Last time we talked about the six steps in selling. Let’s dig a little deeper into the first one.
- Research
Within research there are three more points to cover.
a) The Customer
b) The Products of Service
c) The relationship.
Customer: For researching the customer we need to know everything and anything that might be significant. In the Capital Goods Industries this means specifically the equipment that the customer owns. The make model and serial number of every piece of equipment; the hours of use of each unit and the applications; any special attachments or configurations on each unit. This is what determines the opportunity. The consumption of parts and service is dependent on the hours of use and the application.
Then we need to have a complete customer profile; family circumstances and birthdays and anniversaries, hobbies, etc. A company profile; in what industries they work (SIC codes); type of business, years in business, number of employees, influential, etc.
The Products or Services: This is the full features and benefits area. This has become a lost art for many people in sales. I think this is extremely important. It allows you to separate yourself from the competition. It allows you to sell value if you have this knowledge. I also think it is important knowledge such that you will be able to “position” your offering rather than making a presentation which can become stale and sound canned.
The Relationship: This is the purchase history of the customer with your company. What they buy and what they don’t buy. How the purchases relates to the potential – this for both parts and service.
With these three stages completed in Research we can move onto the second step in the sales process. Good sales people are diligent in their research. It makes a difference in their success. The time is now…..
Last Weekend of April
I hope everyone enjoys some down time and refreshes.
Next week begins May. The stock market adage is sell in May and go away. We don’t have that choice do we? We have to continue to attempt to excel at what we do. Good luck to all of you and have a great weekend. The time is now….
Friday Filosophy #9
You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.
Lucille Ball
You can’t live a perfect life without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
John Wooden
To get the full value of joy, you must have someone to divide it with.
Mark Twain
Updates
We will be updating the web site in the next few days to better coordinate updates on the site, on the blog, and on twitter. We appreciate and thank you for your interest in all of the media that we use and hope that we can continue to pique your interest and your thinking and invite the continued diverse comments you send to us. The time is now.
Selling Skills Part Five
After setting objectives for each and every customer for each commodity and service program you are well on your way to selling success. The plan then would be to set up times and schedules for achieving each of your objectives. This takes us to the meetings with your customers. How do you get them to buy your products? That leads us to our next step in the sales process.
3 Asking Questions
Alright you are in front of the customer. You have identified a specific subject for the call. You have a purpose. You are talking with the customer about the product or service. It is at this point in time that the sales function becomes active. You have two ears and one mouth so that you can listen more than you talk. But your customer is not talking. What do you do now? Well it is simple isn’t it? You start asking questions.
You need to get your customer talking so the kinds of question you are asking are very important. They have to be open ended questions. You know the ones. They cannot be answered with a yes or no answer. They require that the customer explain their answer or talk about it. During this time they will expose their biases and the concerns so that you can adapt your responses to their comments or thoughts. You have to arouse the interest of the customer and then you must adapt your presentation to their response. This is the hallmark of successful sales people.
The time is now…..
Books in the Bin
Hi I will be writing a seeries of books in the coming years on subjects near and dear to my heart.
Several of you have commented that books would be more of interest than a monetized blog.
parts
Service
Product Support Selling
Marketing
management
A Thought
I would appreciate some help and direction please.
I am thinking about initiating a blog specifically on the Parts Business Group, another one on the Service Business Group, and finally one on the Product Support Sales & Marketing Group.
I would like to have any comments on thoughts on this approach.
I will monetize each blog with a modest fee per writing or an annual subscription. Each writing would be in the range of 1000 words and would cover in more depth the key operational and management aspects of each of the three subject areas.
Thanks in advance for your help and I look forward ro hearing from you.
Ron
Selling Skills Part Four
The first last time we talked about the six steps in selling we identified them all. The last time we communicated was on the first step – research. Let’s dig a little deeper into the second one.
Well after having completed all the research on each customer in their assigned territory the sales professional is now ready for the next step. That is setting objectives for each and every one of their customers for each and every commodity of parts as well as each and every service program offered.
This also involves some research. The parts purchases should follow the opportunity calculated for each customer based on the machine population, hours of work per year and the application. This is also true for the service programs.
When reviewing the customer purchases against the opportunity for each account the sales professional will identify where there are parts or service programs that the customer does not purchase at the levels that the opportunity presents. This is normally an indication that competition has penetrated this customer for some of their products or services. The diligent salesmen determines who gets the business and who the customer likes about this supplier and develops a plan to combat that competitive advantage.
This leads the sales professional to have a specific series of objectives for each customer which will allow them to have a purpose for each call. This purpose is to save the customer money, improve machine availability of some other tangible benefit to the customer. Having a purpose for each call and objectives to strive to achieve makes a difference in the success of sales personnel. The time is now…..
Words of Wisdom #9
We must all feel some sense of value we are here for a reason.
We all must leave a mark.
That requires us to be able to measure our own progress or accomplishment each day
We must feel relevant, important no matter in what manner.
Friday Filosophy #8
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
Chinese Proverb
Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come
Chinese Proverb
You cannot avoid the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
Abraham Lincoln
Selling Skills Part Three
Last time we talked about the six steps in selling. Let’s dig a little deeper into the first one.
Within research there are three more points to cover.
a) The Customer
b) The Products of Service
c) The relationship.
Customer: For researching the customer we need to know everything and anything that might be significant. In the Capital Goods Industries this means specifically the equipment that the customer owns. The make model and serial number of every piece of equipment; the hours of use of each unit and the applications; any special attachments or configurations on each unit. This is what determines the opportunity. The consumption of parts and service is dependent on the hours of use and the application.
Then we need to have a complete customer profile; family circumstances and birthdays and anniversaries, hobbies, etc. A company profile; in what industries they work (SIC codes); type of business, years in business, number of employees, influential, etc.
The Products or Services: This is the full features and benefits area. This has become a lost art for many people in sales. I think this is extremely important. It allows you to separate yourself from the competition. It allows you to sell value if you have this knowledge. I also think it is important knowledge such that you will be able to “position” your offering rather than making a presentation which can become stale and sound canned.
The Relationship: This is the purchase history of the customer with your company. What they buy and what they don’t buy. How the purchases relates to the potential – this for both parts and service.
With these three stages completed in Research we can move onto the second step in the sales process. Good sales people are diligent in their research. It makes a difference in their success. The time is now…..