December Workshop:
When a prospect or a suspect (unqualified prospect) asks you for free information, do you provide it?
If your answer is “yes,” you may be an unpaid consultant. If a potential client asks you to help him or her figure out the solution to their problem and you joyfully and immediately respond with the answer, you may be an unpaid consultant. When you are asked for your prices and you don’t have a thorough understanding of not only what, but why they want that specific product or service, you could be an unpaid consultant. If you are giving away proprietary company information for free, without a commitment, you are an unpaid consultant.
You should not give away your product or service prior to getting a commitment to purchase from your customer. This is the wrong place and the wrong time to present your proprietary information. When you provide your product specifications, prices, unique characteristics, etc. before you get a commitment from your prospect, you are seriously jeopardizing the chance to successfully land that sale. Prospects will use the free consulting you give them against you. They will take this free consulting to create specifications for your competitors to bid on. If you give them your pricing structure, they will of course try to make money the major issue (which it never is by the way – but that’s a whole different column). When you give them your unique ideas and/or product characteristics, what is to stop them from sharing those with their current provider to see if they can perform or provide the same ideas and characteristics? In all those cases they will have no reason to buy from you.
The professional salesperson will close the sale, or at least get commitment, before providing consulting of any substance. You accomplish this through building trust with your prospect. Your prospect needs to feel confident that you truly understand not only their intellectual needs, but also their emotional involvement in those intellectual needs. Once you are there, the prospect will have the trust and confidence that you are the one to solve their pressing issues. You do this by asking all the right questions, listening intently, and questioning some more.
It is important to have a sales process that will allow you, rather than your prospect, to stay in control of the selling situation. Your sales process should require that your prospect qualifies to get a proposal/presentation from you. When you implement a strong sales process, you will no longer be a free consultant and your business will grow as never has before.
It is important to have a sales process that will allow you, rather than your prospect, to stay in control of the selling situation. Your sales process should require that your prospect qualifies to get a proposal/presentation from you. When you implement a strong sales process, you will no longer be a free consultant and your business will grow as never has before.
Have you developed and implemented a consistent, repeatable sales process to allow you to remain in control when talking with your process? Do you know when you need to still need to ask questions, and when it’s time to present? Do you ever present, and find out after the fact that your solution cost more than the prospect’s budget? Have you ever made a presentation, only to find out after the fact that the real decision-maker was not in the room? Do you know if your team has premature presentation syndrome? If you and your team don’t have a process to qualify opportunities, or if you are losing out too often after giving a quote or making a presentation, it might make sense for us to talk.
Polin Performance Group provides real-world sales solutions by training you and your team with the sales skills needed to maximize business development performance and increase revenue. Ask about our sales training programs and fractional sales management services.
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Polin Performance Group provides proven strategies to increase sales, maximize performance and increase revenue for your B2B business. Our Business Development Services include Sales Coaching, Sales Training, Sales Consulting and Process Development, Workshops, and Fractional Sales Management.
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