The Ultimate Sales Machine - Chet Holmes [108]
When I sold advertising, for example, asking the following questions was mandatory:
How do your customers find out about you right now?
What’s the most effective way you have for gaining new clients?
What’s the amount of your average sale? (This enabled us to cost-justify. Meaning, if their product cost $400 and the ad cost $4,000, then they only needed 10 sales to justify the cost of the advertising.)
What are the three biggest problems you’re having in [your area of business]? (Get their pain and help solve it.)
How long have you worked here?
How’d you get started?
What are your goals for your company?
What are your goals for yourself?
What are your criteria for making a decision about buying a product or ser vice like ours?
This last question is quite direct, so you need to find a subtle way to ask it that fits into your conversation. For example, with advertising we would ask, “What are the factors that make you choose one advertising vehicle over another?” Additionally, when you understand their personal and business goals and their needs, you will be able to show them how your product or ser vice can help them achieve their goals and fulfill those needs. Our sales staff was drilled on these questions, given spot quizzes, and then assigned role-play exercises to make sure they understood what they were looking for each time.
Think of every question your salesperson should ask in order to thoroughly understand the client’s needs. For example, in all my years of buying suits, I’ve never had a rep ask me what I do for a living or what I have in my current wardrobe. Would knowing the answers to these questions help you establish deeper rapport and get deeper into my world while helping me to buy more suits? I worked with a large retail men’s clothing chain in an attempt to get them to be much more effective at this. I even designed a program called “Dressed for Success,” where the salesperson would have a presentation binder in the store to show people how to dress for success. The salesperson was even supposed to offer a “wardrobe analysis,” getting deep into the prospect’s wardrobe to help flesh it out, round it off, and make sure that the client had appropriate attire for every occasion.
On their own, most companies just don’t go this deep. Yet if you study their best producers, you’ll find variations on all these rapport-developing techniques. Your job is to set up systems, procedures, and training that create a machine where every salesperson gets deep with your prospects. In the words of Jay Abraham, “If you truly believe that what you have is useful and valuable to your clients, then you have a moral obligation to try to serve them in every way possible.” I believe this. I practice it. And when I work with companies, I work very hard to make sure they go at this from every angle possible.
The best method of selling I’ve ever seen is when you can guide your prospects through a series of questions and they sell themselves on your product or ser vice.
For example, someone will call in from our radio ad and we will have a conversation that goes something like this.
REP: What was it about the spot that made you call us?
THEM: I liked the idea of getting all my dream clients
REP: What is a dream client for you?
THEM: Heck, Microsoft would be a dream client.
REP: What would a client like that mean to your business?
THEM: Millions?
REP: And how many clients like that are there out there for you?
THEM: One hundred sounds like a good number.