By Paul Johnson

1,067 words. Abstract: When prospective customers ask salespeople to quote their best price, they really would rather have something more important. Three consultative selling actions result in more business from happier customers at higher profits.

Everyone likes a good deal. Unfortunately we salespeople may mistakenly accept that a good deal for the customer requires that we quote our best price.

That mistake is costly. It can rob us and our company of profits we need and deserve. It can shrink our close rate and cause buyers to act irrationally. When we give prospects a good deal instead of best price we will close more business with happier customers at higher profits.

We can help every customer get a good deal if they will let us take a consultative approach. While no one likes to be sold, it’s difficult for customers today to buy what they really need. The global marketplace that is easily accessed through the Internet presents buyers with more choices for potential solutions than ever before. More choices mean more confusion, and confusion causes fear and irrational behavior. Prospects attempt to reduce fear associated with making the wrong purchase by looking for a simple test that will make the "right" choice obvious.

We often do the same thing when choosing candidates in political elections. Rather than immerse ourselves in the complexities of all the issues and then attempt to select the best (or least worse) candidate, we sometimes choose a major issue that we care about (examples might include abortion rights, immigration, the death penalty, gun control or free trade) and then choose candidates based on where they stand on that one issue. Creating a simple test ensures that we’ll get at least one thing that’s important to us in a candidate. Likewise when we’re confused about what we want out of a purchase decision it’s easy to revert to the simple-to-measure issue of price.

When your prospect asks for your best price you can confidently assure them you will give them a good deal if you will take time to follow through on three consultative actions during your selling encounters.

I. Consider the Whole Product
Every product or service typically has a core functional component plus secondary supporting components such as installation, training and support. In the same way that we focus on the core function when we are the buyer, our prospects associate the purchase price with the core function and ignore the secondary supporting components.

When shopping for a flat-screen TV, it’s easy to compare prices across similar screen sizes. It’s also easy to ignore secondary components like warranty, serviceability, user interface and service life, all of which can have a huge impact on purchase satisfaction. A consultative salesperson gets the buyer to consider how the secondary components might become critical aspects of a really good deal for them.

We could buy homeowners insurance based on the core coverage limits. We ask for quotes on policies with the same coverage limits from difference insurance companies, thinking that an "apples to apples" comparison will allow us to easily identify the best deal when we see the best price. Yet secondary components can be critical to our satisfaction with the purchase. Is there a single point of contact such as a local agent whom we can talk to when we have questions or problems? How does their claim service work? Do they pay? Before Hurricane Katrina, thousands of victims believed they had found the best price on insurance. Later they learned their insurance companies wouldn’t pay their hurricane damage claims, leaving them devastated and homeless. Best price no longer seems like such a good deal to them. Sadly, we often don’t take time to consider the whole product until after we’ve learned an expensive lesson.

II. Enable the Need-Full Purchase
Many secondary components may be worthless to the purchaser and may not be part of their good deal at all. Until the salesperson understands the buyer’s situation and what the buyer really needs the purchase to do for them, the salesperson is in no position to recommend the right combination of product or service components for the customer.

Prospects often revert to making decisions based on "best price" because they don’t even know which questions to ask. A consultative salesperson can educate the prospect on potential questions and then be prepared to help find answers to those the prospect finds relevant to their needs. This gives the salesperson an opportunity to establish trust by being an advocate for the consumer. Salespeople who suggest self-serving or biased questions that are slanted toward the seller’s product or service will only erode trust and jeopardize the sale.

A good deal provides more than just what the customer asked for; it also satisfies what they intended to do. It’s up to the salesperson to make sure everyone is clear on what that is so the purchase can fulfill as many needs as is practical.

III. Make the Deal Safe
Consultative salespeople can promise every prospect a good deal because they know that everyone wants something more than just the best price. Lazy salespeople will simply give prospects what they ask for instead of what they really need. Take an approach that ensures your customers never throw their money away.

