Traditional : closing / objection handling / probing
Low-value vs. high-value sales
Classic Method
Open the call – relate to buyer’s personal interest & benefit statement
Investigate Needs – Open vs. Closed questions
Giving Benefits
Handle Objection – clarify the objection / rewording
Closing techniques
Def: Small sale – single call close – low $$
Major sale
Major sale has longer selling cycle – instead of single-call close where buying decision is there, multi-call sale decision can happen when seller isn’t there
Many sale pitch points are easily forgotten
“Decay by time” of a good product pitch
Hard sale pressure is irritating for big items
Size of commitment
bigger sale need to build up product value in customer’s eyes
Ongoing relationship
Small sale easier to separate seller from product, big sale need ongoing relationship
Risk of Mistakes
Fear of making public mistake
Four stages of major sales call
Preliminary
Self intro etc. Important first two minutes / first impression.
Investigating
Uncover needs
Demonstrating ability
Help solve customer’s problems
Obtaining commitment
Small sale most important is closing; Bigger sales investigation more important.
Traditional thought – Questions persuade more powerfully than other verbal methods.
Close vs. Open question: Open more powerful than Close question, though Close question effective with customers who can’t stop talking
Important for fact-finding, but don’t overuse to irritate/bore buyer
P: Problem Questions – explore problem/difficulty/dissatisfaction where seller’s product would help
Need to ask enough of these
I: Implication Questions – take a customer problem and explore its effects/consequences
i.e. How will this problem affect your future profitability
Very important in large sales, even very experienced salespeople rarely ask them well
N: Need-Payoff questions – make the customer tell you the benefits your product would offer
i.e. Would it be useful to speed up this operation by 10%?
Chap2 Closing
Standard technique for closing:
Assumptive
Assume seller has commitment – where would you like it delivered
Alternative
Begin in september or november?
Standing-room-only
Have to offer to someone else – scarcity
Last-chance
Urgency
Order-blank
An order form – even don’t have commitment yet
But after research, author views closing technique as ineffective/dangerous
Antagonism from buyers, esp professional ones
Lickert Scale – “attitude” test for closers
Large vs. Small Sale
Closing technique reduce chance of making a sale
Professional buyers reacts negatively to closing techniques
Closing technique reduce buyer satisfaction
Why other people fascinated by closing? Because it’s rewarded even though there may not be causal relationship
No closing is equally not good – a few closing might be the best trade-off
Obtaining the right level of commitment
Larger sales may not be getting the order right away, maybe agreement for a future meeting
Four types: order / advance / continuation / no-sale
Correct steps to obtain commitment from customers
Investigation and demonstrating capability
Investigation is where most successful sellers put most effort
Key Corners are covered
Take initiative and ask buyer whether any further points/concerns need to be addressed
Summarizing the benefits
Proposing commitment
Which commitment to propose – 1. It advance the sale; 2. Highest realistic commitment buyer able to give.
Chap3 Customer Needs in the Major Sale
Any Statement made by Buyer which express a want/concern that can be satisfied by seller
Implied to explicit needs
Small sales – Discover implied needs is important for successful sales
Big sale need to convert implied to explicit to be successful (small sale implied need also correlated to success but big sale not)
Value: Seriousness of problem vs. Cost of solution
Which means big sales need to develop the needs further
Another perspective (similar to explicit vs. implied) : problem vs. action
Action is more buying signal than problem description itself
Purpose of questions in larger sale is uncover implied needs and develop them into explicit needs
Chap4 SPIN Strategy
SPIN : situation + problem + implication + need-payoff
Situation Q : general question to know business (probing diff aspects/facts)
Not positively related to success, buyer will become bored/impatient if too many situation questions
Inexperienced salespeople tend to ask more Situation Questions – inoffensive & feels safe.
Successful salesperson ask prepared & necessary situational question – do the homework
Problem Q
More successful calls, especially small sales. Not itself is not significant in big sales.
