes"? You don't want them to say "no" to you! A negative will produce another negative and another one and another one. You want your prospective client to say "yes" to you! The more yeses that you get, the closer you get to the sale. More positives will produce more positives and a better outcome for the meeting. Open probe questions begin with: "how", "what", "who", "why", "when" and "where". It forces your prospect to think and answer the question. Also, it helps you collect information about the prospect. It helps you really understand what the person is thinking about. Additionally, you learn more about their experiences and opinions. Last and more importantly, it helps you understand what the prospect really thinks about you, your product and services. If you are asking open probe questions, you will know where you stand in the sales process. That's a good thing. It will help you close deals. Initial questions Asking initial questions help you understand the prospect's key concerns. This helps you to design a customized solution that specifically solves the prospective client issues. Discovering opportunities By uncovering the opportunities, better understand the current system, strengths and weaknesses and organization. You discover what they like about their current system and how they would improve it. You assess the company's strengths to understand what assets can be used as a foundation for success. Gathering critical information It is critical to collect critical information about your potential client. You can't secure a deal unless you have enough information. If you do not know your prospect, you will never get the sale! Closing the deal You will never be successful unless you ask for the sale! You must close the deal. You must find out what it will take for your prospective client to come onboard. Asking for referrals Lastly, do not forget to ask for referrals. Do not be afraid to ask. If you can successfully complete the first six steps, you can get good referrals. If you put the prospect's concerns ahead of your need to make a sale, then you will earn the referrals. If you don't like to make cold calls, you better get good at getting referrals! They are the life blood of your business. Referrals increase your chances for a sale! How important is a sale to you? What do your sales numbers look like to you? What is your first appointment process? How will you use these suggestions to improve your first call appointment? What are you strengths and weaknesses? What would you do to improve your first appointments? By having a comprehensive first appointment system, you improve your chances of having a great first meeting that will produce possible sale. Then, you can have filet mignon every night!
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For More Sales Tips: How to Train Cats and Salespeople Selling to the Four Temperament Styles Your Customer is Lying…Did You Catch It? Show and Tell - Getting Your Customer Involved Do You Know What Your Sales Team Are Saying To Your Customers? |
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