radioinfo is delighted to welcome one of Australia’s leading Sales and Sales Management practitioners as a regular contributor.
Stephen Pead will present a fresh insight every couple of weeks to be part of a new feature entitled Peady’s Sales Engagement sponored by IRD Prospector.
I was asked at a recent sales training forum “what are the steps to closing a sale?”
My answer? Treat the process like a ladder with seven rungs between the bottom and the top.
First rung: Find and develop market intelligence and competitive data or information on the industry or prospects you plan to make contact with.
Second rung: Create a list of potential “suspects” then sort them into the “right prospects” – prospects who fit your product or service as well as your personal success criteria.
Third rung: Make contact with the prospects, conduct due diligence, confirm their fit, ensure they have the necessary budget and then make a “sticky” appointment to meet with the already identified decision maker(s) and decision influencer(s).
Fourth rung: Conduct a needs analysis, “diagnostic” or “uncovery” meeting with the prospects. Learn about their business, their customers, their competitors, find out about challenges or opportunities via great questions and focussed listening.
Fifth rung: After confirming agreement on the key issue(s) or opportunities put together a compelling and dynamic ideas driven proposal. Present it face to face with real engagement that reinforces your solution.
Sixth rung: Seek feedback, answer their questions, address objections or concerns then proceed to negotiate and finalise the sale.
The Seventh rung is at the top of the ladder: Put in place a plan to monitor and manage the delivery of results for your new client together with an agreed plan of expectations so that you can retain them within an ongoing relationship.
Closing is NOT a Rung on the Ladder
Closing isn’t a “rung” by itself, finalising the sale is because closing started the first time you made contact with a potential client and then continues throughout the process. Along the way you build trust in who you are and what you do layer by layer….by the way make sure you have a professional LinkedIn profile and an online presence – most times that’s where a prospect will go to find out who you are!
Key Point
After you climb each rung of the ladder review your progress. What happened? What can I learn? Was the outcome as expected? How can I get better at this step?
Moving On
After you climb to the top of the ladder is the next move back to the bottom for the next prospect? Not necessarily. With a healthy business development process in place you’ll have a number of prospects on various rungs of the ladder and at different stages.
In fact to be truly effective you’ll need a number of prospects on the same rungs at the same time because sometimes you’ll fall off the ladder with a prospect…no fit, no money, no need, no agreement or no access to a decision maker.
But that’s okay, time to start climbing again!
About the Author
Stephen Pead is a media industry veteran of 30 years with significant experience in sales, sales management and general management. He is based in Sydney and specialises in providing training for salespeople and sales managers. He can be contacted at [email protected]
