The Importance of Selling One Thing at a Time-Blog/Quiz #9
Fast talking salesmen (no gender intended) of the past painted a negative picture to millions of consumers. There have even been some self-professed sales and marketing experts over the years that held to the “More You Tell, The More You Sell” theory; I’m not one of them. They believed that when you get a captive audience, you bombard them into submission with facts. They believed, and supposedly with some science to back it up, that whether it was verbal or written, the more information departed the higher the percentage of sales were accomplished. The theory held to the act of flooding the consumer with facts that would overwhelm them in a good way and make the act of agreeing to the sale easier.
There are several psychological issues with that old theory and in today’s world where information about anything is readily available and “Googling” is a verb, it just falls into the category of antiquated. Question based selling is the method to employ in today’s landscape. In fact, allow me to recommend a good sales book written by Thomas Freese, entitled “The Secrets of Question Based Selling.” It is an interesting read with some good stories and word pictures in it. It illustrates the power of using questions in the sales process.
The “5 Steps to Selling Success” method is in lock step with the title of this chapter of the course. First one step, then the next and if you execute the method to perfection, you use tie-down questions at the end of each topic that you sell so you know it is an agreed-on subject. Understand that tie-down questions are an intermediate, not beginner, tool and can be administered rhetorically or as a hard and fast “yes or no” question. The rhetorical approach is best in person, where you can read the reaction visibly; body language can tell you that they agree with your credibility question and not position you to be too boastful yet proud. The hard tie-downs work really well in person but must be delivered in a measured and kind manner, so as to NOT cause the giver of the question to be viewed as too full of themselves. There is a fine line between being a braggart and espousing confidence in the company someone is considering doing business with. It is all in how a question is asked that makes it feel helpful or invasive to the receiver of the question.
What do tie-downs have to do with executing one step at a time? Doing one thing at a time and not “leap-frogging” ahead in the sales process is vital to successful selling. They, the tie-downs questions, are all about one topic… the one you’re on. There are soft but effective tie-downs for each section of the process, and every one you create and use is meant to get yourself and the buyer in agreement on one specific thing at a time so you can go to the next building block in said process.
Example: After an introduction to a new prospect on the floor where you tell them all the credibility things you should like:
“Family run business”, “Been placing instruments in people’s lives in __________(your market name) for years”, or “we’re fortunate that because of our reputation we we were chosen as the the regional representatives for ____________(name of top brand)”, etc. you follow up with a tie-down of this flavor:
“Hopefully we sound like the type of company you would consider doing business with” or “hopefully we sound like the type of company you would use to help you find your perfect piano.”
An affirmative reaction to a tie down question is the only truly safe way to know you can move to the next topic. They serve the chronological order of the process well in that they can only effectively be used for one topic at a time and they keep you from wandering from subject matter to subject matter.
Multi-tasking, most parents will tell you, is a necessary evil. Most business owners will tell you that changing hats and keeping all the plates spinning is just the way they have to operate to keep everything on track. Many students multitask and get pretty good at it to keep up with their workload. It is a fact of life…multitasking is. For a sales professional it is pure unmitigated quicksand. Flush the idea, should you have it, that multitasking is an acceptable way to sell well. IT IS NOT.
Good communication, which is what it takes to be or make a new friend, is most effective when it is focused and sincere. Making a prospect feel like they are not the most important thing on your mind at the moment is a HUGE mistake. Cosmetic mogul Mary Kay said it well, to quote her, “Treat each customer like they have a sign around their neck that says,”make me feel important!” Translation in context of this chapter of the course: the best way to make someone feel important is to address “one step at a time” and focus on the specific task at hand at that moment in time. This can be challenging because there is a natural instinct for many buyers to want to take control of the sales process, so diplomatic re-directs such as,”Oh, I totally agree that price is an extremely important item, it always is. Yet if I could have permission to ask you a few more quick questions, it may help us discover if this is the perfect piano for us to give you our best price on. May I ask a couple more before we sharpen the pencil?”… at which point, 90% of the time, permission (one of the most powerful words in salesdom) is typically granted and you proceed until which time it is appropriate and the most successful time to close and discuss price which is after all the four previous steps in the process have been covered and agreed upon.
A favorite author of mine is Matthew Kelly, a very successful business consultant and best selling author who advises people that in life, the best way to approach it is to always be trying to “figure out the next right thing to do.” Sounds ultra-elementary, right? But think about it practically. It takes discipline and muscle memory to resist the temptation to “wing it” or “shoot from the hip.” Saying whatever, in no particular order, without tie downs at the completion of a topic is like leaving the lug nuts on the wheels of your vehicle untightened. The wheels will stay on for a while but eventually, at some point in the journey, one of them will fall off. That’s when you lose your ability to drive and the sale crashes.
If you are a super star piano sales pro making a quarter of a million dollars a year, chances are that you instinctively gravitate toward the steps I promote. Sales methods are not designed to change the already successful habits of the world’s natural superstars who are so charismatic and instinctual that they could have, had they been sales trainers, written the “5 Steps to Sales Success” method. Sales protocols are written and refined to assist the other 95% of us so we can approach the excellence of the 5%. I have personally, by studying and practicing good techniques, outperformed many better looking and highly educated sales people that I’ve competed with. The common denominator of the “best of the best” is how comfortable they made buyers feel during the sales process. They are smooth, they don’t seem to pressure even though they are closing hard. They are mindful to always provide an enjoyable sales experience to the buyers. They invariably take one thing at a time, and whether working up tempo in an event situation or nurturing a day to day lead over a period of time, address one topic at a time which is the best way to shepherd a prospect to arrive at their best personal buying decision. Here is when you know you have arrived at the best version of yourself as an efficient sales pro: when you ask the proper questions, one at a time, that allow the buyer to end up where you advise them to be with it being THEIR idea. Read that again and memorize that philosophy. Watch the best of the best and that is what they do; they ask a series of questions that encourages the buyer to make the best possible decision for themselves based upon value and life enrichment, not on price alone. Remember (this is advice, not a question) the age old cliche, ”The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” – Ben Franklin. By getting the prospect to think about the right things in the proper order, you safeguard them against the tendency of valuing price, which is temporary, over value, which provides long term fulfillment.
I’ll wrap up with this one:
“Multi-tasking is the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time”
– Gary Keller
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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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