Although I knew they really wanted the house and probably would have swallowed the entire title policy charge, I told their agent that I wanted them to feel good about the deal and agreed to meet them half way.

Turn prospects into clients

Dump the techniques and focus on peoples’ needs

Salespeople are close to 100% predictable. They never stop looking for a magic formula to guarantee quicker and easier sales. This may sound somewhat cynical, yet anyone in sales knows it’s accurate. Selling has often been reduced to using gimmicks to control the customer. As a result, we hear a salesperson comment, "Just get me in front of a prospect, and I’ll close every time."

Selling is less an art and more a process. That process becomes successful when the sales practitioner focuses total attention on the prospect. Here are some strategies for getting prospects to buy from you.

by John R. Graham

Fight for your credibility
While we expect an auto mechanic or physician to be accurate in diagnosing problems with a car or a cardiac condition, we generally don’t expect salespeople to tell the truth. This is why the Internet is viewed with suspicion by many in sales: They know that the customer can easily uncover information that may put the salesperson’s recommendations in a poor light.

Closing the sale is no longer a matter of overcoming objections–it’s a matter of creating trust. Accurately weighing the pros and cons of your service for the customer creates confidence. Not trying to hide limitations and refusing to overstate benefits sends a powerful message that a salesperson can be trusted.

Don’t waste time trying to spot the "tire kickers"
Too many salespeople spend their time trying to weed out the "tire kickers." Admit it. No one is astute enough to spot those who are ready to buy. We’ve all been fooled.

Every salesperson has wasted time with non-buyers. Some were "just looking," while others only wanted information. At the same time, every salesperson has dismissed other prospects, only to be surprised that they turned into customers or clients. Even when all of the so-called buying signals are there, some prospects never become buyers while the seemingly least interested are the first to put in an offer.

Forget about what you want to sell
Many a receptionist is adept at spotting calls from salespeople no matter how they try to disguise their intentions. One such receptionist says, "It’s so easy. There’s an air of insincerity about most salespeople." And it stems from salespeople only being interested in what they want to sell. This is why so many salespeople experience so much rejection. In sales training, they are taught not to take rejection personally. That’s the problem. It is personal because it results from sending the message–no matter how subtle–that what you want to sell is more important than what the customer may or may not want to buy.

Every salesperson knows that the easiest sale is the one made to the customer who has already made the decision to buy. Rejection is never a problem in these situations. Successful selling is working with customers so that what they buy is in alignment with what they want.

Let the prospect know that you know something
The popularity of the Internet as an information source attests to customers’ interest in obtaining information about what they want to buy, whether it is a printer or a home. Yet, most company Web sites are little more than ads for what a company wants to sell.

Salespeople make a major mistake in trying to set up appointments with customers only when they want to make a sale. Why not spend time with customers on a regular basis offering ideas, suggestions, and helpful information? Doing this changes the salesperson’s role in the eyes of the customer and brings the salesperson around to the customer’s side of the table.

Perform a situational analysis
The best customers are the greatest skeptics when it comes to salespeople. They want to make the right decision not just about what they buy but about whom they do business with. The way to win the customer is to demonstrate that you know who they are, what they do, and what problems they are experiencing.

Too many salespeople jump to solutions before they know the problems. When this happens, customers become instant skeptics. They doubt the solutions presented will accomplish their objectives. Taking time to perform an adequate situational analysis creates customer confidence. It’s the best way to let customers know that you understand them. It follows that if you are on target with your analysis, the solution is too.

Respond to the customer’s issues
Forget about trying to impress the customer with the fact that you are working for "the fastest growing company" or "the biggest in the world." All that is irrelevant -- possibly not even totally true. Is this what the customer wants to hear?

Most prospects have their antennae up when meeting with a salesperson. They are looking for an answer to one question: "Does this person understand what we want?" If the customer isn’t comfortable with the answer, there’s no sale.

The test of the competent salesperson is whether or not the individual has the ability to grasp what the customer needs to accomplish. The buyer of telecommunications services expressed concern about possible service interruptions when making a change. Several vendors dismissed the issue, saying, "No problem." The company that made the sale responded with a plan to phase in the various services over a 60-day period to make certain the customer would be satisfied with each step before moving forward to the next one.

Prepare personalized proposals
The main test a proposal must pass is what the customer thinks after reviewing it. Consciously or unconsciously, customers look at proposals to determine if they were prepared for them. No one wants pages packed with irrelevant boilerplate.

There’s no place for "fill in the blanks" proposals. Unless a proposal adequately expresses the individual customer’s situation, carefully articulated solutions to meet those needs, and an individualized implementation process, credibility is diminished and doubt creeps in.

Create an experience for the prospect
We all want to be satisfied with what we buy. While quality and service are key factors, it’s the experience that counts. In other words, it’s the "Wow!" that works. No one does this better than Disney. "Most parents don’t take their kids to Walt Disney World just for the event itself but rather to make that shared experience part of everyday family conversa-tions for months, even years afterward," write Joesph Pine and James Gilmore in The Experience Economy.

Jordan’s Furniture in Avon, Massachusetts, is nationally known for the experience it creates for customers, not the brands it sells. Jordan’s makes furniture shopping fun. The success of Banana Republic is the result of momentarily transforming the buying experience into an adventure–a safari. The Rainforest Cafes are another example of appealing to all of the senses. It’s the experience that sells.

Taking the homebuyer on a virtual tour of a house places prospects in the home before they actually visit it. If customers "feel at home" on the virtual tour, they look at the house differently when they walk in the front door for the first time. It’s the experience that makes the difference.

Never leave the prospect’s side
We’re not talking about pestering customers after making a presentation. Customers need to know that you care and want their business, and that you will remain interested, supportive, and willing to be patient as they go through the decision making process.

The timing of buying decisions today is unpredictable. Customers make them according to their clocks. They set the agenda, not the salesperson. Those who get the sales are those who cultivate prospects by keeping them informed, staying in front of them in a variety of ways, never pressuring or pushing, and always sending the message that the customer is in charge of the sale. Simply letting the customer know that you are there is often effective, since it makes the buyer aware that you were not in it for the quick sale. Staying on the customer’s side is a signal that you will still be there after the contract is signed.

These strategies for successful selling can almost be called secrets, because they are often ignored in favor of cutting corners and acting inappropriately just to get a sale. More often than not, such efforts end in failure. Success comes from customers wanting to buy from you.

John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, www.grahamcomm.com, a marketing services and sales consulting firm. He is the author of The New Magnet Marketing (Chandler House Press), and 203 Ways To Be Supremely Successful In The New World Of Selling (Macmillan Spectrum). Contact him at 617/328-0069 or j_graham@grahamcomm.com.

Photo by Dennis Fagan

home   current issue    top 10    resources 

discussions   contact us   search

Buyers & sellers, visit www.texasrealestate.com.
REALTORS®, visit www.tar.org.