FREE
Tips ____________________________________________
7 Steps for
Mapping Your Sales Process
Written by Pete Nelson
At Everywhere Marketing we’re big believers
that anything worth doing well is worth duplicating. To duplicate
anything well it’s important to have a system that allows
you to re-create your best efforts and desired outcomes on
a consistent basis. That is why anytime we create a sales,
marketing or branding campaign it is rooted in our system
which we call The Seven Primary Points of a Sale.
Take McDonald’s, for instance, which
best selling author, Michael Gerber (The eMyth) refers
to as one of the greatest businesses in history because of
the system they execute. No matter where you are in the world,
venture into a McDonald’s and you can expect to find
the food tasting the same, the service is the same and in
most cases, the restaurants are the same.
Regardless of how you feel about fast-food,
you have to admire a company that has so thoroughly defined
and executed their sales system that after a million-plus
employees, billions of customers and nearly forty years of
being in business, their proven system continues to drive
their business, rather than their business driving the system.
And let’s not forget that McDonald’s didn’t
start off as a multi-billion dollar conglomerate.
Like nearly all entrepreneurs, McDonald’s
started out as a very small business, which was built and
subsequently grown through the BIG vision of the company’s
owner Ray Kroc. Mr. Kroc’s vision was based on a systematic
sales approach that was rooted in his belief of how customers
wanted to buy and how they wanted to experience food on the
go or with their families.
Take that example and let’s bring the
concept of replication closer to you and your business. What
is your sales process? Do you have a defined system for consistently
moving your prospects through your sales cycle? If you do,
how often do you stay within the system? And perhaps, most
importantly, do you know where you and your prospects are
at all times during the sales process?
Your Personal Road
Map
Like McDonald’s and any other company
that has a successful system driving its business, to consistently
make the most of your marketing and sales efforts, you will
want to have a proven, easy to follow and simple to execute
system for turning leads and referrals into paying clients
in the most time and cost efficient manner possible.
The following is based on Pete Nelson’s system The
Seven Primary Points of a Sale. It is designed to
act as your personal road map through the entire marketing
and selling process. You will quickly notice that these seven
points are universal to almost all outside selling scenarios,
particularly relevant to the process of selling a service.
These seven steps are also part of many inside selling environments.
Not only will this seven point system help
you know where you and your prospects are at all times during
the selling process, but it will help you be more effective
and more efficient with your overall marketing and selling
efforts.
1.
Pre-Sale Conditioning
It’s no accident that the first Primary Point of a Sale
is “Pre-Sale Conditioning”, which is
all about possessing a strong, positive
and focused mindset. This is the underlying foundation
for achieving consistent, long term success in sales, just
as it is in achieving success in all areas of business and
life.
Most women entrepreneurs, however, find that
their mindset isn’t as strong as they’d like it
to be, especially when it comes to sales or even marketing.
The prevailing attitude is that selling and even promoting
one’s self is slimy, uncomfortable and unethical. Women
entrepreneurs are constantly on the lookout for an easier,
less stressful way to sell and market. They’re searching
for a way that is more conducive to their values and natural
communication style.
The reality is that without sales, not much
is going to get done in this world. This is absolutely true
when you’re trying to grow and sustain a successful
business. Selling isn’t unethical and slimy, true selling
is education. And it doesn’t have to be overwhelming
and stressful. Successful selling and marketing starts with
a shift in your perception. For many that shift is to understand
that the only time selling is slimy, uncomfortable or unethical
is when you’re trying to take advantage of a customer
by going against the customer’s wishes, wants and needs.
And if that is not you, you don’t have to worry about
your values or the customer’s values being compromised.
The proper mindset allows you to effectively
identify, prioritize, gather resources and execute any and
all sales strategies with ease, eliminating the feeling of
pressure. Success in sales, as it is success in business and
marketing, is predicated upon the Five P’s
of Successful Selling – Proper – Preparation –
Prevents – Poor – Performance.
2.
Prospecting & Influencing
Armed with the right mindset and your strategy well planned
out, this point in the selling process is where you begin
executing on your strategy. It is also where you will usually
have initial contact with a referral or lead. This initial
contact can be arranged through standard referrals, advertisements,
direct marketing, a presentation, a networking event, an article
you wrote, search engines or any number of other ways. The
reality is that your prospective client may not be inclined
to buy something from you at the initial point of contact.
Which is why our agency often refers to this point in the
selling process as “Opening Doors Through
TOMA”.
TOMA stands for Top of Mind Awareness, which means anytime
your prospects are thinking of a challenge or need that your
service and product helps them overcome, they are thinking
of you and your company as a viable and natural solution.
At this stage of the selling process, your main focus isn’t
to get the customer to buy from you. The main focus is to
get prospects to see enough value in you and your solution
to move you to the next point in the Seven Primary Points
of a Sale.
3. Uncovering
The Truth
This point in the sales process is where you formally, or
in some cases, in-formally, learn about the issues and challenges
your prospect is experiencing. Do not assume you and your
company have the right solution for them, even if you know
you do. Your primary intention here is to get to the truth
and you cannot confuse this truth by inserting your own assumptions
before you have enough information to validate them. At the
heart of this is a genuine interest and focus on the prospect.
They’re the star at this point of the sales process.
One of the world’s leading authorities on eliminating
pressure and tension from the sales process is the founder
of Unlock The Game, Ari Galper. Ari’s a good friend
of mine. When Ari and I sat down for an interview recently,
Ari said the first thing to connecting with a prospect at
this point in the selling process is diffusing pressure and
getting visibility into a prospect or client’s true
agenda. As he put it, “A client doesn’t
care how much you know, until he knows how much you care.”
