Seven Steps to Successful Selling
Salesman.mp4
BASIC FORMULA
OF MOVIE
MAKING
• You may have been surprised if someone told you that movie scripts, regardless of the
genre, all follow the same basic formula—the same sequence of events—almost down to
the minute.
• After three minutes, the central question of the movie is introduced; after twenty-seven
more minutes, the main character will set off on a new path; fifteen minutes more, and
something symbolic will happen; and so on. It’s hard to believe that The Fast and the
Furious would follow the same formula as The Notebook, but once you know
what to look for, you’ll see that the structure holds up.
• Hollywood has come to learn that this particular structure is the secret to keeping
the audience’s attention, earning positive reviews, and selling movies.
Is there any relevance of this movie making formula
to steps in selling process?????
Almost all selling—regardless of the product that’s being
sold—follows a particular sequence of steps. It’s a simple
but logical framework that has been the accepted model for
almost a hundred years .
The selling process is generally divided into seven steps.
1. Prospect and qualify
2. Preapproach
3. Approach
4. Presentation
5. Overcome objections
6. Close the sale
7. Follow-up
Step 1: Prospecting and Qualifying
• Before planning a sale, a salesperson conducts research to identify the
people or companies that might be interested in company’s product. This
step is called Prospecting.
• Prospecting, just as the word implies, is about searching for new
customers.
• Prospecting is the foundational step for the rest of the sales process.
• Finding leads (or people who might be prospects) is the most vital part of
the selling process—you can’t make a sale without identifying the people
to whom you’ll be selling.
• Salespeople qualify their prospects so they can focus their sales efforts on
the people who are most likely to buy.
Step 1: Prospecting and Qualifying
The Sales Funnel
At the top of the funnel you have "unqualified
prospects" – the very many people who you think
might need your product or service, but to whom
you've never spoken.
At the bottom of the funnel, many sales and delivery
steps later, you have people who have received
delivery of your product or service and have paid for
it.
Step 1: Prospecting and Qualifying
Create a Profile of Your Ideal Buyer
• What particular qualities and characteristics will define this
individual or company?
• What specific problems would this buyer have that your
product could solve?
• In what ways should the buyer be compatible with you or your
organization?
Your ideal customer profile will help you prioritize and target
your efforts because it provides a model against which you can
measure your leads to determine whether a potential customer
is worth pursuing.
Step 1: Prospecting and Qualifying
Where to Find Prospects
1. Existing customers
• It costs five times more to attract a new customer than to keep an existing customer
• One of the keys to retaining your best customers is to keep in touch with your
customers’ needs and update your solutions as their needs change.
2. Referrals
• Referrals and word-of-mouth advertising have always been one of the most effective
—and cost-efficient—ways to get new customers.
3. Networking and Social Networking (Corporate dinners/ Training workshops
/ Seminars )
• The larger and more diverse your network becomes, the bigger your pool of potential
prospects.
• Your networking connections often become sources of referrals for your business, just
as you will become a referral source for theirs.
Step 1: Prospecting and Qualifying
Where to Find Prospects
4. Print and Online Business directories and databases
• Jamal’s Yellow Pages
• Times Trade Directory
• www.businessdirectory.pk
• www.businesslist.pk
• www.b2bpakistan.com and many more..
Step 1: Prospecting and Qualifying
Where to Find Prospects
4. Print and Online Business directories and databases
Step 1: Prospecting and Qualifying
Where to Find Prospects
5. Newspapers, trade publications, and business journals
• Business Recorder
• Dawn
• Jang
• The Engineers Magazine
• Pakistan and Gulf Economist – Magazine
• IBEX – Magazine
• www.pakistanbusinessjournal.com
Step 1: Prospecting and Qualifying
Where to Find Prospects
6. Trade Shows and Events
• Several Trade shows at Expo Centre Karachi and Lahore throughout the
year.
Step 1: Prospecting and Qualifying
Where to Find Prospects
7. Advertising and direct mail
• As a sales professional, direct marketing, gives you the advantage of
reaching a large pool of leads without having to invest the time to
individually contact each one.
• Methods such as direct mail and e-mail allow your prospects to self-qualify
since only the ones with genuine interest will follow up.
• On the flip side, direct mail yields a lower rate of return than most other
methods: usually only about one to three percent.
Step 1: Prospecting and Qualifying
Where to Find Prospects
7. Advertising and direct mail
Step 1: Prospecting and Qualifying
Where to Find Prospects
8. Cold Calling
• Cold calling is, making an unsolicited phone call or visit to a prospective customer.
• Most salespeople’s least favorite prospecting activity.
• Cold calling isn’t about making sales; it’s about establishing a connection with the
prospect.
• Be direct and sincere, and be yourself. Your prospect, who is probably very busy, will
appreciate directness and brevity.
• It’s important to research your prospect before making a call. You should know the size
and scope of the company, key people, company culture, and anything about the
company that has recently come up in the news.
• Doing your research allows you to personalize your introduction.
• A cold call is a perfect way to find out at what stage the lead is in buying process.
Step 1: Prospecting and Qualifying
Where to Find Prospects
9. Being a subject matter expert
• Wouldn’t it be great if, rather than going out to track down prospects, you
could get your prospects to come to you?
