by Nina Sunday
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Nothing’s worse than your possible new customer shutting the door to follow-up with a statement along the lines of, 'I'll call you when I've read the info.’
If you respond with, ‘Well, I’ll wait to hear from you then,’ you have not asked for, nor have they given, permission to contact them again.
Use this 5-step method whenever they get a DCUWCU – don’t call us, we’ll call you – response, so you retain permission to stay in contact.
1. ‘That’s fine.’
Your automatic reaction should be to agree with your client by saying, ‘that’s fine.’
2. ‘And . . .’
Start your next sentence with ‘And . . . ’. Never use ‘but’, which sounds oppositional and creates resistance.
3. ‘And If I haven't heard from you in say
< 10 days / 3 months / 6 months > . . . '
Actively listen during the conversation for an implied time frame and suggest a callback after that. For example, based on your client's level of interest and urgency, if a week is implied, you can suggest a call after 10 days.
If they indicate a couple of months, suggest 3 months. If ‘not in the foreseeable future’, offer a callback at 6 or 12 months.
4. Then ask permission, '. . . is if ok if I call you then?'
Nine out of ten clients will agree to a call back within a reasonable time frame. If they say that's too soon, ask again with a later time frame, 'How about I call you back in 3 months then?
When they agree, you’ve just gained permission to continue the relationship with a future call back.
It’s written in the selling skills textbook, ‘no’ doesn’t mean ‘no’, it means ‘not now’; unless they absolutely have zero interest and tell you again, ‘no, please don’t call.’ That’s good to know. You can take them off your list.
5. Start the next call referring to history.
Then be sure to open your next call with reference to the last time you spoke:
‘Hi <their name >, this is < your name > from < your company name >.
< Back in August > you asked me to phone you around this time regarding < . . . >’
Now when they hear from you, you are not interrupting them, but following their instructions. This is the elegance of permission marketing.
The task of a salesperson is to create new customers, not to wait for incoming orders.
Action Summary
1. Remember to end every phone call referring to the best time frame to contact again, and wait for them agree.
2. Then make sure you make a note of the agreed callback date in client history and schedule the callback on your calendar.
How you end a sales call determines whether the next time you contact your prospect they’ll be happy to hear from you or whether they’ll consider your call an interruption.
Selling today is about continuously asking your customer for permission to stay in contact, so they expect to hear from you, keeping the door open to an ongoing relationship.
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For Sales Training for your group of 10-16 staff in your organisation's training room, visit our Sales Training web page
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Feel – Felt – Found: Try This Classic Negotiation Tactic Using ‘Social Proof' As a Reason To Buy
by Nina Sunday
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Can you think of a time when a client considered your product or service too expensive or not right or just had any reason not to proceed?
their mind, yet still 'save face'.
To help you remember, call it the 'three Fs':
1. Feel: empathise with the other person by agreeing with their point of view.
2. Felt: point out many of your clients also once held that view (use the past tense).
3. Found: outline the information that caused your clients to change their mind.
Imagine your customer says,
‘We would like to go ahead and buy (your product or service),
but it's more than our budget allows.'
Using the Feel-felt-found approach you might say:
1. ‘I can understand how you might feel that way.
2. ‘Many of our clients felt initially it was more than they wanted to spend.
3. But after they went ahead, they found it actually saved money on training, overtime, and shrinkage.’
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Here's another scenario.
A not-for-profit organisation seeks a regular monthly donation.They ask,
'Would you consider making a regular monthly gift of $50 per month?'
The possible new donor replies,
'Although I support what you do, I can’t afford $50 a month.'
Using feel-felt-found, the fundraiser replies,
1. 'I can understand how you’d feel that way.
2. Many of our regular donors felt that way at first.
3. But they decided to give it a go anyway, on the understanding they can cancel their donation any time.
And do you know what? They found over time, there always was enough money to continue their pledge.'
[Then ask a question.]
'On the understanding you can cancel anytime, would you be willing to give it a go?'
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Why does Feel-felt-found work more often than it doesn’t?
There is a human need to belong, to heed the crowd.
