To be clear … we said simple, not easy!
That said, people want to make successful selling far more complicated and contrived than it needs to be! In the 22+ years we have been designing, developing and rolling out sales training programs for our clients I have seen every imaginable configuration you can imagine. All are very well intentioned but most of them, with a few exceptions, actually move the sales rep frther and further from the place where they can actually serve their clients needs.
So, what are the 3 simple steps to successful sales and selling?
Step #1 – master an complete understanding … of the value you are bringing to the table as you seek to serve your clients. When I say master I mean I want you to know your value and be able to effectively share that value, based on what we find out the customer needs, as clearly as you would know the answer to the question “what is your birthday”!
To better understand value based selling we divide your value, or ROI to the customer, into 3 categories …
- Your company or organizations value to the customer – are your company’s strengths the fact that it is large and stable? Small and versatile? New and innovative? Financially stable and sure to be here in the future? What is it about your organization that brings some unique value to the client?
- Your product and/or service value to the customer – when fully understanding this value to the customer we are ready to answer the three questions every customer has in the back of their minds …
- Who are you?
- What problems of mine, not yours, do you solve?
- Why should I care enough to want to do business with you?
- Your personal value to the customer – meaning what is it that you personally bring to the table that delivers value beyond being easy to get along with? Are you knowledgeable, hard working, experienced, a great problem solver, an innovator, a person of high moral values, full of integrity, ethical? Why must I have you on my team of providers?
Step #2 –mastering the execution of a proven to deliver sales process is a must! Too many of us, myself included, have spent too much of our sales careers flying by the seat of our pants and accomplishing less that extraordinary results! Make no mistake … you can be really good without ever even knowing what a sales process is but you will never be the best you can be!
Learning and executing a proven process fosters consistency, repeatability, flattens out the ups and downs of selling and guarantees we deliver maximum results day in and day out! While I am partial to our process (planning, prospecting, first impressions, qualifying, demonstrating, influencing, closing and follow-up) I am less interested in you using our methodology as I am in you using something well defined and proven!
Step #3 – mastering the art of intentionally building value based “trusted adviser” status relationships with our clients. This is where we as sales reps get the maximum ROI for our time! And time is the only inventory we have that matters. Too many of us waste that valuable inventory on clients who do not value us and the product/service we bring to the table.
If we truly know our value (see Step #1 above) and we have executed a proven process (see Step #2 above) to the point that we know how we help them and their business then we deserve a healthy ROI for our time! Too often we settle for those relationships where they like us, are friendly with us but yet we settle for the scraps left around by another vendor who is getting the lion’s share of the business! Time to bring an end to that by intentionally focusing on building and maintaining high ROI relationships that serve the client and ourselves as well!
Learning More About High Value Relationships!
You can learn more about Step #3 by going to our podcast page and checking out podcast #006 Building High Return On Investment Relationships.
So, is it easy? Nope! Is it simple? Yes it is!
If we want to be ultimately successful in this endeavor we call sales then we must commit ourselves to becoming masters of 3 Simple Steps! If we can help you do that with a particular blog entry, podcast, or webinar subject please let us know in the comment section below or go to our www.thesalesgladiators.com/QIF (stands for questions, insights and feedback) page and tell us what you need and we will do our best to make it happen!
You got this …
