SalesMotivation.net

By Dan Coughlin, author of Accelerate: 20 Practical Lessons to Boost Business Momentum

Imagine you read that the Toyota Camry Hybrid was named Motor Trend 2007 Car of the Year. Also, imagine that I told you I loved my new Toyota Camry Hybrid that I just leased. Now further imagine you walked into a Toyota dealership and said to a sales man, “I would love to buy a new Toyota Camry Hybrid.” He then let you test drive the car, showed you the options you could choose from, and organized the papers to sign.

How much did that salesman really work?

The very best way to sell is when you don’t have to sell anything because the customer is already sold. Of course, there’s a lot of pipe to be laid in order to keep the sales flowing.

The Seven Components of a Great Sales Pipeline

1. Deliver tremendous quality in your product or service.
2. Provide easy accessibility.
3. Be referable.
4. Generate a steady flow of value.
5. Increase ease of purchase.
6. Follow up to build relationships.
7. Counteract concerns, complaints, and criticisms.

1. Deliver tremendous quality in your product or service.

Are you proud of what you sell? Quality is the degree to which your product or service lives up to what the customer thinks she is going to get for her money. From her eyes are you selling something of high, average, or low quality? If it’s not extremely high quality, then she will shop until she can get the same quality for less money.

Yipes, you’re in that dreaded zone known as price wars. Run, get away from there.

As a salesperson, you can be the conduit to improved quality. Here are the steps:

o Build relationships both with the operations people inside your company as well as the customers on the outside.
o Gain an understanding from customers what they expect to achieve as a result of your product or service.
o Work with your operations folks to make the adjustments necessary to improve those customer outcomes.
o Let customers know what adjustments have been made. You can do this with one customer or one million customers. It’s a matter of letting the customer know he or she has been heard, options have been considered, and decisions have been made.

2. Provide easy accessibility.

When a customer wants you, can they get to you?

I know that sounds silly, but it can make all the difference. The day I went to sell my first house, I had a choice between two real estate agents. One who had helped me buy my first house, and one who had helped me buy my second house. I tried to return the favor to my first real estate agent, but I couldn’t track him down for a few days and a finally gave the business to the second agent.

Can customers easily get to you when they want to buy your product or service?

I’m repeating that question for a reason. If you’ve worked this hard to get to the point where the sale is already made, then have you also created an effective pathway to you when the big day has arrived? Or are you out-of-touch at a three-day sales meeting? Build in ways to get back to customers in reasonable time frames. Two hours is reasonable, two days is not.

3. Be referable.

When you make contact with a prospect, do you provide them with your contact info?

Again, I know that sounds crazy, but I’ve wanted to refer people and have gone to their website only to spend a ridiculous amount of time looking for a phone number and/or e-mail address. Make this simple. Put your street address or post office box, phone number and e-mail address on your business card, the signature file of your e-mail, and on every page of your website. Google yourself and your business. Can even the mighty Google find your e-mail, phone number, and/or address?

4. Generate a steady flow of value.

This is the mother of all sales producing advice without having to make the sale:

If you continually send free value to other people,
they will think of you when they are ready to buy.

Here are some ways you can create and provide free value:

o Practical ideas sent via a monthly e-newsletter.
o A hard copy Top Ten List of practical tips that you mail out quarterly.
o A handwritten letter with suggestions on how to make the most of their purchase from you.
o A “hotline” where they can call in with quick questions.
o Articles on your website about how to deal effectively with different types of situations.
o Free seminars twice a year for your customers and prospects.

5. Increase ease of purchase.

Be your customer. Walk through the entire purchasing process. Buy your products and services. Talk to customers who buy your products and services. Gather as much information as you possibly can on what it’s like to buy from your organization.

And then make it easier.

Are there unnecessary steps on your website that are adding time to the customer’s purchasing process?

Are you asking questions of a person who is ready to buy that don’t need to be asked?

Is there unnecessary paperwork that is eating up the customer’s time?

Recently, I had my car fixed. I had already made up my mind to use a certain body shop. I thought I had filled out all the paperwork, but the man behind the counter never said thank you or goodbye. He just walked away. So I finally said, “Are we all done here?” He said, “Oh, yes, we’re done.” Helllloooooo! Let the customer know what is going on.

6. Follow up to build relationships.

The best time to make a sale happen without having to make the sale is right after the last sale happened.

Did you follow that?

Within three days after you make a sale, contact the person and see if everything is working out alright for them. Send them a handwritten note with a card that says, “Hope you’re enjoying your new product. Just remember, if you have any challenges contact me right away.” And then enclose your business card. Thirty days after the sale, touch base again with your customer, qnd then do it once every quarter. Make your intervention brief, and only offer to add help, not to sell them anything.

7. Counteract concerns, complaints, and criticisms.

When the customer contacts you with a problem, you are faced with an opportunity to increase or decrease future sales. How you handle this moment will largely determine how your next sale with this person will go. Be as proactive as you can be. Go overboard in resolving the issue. Make sure the person has not just had a problem solved, but has truly felt recognized and appreciated.

The real work of sales is not in making sales, but in making sales that you don’t have to make. Put these seven steps on your keyboard and work at them each day.

About Dan Coughlin

Visit Dan Coughlin at www.businessacceleration.com. He is the author of ACCELERATE: 20 Practical Lessons to Boost Business Momentum. He is a business performance management consultant and keynote speaker. His clients include Toyota, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Marriott, St. Louis Cardinals, and Eli Lilly. He has provided more than 1,500 Executive Coaching sessions for executives in more than 20 industries.