Implication Q
Example failure without developing implication : small inconvenience vs. big cost
Example implication
Effect on output
Increased cost
Slow than expansion
Build up perception of value to achieve success in larger sales
Harder to ask than situation/problem questions
Professionals who ask a lot of diagnostic question (i.e. auditor) good at implication questions
Main effect: increase size of problem
Implication are language of decision makers
Negative: Make seller feel negative/depressed
Need Payoff Q
Build up value of solution
Strongly linked to success in larger sales – particularly effective with influencers who present your case to decision maker
Focus on solution instead of problem – positive problem solving atmosphere
Get customer tell you the benefit – “how do you think a faster machine would help you?”
Overcome Obj
Larger sales customers might focus on areas your solution don’t solve instead of areas that your solution does solve (Larger sales – more complex problem – more components)
Needs Payoff – let customer tell you which components of problem your solution solves
“知彼”的感觉来overcome obj -> know their other factors/prioritizations etc.
Rehease Customer for Internal Selling
In Larger Sale, more likely you talk to influencer to influence the decision maker, so the ability for “influencer” to sale internally is important
Big sales, you won’t be on stage all the time, can rehearse the rest of cast
When buyer tell you the benefits, the influencer during internal sale will talk this as needs not as products
Implication vs. Need-Payoff
Implication questions are always sad, need-payoff questions are always happy
Implication focus on problem, need-payoff focus on solution
SPIN model
How to use SPIN questions
Wear the hat of problem-solver during sales calls
List problem areas before each call
People ask too few implication questions – because they don’t plan them in advance
Write problem in advance, try to think potential implications – especially important is the problem is much more severe than originally seemed
Example: Problem “Existing machine is hard to use“
Implications: one of which is there is shortage of qualified people to operate the machine
Need-Payoff Question
When not to ask
Avoid Need-Payoff Questions Early in the call
Asked too early, make customer defensive and thus ineffective
Top performers build up needs first then ask need-payoff questions
Avoid Need-Payoff Questions where you don’t have
If you don’t have the solution to sell, ask need payoff is bad
Need Payoff question can be practiced (even though implication questions need planning)
Need Payoff question is usually general rather than specific (which is the implication question)
Chap5 Giving Benefits in Major Sales – Demonstrating Capability
Features and Benefits
Traditional thoughts – benefits are more persuasive than features, but not persuasive in larger sales
Benefits
Type A (advantage): How P/S can be used / can help the customer
Type B (true “benefit”): How P/S can meet an explicit need expressed by the customer (Note: not implied need)
Type A only works for small sales, Type B works for all sales
Small Sale Pipeline
Do a good job of developing explicit needs and benefits will come in themselves
Long Selling Cycle
Example avg sale cycle 7.8-calls, X-axis is as sales goes on
Advantages are forgotten fast, benefits aren’t forgotten
Pushy/Aggressive person who interested in selling the product rather than solve client’s needs
Usually “High Advantage Style
Likely successful in early sale
Selling New Products
Bell & Whistle approach – which focus on feature / advantage
Problem solving approach
Effective demonstration of capability
Don’t demonstrate capabilities too early
If asked preso, talk to at least one key person prior to meeting
Beware advantages
Beware of new products
Chap6 Preventing Objections
Objection prevention not handling
Feature/Advantage/Benefit
Feature – increase price sensitivity/concerns
If product turns out lower than expected price (after hearing many feature) -> good
But top of market price products don’t list features
Advantages create objections
Best-practice for objection prevention
If many objections early in the call -> probably you offered advantage / feature too early
Objection about value -> need more need development
Chap7 Opening the Call
First Impressions
Big sale – first impression not important, small sale – first impression important
Relating to Personal Interest
Rural small store vs. Urban big store
Author doubts its validity in larger sale. Also turnover at rural store less so gets to know buyer personally
Opening Benefit Statement
Effective salespeople open each call slightly differently, bad salespeople open each call the same
If repeated, good opening would sound mechanical / boring
Opening benefit statement has its bad points
Forced to talk about product details too early in the sale, doesn’t have opportunity to use SPIN for value-building
Buyer ask question and buyer take control of situation
Framework for opening
Focus your objective (context + right to ask questions)
Get down to business quickly, not more than 20% on preliminary
Especially professional buyer won’t be annoyed by getting down to business quickly
Chap8 Theory -> Practice
Practice: one thing at a time, at least three times, quantity before quality, practice in safe situation