• Presenting yourself as a subject matter expert, an authority in your field, is
one secret for making this happen.
• Set up a blog or write articles offering free advice.
• If you include your contact information and a brief bio on the page, then
qualified prospects will often find you on their own.
• You can often find prospects by offering Web-based seminars, or Webinars,
Step 1: Prospecting and Qualifying
Where to Find Prospects
9. Being a subject matter expert
Step 2:Preapproach
• Part of building relationships that work is doing your homework.
It’s not enough to simply use the information you gathered when
you were prospecting and qualifying.
• you can’t just call your prospect or show up at his door without
doing your homework first….
• People only buy from people they trust. how well are you
prepared to earn customer’s respect and trust?
• Marketing and strategy expert Noel Capon says, a thorough
understanding of your prospect’s business processes and
challenges gives you the crucial insights you’ll need to offer
specific, workable solutions your customers can use. Gathering
this information demonstrates personal commitment and boosts
your credibility with your prospects.
Step 2:Preapproach
Information to be collected about
the prospect company
Information to be collected about
the contact in prospect company
Step 2:Preapproach
Going Deeper with the Fundamentals: What You’ll Want to Know about the Company?
•Demographics -
What kind of business is it? How large is the business? How many locations do they have? How many
people work for them? Where is the home office located? How many years have they been in business?
•Company news
•Financial performance
•About the Company’s Customers
•About the Current Buying Situation
Sources of Information
•Online searches
•Business directories
•Publicly available contracts - Real estate closings, government contracts, and other vital
information
•Blogs, social networks, and online forums
•Professional organizations- For e.g. Marketing Association of Pakistan, Management
Association of Pakistan etc.
•Competitive salespeople
Step 3:Approach
First Impression Makes All the Difference!
Keep in mind that you aren’t selling a product during your approach; you are
actually introducing yourself and opening up the way for the opportunity to make
your sales presentation.
During Every Sales Approach
Always Get the Customer’s Name Right
If the salesperson can’t be bothered to learn something as basic as your
name, it sends the message that he doesn’t care about you as a person,
and it certainly gets the relationship off to a bad start.
Always Listen
•Sales consultants Andrew Sokol and Ike Krieger say, during a sales call,
“Don’t be interesting; be interested.”
Be Ready with Your Elevator Pitch –
Dress the Part
Make sure to put careful thought into what you wear to your sales call.
What you wear is as much of a communication as what you say or how
you use body language; so make sure to dress appropriately and
professionally.
Step 3:Approach
Approaching by Telephone
•For telephone approaches, it’s best to be brief and direct and to save small talk
for your in-person meeting or for a later, scheduled phone call.
•Establishing rapport can be a challenging task when you make your approach by
phone because you can’t read your customer’s body language or other visual
cues, and she can’t read yours.
•Do Give Your Name and the Purpose of Your Call in the First Twenty
Seconds
•Do Prepare a Script for Your Opening Statement
•Do Ask “Is This a Good Time?”
•Don’t Launch into Prolonged Explanations
Step 3:Approach
Approaching by Email
An e-mail approach is less personal than an in-person or telephone approach.
•Do Write a Number of E-mails in Different Styles and Tones
You wouldn’t send the exact same communication to all your prospects. The
bottom line is that you want the e-mail to be as personal as possible.
•Do Send a Well-Written E-mail
•While the e-mail should be personal, it should be more formal than the personal
e-mails you send to friends.
•You want to sound knowledgeable and credible so pay close attention to your
word choice and style.
•Do Follow Up Persistently
•Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get a response to the first or second e-mail
you send .
•In B2B sales, it often takes about twelve e-mails before contacts reply, so be
persistent.
•Don’t Send E-mails That Look Like Templates
•E-mail is not the most effective way to reach in complicated B2B sales
Step 4:Presentation
It’s the opportunity to show the prospect that you know your stuff—and the
chance to deliver value by putting your problem solving skills to work
Keep Your Eye on the Prize
•It’s a good idea to visualize the outcome before going into the meeting.
• Keep in mind that your sales presentation is primarily about building a
relationship and beginning a partnership, especially in the business-to-
business (B2B) situations.
The Power to Adapt
•Sales Presentations requires flexibility and the ability to think on your
feet.
•Be ready for surprises, like power outage, a change in audience at the last
moment, or a customer request for a different timelines or a totally
unrelated topic/product…
•Presentation are not a one-way communication. Presentations are for
listening, adapting, and solving problems.
Step 4:Presentation
LOGISTICS DOES MATTER….
Don’t let disorganization hold you back: take charge of the details so that
your only concern on the day of the presentation is the delivery.
•The night before, you should also get together all the materials you’ll
need for your presentation—handouts, files, product samples, and
contracts—and have them ready to go for the following morning .
•If you are planning to use multimedia equipment in your presentation,
make sure in advance that your prospect will have everything you’ll need
to make it run.
•Make sure you know how to use all your equipment.
•When you are traveling to an unfamiliar place for your appointment, get
directions in advance, and allow extra travel time in case of traffic delays
or wrong turns.
•Arriving a little early for a meeting not only convey professionalism,
but it also gives you the time to mentally prepare once you arrive
and to set up any equipment you’ll be using.