The consultative salesperson knows that a customer usually loses when the purchase decision is made primarily on price. Customers are almost always limited by time and money, but spending less than what is really required to satisfy the purchase intent is a waste of those resources. The product or service purchased is often incapable of performing all that the buyer needs done. The buyer risks losing their entire investment and more; when homeowners insurance doesn’t pay a claim, the insurance premiums are gone and so is their home.

A good deal may not be a perfect deal, but it is always a safe deal. When you give a buyer everything they need so they are not wasting their money, you can feel satisfied in knowing you are giving them a really good deal even though your price may not be the best price.

Good Deal Trumps Best Price
When customers believe the best price is more important than a good deal, you’ve already lost the sale. Use the consultative selling approach to uncover your buyer’s unspoken needs, understand their application intent, and link them to the relevant components of your whole product. Show them how the solution you offer is a safe bet for them, and your new customer will soon be telling all their friends about the good deal they got from you.

© 2007 Paul Johnson. All rights reserved.

About The Author:
Paul Johnson works with selling organizations to convert sales trouble into double and triple digit performance breakthroughs. Visit http://ConsultativeSelling.com for a simple definition of Consultative Selling and articles to learn more about where and how to apply it.

Note: This consultative selling article is available for reprint at no charge. We only ask that you include our copyright notice in your reprint, along with the About the Author information we provide at the end of the article.

Posted: under Gaining Commitment (Sales).

Comments (0) Oct 01 2007

By Paul Johnson

809 words. Abstract: When you want to truly serve your buyer yet optimize your opportunity to make the sale, Consultative Selling may be the right approach for you. Decide for yourself if your selling priorities align with those of this timeless and effective sales system.

Is Consultative Selling obsolete? Not if it will serve both the seller AND the buyer.

Many sales organizations and individual salespeople are looking for a selling system. They know that a good "fit" with a system will make them more productive. The question is, which one? It’s too easy to follow the fads and invest in the latest sales approach simply because it’s new. We tend to gravitate to new ideas, hoping to find the silver bullet that will make our jobs and our lives easier. That’s what motivates self-proclaimed sales gurus to keep writing books and creating training courses around their "revolutionary" new sales approaches. Call it strategic, call it value-based, but in high probability their solution is just a fresh spin on the tried and true consultive approach.

Enduring Excellence
I’m afraid some salespeople discount the value of Consultative Selling because it has been around a few decades. But so have tuxedos, pumps and pencil skirts. So have the precious kitchen recipes that are passed down from generation to generation because they’re that good. Classics like these don’t go out of date, and neither does a classic selling approach that acknowledges basic human needs and recognizes the value in having buyers and sellers work together to optimally satisfy a genuine need of the buyer. While you’re looking for the perfect sales method for your situation, be sure to look beyond the latest sales concoction and consider the classic Consultative Selling.

Orderly Outcomes
Consultative Selling is also a classy sales approach, because of the way it prioritizes these outcomes:
1. Satisfying the Buyer’s Want
2. Establishing Relationship Value
3. Completing the Sales Transaction

That, by the way, is the prioritization that Consultative Selling advocates.

Some sales approaches put Completing the Sales Transaction first. Approaches that focus on closing techniques fall into this category. A transaction-focused sales approach advises us to Approach, Demonstrate, Propose and Close. Satisfying the Buyer’s Want and Establishing Relationship Value are viewed as the buyer’s problem.

Relationship Roles
Relationship Selling models put Establishing Relationship Value at the top. These suggest that if the salesperson develops enough acquaintances who understand what they do for a living, eventually some of them will decide to become a customer. Creating lots of "friends" and building a large social network is a noble goal, but it can take months if not years to see the payoff. Call me a cynic, but I believe most people aren’t looking for more friendships to manage, especially friendships with salespeople. We all have a hard enough time now keeping up with old friends from school, our neighbors, and our extended families. Relationship Selling might feel right for salespeople who consider themselves "people persons," but may not be optimally effective for working with real prospects with real needs.

