Do you find sales easy? Some people are great at it—it comes to them naturally. But for most, it is a burden, a struggle, and even a fear. Every day, we work with clients and their staffs to help with the sponsorship sales process. Within these organizations, we build the internal sales and service marketing capacity to be successful. It is truly satisfying work. We watch as people who “hate sales” become amazing salespeople, or as I call them, solution providers.
As a result of our success with clients, I am often asked, “How do you make a great salesperson?” We have no silver bullet. Nor do we have a stock format or process for clients. We design based on the need. But I can give you some ideas, because someone was recently bugging me over a coffee to come up with three or four pieces of advice around being successful in the sales process. Here is what I gave him.
- Attitude is important. You have to be positive. You need to believe in your product. If you doubt that your product will help the prospect, you will not succeed—nor should you. Look at every glass as half full, and be “on your game” every day with every client.
- Don’t talk about yourself and your product. Ask questions about them, their needs, and objectives. You need to determine their issues. Do they need to drive traffic to their web site, hire more staff, or increase brand awareness? Until you find out their “problem,” you cannot find a solution. So first, ask questions, then listen—then ask and listen some more. Once you know what they need, you can find the solution for them in your tool kit.
- When you pitch, make it focused. Confirm the problem/issue again to make sure nothing has changed. Then, in a focused presentation (verbal, PowerPoint or whatever), show what you and your product can do to solve the problem and what it will cost. Show them the value of the money they spend with you and how it will solve their problem.
- Then wait. See their reaction, answer objections, and close the sale whether it is on-site right then, or in a follow-up call or meeting. If the sale does not close, it either means you were not listening, or got wrong information and did not build the right ask.
I hope this helps. It is not exhaustive by any means, but in my mind, these points form the foundation of a successful sales process, which means closed business.
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