DEVELOPING SELLING SKILLS


In this section we consider some of the basic skills that are needed in conducting activities in the selling process.

Basic Skills in Selling

The danger of being dogmatic over any aspect of selling is that there is almost certainly a salesperson somewhere who, despite breaking any rule you care to mention, is being enormously successful. In many ways, the choice of method of approach is a personal one. Just as the same style of dress would not suit everybody, so too do different salespeople have different styles.

The initial contact with a prospect is crucial in that it forms the background to the sales activity that follows. Making the initial contact is perhaps one of the most stressful parts of the sales activity for the salesperson. The following tips, therefore, although generally applicable in selling consultancy, should be particularly helpful when approaching a prospect for the first time:

  • Listen. We have noted that in consultancy the emphasis is on the prospect specifying what they want and why they want it. You can respond only if you first listen to what they have to say.

  • Have a positive vision of your transactions with your prospects. If you expect a successful outcome, you are more likely to achieve it than if you expect to fail. Failure is likely to result if you are about to make a phone call to a prospect and have an internal video running that says 'They won't put me through. Even if they do, I'll say all the wrong things. Mr Prospect will ask me all sorts of questions I won't know the answer to...' Contrast this with a view that says 'I expect to be put through. This will give me the opportunity to have a mutually beneficial discussion with Mr Prospect.' You should therefore aim to begin with a positive rather than negative expectation of the encounter. If it helps, write out the positive scenario on a card. Before making a telephone call or entering a meeting read it to yourself. Gradually the positive attitude should begin to take over.

  • In particular, you should have a positive vision of your relationship with the prospect. If you see yourself as a supplicant seeking the boon of his or her custom, this will show, and the prospect will treat you as an inferior. The picture you should have in your mind is as fellow professionals with a shared interest - the improvement of the prospect's business. Of course, you will wish to maintain a professional relationship with your clients on matters to do with work, but this does not imply superiority or inferiority; the client is an expert in his or her area of work, as you are in yours.

    There are clients who want their egos massaged (don't we all to some extent?). If you don't like doing this then, in cases where it is necessary, you must relinquish the client to someone who is good at ego massage!

Telephone Skills

The challenge of making a telephone call is that you have no channel from which to get visual data on how the other person is responding. If the call is to someone that you don't know, it is therefore more difficult to strike up a conversation with him or her than if you meet face to face. My observations from training consultants in this basic skill are:

  • When starting the call, smile and perhaps stand. These add energy and friendliness to your voice.

  • Slow down at the start of the call. People need to 'tune in' to your voice and will miss information while they are doing so. If you are making a number of calls on the same topic, it is sometimes useful to have a script. Make sure that you use it only as a guide to what you want to say rather than reading it out - it is difficult to sound authentic when reading a script!

  • Take your style from that of the person at the other end of the line. If they are brisk and businesslike, so should you be; if they are relaxed and friendly, you should match their style.

The telephone call is a meeting but not one that is face to face and you need to treat it accordingly.

Face to Face Skills

  • You will be better able to deal with a meeting effectively if you are calm. I remember attending an initial meeting with an experienced colleague some years ago. We had to climb to the second floor of the office block and I noticed that my colleague was climbing even more slowly than his senior years required. The reason, he explained, was that he should not reach the client's office out of breath.

  • You will be more stressed at the start of a meeting if you are late and you will also create an unfavourable initial impression. The rule is always to arrive in good time with a margin allowed for delays.

  • Listen, and show by your body language that you are doing so. Nod encouragingly, ask questions and take notes. Encourage the other person to talk. There will be clients who are verbose or who stray into irrelevancies; bring them back to the topic with a question. You can interrupt without giving offence by saying, 'I wonder if I might interrupt you at this point to ask... ?'

  • Use non-evaluative or descriptive statements in your questioning, rather than judgmental ones. For example, don't ask, 'Why has your division failed to meet its profit targets?' Better to ask, 'What are the difficulties that have prevented your division meeting its profit targets?' People will more happily admit to difficulties than failure. The trick is to talk of half-full bottles rather than half-empty ones. (Of course, there are occasions when you will wish to confront a client by using judgmental statements, but this should be by design rather than accident.)

  • When questioning, vary the pace. One question rapidly following the last begins to sound like an interrogation. A pause will also serve to show that you are listening.

  • Avoid asking double questions; this can be confusing and, most probably you will get answers only to one of the questions. (A double question is of the sort, 'Have things been so difficult in previous years? Do you see an upturn for next year?')

