A Beginner’s Guide to Selling: Earn, Verify, and Pass On!
Building on our previous lesson, we already know how important it is for sales people to have enough account knowledge to close a sale. Learning a little about the prospect’s background will definitely get you one step closer to closing the sale. And now you ask, how am I supposed to collect account knowledge (customer information)? Well, it’s actually easy: Read a book on basic sales.
Just kidding… It’s my commitment to you as your online sales mentor to help you in your selling efforts. Here are the basic steps to collect account information:
1 question
Many sellers tend to focus on selling right away, saying that action alone can result in a sale. But without any information about your prospect, you are like a soldier going to war without any type of firearm.
It doesn’t matter if you’re calling a new prospect or a regular customer, asking a few key staff members goes a long way toward your sales success. Although the questions you ask will be important on how long that customer has been buying from you, but asking always helps. In fact, there are times when you can handle customer objections very easily based on the information you know.
Here are a couple of sample questions you can ask. The prospect’s full name, key decision maker, competitor products, potential products to sell, buyer name, ability to pay, brand preference, etc. Now asking doesn’t have to be a tedious thing. You can spontaneously ask people like the security guard, the landlord’s assistant, the administrative staff, the landlord’s husband or wife, and many others who you think have an idea of the information you need.
2. Check
After asking questions, don’t speak directly to the prospect and approach like a cowboy crashing into a bar. You still have to verify the questions you collected. This is also very important as all the information you have collected is still considered “opinion” until verified as fact by the prospect who is directly involved. Additionally, verified information allows you to see the whole picture, giving you a more “customer-tuned” strategy for approaching each respective prospect.
3.Transmit
Finally, the easy part of selling: getting your sales pitch across. After asking and verifying important account knowledge that will be crucial to your sale, now it’s time to sell to the customer.
Now make sure the information you’ve collected is included in your sales pitch. Be specific when mentioning the benefits of your products and how it relates to your prospect’s needs and preferences. Don’t just follow a “sales story” given by your boss or company, make your own version that relates to the prospect you’re talking to.
An important note. When conveying the information to your prospect, be sure to mention only facts to avoid conflict with the prospect. This is one of the reasons why the verification process is very important in selling, as it will turn opinions into facts.
Congratulations, you have just learned the basics of sales, the OVT (Obtain-Verify-Transmit) process. You can now start making your real sales on any product/service you want to undertake.