First Class
Consultative Selling is classy because it makes Satisfying the Buyer’s Want the top priority. Once the salesperson is clear on what a successful outcome looks like to the buyer, the salesperson helps make that happen, even if it means suggesting a solution that blocks the opportunity to make a sale today. The salesperson becomes an advocate for the buyer. If the consultive salesperson cannot prescribe a good solution for the buyer (although it doesn’t have to be the perfect solution or best solution), they will decline the sale. In this way, buyers derive value from continuing the relationship with the salesperson, whether a purchase is made today or not. Sometimes declining a sales opportunity today can result in many more fruitful sales opportunities down the road.

Responsibilities and Advantages
One of the responsibilities of consultive salespeople is to never prescribe a solution without first making an accurate diagnosis. Salespeople are responsible for making sure they fully understand the buyer’s wants and their current situation before they recommend any solution. Salespeople who use their expertise to take advantage of their customer undermine the efforts of all other ethical salespeople who are working to earn an honest living for themselves.

Consultative Selling has many advantages as well as responsibilities. It allows salespeople to work as a peer of the prospect, not as their servant. It encourages salespeople to operate with a high level of self-esteem and to say "No" to prospects who want to use them as doormats. Consultative salespeople emit a classy quiet confidence that promotes trust.

Consultive salespeople tend to establish relationships that buyers value. The result is the completion of many sales transactions. By focusing on Satisfying the Buyer’s Want, the rest becomes automatic; Establishing Relationship Value and Completing the Sales Transaction follow like day follows night.

Before you adopt the latest and greatest "how to sell" approach, investigate the tried and true, classic and classy Consultative Selling. You may find that it’s an optimal fit for the nature of your buyers, for the nature of their need, and the nature of your offering.

© 2007 Paul Johnson. All rights reserved.

About The Author:
Paul Johnson works with selling organizations to convert sales trouble into double and triple digit performance breakthroughs. Visit http://ConsultativeSelling.com for a full definition of Consultative Selling and more sales insights.

Note: This consultative selling article is available for reprint at no charge. We only ask that you include our copyright notice in your reprint, along with the About the Author information we provide at the end of the article.

Posted: under Gaining Commitment (Sales).

Comments (0) Aug 01 2007

By Paul Johnson

1,141 words. Abstract: Often sellers think they’re selling value when they’re not. Some clues are confused and frustrated buyers who attack price. Use this simple three-step process to sell value when the prospect wants to buy price.

Sell value and not price. It seems like a simple concept, so easy to understand. Yet accomplishing it can be elusive especially if we overlook one thing.

Do you know the value of what you sell? It may not be what you think it is. There’s only one way to determine your product’s true value. Without that information, your value-based sales approach may be misguided.

Maintaining focus on value is an important part of any sales encounter for two reasons:

1. Buyers won’t pay more for any product than they think it’s worth.
2. When buyers perceive competing products to be equivalent, price matters.

Don’t believe prospects when they tell you they equate price with value. They really want something more.

Hidden Value Costs the Most
It’s easy to tell when you’ve missed the mark in assessing the value of your offering. The sales cycle seems longer than it should be, and often ends in no decision. Buyers seem confused and frustrated. When prospects cannot find value, they attack price. As a result the cost of sales is high and both revenue and market share suffer.

Buyers really want to understand the value you can deliver for them, but reaching that understanding becomes more difficult every day. Customers search the global market via the Internet looking for value. They soon discover they have more choices among products and services than ever before and are confused by all the "me, too" messages.

When buyers get confused about value, they resort to price shopping. In fact, if you want to compete on price, it is to your advantage to create confusion in your marketplace. However, if you want customers who:

• are a good fit for your service delivery model
• are willing to pay more
• will buy faster and with more conviction
• will become promoters who will rave to others about you

then you may need to change the way you determine the value of what you sell.

Value Isn’t What It Seems
It’s funny how often marketing and sales folks think they know the reasons why prospects will buy when they really don’t have a clue. Many products are used for functions much different from what they were designed for.

