It takes more than a Sales Process to Increase Sales
Posted by: Cheryl Clausen in sales coaching, tags: how to sell, increase sales, sales coaching
Elinor shared a story on her blog about a sales presentation ending with a sports car being offered as an incentive to Californians. Yes, California where they take pride in being first when it comes to improving the environment, and where they’re embracing hybrid cars.
What an embarrassing mistake. You would think the person giving the presentation would have known better. But therein lies the reason for the big faux pas.
Far too often salespeople and the companies they represent think sales is all about the sales process. They think the key to sales is the “perfect pitch”. With rising gas prices and a slowing economy don’t let this misguided thinking make you yet another sales fatality.
Sales isn’t about the perfect pitch. No matter how perfect you think your pitch is it won’t succeed unless you’ve considered two critical elements to your sales success. Those elements are the prospect and the market.
There’s no doubt you understand your product. You can talk forever about your product, and why the prospect should buy. The problem is the prospect won’t listen because you aren’t talking with them you’re talking at them. That’s a fatal mistake.
Before you make a sales call you need to make sure you understand both the prospect and the market. Then you adapt what you say and how you say it to grab their attention and interest. Once you have their attention and interest you have an opportunity to hold a sales conversation.
Ditch the pitch. Understand the prospect and your market. And then you’ll increase sales.
Read more and discover how to avoid these fatal sales mistakes and increase your sales
Entries (RSS)
August 24th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Excellent added insight Cheryl! Thank you for commenting on my blog. The biggest blunder of that sales presentation is that the presenter was not familiar with his audience. In order to sell more often and increase the size of each sale, you must always speak to the interests of your audience. Ecco-friendly cars would have been a much better choice in this case.
And if by some chance your audience is in direct opposition of what you believe, then it will be a far more difficult process to make a sale and certainly not nearly as satisfying. I find keeping one’s integrity is more important than chasing all potential sales.
Elinor Stutz, CEO and Author
Smooth Sale, LLC
“Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results”