5 Steps to Sales Success – Step 4-Recommendations
Recommendations can also be called the “selection” or “presentation.” After making the client feel good about who you, your company, and your brand are, you then perform the fact finding. The Fact Finding, which can also be called the “discovery interview”, is where you find the type of piano(s) and price range that best suits your prospect. During the fact finding it is advantageous to do some pre-qualifying and ask some tie-down questions in preparation of the recommendations you make. All of the questions you ask in preparation of the recommendations should be in the spirit of gaining trust on the way to providing the most appropriate selection advice.
The 5 Steps to Successful Selling method is based upon staying in chronological order for the best possible end sales results. If you’ve asked the right questions, you will be sure to give the very best advice. I’m going to incorporate some wisdom from one of the industry’s top selling piano specialists, Matt Perez. Matt is a student of sales psychology and can quote chapter and verse of many, many fundamentals and their authors. He is proof positive that being educated about the career of selling is a HUGE plus in that he has, over the years, motivated and mentored many next generation top level piano sales professionals. Before Matt starts asking questions, here are some questions he asks of himself to stay on point:
What is it that I am selling? Who are we selling it to and what do they really want? Do they know what they are missing? They may have something in mind, regarding a first piano. However, the customer does not know of all of the possibilities. So we demonstrate what their next piano will be. How can we arouse their desire and move them? How can we create demand?
I could spend time on many of these in detail, but the main takeaway is that he preps himself by reminding himself of the questions that have proven to be most significant in the past. He obviously holds to a chronological method because he asks himself questions in preparation of the questions he will ask, which is where he gathers his fuel and strategy for proper recommendation or selection options.
One important sales reference I’ve heard mentioned by Matt Perez (in McAllen and Corpus Christi, Texas) is the positioning of the current sale as a solid stepping stone towards the Piano of Your Dreams as he is presenting the proper instrument “at this time.” Naturally, if the piano being considered is a top-of-the-line instrument, this is not important or appropriate but the fact is that 80% (there’s that 80/20 rule again) of the pianos sold are below the top tier and not a premium piano. Since this is a reality, it is good positioning, and a way to secure yourself as their best resource when the prospect is ready to step up to the next level of instrument, by positively reinforcing the trade up value of the piano they are considering taking home during the recommendations process. Statements such as “this piano would be an excellent choice as a first piano because of its capabilities and price range.” A cousin to this statement would be “many of our customers have been very happy with this instrument as their first/next piano on the way to their ultimate choice.” These types of statements are extremely helpful in smaller markets where step-up sales are needed because the pool of piano interest is not as deep as it is in the more populated markets.
There is a lot to this topic – recommendations, but suffice it to say I use the word in a plural sense because many times a selection process is a decision made by the prospect between more than one instrument. Naturally, if you have a person excited about a specific brand and model and there is enough prequalification dialogue before they come in to visit, the word “selection” is not as important in some instances as others. YET (capital and bold), it is always a good idea to ask a willing prospect to sit down at the most impressive piano in the gallery for three reasons. One, they may fall in love and abandon the one they were thinking they wanted and purchase the best one you have in stock. Secondly, even if they end up where they were, it gives you the opportunity to pitch the 100% trade-in option. Finally, setting the standard high allows the prospect to know what they are looking to get as close to as possible regarding the piano they do take home, as far as touch and feel are concerned. It is a wonderful gauge that typically allows consumers to experience first hand what a fine piano can do to enrich a person’s life.
If there is a selection of 2-3 pianos to be presented, the “top down” method of sitting them down has a practical application as mentioned above. You want them to choose the instruments of those they are considering with the touch and feel closest to the best you have on the floor; yet, many sales associates don’t execute the drill of sitting the prospects down to the best in the building first because they are insecure and want to “get the deal” done and not complicate things. Millions of dollars have been lost by not selling from the top down.
One of the worst psychological mindsets a sales associate can find themselves in is when they personalize another’s decision on an instrument because they can’t see themselves spending that much on a piano. The “how much” is a personal value assessment and as we all know, love can send logic into the back seat where wherewithal can take over. Countless people who wanted to be frugal made a better long term happiness and emotional health decision after falling in love with something that was not originally in their price range. Understand that you needn’t belabor the situation, simply “just for the fun of it” sit them down at something that will benefit them in their selection process or further on down the line as the “dream piano.”
I’m not going to suggest a specific presentation script but will suggest that even if you don’t use “pre-qualifying” and “tie-down” questions in the first 3 steps that this is the step in which to incorporate them. Questions such as, “So, it looks like this one is a real contender!” and “It seems like you’ve landed on this one and the last one you played.” are qualifiers and soft questions to ask that are totally appropriate when in the selection process. As you approach the close, the questions can be more pointed but still need to be delivered in a caring manner, and allow me to say that being pushy is never a good posture. A good question when descending into the close would be, “It seems like you get along with this piano best, am I right about that?” or “Of the pianos you’ve considered, this seems to be your favorite, is it?”
My favorite approach throughout dialogue with a prospect is to give the piano a personality status and speak about it in terms of it being a new potential family member. Incidentally, this is a very effective tack to take when prospects want to get too specific in the initial phases. If you position the instrument as a new potential family member, it’s often easy to convince them that since all acoustic pianos are a “one of a kind”, the best way to choose something that will most likely be in your home for years is to interview them personally. After establishing this personalized attitude early on in the exchange, it is easy to ask a pre-qualifying question such as, “It seems like this piano and you are getting along nicely, it looks as though it may be your new family member, how do you feel about it?” These questions can tie a person down into an admission that can be very valuable in the closing process. The more assurances you gather along the way that they are favorable toward a specific instrument and show intent toward wanting it, the easier the closing will be.
The main emphasis during the recommendations is to be sincere based upon the information you gathered in the fact finding, but don’t be so patronizing and agreeable to not offer well intentioned advice. Always be courteous but telling someone what they want to hear, regardless of whether or not you think they need to consider something important, is disingenuous and a slippery slope because if detected, you just blew ALL your credibility and rapport. In summary, think of the recommendation/presentation as a genuine opportunity to help someone make the best decision on their new family member, and stay away from painting a picture of instruments being simply a commodity. Order takers can sell commodities; real piano salespeople don’t sell pianos, they sell what pianos can do for people.
“The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself”
– Oscar Wilde
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Jack is a thirty year marketing and sales veteran with an insatiable appetite for contributing to the sales success of others. After leaving Cox communications in the late eighties Jack has serviced clients such as: Goodyear, Allstate, Verizon Wireless, Steinway & Sons, and numerous independent businesses. His knack for creating targeted strategies has endeared him to clients who he has been privileged to service in many instances for over two decades.
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