Once the prospect feels your desire to close them right way
is genuinely gone they will not feel so vulnerable or defensive
and guess what – neither will you. At this point they
will be much more open to telling you what’s “really
going on” inside their organization and therefore,
providing you with the information needed to effectively take
you to the next point in the sales process.
4. Customizing Your
Solutions
John Naisbitt, a former senior executive for IBM and Kodak,
once said about this stage of the sales process, “In
selling, as in medicine, prescription before diagnosis is
malpractice.”With that in mind, this point
in the selling process you and/or members of your team will
be presenting how your company’s solutions will solve
the challenges or issues your prospect wants you to help them
with. If you’ve done your job during Primary Point #3
you will have received the necessary information to appropriately
prescribe your solutions for the prospect.
This is where it becomes crucial to understand the primary
decision making style of those you’re pitching to and
communicate with them in the way they want to be communicated
with. But no matter the type of decision maker you’re
dealing with, remember they receive the “STAR”
treatment, so make the solution all about them and their company
– not all about you and your company. The more you can
customize, and in some cases, fully personalize, your solution
for the prospect the better chances you have of winning the
account.
Once you’ve presented your customized solution for
the client, you will immediately find yourself in the next
point of the sales process.
5. Handling
Resistance & Pressure
At some point in every sales process you will be faced with
objections, concerns and very direct questions about you and
your company’s ability to deliver on its promise. This
is pressure, or as many people, refer to it as crunch
time. This usually occurs immediately following Primary
Point #4, where you delivered the solutions for your prospect’s
challenges.
What’s really important to be aware of during this point
is that a vast number of people you will sell to have either
worked as a salesperson, been trained on closing tactics by
their company or they’ve either read, listened to and/or
attended programs on selling just as you have. The outcome
is that many of the people you will sell to today know all
about “closing techniques” and “how
to overcome objections”.
Old habits are difficult to break and this is precisely where
many well intentioned entrepreneurs find themselves falling
into the trap of employing antiquated and manipulative sales
tactics when the pressure is turned up. Or, they simply fold
under the pressure. When this occurs you’re instantly
creating tension and raising alarms within your prospect rather
than creating excitement and raising their interest in doing
business with you. This not only won’t accelerate your
sales cycle but slows it down considerably.
When your prospect is hesitant to move forward at this point
in the sales process remember to never take their hesitancy
or questions as a personal attack on you. You will want to
remove your ego from this point of the selling process as
much as you can.
More than likely, the questions, objections and
hesitancy your prospect is expressing is in direct relation
to one or more of the following four things:
(1) They’re responding based on their
preferred and natural decision making characteristics.
(2) You did not adequately address their
true needs and communicate your solutions in a way they can
relate to.
(3) There are agendas and issues you have
not yet uncovered that are causing hesitancy in making a decision
on your solution.
(4) They simply want to clarify and reinforce
your solutions.
Knowing where your prospect is coming from with their questions,
objections and/or hesitancy will allow you to be better equipped
to eliminate any tension or pressure during this point. Do
this effectively and you will have moved to the next point
in the sales process.
6. Securing
The Sale
There have been thousands of books, audio courses and training
programs solely devoted to this point of the sales process.
It’s often referred to as “closing”. Contrary
to traditional sales methodologies, you do not have to possess
some magical, secret closing technique in order to be successful
at securing the deal.
In fact, you should never have to sell anything to anyone.
If you’ve effectively done your job during the previous
five points, especially Primary Points #3 - #5, you just facilitate
your prospect selling your solution to themselves.
In other words, this may very well be the easiest point
in the entire selling process.
If, on the other hand, there are still lingering issues and
unanswered questions, you will find securing a sale at this
stage very difficult. Trying to force a sale here when the
prospect isn’t fully ready to say, “YES”
can very easily kill your chances of securing the sale at
all.
If you’re finding the prospect or client isn’t fully
ready to commit, we cannot stress how important it is to put
your personal needs aside and strictly focus on your prospect’s
needs and issues. Listen carefully to their questions, objections
or concerns. Anchor your responses to their preferred style
of communicating and preferred style of making decisions. Specifically,
anchor your solutions with what you already know is most important
to them and the core issues they’re looking for you to
help them solve.
7. Follow
Up & Follow Through
You’ve made it through point #6 and secured the sale.
Your new client is excited, you’re thrilled and everything
seems right with the world. So now what? Go on to the next prospect?
Yes, but not without first making sure you are consistently
following up and following through with the prospect you just
turned into a client.
Following up and following through opens up customer interaction
and extends customer satisfaction. Yet, so many entrepreneurs
believe that once a contract is signed the work is over. The
mentality is that it’s time to move onto the next deal.
On the contrary, once the contract is signed this is where the
real work begins.
As a consumer yourself, you know exactly what happens when you
feel disconnected from someone who sold you something, especially
if that something involved a big purchase. You’re hurt,
angry and resentful. These are three things you do not want
your clients feeling about you and your company after they have
purchased your solution.
In our agency’s experience of working with hundreds of
organizations and thousands of professionals, we believe the
ability to follow through, or as some people refer to it as
following up, is the single most important ingredient for keeping
clients, selling more to existing clients and obtaining
valuable referrals. Following up and following through
builds a loyal and trust worthy brand.
____________________________________________
 Pete
Nelson is recognized as one of North America’s top sales
and marketing strategists. He is the founder of Everywhere
Woman Media, LLC., which includes the revolutionary
marketing & branding agency www.EverywhereMarketing.com
that creates business makeovers for women entrepreneurs. He
is also the creator behind the popular
sales training program Selling
In Color.
Along with being the co-author of the book,
Success Under Fire: Lessons for Being Your Best In Crunch
Time, Pete is also a popular international speaker, who
has delivered programs to over 30,000 professionals, during
the last eight years, across North America and Europe.
____________________________________________
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