Years ago Avon began producing a bath oil called Skin So Soft. It’s users rumored that it was a fine mosquito repellent, thus causing consumers to purchase it in droves for that function. Avon noticed this and in 1994 began marketing a new version called Skin So Soft Bug Guard Repellent, which actually includes insect repellent and a sunscreen. Bath oil or bug repellent; either way, you win!

Many carry their cell phones with them all the time, but not because they need to communicate every waking moment. While I was instructing a training course recently, I asked the attendees how many wore a wristwatch. The answer: 72%. When I asked the rest how they kept time, the answer was universal: their cell phone. For these people, much of the value of their cell phone comes from that little display window on the outside of the case that shows the time.

The Electro-Alkaline Company was started in 1913 by five entrepreneurs who planned on getting rich selling liquid bleach in bulk to industries near their small factory in Oakland California. Three years later, they had long exhausted their startup capital and were deeply in dept. Annie Murray, wife of the new general manager, came up with an idea to give away free samples of a less concentrated version of their Clorox product to shoppers at a local general store. Her new value proposition — stain remover, laundry aid, deodorizer and disinfectant — caught on, and soon they were receiving requests for Clorox from the east coast and Canada. Once the company understood what customers really valued, sales took off. For the rest of the story, visit http://www.thecloroxcompany.com/company/history/index.html

The key to selling value is this:

We don’t determine the value of what we sell; our customers do.

You can help your buyers discover the value within your offering, but you can’t do it for them. Here are three steps to aid their discovery.

Survey Says:
What unusual applications have your current customers found for your product or service? Maybe it’s time to ask them this question about what you’ve sold them: "What makes us worth the money?" You may be surprised by what they tell you.

The best house I’ve ever owned was all brick on the first story, and all aluminum on the second. What made it the best? Low maintenance. Nothing to paint, nothing to rot, and little to caulk. My real estate agent never pointed out the value in that, but I sure figured it out fast. Recently, Evinrude introduced their E-TEC outboard motors that require zero maintenance for three years. Apparently I represent a fairly large contingent for whom low or no maintenance is a powerful value proposition.

A Simpler Sale
Once you’ve asked your customers, "What makes us worth the money?" you may have gained dozens of insights as to why your customers value doing business with you. However, presenting your long list of findings to a potential buyer will only confuse them more. Instead, organize your survey responses into four to seven categories. By reducing your long list to a handful of Customer Value Categories (CVC’s), you’ll make it easier on yourself and your prospective customer.

Value Makes the Price Right
Perhaps your prospect has already reviewed your marketing materials, and maybe even been referred to you by a friend. If you find that they are:

• still not clear about how your offering will be of great value to them
• seemingly overwhelmed with the decision
• too focused on the price

your Customer Value Categories can help your buyer discover relevant value and move the sale forward.

Explain to your prospect that you circled back to your existing customers to make sure they were happy with your product and to learn more about how they were using it. Share with your prospect the summary results from your informal survey; your CVC’s. When you explain how other customers — real people like your prospect — are finding value in using your product, you’ll make it easier for your buyer to get clear about where the value lies for them. Finally, show them your testimonial letters and let them convince themselves. Once customers understand value for themselves, they will agree to pay more and — most importantly — pay it to you.

Let the prospect tell YOU what the value is. Then, help them get it. You’ll generate excitement about your offering, shorten the sales cycle, and get a better buck for what you sell. No matter how much value you build into your product or service, it’s worthless until your customer discovers it.

© 2007 Paul Johnson. All rights reserved.

About The Author:
Paul Johnson of Shortcuts to Results works with organizations to convert trouble into double and triple digit performance breakthroughs. Learn breakthrough concepts at http://ShortcutsToResults.com. Call Paul direct in Atlanta, Georgia, USA at (770) 271-7719.

Note: This article is available for reprint at no charge. We only ask that you include our copyright notice in your reprint, along with the About the Author information we provide at the end of the article.

