Here are a few rules for you to shorten your sales cycle and ensure your selling success. Here’s how you can make more money in sales.
Rule #1. Have a plan for every sales call.
How will you know your sales call is a success? It’s not when you feel like it was a great call. It’s only when you’ve left the call with more than you had when you went in. That also means that you planned what you would leave with before you went into the sales meeting.
But, how many times have your customers and prospects followed your exact plans? Probably not as many times as you’ve liked. That’s why you have to have a back-up plan.
My rule is to set both a maximum objective, or one you want to achieve in the meeting, as well as a minimum objective.
The minimum is something you can control and leave the meeting with that will move your sales process forward. Some examples of minimum objectives are to ask for a customer referral, ask for an introduction to someone else at the customer, or ask for a piece of critical information.
Do you see that you can control what you ask for? That’s the point. You don’t leave the meeting dejected if you don’t achieve your maximum sales objective.
Rule #2. Don’t present too soon
I see it all the time when I work with sales people to increase their business. They ask their prospect about their current situation. The customer tells them about an issue that the salesperson could address by selling something. The salesman is thrilled to hear the issue and immediately presents.
It’s only later that the prospect says, “I’ll need to think about it.”
It’s because the prospect is not motivated to do anything—yet. The salesman has presented too soon. You should only present when the customer tells you three needs that he wants to address.
Katherine Hepburn once said, “If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” In sales, these rules get you sales and that’s a whole lot more fun than failure.
Best wishes for your sales success!