  • Another trap is turning open-ended questions into multiple-choice close-ended ones. For example, 'How do you see the future prospects for your business? Will competition increase? Or will there be a general recovery in the sector?' The open-ended question has been lost, and the consultant is leading the client.

Framing Questions

Questioning must, of course, not be an interrogation! Happily, however, most people like to talk about their business if asked properly. As the questioning progresses, you gradually move from the use of non-directive, open-ended questions to directive questions. You may also find that the focus of the questioning changes - for example, from dealing with one small part of the organization to issues affecting the organization as a whole.

Use open-ended questions to broaden the discussion. These are the questions that typically begin with Who, What, Why, When, How, Where? Directive questions are the questions prefaced Would, Could, Should, Will, Is, If, May, Can? They restrict the response to a Yes/No answer. They help to check your understanding of the information that has been elicited by the open-ended questions.

In both cases, the pressure of silence may encourage the prospect to open up. What is equally true is that if you are talking, the prospect is not. You need to encourage the prospect by your questioning to give you the information you require.

Of course, people will give information in response not only to questions. An assertion or a comment may also elicit a response. Listen to any popular radio or TV news programme to hear examples of these frequently used.

Team Selling

In order to satisfy Wittreich's third criterion, it may be sensible for more than one consultant to attend the sales meeting. Whenever there is more than one consultant attending a meeting with a client, whether it is the first or a subsequent meeting, it is important that you have worked out your respective roles. You should have decided how you are to position yourselves with the client. If the aim is that one of you is to be the leader of the project, if it is sold, then that person must be allowed to establish their credentials with the client.

At the very least, you should decide which of you is to lead the discussion at the meeting. The person who leads should make openings for the other to make a contribution; it doesn't help the selling process to be fighting over airtime. It is also incumbent on the person in the secondary role to respond to the openings provided by the leader. Some years ago, I was in a sales role and took along a technical expert to meet a prospect. I kept on making opportunities for him to contribute, passing the conversation over to him with comments like 'Wouldn't you say that was the case?', but he refused to respond. It was like serving tennis balls to someone who made not the slightest effort to return them. Eventually, the prospect got tired of this and asked me, 'Who's this then - your pet parrot?' That was the last meeting with that prospect.

Dealing with Objections

Objections come in two forms: 1) extrinsic, which are general, to do with using consultants, your firm or you; and 2) intrinsic, which are about the specific details of your proposition.

Extrinsic objections tend to come earlier on in the sales process; if you cannot deal with them satisfactorily then, you will find it difficult to progress. In dealing with them make sure that the objection is not based on a false assumption or misapprehension and probe to find out what the real concern is. Be prepared to handle the most common objections; remember that it is not only the answer itself, but the manner in which it is given that will inspire confidence. So, make a checklist of the extrinsic objections that have given the most difficulty, and prepare suitable answers to handle them.

Intrinsic objections give you information about the client's needs that will enable you to refine your proposition. Again, it is worth probing to find out what the real concern is. You need also to make sure you elicit all objections before revising your proposition, and here the 'trial close' is useful. The trial close is an 'if... then...' statement: 'If we bring the price down to meet your budget, then would you proceed?' is an example. It avoids wasting time only partially satisfying a client's needs when there are other objections to be dealt with.

Whether you win or lose a sale, you should carefully analyse the result and apply the lessons to future sales efforts (the process shown in Figure 5.10). They may be surprising. For example, some years ago one consultancy won a job and asked, 'Why us?' It emerged that a reason for its success was that it used colour slides in its presentation! The client interpreted the investment in (what was then) more expensive colour as a significant commitment to the project.

click to expand
Figure 5.10: The virtuous circle of improving selling skills

Getting better at selling may mean doing different things or doing things differently. The virtuous circle of improvement shown in Figure 5.10 is helpful in thinking about how to do this.

Although the focus in selling is on action, it has to be preceded by careful preparation. After action, you review how things have gone, so that your preparation will be better informed next time. All three steps need to be carried out carefully to improve performance.

At the end of a sales activity, which has culminated in putting a proposal to a client, conduct a win-lose review with the client. Find out from them why they selected you, or why you failed to get the contract. Throughout the selling process make it clear that this is something that you intend to do - and experienced purchasers of consultancy will expect to do it anyhow. It will yield invaluable information that will help you to develop your selling performance.




The Top Consultant. Developing Your Skills for Greater Effectiveness
The Top Consultant: Developing your Skills for Greater Effectiveness
ISBN: 0749442530
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 89

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net