Posted: under Gaining Commitment (Sales).

Comments (0) Jul 01 2007

By Paul Johnson

970 words. Abstract: Long PowerPoint presentations are sabotaging your sales. Learn an approach that will enable you to sell anything in twelve slides, or less.

I dare you to reduce your PowerPoint® sales presentation to 12 slides or less. You will make your presentation (and you) more persuasive than ever.

I contend that I could sell anything with 12 slides or less. Computer software, a downtown development project, or a plan to put a man on Mars. The more complex, the better. You can sell anything with only 12 slides too, with just a few simple fixes to your presentation.

Confuse ‘Em and Lose ‘Em
Prospects aren’t just bored by tedious PowerPoint sales presentations, they’re also confused by them and, oftentimes, too confused to buy. We end up turning off our buyers when our sales presentations should be turning them on. The penalties for exceeding 12 slides are wasted leads, poor closing ratio, and lack of referrals. Showing too many slides will shortchange your business.

Slides That Sabotage Sales
The problem with PowerPoint is that it’s too easy to use. PowerPoint has enabled anyone to visually enhance all their talking points. And that’s what salespeople do; they include ALL their points because they don’t know what they will need when they get in front of a customer. The more proficient we get with PowerPoint, the easier it becomes to focus on "eye candy" and to jam content into individual slides instead of looking at the overall slide plan. As a result, we’re almost guaranteed that tomorrow’s presentation will be longer than today’s. If we could only bring ourselves to delete a slide with the same ease that we would add one!

PowerPoint does have one trait that fosters the incessant expansion of presentation length: its linearity. Slides appear in an orderly succession, one right after another. While a linear format might be useful for delivering a lecture in an auditorium, linear is not helpful in a dynamic one-on-one sales dialogue. If we want to use PowerPoint in our sales presentations, a few adjustments in our strategy will allow PowerPoint to support us instead of sabotage us.

The Concept is Simple
You can sell any concept in 12 slides or less. Once the prospect sees the big picture through your 12 slides and understands the merits of your proposal, they may want to see supporting documentation and additional reference material to validate your points. Twelve slides sells the concept, then additional information justifies it. You’re additional information may be thicker than your hometown phone book, but it’s still just supporting information.

To get your sales presentation down to 12 slides or less, you really don’t have to throw anything away; you just have to move most of it into your collection of supporting information. If you dare to take my challenge of presenting with 12 slides or less, here’s how to go about it.

Do Your Own Dozen
First, create a Main Thing slide. Determine the one thing you want your prospect to remember about your sales presentation and put it on the first PowerPoint slide. This should be related to what your prospect wants, what they care about, and what will command their attention.

Next follow with 4 to 7 slides for Key Points. Each of these slides should be able to stand alone and make a single Key Point that supports the Main Thing. By presenting your 4 to 7 Key Points, your prospect should better understand the Main Thing.

Don’t make the mistake of making more than seven key slides, because your prospect can’t remember them anyway. The Psychological Review published a research paper by George A. Miller in 1956 titled The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information, which revealed that our minds can’t really retain more than seven pieces of new information. That’s why telephone numbers are 7 digits long. When you try to make more than seven points, you simply confuse your prospect, and confused minds don’t buy.

Now we’re up to eight slides. You might use another slide or two to build credibility; perhaps a description of the people or company behind the offering, and perhaps a list of clients or testimonials from other satisfied participants. Throw in a summary for slide #11, and you still have room for a compelling graphic or chart, or a Call to Action slide. That makes a dozen.

Keep Selling Simple
During your sales presentation, you’ll review your dozen slides with your prospect. Either they will want to know more or they won’t. If they "buy" your concept, you may be asked for details that you can extract from your reference material, leading to a continuation of the sales dialog. If they don’t want to know more, your offer isn’t valid for this prospect. In other words, you’re done, and you will have all saved a lot of time and confusion.