It's what Robert Cialdini in his book 'Influence: The Psychology of persuasion' * calls social proof. People do things they see other people doing.
Do you enter an empty restaurant, or one that is full of patrons?
If you see a crowd gathered, does curiosity compel you to find out what the fuss is about?
To test this out, try looking up into the sky in a public place. Notice how many others will then look up into the skyto see what you are seeing.
It's a basic instinct.
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A tip: Be careful how you say it.
Don’t say, 'I know how you feel.'
This choice of words sometimes produces an angry response.
You can’t ever really know how another person feels.
Say instead, 'I can understand how you might feel that way.'
Or,
'I can imagine how you must feel.'
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Another scenario.
A customer is concerned if they purchase new computer software it will be too complex and take too much time for staff to master.
They might object with, 'I think it’s hard to understand and will take too long to get up to speed.'
Using feel-felt-found, you might respond with,
1. 'I can understand how you might feel that way, < name >.
2. Many of our clients felt the same way . . .
3. . . . until they started using the software and found it more quick to master than they at first thought.'
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What are typical objections with your product or service that could be successfully handled with the ‘Feel-felt-found’ approach?e.g. Objection: 'It's too . . . '
Now respond with,
Feel: 'I can understand why you'd feel that way .. .
Felt: 'Many of our clients felt . . .
Found: 'but what they found was . . .
Work cited:
Cialdini, Robert B. Ph.D., 'Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion'Harper Paperbacks; Revised edition (December 26, 2006)
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Selling Skills Tip
Top 7 mistakes people make
when selling
by Nina Sunday
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Mistake #1: Not Asking Enough Questions
By asking questions you’re engaging your customer in a conversation. The worst thing you can do is to rush in with a solution and start telling your customer about your product.
Mistake #2: Not Describing the 'WIIFM' - What’s In It For Me
When mentioning a product feature it’s important to also add, ' . . . what that means to you is . . . ’ or ‘ . . . which means you won’t ever have to . . . ’
Remember to add the benefit every time you mention a feature of a product or service.
Mistake #3: Not Asking For The Order.
In this customer savvy world, it’s not about hard sell or asking closing questions any more.
A simple question:
- 'So would you like to take the next step?’
- ‘How would you like to move forward?’
- ‘It makes sense to me to place an order, what do you think?’
A question like that posed at the right time can advance the sale and make a difference.
Mistake #4: Not giving post-sale customer service.
Many salespeople get distracted by the next incoming enquiry and completely neglect a profitable area of repeat business - existing customers.
Existing customers are 5 to 7 times more profitable than marketing to new customers. To forget about post-sale customer service is losing an opportunity to cross-sell, upsell and repeat sell.
Mistake #5: Not Qualifying
Are you talking to the decision maker? Are there multiple decision makers? Remember to ask, ‘Is there anyone else involved in making the decision?'
Offer to teleconference with all the decision-makers.
(It might make sense to get your own web teleconference account for this purpose.)
Mistake #6: Not managing buyer resistance.
Brainstorm standard replies to typical customer objections. Don't take no for an answer. Be prepared to keep the conversation going.
Mistake #7: Giving up too soon.
So many salespeople give up at the first ‘no’ or ‘we haven't had time to consider it yet.’
A customer might need eleven touches - eleven contacts from you - before they say yes. If you give up and don't call back after touch number ten, you’ve lost the sale!
Mistake #8: Being 'busy' instead of contacting customers.
One of the biggest mistake salespeople make is getting distracted by activity or 'being busy'. Are you getting distracted by that?
Any time you’re not talking to a customer or in front of a customer – phone or face to face, ask yourself ‘have I actually got call reluctance?’
Avoid perfectionism when it comes to proposals, and get them out more quickly, so you can move forward to do the next follow-up.
So that’s probably the biggest trap, the biggest pitfall for anyone involved in sales, is convincing themselves of the illusion that being busy leads to a sale. Customer contact leads to sales.
For Selling Skills training for your group of 10-16 staff in your organisation's training room or for a speaker at your conference, visit our Selling Skills training web page.
For Negotiation Skills training visit this web page.