You are putting in strong effort by pursuing leads and referrals, meeting potential clients and showing them tailored presentations. Yet you are still not selling. Here is a checklist you may wish to check against, as shared by Michael Dalton Johnson on www.salesdog.com, just to be sure that you are on the right track.
Is it often that potential clients are cutting you off mid-sentence or jumping in when you pause? There’s a good chance that you are boring them.
Illustrate a vivid scenario and place them in it, and use examples, case studies or visuals, for example to show how much money they can save, a point that always strikes a cord.. Putting them in the narrative of your explanation will further illustrate your point and ensure that your sales pitch is driven home.
- Treat customers as equals instead of insulting their intelligence.
"Do you know that a comprehensive insurance plan could be the difference between a comfortable retirement and financial ruin?" - Obvious and general questions/statements like these can be seen as insulting and manipulative. Get to the crux of the issue that the client faces by asking open-ended questions to elicit the answers you require to serve their needs.
These specifically targeted questions and answers will allow you to tailor a solution for them.
Take time to visit the website of your customers company. Check out their competition, industry association and trade journals. You could arrange a good time to give them a short call to know what issues they face before physically meeting them.
- Listen with understanding.
Do not just focus on what a customer is verbally saying, but also focus on the body language as well to gauge whether the customer is only feigning interest in the conversation or is totally sold on your sales pitch. If you feel that the customer is not fully responsive, get your customer to talk and share what he/she would like in a financial product that benefits them.
Simply put: when your customer talks, you sell; when you talk, you lose.
- Make the client understand why the features benefit them.
You are crazy about all those neat bells and whistles your product offers, but you need to let the buyer know how they will directly benefit him.
In the world of sales, one size rarely fits all. Find out your prospect’s special needs and concerns, and show how your product or service can help. Again: listen and he will tell you.
- Make prospective clients comfortable with you.
It is cliché but true; people buy from people they like and are comfortable with. If your prospect doesn’t like you, he’s not going to spend time getting to know your product or service.
Building a rapport with your prospects, instead of jumping in aggressively to try to close a sale can make big dividends in the long term.
- They do not know you, and have never heard of your company.
If your prospective client has only heard very little of you or your company, there is a good chance that he will not be responsive to any of your sales pitches. Allay his fears by providing current customer names, including contact names and numbers for some of your accounts (with permission), testimonial letters from your existing customers, documented case histories, and press coverage.
Ideally a referral from someone the prospect knows and respects will further ensure customer malleability.
- Show them the personal benefits.
Showing the personal benefits to your prospective clients is a great way to ensure the deal goes through. Will it ensure that there is less financial burden for their spouse and children in the event of their passing? Will there be more peace of mind in their daily lives? By emotively illustrating the personal benefits to be gained, you can further make your client agree to your deal.
Mr Michael Dalton Johnson’s original post can be found here.