Time-starved executives are especially grateful when salespeople use this approach. Executives want the "net". When you can deliver your key ideas clearly and concisely, the time-starved are more likely to take action, often in your favor. Plus, you make it easy for them to remember the Main Thing and your Key Points so that they can champion the business case to others in their organization.

Dare to Discard
Don’t be surprised if reducing your slide count to the PowerPoint dozen seems impossible at first. You have so much good information to give! But it can be done. In fact, it must be done if you want to get buyers excited and engaged instead of bored and confused. If you need help reducing your slide count to 12 or less, give me a call.

I double-dog-dare you to take my challenge to reduce your PowerPoint slides to a dozen or less. Though you may not want to put a man on Mars, you will see sales results from your presentations take off like a rocket.

PowerPoint is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

© 2007 Paul Johnson. All rights reserved.

About The Author:
Paul Johnson of Shortcuts to Results educates, consults, and speaks on ways to achieve business breakthroughs using the Trouble Breaker™ Methodology. Check out more shortcuts at http://ShortcutsToResults.com. Call Paul direct in Atlanta, Georgia, USA at (770) 271-7719.

Note: This article is available for reprint at no charge. We only ask that you include our copyright notice in your reprint, along with the About the Author information we provide at the end of the article.

Posted: under Gaining Commitment (Sales).

Comments (0) Apr 01 2007

By Paul Johnson

426 words.  Abstract: What is a lead, and what is a prospect? Avoid confusing leads with prospects, and you’ll make more sales. Get marketing and sales using the same language to improve teamwork and results. Definitions of leads and prospects you can use.

The leads marketing delivers to the sales team never seem good enough. Either the leads are "bad" and are wastes of a salesperson’s time, or there are just not enough "good" ones. If sales had more good prospects, the company would have more sales. Perhaps sales and marketing could work together more successfully if all agreed on what is a lead and what is a prospect.

Gotta Want It
A lead wants what you have, pure and simple. Somehow they’ve gotten the idea that what you have will improve their situation, so much so that they’re willing to raise their hand and identify themselves. You have succeeded in moving them from anonymity. They have "stepped into the light" and are willing to engage with you in conversation, if only temporarily. We describe people at this stage of the buying cycle as Engaged.

Sometimes this process reveals that we have a "bad" lead; these are people who don’t really want what we are selling, but want something else from us, usually for free!

Willing Wallet
A prospect not only (1) wants what you have, but also has (2) ability to buy and (3) reason to buy now.

A true prospect can afford what you’re selling. That means they have available — or can get — the budget needed to make the purchase. Plus they have the authority to make the purchase; to "sign the check", if you will.

A true prospect also has a reason to buy now. Perhaps there’s an external compelling event that will require them to make a decision soon. Or perhaps they harbor an internal reason — often emotional in nature — that carries enough drive to induce them to open up their wallet and buy now.

Shopping? Stop it!
Somewhere between leads and prospects we have shoppers. Those are buyers who want what you have, and (2) have the ability to buy, but no particular reason to buy today. Much sales (and marketing) energy is expended converting shoppers into buyers. Prospects are easier to convert, because we know they’re going to buy from somebody, and soon.

You have a true prospect if you can answer "Yes" to these 3 questions:

1. Do they want what we have?
2. Do they have the ability to buy?
3. Do they have a reason to buy NOW?

The questions we choose to ask people who engage with us need to help us understand the answers to those 3 questions. We’ll get more positive decisions when we can establish that a lead truly is a prospect.

© 2007 Paul Johnson. All rights reserved.

About The Author:
Paul Johnson of Shortcuts to Results educates, consults, and speaks on ways to achieve business breakthroughs using the Trouble Breaker™ Methodology. Check out more shortcuts at http://ShortcutsToResults.com. Call Paul direct in Atlanta, Georgia, USA at (770) 271-7719.

Note: This article is available for reprint at no charge. We only ask that you include our copyright notice in your reprint, along with the About the Author information we provide at the end of the article.

Posted: under Gaining Commitment (Sales).

Comments (1) Feb 16 2007