Sales Tips - Next Steps in the Sales Process

I covered Steps in the Sales Process 1,2,3 in the previous post. Now here are more steps in the sales process:

#4 Company Story
This establishes reasons your company is providing the product or service. In business to business, it tells a little about you and your partners if you're a small company or a provider of professional services. Talk about your competitive edge and what makes you unique.

When I was selling to homeowners for Home Depot, there were former Sears salesmen who called this part “Fears then Sears.” The idea is you talk about the unethical practices of contractors, and there are unethical companies out there and it's hard to distinguish them, and then you talk about the big company swooping in to save the day. The competitive advantage for a major corporation like Sears or Home Depot is "we'll be around forever to take care of you."


#5 Product or Service Presentation stressing benefits to client
Don’t get caught up in the technical points of your product unless you're talking to a tech guy, an engineer and you're a tech person yourself.

Homeowners mostly want to know their roof isn’t going to leak or their paint’s not going to peel in 5 years. They don’t need to know all the fine points about how well made the granules are, etc.

A business owner or mid-level manager in a major corporation like Toyota may not need to know all the technical points of web programming or placing video on to Power Point.

Jot down notes at this point, or even earlier. Use a "talking pad" and this makes it natural when you start writing up the order.

#6 Price presentation and asking for order
On my first day selling for Home Depot, I made two sales right away. It's because I moved effortlessly from one stage to another and right in to writing up the specification sheet, then showing the customer the price and saying "let's get started with the project."

If you show the price, then stop dead, or say "what do you think?" you're going to increase your chances of losing the sale. But if you continue cheerfully along while you're taking notes and chatting, and start filling out the paperwork then you increase your chances of making the sale.

If you've warmed up well and developed rapport, you know their needs and their objections then there isn't any reason not to assume they want to buy from you.

Some helpful phrases at this point if they object over price, and at Home Depot we always said price was the main objection, reply "I hear you. Is that all that's stopping you from moving forward?" It gives you a chance to talk about financing options if your company offers such.

Price is going to be different in the business-to-business world since most prices are set out on proposals and emailed or faxed in. I don't see a reason why even professional service companies couldn't learn from the home improvement industry in making an effort to personally deliver the price.
#7 Post-sale
You've filled out the paperwork, made arrangements for credit and secured the deposit. Relax a bit - be sensitive to their time - but don't rush off. Take your conversation back to the warm-up phase before leaving.

When you drive away, have a thank-you card filled out and ready to drop in the mail box. Or, if it's a corporate account, have a gift basket ready to send as a "thank you."